HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 04/08/2024 -1
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
FUTURES COMMITTEE MEETING
Date: April 8, 2024
Location: Zoom
Time: 4:30pm-6:00pm
Committee Members present:
Councilmember Melanie Potyondy
Councilmember Julie Pignataro
Councilmember Tricia Canonico (arrived late)
Additional Council members present:
None
City Staff:
Caryn Champine
Additional Staff present:
Rupa Venkatesh, Assistant City Manager
Rachel Ruhlen, FC Moves
Drew Brooks, Deputy Director of Planning, Development and Transportation
Melina Dempsey, FC Moves
Meeting called to order at 4:30pm
Approval of Minutes:
Councilmember Pignataro moved to approve the February 2024 minutes. Councilmember Potyondy
seconded. Motion passed 2-0.
Election of Chair:
Councilmember Pignataro made a motion to nominate Melanie Potyondy as Chair. Councilmember
Potyondy seconded. Motion passed 2-0.
Chairperson Comments:
N/A
The Future of Civic Engagement, Rahmin Sarabi, American Public Trust
Topic Overview: Amidst increasing gridlock and mistrust, Citizens’ Assemblies are an innovation with a
track record of creating transformative common ground and the political will to “unstick” even the most
contested issues. Encouragingly, they demonstrate that people are less polarized than we think, offering a
pathway to a more collaborative and fact-based policies that can consider many perspectives holistically.
Caryn Champine stated this topic builds on a session from the April of 2023 Futures Committee meeting
and is an emerging method that has been used around the world in the same arena of convergent
conversations and shared solutions.
Chair Potyondy introduced Rahmin Sarabi and discussed his work.
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Citizens’ Assemblies: How do They Help Communities to Solve Tough Problems and Build
Divides?
1. The Need
a. People feeling like they have a lack of voice and agency and do not feel represented by
the outcomes that are being advanced.
b. Trust numbers between the public and governing bodies are trending downward.
c. ‘Wicked’ Problems: a class of issues that are not solvable.
d. Citizens’ Assemblies empower the wisdom of ‘we the people’ to solve our toughest
problems and bridge our divides.
2. Case Studies
a. Petaluma, California has run one of the largest and longest Citizens’ Assemblies in the
last decade addressing the future of the County Fairgrounds.
b. Michigan: Citizens’ Panel on COVID-19 in October of 2020 regarding what healthcare
and economic policies would move Michigan forward.
c. The Republic of Ireland: Assemblies are how Ireland solves hard problems, including
drug policy, same-sex marriage, biodiversity loss, Dublin governance, referenda
procedures, parliamentary terms, abortion, and climate change.
d. Important to change adversarial battles into collaboration and ‘either/or’ into ‘both/and:’
grapple with complex tradeoffs and values to find common ground actions
3. Design Principles
a. Participants selected by democratic lottery: invitations sent to randomly selected
households with information about time commitment and stipend provided. Second stage
lottery from those who respond to map to the demographics of the larger population.
b. Enough time for learning and in-depth deliberation: expert testimony, enough time, and
good facilitation.
c. Super majority decision making: fosters trust and respect, increases legitimacy and
acceptance, and better outcomes.
4. Results
a. Decision makers can better address an issue.
b. Communities can find a shared path forward.
5. Upgrading Democracy Beyond ‘One-Offs’
a. Paris ‘Permanent’ Citizens’ Assembly: 100 age 16+ residents selected for one-year terms
with rotations every 4 months, generate policy proposals that are put to the City Council
for a vote, set investment priorities for participatory budget fund, and can launch
evaluation missions to review current city business.
b. Brussels “Permanent” Climate Assembly: 100 age 16+ residents, policy proposals are put
to Brussels Regional Government, government required to report on actions.
6. Discussion
• Councilmember Canonico noted land use has been a hot topic in Fort Collins for some
time and asked what types of policy decisions have been made in that area with these
assemblies. Sarabi commented on the Hughes Stadium property and noted there are
always competing views on what can be done with such a piece of land. In the case of
the Petaluma Fairgrounds, a group organized to save the fairgrounds, others wanted the
land to play a role in affordable housing, and there were additional opinions. Ultimately,
it was decided to keep the fairgrounds but eliminate the fences to help reconnect with the
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original intention of the property being a park space. It was also determined this was not
the appropriate piece of land for affordable housing.
• Sarabi stated that assemblies typically do well when there are a number of competing
interests.
• Chair Potyondy commended the inclusion of random sampling and asked if pushback is
ever encountered with that process, particularly with emotional issues involving those
who are used to having a strong voice. Sarabi replied the recommendation is typically for
the standard engagement methods to still be offered with the assembly in addition. It is
also important to have conversations with stakeholder groups.
• Councilmember Pignataro stated there is still an element of privilege in being able to
attend an assembly, even with a stipend, and that is a question that continually needs to
be asked. She stated Fort Collins did a deliberative exercise around the Land Use Code
as part of the reengagement with the community and facilitators were CSU students who
maybe did not get enough respect or were not as aggressive as they needed to be to
ensure everyone had a voice. She asked about the differences between a citizens’
assembly and a deliberative exercise. Sarabi replied most deliberative processes do not
include the democratic lottery piece, which can be quite costly when considering
stipends, facilitation time, and room rental. He stated the two processes are similar in
intention and principles.
• Councilmember Pignataro noted there are certain decisions made in a representative
democracy and it is possible that a citizens’ assembly could be viewed as a way to avoid
making a difficult decision. Sarabi replied it has been seen that commissioning citizens’
assemblies equate to taking on more responsibility. He noted the ultimate decisions do
lie with the elected officials, but the citizens’ assembly provides another level of input to
help make better decisions.
• Councilmember Pignataro stated it would be interesting to see how a citizens’ assembly
would track with other types of input. Sarabi commented on a Lancaster, Pennsylvania
one-day assembly on housing policy and the fact that that process arrived at similar
conclusions to those of the experts, though it had taken experts years to get to those
conclusions.
• Assistant City Manager Rupa Venkatesh asked about ways to create the most effective
citizen assemblies and about how to build education in the community. Sarabi replied
media plays a pivotal role in education and stated it is important for assemblies to sit in
some uncomfortable territory of not knowing and trying to integrate seemingly
competing perspectives and points of view. If citizens’ assemblies become part of how
we do democracy, most residents would be invited to participate at some point, and it
would become an important role for community members.
• Champine provided a question about whether citizen assemblies have been shown to
counteract or diffuse misinformation or disinformation. Sarabi replied citizen assemblies
sometimes include a training on fallacies in thinking and how to determine what
information is strong and reliable. He noted the decision-making threshold of 70%
agreement or greater acts as a good filter.
• Champine asked about whether staff members should be present to answer questions and
facilitate conversations. Sarabi replied that would depend on the level of trust in the
community and stated at this stage in the United States in particular, assemblies are
delivered by independent, third-party, typically non-profit firms. He stated typically, the
more engagement there is from the city organization and elected officials, the better, as
that is part of engendering that what is happening will have impact and matters.
• Champine provided a question on whether Sarabi has dealt with individuals participating
in assemblies who are present solely to advance their own interests. Sarabi replied
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professional advocates do not meet the criteria to be included as assembly members and
stated it is rare someone is asked to leave because they are being a ‘bad actor.’
• Sarabi asked what kinds of issues in Fort Collins or regionally could be addressed by a
citizens’ assembly. Councilmember Pignataro replied citizens’ assemblies would seem to
be more valuable regionally in terms of transit, water, oil and gas, and other topics. In
terms of city topics, land use is probably the most polarizing issue. Champine replied the
Hughes Stadium site and associated Council priority for a master plan for the property as
well as regional items mentioned by Councilmember Pignataro could provide good
opportunities for citizen assembly input.
• Champine noted staff mentioned the possibility of including citizen assembly input
regarding the Council priority related to 15-minute cities.
Additional Items
• Themes for the year will be discussed at the next meeting.
• Champine stated a new concept will be tested this year involving her convening a small group of
staff following each meeting topic to address applying them to current issues.
Meeting adjourned by unanimous consent at 5:45 pm
MINUTES APPROVED AT THE JUNE 10, 2024 COUNCIL FUTURES COMMITTEE
MEETING