Dear Ms. Soghor and Councilmembers,
Please accept this letter as our Expression of Interest and Statement of Qualifications for the Culver City Civic Assembly on behalf of the Center for New Democratic Processes (CNDP), a non-profit and non-partisan civic engagement organization. We would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with Culver City to deliver the Civic Assembly.
Our team has extensive experience implementing over fifty civic assembly and citizens’ jury projects on highly technical and complex topics. Our numerous collaborations with local government partners, our work on finance and budgeting issues, and our community engagement on systems design and process improvement positions us to excel in delivering the proposed Culver City Civic Assembly. We are confident in our ability to design and deliver a robust Civic Assembly that is fit for purpose and within the allocated budget and anticipated implementation timeline.
We have attached a Statement of Qualifications for more information about our team’s experience. Please do not hesitate to contact me directly if you have any questions or if additional information (including references) would be valuable as you consider a vendor for this effort.
We look forward to hearing from you and hope we are able to collaborate with your team, and the community members of Culver City, in future public engagement endeavors.
Respectfully submitted,
Kyle Bozentko
Executive Director
TO: Lisa Soghor, Chief Financial Officer, Culver City, CA CC: City of Culver City, CA City Council
FROM: Kyle Bozentko, Executive Director, Center for New Democratic Processes (CNDP) RE: Request for Qualifications & Expression of Interest - Culver City, CA Civic Assembly November 5, 2025
651-209-7672
[email protected]
Selected Civic / Community Assemblies and Juries (since 2012) Weld County, CO Community Deliberative Forum on Flavored Tobacco Policy (2025)
Pierce County, WA Community-Led Wildfire Preparedness Initiative [currently on hiatus due to federal funding] (2025)
Malawi Citizens’ Jury on Antimicrobial Resistance (2024) Thailand Citizens’ Jury on Antimicrobial Resistance (2024) United States Citizens’ Jury on Antimicrobial Resistance (2024) U.S. Public Assembly on High Risk Artificial Intelligence (2023) City of Liverpool Citizens’ Jury on Antimicrobial Resistance (2022) Pierce County (WA) Rural Climate Dialogue (2021)
Pandemic Data Sharing Citizens’ Juries (2021)
Gloucestershire NHS Trust Fit for the Future Citizens’ Jury (2021) Murray County, MN Rural Energy Dialogue (2020)
Redwood County, MN Rural Energy Dialogue (2019)
Citizens’ Juries on Artificial Intelligence (2019)
Central Ohio Your Voice Ohio Citizens’ Jury (2019)
City of Vancouver, BC Flats Arterial Community Panel (2019) Forest of Dean District Citizens’ Jury (2018)
Itasca County, MN Rural Energy Dialogue (2018)
Winona County, MN Rural Energy Dialogue (2018)
Red Wing, MN Community Assembly on Local Government (2017) Willmar, MN Community Assembly on Local Government (2017) Informed Citizen Akron (OH) Citizens’ Juries (2016)
Winona County, MN Rural Climate Dialogue (2016)
Onondaga County, NY Citizens’ Juries on Improving Diagnostic Quality (2015) Itasca County, MN Rural Climate Dialogue (2015)
Stevens County, MN Rural Climate Dialogue (2014)
Hennepin County, MN Citizens’ Jury on the Economy and Federal Budget (2012) Statement of Qualifications
Our current team of 4 has been directly involved in conducting over 50 multi-day deliberative events (Citizens’ / Civic Assembly, Citizens’ Jury, Community Panel, Policy Juries, Citizens’ Initiative Review, etc.) and over 125 deliberative forums (single day events) on a broad range of complex policy issues and research programs. This includes the first Civic / Community Assemblies ever conducted in the United States.
The following projects used demographic stratification and a lottery process to select community participants.
1 City of Vancouver and Vancouver Parks Board (British Columbia) Centre of Excellence for Infectious Diseases Research - University of Manchester
Civic Data Cooperative - University of Liverpool and Liverpool Combined Regional Authority
Cleveland City Council (Ohio)
Department of Premier and Cabinet, South Australia
Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center - University of Massachusetts Medical School Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research - University of Manchester Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group / NHS Trust Health Innovation Liverpool - University of Liverpool
Healthy Democracy
Information Commissioner’s Office (UK)
Kettering Foundation
Minnesota Public Radio
Minnesota Historical Society
National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation
National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care (UK)
National Institute of Health and Care Research (UK)
New York Times
NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre NHS X / NHS Digital and Improvement (UK)
Pierce Conservation District - Washington
Puyallup Watershed Initiative
Syracuse University
Tacoma Pierce County Public Health Department
University of Liverpool (UK)
Wellcome Trust
Selected Clients, 2012 - Present
Please note: this list of clients does not include collaborators or funding awarded; this additional information is available on-request. 2 We have partnered with local governments to conduct over 30 citizens’ juries and civic assemblies in the U.S. We have designed and implemented civic engagement projects that assess fiscal tradeoffs and budgetary impact of policy decisions as well as conducted multiple training, workshops, presentations and focus groups for Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) members focusing specifically on improving public engagement and participation in municipal budgeting processes:
“Modern Practices in Public Engagement” Pre-conference Training Workshop, Annual Conference (2023)
“Aligning Capital Planning with Community Priorities” Presentation, Fundamentals Virtual Forum (2023)
“Public Engagement and Budgeting Challenges & Opportunities” Focus Groups (2023)
“Public Engagement in the Age of Anti-Expertise” Presentation, Rethinking Public Engagement Summit (2022)
We have implemented citizens’ / civic assembly projects that focus on system design and public engagement process improvement at the local government level. We have also conducted research and consulted with governments to improve public engagement processes at the federal and local / municipal levels:
Shaping AI and Emerging Technology through Public Participation (funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce)
Shaping Public Participation in AI and Emerging Technology in Local Government (Akron, OH; Philadelphia, PA; St. Paul, MN)
City Council Public Outreach and Engagement research (Cleveland, OH) Other Relevant Experience
Our current team has significant topical and subject matter experience that will enhance our ability to deliver the Culver City Civic Assembly. 3 Pre-Assembly Expenses
Participant Recruitment & Lottery Selection $13,000
Assembly Participant Support & Compensation
Participant Stipends $28,800
Alternate Stipends $1,920
Participant Transportation Stipends $2,160
Caregiving Stipends $2,400
Civic Assembly Event Expenses
Translation & Interpretation Services $9,000
Moderators $3,000
Catering & Refreshments $7,500
Event Materials & Supplies $1,500
CNDP Travel
Travel $20,000
Misc. Costs
Misc. costs and variance (5%) $5,000
Culver City Direct Expenses
Venue & A/V $15,000
Expense Subtotal $109,280
CNDP Personnel Costs
CNDP Personnel Time $120,000
Total Budget Estimate $229,280
Tentative Culver City Civic Assembly Budget
*Note: This tentative budget estimate is based on a six-day Civic Assembly event with 20 participants and would be subject to change based upon mutually agreed-upon project parameters (project scope, duration, stipend amounts, number of participants, etc.) and is subject to variance based on external factors and considerations.
4 Key CNDP Personnel
Sarah Atwood, PhD, Head of Research and Engagement, CNDP Sarah Atwood, PhD, is the Head of Research and Engagement with the Center for New Democratic Processes. Sarah has worked with the Center for New Democratic Processes since 2016. Sarah’s work employs interdisciplinary and cross-cultural deliberation and facilitation techniques in both small and large-group settings (up to 140 people). Sarah brings a depth of experience of working on academic, public, and private sector collaborations and has a breadth of experience working with project partners and participants from a range of professional and personal backgrounds. She has extensive experience in research, project, and curriculum design in addition to her experience as a community-engagement professional.
Kyle Bozentko (MS, MTS), Executive Director, CNDP
Kyle Bozentko brings over 20 years of political, public policy, and deliberative engagement experience to his role as Executive Director of CNDP. Kyle has contributed directly to the design, implementation, and evaluation of over 50 multi-day deliberative engagement projects. He has over 2,000 hours of facilitation experience with group sizes ranging from a dozen to 250+. Kyle served on the International Association of Public Participation - USA (IAP2 USA) Board of Directors from 2015-2018, the MNsure (Minnesota) Health Industry Advisory Committee from 2016-2018, as Co-Chair of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium Executive Committee from 2016-2020, and on the State of Minnesota Office of Collaboration and Dispute Resolution Advisory Committee from 2018- 2025. He has contributed to articles and research featured in the Brookings Institution, Real Clear Policy, GOVERNING, the Journal of Medical Internet Research, the Journal of Medical Ethics, and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
Larry Pennings, DMin, Associate Director, CNDP
Larry Pennings brings a broad array of group facilitation and process design skills, dispute resolution and conflict management expertise, and organizational development experience to our work. Working closely with the inventor of the Citizens’ Jury process for over 15 years, he is one of the most highly experienced practitioners of jury-based public deliberation methods in the world. His work in these capacities was essential to the successful development of our project portfolio as well as the development and institutionalization of the Citizens’ Initiative Review process in Oregon. Larry has contributed to more than 30 deliberative events, several of which have received national or international awards including: The Citizens’ Initiative Review (IAP2 – 2013; Harvard Ash Center – 2017), Clearing the Error (IAP2 – 2016), and Rural Climate Dialogues (IAP2 – 2017).
Jonathan Wong, Communications and Research Assistant, CNDP Jonathan is an experienced communications professional that spent his career in the government and nonprofit sectors. Jonathan joined CNDP in 2020. His experience includes digital marketing communications, civic engagement, strategic planning, as well as facilitation and complex cross-sector collaborations. He has previously done work sponsored by the Bush Foundation and McKnight Foundation (US) and was a Fellow with the Urban Leaders program (U.S.).
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