What We Have Been Up To:
- It all began in February 2024, when District 6 City Councilor Nichole Rogers officially dedicated $1.5 million of her Council Set-Aside funds to initiate a participatory budgeting process in her City Council District. Coincidentally, it was at this same time that two undergraduate/graduate courses at the University of New Mexico were releasing the findings of their research surrounding PB models being implemented in other cities around the country. Not long after this, Councilor Rogers’ Office and UNM established a partnership to launch a series of working groups to start developing a plan for implementing a PB pilot in District 6.
- From June 18 to October 14, the City Councilor Rogers’ Office partnered with Participatory Budgeting ABQ (“PBABQ”) to co-design a participatory budgeting (“PB”) pilot program for the City of Albuquerque. Over this 5 month period, community members living, working, and/or studying in City Council District 6 worked closely with City staff to co-design a process for community members to submit capital “project ideas” to be funded by Councilor Rogers’ $1.5 million in Council Set-Aside funds earmarked for a PB pilot program.
- From October 20 to December 15, 243 project ideas were submitted by community members via small workshops, project idea submission form submissions, in-person project idea surveys, pop-up community event mapping exercises, large workshop mentimeter surveys, district-wide assemblies, and other public engagement activities.It all began in February 2024, when District 6 City Councilor Nichole Rogers officially dedicated $1.5 million of her Council Set-Aside funds to initiate a participatory budgeting process in her City Council District. Coincidentally, it was at this same time that two undergraduate/graduate courses at the University of New Mexico were releasing the findings of their research surrounding PB models being implemented in other cities around the country. Not long after this, Councilor Rogers’ Office and UNM established a partnership to launch a series of working groups to start developing a plan for implementing a PB pilot in District 6.
- From June 18 to October 14, the City Councilor Rogers’ Office partnered with Participatory Budgeting ABQ (“PBABQ”) to co-design a participatory budgeting (“PB”) pilot program for the City of Albuquerque. Over this 5 month period, community members living, working, and/or studying in City Council District 6 worked closely with City staff to co-design a process for community members to submit capital “project ideas” to be funded by Councilor Rogers’ $1.5 million in Council Set-Aside funds earmarked for a PB pilot program.
- From October 20 to December 15, 243 project ideas were submitted by community members via small workshops, project idea submission form submissions, in-person project idea surveys, pop-up community event mapping exercises, large workshop mentimeter surveys, district-wide assemblies, and other public engagement activities.
- On January 9, 16 “project idea clusters” were generated during a 3-hour project refinement event (“sprint”) by a team of 30+ community members comprised of Budget Delegates, D6 Steering Committee Members, and PBABQ core team members.
- On January 10, Councilor Rogers’ Office was provided a PB Project Manager by the Administration to help facilitate the project development process by bridging the gap between community members and City staff among 8+ City Departments.
- From throughout January and February, Councilor Rogers’ Office and the Administration’s Project Manager will connect these City Departments’ key staffers to work closely with Budget Delegates and D6 Steering Committee Members in “Project Development Teams.” During this 2 month period, PDTs will transform the 16 project idea clusters into full “project proposals”. These project proposals will have pricetags, locations, and other preliminary planning documentation that will be presented by PDTs during the Project Expos that will take place at the beginning of March (imagine PDTs presenting their project proposals to the public in a “science fair” format community meeting).
- On February 14, Councilor Rogers brought community members up to the New Mexico State Roundhouse to advocate for $1.5 million+ in State Capital Outlay funding to help build PBABQ’s capacity and pool of funding. We did not reach our goal, but we brought PB into the legislative conversation and will try again next year!
- In mid-March, Councilor Rogers’ Office, the Administration, and the PDTs will place 9 project proposals (still to be determined) on the “Ballot” to be voted upon by community members over a one-month period (from mid-March to mid-April, with specific dates still TBD). Community members will have $1.5 million available to spend on the projects they would like to see funded.
- In April, PBABQ will tally votes and announce the winning projects for the pilot PB process. PBABQ will work with CABQ’s Capital Implementation Program (CIP) to incorporate the winning projects into the City’s 2025 General Obligation (G.O.) Bond Program ($175 million worth of capital projects across the city).
- $1.5 million worth of District 6-specific capital projects are planned to be fully constructed by May 2027 (2 years after the completion of the pilot PB process).