By Claire Trageser
The Community Budget Alliance wants San Diego to adopt a concept called “participatory budgeting.” The idea is to train people to make their voices heard about what should be in the city’s budget.
They’re hosting a panel on the concept at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the United Domestic Workers/American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees building at 4855 Seminole Drive.
Chicago Alderman Joe Moore, whom the Community Budget Alliance calls “the pioneer of participatory budgeting,” will be there to describe how the concept works in Chicago. He’ll be joined on a panel by a student from Vallejo who had impact on that city’s budget and a San Diego resident.
Samer Naji, a coalition organizer for the Community Budget Alliance, said the idea is to give more say to communities that are normally left out of the budgeting process.
“This is a program that is more inclusive for our communities that are traditionally marginalized from the budgeting process,” he said. “They’ll learn where we’re at in the San Diego area and how they can get involved in bringing participatory budgeting to San Diego.”
On Monday, San Diego’s City Council also hosted a public budget forum to give people a chance to voice their opinions about the fiscal 2015 budget. Mayor Kevin Faulconer presented his revised budget proposal the following morning.