It resembles a jury in a US court. The civic panel, a social innovation in a public consultation process, is Gdansk's new initiative for boosting engagement of residents. Randomly selected city dwellers will be discussing an important issue in Gdansk: how to prevent flooding, or - in wider sense - how to fight climate change, a sea-side city like ours has already been experiencing.
It is a challenge in almost every city in the world: How to engage citizens? How to convince them they can have a real influence on making decisions in the city? How can a city widen a group of its stakeholders, engaged in solving problems?
Gdansk took a risk to develop an initiative that no other Polish, or probably even European city has tried - the civic panel. This is a group of 63 citizens, randomly selected from the voters register, using criteria of a city district, age and education. It helped us to create an exact social representation of Gdansk population.
The kick-off meeting with residents on the civic panel. Photo: D. Paszlinski
The group will be working on a challenge: how to prepare Gdansk for the unexpected occurrence of torrential rains, which, with the hilly structure of the Gdansk, may lead to flooding lower parts of the city. We like to think that a climate change is an issue affecting countries thousands miles away from Poland, but it is not true. We have been facing similar challenges and we need to find practical solutions.
Ideally, every citizen of Gdansk will have his or her say. Participatory budgeting and "Your district - your Gdansk" monthly meetings have proved to be successful channels of communication with residents. The civic panel is a new, pioneering method we believe can work.
There will be three all-day meetings, taking place on Saturdays, during which the residents will be meeting with researchers and professionals in the field of environment protection and flooding prevention.
Every meeting will have a main theme:1.What to do to improve rainwater retention in the Tricity Landscape Park?How to improve water retention as such? Are large water reservoirs better than a network of water retaining ditches?
2.How should the city support the residents affected by a heavy rainfall?What should be our plan for residents affected? How can we improve our actions? To what extent should we help those who didn't buy flood insurance?
3.When building a new reservoir, should we give up filling it partially with water?Currently, reservoirs in Gdansk are not only flood prevention measures, but also recreational facilities - there are trails and benches around them, you may go fishing there. However, filling them partially with water decreases their capability to prevent flooding.
Currently, reservoirs are not only for flood prevention. They also serve local communities for recreation.
The final result of the civil panel's work should be a set of recommendations for the local government, supported by at least 80% of participants. The percentage is high, since we need to work out a real consensus, not just a slight majority.
As one can see above, questions are quite detailed and he may think: why should we ask "laymen" to discuss them. I truly believe that democracy should not be limited to making decisions by professionals and technocrats. Throughout the world, we see the fewer and fewer people vote or engage in public interest activities. The reason for it may be that they feel they have no real influence on government. However, in a passive society populists skillfully win support. This is dangerous for our future.
A dice was used for drawing citizens for the civic panel. Photo: J. PinkasGdansk took serious steps to prevent civic indifference. The civic panel is one tool to reach people who to this date have not actively participated in city management. I hope it will convince them, as well as their friends and neighbors that everybody can have his or her say and why it is important. Gdansk is ready for such commitment.
Drawing residents from the voters register was streamed live: