Information Item
Date: September 25, 2023
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Rick Valte, Public Works Director
Subject: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process
Introduction
This Information Item introduces the plan to engage the community for the “Future of Santa Monica Airport Project”. Staff proposes that the City utilize a Democratic Lottery process to guide community engagement and this Information Item provides an overview of the process.
Background
At direction from the City Council at the January 24, 2023 meeting and after a series of twenty outreach meetings to the City’s Boards and Commissions, neighborhood groups, local and regional stakeholder organizations, and other interested parties, project staff have developed an approach to address public engagement in a way that deepens the community’s understanding of the core issues and tradeoffs related to transforming the 227 acres that comprise the Santa Monica Airport into a sustainable community asset (including a “great park”) that can serve the needs of multiple generations of Santa Monicans. The approach is designed to address many of the traditional inadequacies of the land-use planning process that foment divisions within the community, and result in barriers to participation that exclude or marginalize the voices of important segments of our population.
Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 2 The scale of opportunity presented by the closure of the Santa Monica Airport after December 31, 2028, mandates a unique public engagement model to develop a vision and implementation strategy that enjoys the support of the community, contemplates an outcome that is focused on utilizing the Airport land to provide multi-generational benefits, and builds resiliency against environmental, economic, and social impacts.
Given the far-ranging expectations for the land to accomplish these goals, and the interest in allowing the community to participate in exploring the complexity of issues faced by Airport conversion, staff proposes to utilize a Democratic Lottery process to guide community engagement.
A Democratic Lottery is a method of selecting community representatives through a randomized lottery-based system to serve as a Community Focus Group Panel that would have a direct connection to decision-makers. This approach demands broad demographic representation, and minimizes the influence of special interests, as it allows individuals from all segments of the community to participate in the decision-making process. While not common in North America, the Democratic Lottery process is utilized in many countries as a standard for addressing contemporary policy questions around land-use, economics, environmental stewardship, and voter representation. In over 600 examples globally to date, the model is gaining traction as a way for governments to deeply engage their community in collaborative, inclusive, and durable policy decisions.
Recently, the City of Petaluma utilized a Democratic Lottery to identify a future land-use plan for its historic Fairgrounds, a 55-acre parcel in the middle of their community that served as a seasonal gathering space for over 100 years. Similar to the Santa Monica Airport, the Petaluma Fairgrounds presented the City of Petaluma with an opportunity to reimagine a large public parcel into a more connected, accessible, and productive community space, but after nearly two decades of failed attempts to determine the fate of the site no consensus had been reached. In a renewed effort in 2022, Petaluma officials unveiled an entirely new approach that utilized the Democratic Lottery process.
In under six months, the lottery-selected panel delivered its recommendation to the Petaluma City Council for adoption. The Panel’s recommendation was backed by broad community support involving many previously adversarial counterparts who had bought Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 3 into the process and found compromise and agreement on the preferred land-use recommendation.
Staff proposes to use the Democratic Lottery process for the Future of Santa Monica Airport project.
Discussion
The Santa Monica Airport (“Airport” or “SMO”) is more than just another municipal real estate asset or functional transportation facility; it is a living piece of Santa Monica’s history. In continuous use since 1917, the Airport has been part of the community for over 100 years, during which time its aviation functions have changed considerably. Starting out as a grass landing strip in a barley field for WWI pilots, it then became home of the Douglas Aircraft company, and served as a critical manufacturing center for the Federal Government’s WWII effort. After the war, it emerged as an aviation technology center, and finally a local general aviation airport, which it continues to be to this day.
The City of Santa Monica is authorized to close the Airport after December 31, 2028, pending Council action. The City’s authority to close the Airport was established in 2017 with a settlement agreement between the City and the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) that was entered as a "Consent Decree” in U.S. District Court. This expansion of the City’s proprietary rights over the Airport comes after nearly five decades of litigation and other strategic investments of City resources to gain local control of the Airport’s 227 land acres. Closure of the Airport presents a rare opportunity for Santa Monica to design, program, and develop one of the largest remaining spaces in Los Angeles County. The “Future of Santa Monica Airport Project” will be a multi-year effort to engage the community and other stakeholders on how this space can best serve Santa Monica and how the City can fund and govern this asset.
Land-use planning is often a hotly debated topic. Over the past 20 years, the City has taken on a number of high-profile planning efforts to alter the organization and zoning of the cityscape, including the General Plan Land Use and Circulation Element (LUCE), the Bergamot Area Plan, the Downtown Community Plan and the recently adopted 2021- Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 4 2028 Housing Element. All of these long-range planning efforts were designed to maximize community participation, and to find consensus on trade-offs associated with the level of change contemplated by policy makers. Though each plan was ultimately adopted by the City Council, they suffered tremendous opposition from vocal community members whose resistance to key elements of each plan – or even the entire plan itself – resulted in protracted land use battles that placed Council in a difficult position of navigating narrow majority perspectives and fostered a “winner/loser” paradigm that left many in the community feeling disenfranchised from the decisionmaking process. Further, despite staff and consultant teams’ best efforts to “bring the plan to the doorstep” of every Santa Monica resident or business owner, the traditional outreach methodology of workshops, pop-up’s, and participation at neighborhood groups, City Council and Boards and Commission meetings, aroused sentiments of dissatisfaction throughout the community based on the following themes:
• Limited opportunities for participation: Outreach activities are typically limited during a planning effort to available staff resources and project outreach budgets, as well as agendized discussions with City Council or the City’s Boards and Commissions. Even projects like the Downtown Community Plan, which spanned six years and included 22 public workshops was viewed by some members of the community as insufficient to hear comprehensively from residents and businesses.
• Requires individual volition to participate: Staff always endeavors to design an outreach process that is accessible and meets people “where they are.” Typically, this involves hosting workshops on weekends or evenings when working people have less obligations. For this reason, City Council and Boards and Commission meetings are also conducted in the evenings. Despite this arrangement, other barriers to participation exist that prevent many segments of the community from lending their voice to the narrative, including family obligations (childcare or senior care), transportation to access planning workshops or scheduled civic meetings, technology to meet in a virtual space, or a general feeling of disenfranchisement from decision-making based on lived experience. The 2030 LUCE, which spanned five years and involved over 4,000 residents and business members was presented to the community in dozens of workshops, meetings and events, and was debated by nearly every Board and Commission. Despite the comprehensive intent of the outreach and the project’s exposure to over a half-decade of community discussion, only 4% of residents actually participated in the plan formation. The other 96% of Santa Monica’s population chose not to participate based on many of the factors described herein.
• Caters to those with time and interest: Two key components to voluntary participation in outreach activities are a) having the time to attend city-sponsored events or meetings, and b) a personal or collective interest in the outcome.
Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 5 Because of the onerous time commitment to participate in long-range planning efforts (either attending lengthy workshops or waiting hours at Council meetings to speak for two minutes) many members of the community opt out, leaving vocal minorities to fill the airspace with special interests or contrarian viewpoints. This results in a narrow representation of perspectives during the planning exercise, which is often dominated by “frequent fliers” who have both the time and interest in engaging the City on future outcomes. By only engaging community members whose life circumstances provide for civic participation in the formats that are traditionally offered, we miss the City’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals of engagement.
• Plan fatigue: Given the duration of many of these planning efforts, the number of choices, and the level of passion inherent in the discussion of future tradeoffs and change, many in the community experience a sensation known as “plan fatigue.” Plan fatigue, also known as “decision fatigue” or “choice overload” occurs when individuals become overwhelmed or exhausted by having to make numerous decisions or evaluate multiple options. Plan fatigue is particularly acute when large audiences, such as those who have participated in the City’s past longrange efforts, are asked to commit to lengthy multi-year discussions.
To adequately plan for the future of the Santa Monica Airport, the City seeks to implement a model of civic participation that resolves the factors above. Importantly, the City must also use a process that can move efficiently through the steps of defining existing conditions, elaborating a vision, and then using that vision as the basis of traditional planning work to develop a framework for implementation prior to planned closure at the end of 2028. The proposed Democratic Lottery process is a solution that can help the City and the community to address the complexity of the visioning effort efficiently and effectively. To bring the appropriate level of both breadth and depth, the City has engaged Healthy Democracy (HD), a nonpartisan nonprofit organization, to manage the Lottery-Selected Panel (“Panel”). This process will be the primary component of the City’s public engagement on the Future of the Santa Monica Airport project and will also include additional methods for collecting input from stakeholders and the broader community.
What is a Democratic Lottery?
Lottery-Selected Panels (LSP) are democratic systems that help governments tackle difficult policy questions. Panelists are everyday people. They are community members who are randomly selected and reflective of Santa Monica. They are a representation of Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 6 the city in one room. These Panels are professionally facilitated and follow a structured process to ensure fairness and productivity. They are designed to focus on collaborative problem solving and evidence. Academic research and real-world examples have shown that they handle complex policy questions effectively and fairly.
What makes a Lottery-Selected Panel different
Although Lottery-Selected Panels act in the role of a community focus group, their principles and practices differ from standard advisory committees in a number of key ways:
● Panelists are selected by democratic lottery – a stratified random sample of individuals aged 18+, a microcosm of the community in one room. Because Lottery-Selected Panels are composed of individuals who typically do not volunteer for other City processes, they are capable of more deliberative arbitration of controversial topics.
● Stakeholders and interest groups are not absent from the process, but they do not sit on the Panel itself. Rather, they participate in the process in two primary ways:
o As a presenter: A diverse selection of stakeholder organizations nominate and prioritize introductory presentations to the Panel. The presenters are vetted by an Information Committee that is made up of representatives from various Santa Monica Boards and Commissions, to determine those initial presenters. After the first meeting the Panel then selects additional presenters for their future meetings.
o As a feedback loop: Stakeholders and community members are invited to participate in feedback loops with the Panel through online deliberative tools and other Panel-hosted events.
● The Panel is treated more like a community focus group than a typical City board and commission. Staff serves the Panel in supportive, rather than directive, role. This paradigm shift is reflected in process design, moderation style, and budget.
● The Panel gathers a wide range of evidence. In addition to stakeholders, the Panel typically hears from staff and non-staff expert presenters, has ample time to review documents and question all presenters, and may call its own presenters. It may also receive other public engagement inputs – including survey data, listening sessions, walking tours, etc. – or hold open public workshops.
● The Panel engages in lengthy deliberations around grounding values and principles, before delving into any project solutions. These discussions seek mutual understanding and shared goals, but they do not force consensus. As Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 7 with the rest of the process, they are professionally moderated and follow a detailed process design established in advance – while remaining flexible to the Panel’s needs.
● The Panel has the opportunity to engage in in-depth feedback loops with technical staff, to review proposed policies in detail. ● The Panel’s output is therefore substantial, including both:
o Criteria on which it believes any decision should rest, and o Detailed policy/land-use recommendations.
● In order to accomplish these significant tasks, Panels are highly efficient public processes, while remaining comfortable, supportive, and collaborative environments for Panelists.
● Since randomly selected Panels include folks from many walks of life, universal accessibility is emphasized and stipends/reimbursements may be provided to alleviate potential financial impediments to participating. Both the in-room process and out-of-room logistics seek to accommodate Panelists’ specific needs, providing support services such as translation and assistive technology and adapting to differential learning styles to ensure a representative sample of Santa Monica’s community members can fully participate.
How Will This Panel Be Selected?
Participants are selected from the general public using a democratic lottery, also known as a representative random sample or sortition, using open-source software called Panelot. While most public engagement processes rely on the same self-selected individuals, democratic lotteries engage new residents through a randomized selection process. The lottery begins with a proactive invitation to randomly selected residential addresses that makes it as easy as possible to say “yes.” From the resulting pool of respondents, a Panel of approximately 40 people is randomly selected (at a public event). Lottery-Selected Panels don’t just “work toward” representation; they are designed to achieve a cross-section of the community’s diversity. Selected Panelists are offered language interpretation and may be reimbursed for expenses incurred from participating on the panel. This sets a new standard for access and inclusion of all communities and mitigates unequal barriers to participation often faced by marginalized residents, it helps ensure panelist remain engaged throughout the entire process.
The deliberative process then puts everyday people at the center of in-depth, wellinformed, and collaborative decision-making. Given that most lottery-selected Panelists Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 8 do not have prior experience with the policy topic, they have a unique capacity for identifying common ground solutions in the public’s best interest. Much like a jury trial, they receive a vast amount of information before independently deliberating on recommendations. Rather than being presented with pre-packaged information from a sponsoring government agency, Panelists hear from dozens of background presenters, stakeholders, and technical experts to understand the landscape of opinions and information on the topic. Then, through meticulously designed small-group work aided by professional moderators, Panelists carefully consider options, weigh tradeoffs, and collaboratively identify solutions. Panelists hear from the broader public throughout their process to ensure a wide range of community voices and interests are considered. The Panel’s recommendations, written entirely in Panelists’ own words, are submitted directly to decision-makers. The time-intensive and collaborative nature of the deliberative process results in recommendations with broad community buy-in – and unusual public legitimacy.
How Will the Process Be Accessible to All Community Members? This process is centered on accessibility. Panelists will be provided with accommodations to support their ability to participate fully in the process, such as reimbursement for transportation costs and comprehensive language access services (interpretation and translation). While not all community members will be invited to participate on the Panel, the randomized selection process allows for community members to see their views represented throughout the Panel. There will also be multiple opportunities for the community to provide feedback to the Panel throughout the process.
How Will the Panel Conduct Its Work?
Lottery-Selected Panels model a different kind of collaborative policymaking, with plentiful time for consideration of the many views and sources of information on the topic at hand. The Panel will meet in-person for six weekends over the course of approximately nine months, anticipated to be Fall 2024 – Summer 2025. This community focus group will begin its work with a robust information-gathering phase, covering the history and context of the topic, as well as a wide range of perspectives on the Airport’s future.
Panelists will receive background materials and hear from introductory presenters – with Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 9 all materials and presenters selected by a diverse group of stakeholders. Then, the Panel will select numerous presenters of its own, conduct a site visit, receive the results of initial community outreach, and gather additional information as needed. The Panel will also thoroughly consider Panelists’ own lived experiences related to the Airport. Gathering this uniquely diverse range of expertise comprises about a third of the Panel’s total work hours. All panel meetings are live-streamed and recorded so the Santa Monica community at large can see and hear what is being discussed adding to the transparency of the discussions and outcomes.
The Panel will then move into a deliberation phase – creating guiding principles, exploring long-term visions for the site, and finally crafting recommendations about the Airport’s future. All deliberation is designed to take place in iterative small- and large-group work sessions, moderated by a team of professional process staff and informed by decades of research on effective collaborative decision making – and by advisors and Panelists themselves.
Decision-making context
The work of this Panel will be to make recommendations to City staff and the City Council.
It is anticipated that:
● The Panel's recommendations will be thoroughly considered, with substantial written responses provided to the Panel after the completion of each of the Panel's deliverables.
● City staff, including technical experts, will provide thorough details to the Panel of the surrounding decision-making context upon request, but will not constrain the Panel's work beyond the initial framing question.
Furthermore, in addition to its official reporting-out to the City, Panelists (or the Panel in aggregate) may choose to speak publicly about their work, without restriction by Healthy Democracy or the City of Santa Monica. In fact, the project staff, partners, and budget will help to foster such opportunities.
The Panel will also have several designed opportunities to hear from the broader public and will have full authority to further engage the public as it wishes.
Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 10 How Will Stakeholders Be Involved?
Stakeholders will be involved throughout the LSP process to inform project plans, curate information for Panelists, and present information directly to the Panel, as requested.
Healthy Democracy will begin engaging stakeholders early by conducting initial information sessions to share information about the proposed process with key local leaders.
The Information Committee (IC), made up of representatives from existing Boards and Commissions, will be tasked with curating quality, balanced, introductory presenters who present to the Panel during the beginning of its information-gathering phase. A list of stakeholder organizations will have the opportunity to nominate presenters into this process. The list of stakeholder organizations will consist of diverse interests, possibly including tenants, neighbors, community advocates, and anyone else with an interest in the future of the site.
The IC will conduct the following activities within this process:
● Select initial presenters to provide a balanced “lay of the land” to the Panel. ● Compile a list of potential additional presenters, to assist the Panel when it selects its own slate of presenters.
Stakeholders who are not part of the IC process will have opportunities to present to the Lottery- Selected Panel and offer feedback at points throughout the process as well.
What Will the Panel Deliver?
The Panel will be asked to provide a series of reports that answer a key question which will be approved by the City Council. All reports are developed, written, and edited exclusively by Panelists themselves:
● Principles – a prioritized list of overarching values, decision-making criteria, key interests, and important activities that any final recommendation should take intoconsideration.
● Scenarios – an outline of the possibilities and visions for the Airport site, including options considered and rationales based on lived experience and Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 11 outside evidence.
● Final Report – the Panel's recommendations, including preferred Airport landuse(s) and rationales, dissenting opinions, and supporting details.
What Will Happen with the Panel’s Deliverables?
The Panel’s reports will be delivered to the City Council, who will be asked to thoroughly consider and publicly respond to them. The public will have opportunities to engage with the Panel’s recommendations and make comments as well. The City Council may seek the Panel’s opinion when determining next steps for the Airport property related to the vision and land-use designation(s) for the site in the City’s General Plan update (2030).
The Panel may reconvene on an ad hoc basis, to clarify its recommendations, consider any additional questions, and respond to further policy developments. It should be noted that the work of the Panel does not supplant the traditional planning process. The preferred scenario would be presented to the City Council as the Panel’s recommendation, but the City Council has the authority to accept, revise, or reject the scenario. If it is accepted, only then the City would begin the Specific Plan, Zoning, and General Plan updates necessary to move forward. This next phase of work is not included in the Panel’s work.
Overarching principles of Lottery-Selected Panels
The following are basic principles common to most lottery-based deliberative processes, including all of Healthy Democracy’s Panels. ● A paradigm of Panelists-on-the-dais, not in the audience. ○ Think of Panels as fact-finding, well-informed, community focus groups that speak directly to Council.
● A direct path to decision makers.
○ Real influence over the future of the airport.
● An emphasis on collaborative decision-making.
○ Working toward shared solutions, without forcing consensus. ● Accountable and transparent governance over the process. ○ An independent Information Committee makes decisions about initial presenters to the Panel and advises the Panel on additional presenters to consider.
Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 12 ○ A group of Program Advisors, made up of practitioner experts, former moderators,and former Panelists, works with Healthy Democracy staff on process details.
○ A Process Sub-group of the Panel, made up of current Panelists, makes high-level process decisions and improvements beyond the information-gathering phase.
● Independence from outside political interference.
○ Everyone involved agrees to certain guidelines to prevent undue influence over the Panel’s work – this includes guidelines for Panelists, City staff, elected City officials, process staff (i.e., Healthy Democracy), presenting experts, public observers, media, and others. ● Selection of Panelists through a democratic lottery.
○ Randomly selected from the general public.
○ Ensures a representative group of Santa Monica’s population ● A commitment to universal accessibility.
○ Panelists may be reimbursed for expenses incurred associated with participation (e.g. transportation) and a stipend to alleviate any financial burden of participating
○ Appropriate technology, training, and one-on-one logistical support is provided to all Panelists.
● A substantial information-gathering phase, including:
○ Substantial background information provided by the City and expert consultants.
○ Information presented by stakeholders are selected by the Information Committee.
○ Information presented by individuals selected by the Panel itself. ○ Other public input that engages the broader community. ● A structured, in-depth deliberation phase.
○ Designed by professional process designers and based on research. ○ Moderated by professional, trained moderators.
○ Designed to encourage collaboration across differences without forcing consensus.
○ Substantial collaborative work directly with technical experts, deep deliberation on the most contentious tradeoffs, and a methodical pathway toward agreement.
● Actionable Reports of prioritized recommendations.
○ Written by the Panelists themselves, with no writing or editing by staff. ○ Delivered by the full Panel but with room for dissenting opinions and individual voices.
● Third-party evaluation of process design and execution.
Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 13 ○ Academic evaluators not paid by the process, the convening agency, or Healthy Democracy observe and review the process, and report to the public and the convener on its fairness and quality. ○ An Evaluation Committee, made up of Panelists, works with these external evaluators to provide its own evaluation of the process, often surveying the broader public about the process.
Next Steps
This Info Item is the first step in explaining what this exciting, fair, and balanced outreach process is and serves as the basis of future discussions. City Staff and Healthy Democracy will be presenting to City Council in a Study Session on October 10, 2023, to further discuss this process, answer questions, listen to public comments, and receive direction from the City Council. At this Study Session, Healthy Democracy will present a detailed scope of work for the lottery-selected panel and be available to answer any questions that arise.
Cost will be discussed at this session as well.
Staff anticipates coming back to the City Council on November 14, 2023, to award contracts for this process as well as the Design and Technical Team that will support City Staff and the lottery-selected panel’s work. The Design and Technical Team (DT+T) will help the Panel understand the existing conditions realities and potential economic strategies as well as provide several presentations on topics such as: sustainability, ecology, policy frameworks, multi-generational design, etc. The DT+T will also aid the panel through a series of ‘deep dives’ in envisioning the options they want to explore as they create a preferred scenario that will be presented to Council at the conclusion of the Panel’s work.
Anticipated Project Schedule
Item Date
Info Item Submitted to Council September 2023
Council Study Session October 10, 2023
Council Contract Authorization November 14, 2023
Panel Process Kick-off January 2024
Design & Technical Team Kick-off January 2024
Public Panel Selection Summer 2024
Design & Technical Team Existing Conditions Report Summer 2024 Information Item: Future of the Airport (SMO): Lottery Selected Panel Outreach Process 14 First Panel Meeting Fall 2024
Final Panel Meeting Summer 2025
Prepared By: Amber Richane – Acting Chief Operations Officer for Public Works and the Airport Conversion Team, Chris Dishlip – Assistant Director of Public Works, Amelia Feichtner – Capital Program Manager; Alex Parry – Sr. Design Manager Attachments: Attachment A – Lottery Selected Panel Overview Attachment B – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Attachment C – Panel Process Diagram
Overview of Lottery-Selected Panels
Prepared for the City of Santa Monica by Healthy Democracy Updated 27 April 2023
Lottery-Selected Panels are a 50-year-old democratic innovation – inspired by ancient democracies in Greece and India – that put everyday people at the heart of public decision making.
Often called Citizens’ Assemblies or Policy Juries, these processes combine two key design elements that fundamentally transform public decision making: 1) a democratic lottery selects a Panel that is demographically representative of the community and fully supported to participate, and 2) a deliberative process allows Panelists to collaboratively consider many perspectives and produce well-informed policy recommendations. With over 600 examples globally to date, the model is gaining traction as a way for governments to deeply engage residents in helping find collaborative, inclusive, and durable policy solutions.
Participants are selected from the general public using a democratic lottery, also known as a representative random sample or sortition. While most public engagement processes rely on the same self-selected individuals, democratic lotteries engage new residents through a randomized process that ensures representation across an unusually broad set of diversities. The lottery begins with a proactive invitation to randomly selected residential addresses that makes it as easy as possible to say “yes.” From the resulting pool of respondents, a Panel is randomly selected (at a public event) to reflect a microcosm of the city. Lottery-Selected Panels don’t just “work toward” representation; they guarantee a cross-section of the public’s diversities every time – in terms of age, gender, race, ethnicity, geography, educational attainment, and other factors. Selected Panelists are paid a substantial stipend, offered language interpretation, and reimbursed for childcare, eldercare, and transportation expenses. This sets a new standard for access and inclusion of all communities and mitigates unequal barriers to participation often faced by marginalized residents.
The deliberative process then puts everyday people at the center of in-depth, well-informed, and collaborative policymaking. Given that most lottery-selected Panelists do not have prior experience with the policy topic, they have a unique capacity for identifying common ground solutions in the public’s best interest. Much like a jury in a criminal court, they receive a vast amount of information before independently deliberating on recommendations. Rather than being presented with pre-packaged information from a sponsoring government agency, Panelists hear from dozens of background presenters, stakeholders, and technical experts to understand the landscape of opinions and information on the policy topic. Then, through meticulously designed small-group work aided by professional moderators, Panelists carefully consider options, weigh tradeoffs, and collaboratively identify solutions. Panelists hear from the broader public throughout their process to ensure a wide range of community voices and interests are considered. The Panel’s final recommendations, written entirely in Panelists’ own words, are delivered directly to decision makers. The time-intensive and collaborative nature of the deliberative process results in recommendations with broad community buy-in – and unusual public legitimacy – that are frequently adopted by government officials.
healthydemocracy.org • (503) 841-6865 • [email protected] page 1/1 Attachment A
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Panelists are paid a substantial stipend, offered language interpretation, and reimbursed for childcare, eldercare, and transportation expenses. This sets a new standard for access and inclusion of all communities and mitigates unequal barriers to participation often faced by marginalized residents.
The deliberative process then puts everyday people at the center of in-depth, well-informed, and collaborative policymaking. Given that most lottery-selected Panelists do not have prior experience with the policy topic, they have a unique capacity for identifying common ground solutions in the public’s best interest. Much like a jury in a criminal court, they receive a vast amount of information before independently deliberating on recommendations. Rather than being presented with pre-packaged information from a sponsoring government agency, Panelists hear from dozens of background presenters, stakeholders, and technical experts to understand the landscape of opinions and information on the policy topic. Then, through meticulously designed small-group work aided by professional moderators, Panelists carefully consider options, weigh tradeoffs, and collaboratively identify solutions. Panelists hear from the broader public throughout their process to ensure a wide range of community voices and interests are considered. The Panel’s final recommendations, written entirely in Panelists’ own words, are delivered directly to decision makers. The time-intensive and collaborative nature of the deliberative process results in recommendations with broad community buy-in – and unusual public legitimacy – that are frequently adopted by government officials.
LOTTERY-SELECTED PANELS
healthydemocracy.org (503) 841-6865 [email protected] In-Depth Deliberation changes
decision-making itself. Panelists hear from
experts and stakeholders on all sides of an issue,
consider policy options, and collaboratively write
recommendations.
Lottery-Selected Panels are innovative democratic systems that help governments tackle difficult policy questions.
Panelists are everyday people capable of extraordinary
collaboration and sophisticated decision making.
Democratic Lotteries ensure all of us
– from every walk of life – have a place in public
decision-making. Panels reflect the many diversities
of the communities they serve.
Around the world, governments are
employing Lottery-Selected Panels – often called
Citizens’ Juries or Citizens’ Assemblies – to put
people at the center of governance. Healthy
Democracy has designed and convened panels
in five U.S. states and three countries since 2008.
We are best known for Oregon’s Citizens’ Initiative
Review (CIR), which is one of the most researched
deliberative processes in the world and was one
of the first modern lottery-selected processes
institutionalized in government.
A New Kind of Democracy
Benefts
PRINCIPLES AND BENEFITS
of Lottery-Selected Panels
healthydemocracy.org (503) 841-6865 [email protected] Boosts
diversity in
civic participation
and increases access
for historically
marginalized
groups
Fosters
ownership
over public decision
making and enhances
mutual trust in
governance
Surfaces
previously
untapped ideas,
and encourages
effective policy
co-production
Promotes
evidence-driven
public discourse,
and showcases a more
cooperative
politics
Inclusivity
Em
po
w
e
r
ment
Representation
Integrit
Co
y
llaboration
Principles
Proactive, invitation-based
recruitment methods and
accessibility-driven design bring
entirely new voices to the table.
Lottery selection
guarantees representation
across a uniquely broad set
of demographic diversities
– “a city in one room.”
Panelists have full
authority over their
process and the support
to impact real policy
decisions.
Skillfully moderated discussions
ensure thorough comprehension
of the issue, respectful exchange,
and thoughtful decision-making.
Independent evaluation and
oversight drives researchbased process design and
continuous improvement.
Invitation
A group of randomly selected
residential addresses receive a
letter inviting them to participate
in the Panel.
letters mailed
1 THE PROCESS
Selection
healthydemocracy.org (503) 841-6865 [email protected]
Democratic Lottery
Of those who respond to the invitation, a Panel
is selected that represents the unique demographic
characteristics of that community.
Education Attainment
No Diploma
High school diploma
Some college
Bachelor’s degree Population Respondents Panelists
2 “This opportunity to work side by
side with fellow voters has affirmed
my belief in the value of public
participation in the democratic
process.”
- Melissa, Former Panelist
“Life often feels like a zero sum
game. Here, whenever I contributed,
others gave, too. That’s really
exceptional in this world.”
- Dylan, Former Panelist
5k-20k
Recommendations
The Panel produces a set of policy
recommendations, including rationales and any
dissenting opinions. Their report – written entirely in their words – carries an inherent legitimacy with the
public and decision makers. Policy recommendations
can inform any stage of the policy process:
THE PROCESS
In-Room
healthydemocracy.org (503) 841-6865 [email protected]
Information Gathering
The Panel interviews dozens of experts
and stakeholders, and conducts its
own research on the topic at hand. With
external support, Panelists filter information
and conduct gaps analyses to ensure
Agenda Setting Visioning Policy Making Implementation
Feedback Loops
Collaboration between the Panel and staff
and empowerment of the process –
and helps make better policy.
3 5
Deliberation
Panelists define decision-making
criteria, consider potential policy
options, and prioritize alternatives
through extensive discussions over
multiple days. Panelists spend most of their
time in small groups with trained professional
moderators. Meticulous process designs
enable collaboration between iterative small
and large groups.
4 information is strong, reliable, and reflective of
many perspectives on the issue.
or other experts increases the effectiveness
Better metaphor: more Democracy Pies!
Open to
Anyone
Specific
Invitation
Lottery
Selection
e.g., surveys, hearings, voting e.g., stakeholder negotiations, outreach to particular community
e.g., Lottery-Selected Panels
Anyone! (in theory...)
Same individuals, “thin”
participation, debate-oriented
Can be targeted &
specialized to issue or impact
Often same individuals,
often top-down orientation
Guarantees new &
diverse folks, in-depth
deliberation, Panelist-led
Needs time & design
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Lottery-Selected Panel?
This is a different kind of democratic process. A Lottery-Selected Panel brings together a group of everyday people to examine an important public issue. Lottery selection ensures that all of us have a place in public decision making. Five to twenty-thousand letters are mailed out to randomly selected residential addresses inviting residents to participate in the Panel. Of those who respond, a Panel is selected that represents the unique demographic characteristics of that community. Additional Panelists who may not live at an address are selected via “golden tickets” provided to social service agencies. Panels are professionally moderated and follow a structured process to ensure inclusion, collaboration, and innovation. They are designed to reduce the influence of political bias and put everyday people at the heart of policy making.
What are the principles that guide these processes?
Inclusivity: Proactive, invitation-based recruitment methods and accessibility-driven design bring new voices to the table.
Representation: Lottery selection guarantees representation across a uniquely broad set of demographic diversities – “a city in one room.”
Integrity: Independent evaluation and oversight drive research-based process design and continuous improvement.
Collaboration: Skillfully moderated discussions ensure thorough comprehension of the issue, respectful exchange, and thoughtful decision-making.
Empowerment: Panelists have full authority over their process and the opportunity to impact real policy decisions.
What makes a Lottery-Selected Panel different from a typical community advisory committee?
Selection Process: Panelists are selected by democratic lottery – a stratified random sample of community residents aged 16+, a microcosm of the city in one room. Because Lottery-Selected Panels are composed of residents who typically do not volunteer for other City processes, they are capable of more deliberative arbitration of fraught political topics.
Stakeholder Involvement: Stakeholders and interest groups are not absent from the process – in fact, they are essential to it – but they do not sit on the Panel itself. Rather, they participate in the process in four ways: 1) A selection of 100 stakeholder organizations, from all sides of the topic at hand, nominate potential presenters to the Panel, 2) Representatives from existing City boards and commissions sit on an Information Committee (IC), which curates a slate of initial presenters and creates a menu of other presenters for the Panel to consider inviting, 3) A wide array of stakeholders present to and engage with the Panel healthydemocracy.org • (503) 841-6865 • [email protected] page 1/5 Attachment B
(some called by the IC and some by the Panel itself), and 4) Stakeholders are invited to offer feedback on the Panel’s work at multiple points later in its deliberative process.
Panel Autonomy: Although it only offers recommendations, the Panel is treated more like a council, commission, or other decision-making body than a typical advisory committee. Staff serve the Panel in supportive, rather than directive, roles. This paradigm shift is reflected in process design, moderation style, and budget, with typically around ¼ of project funds being paid directly to Panelists.
Evidence Driven: The Panel gathers a wide range of evidence. In addition to stakeholders, the Panel hears from staff and non-staff expert presenters, has ample time to review documents and question all presenters, and may call its own presenters. It may also receive other public engagement inputs – including survey data, listening sessions, walking tours, or hold open public workshops.
Deliberation: The Panel engages in lengthy conversations around grounding values and principles, before delving into any policy solutions. These discussions seek mutual understanding and shared goals, but they do not force consensus. As with the rest of the Panel, they are professionally moderated and follow a detailed process design established in advance, while remaining flexible to the Panel’s needs.
Built-In Feedback Loops: The Panel has the opportunity to engage in in-depth feedback loops with technical staff, to review proposed policies in detail.
Outcomes: The Panel’s output is therefore substantial, including both: 1). Criteria on which it believes any decision should rest, and 2). Detailed policy recommendations (or a review of existing proposals).
Efficiency & Efficacy: In order to accomplish these significant tasks, Panels are highly efficient public processes, while remaining comfortable, supportive, and collaborative environments for Panelists.
Inclusivity and Accessibility: Since randomly selected Panels include folks from many walks of life, universal accessibility is emphasized. Panelists are paid a stipend and reimbursed for transportation, childcare, and eldercare. Both the in-room process and out-of-room logistics seek to accommodate Panelists’ specific needs, providing support services such as translation and assistive technology and adapting to differential learning styles. In online processes, transportation and child/eldercare reimbursements are replaced by technology and hot-spot internet access, as needed.
What are the benefits of Lottery-Selected Panels?
Lottery-selected Panels bring a host of benefits to the community where they take place. ● Boosts diversity in civic participation.
● Increases access for historically marginalized groups. ● Surfaces previously untapped ideas.
● Encourages effective policy co-production.
● Promotes evidence-driven public discourse.
● Showcases a more cooperative politics.
healthydemocracy.org • (503) 841-6865 • [email protected] page 2/5 ● Fosters ownership over public decision making.
● Enhances mutual trust in governance.
How do these processes guarantee equality?
Lottery-Selected Panels strive for equality in three primary ways: 1) community members have an equal opportunity of being invited to serve; 2) Panelists reflect the exact demographic makeup of their communities; and 3) deliberation creates an inclusive environment in which everyone’s voice has the same weight.
How can these processes work toward equity?
While equality is a minimum guarantee of these processes, it is possible to integrate equity through selection targets, interactions with stakeholder groups, and in-process support for Panelists.
How does Healthy Democracy ensure that the Panel is inclusive of all perspectives?
Although bias is a natural human condition, we strive for a process that minimizes unproductive political bias. The process follows an evidence-driven structure that fosters problem-solving that goes beyond partisanship. Our professional moderator teams are specifically trained to balance participation, manage power imbalances, and put Panelist autonomy first, assisting them to make their own informed decisions.
What is deliberation?
Deliberation involves carefully weighing different options, access to accurate, relevant, and diverse information, and participants finding common ground to reach shared recommendations. Most processes are split into two main phases.
Information gathering: The Panel interviews dozens of experts and stakeholders and conducts its own research on the topic at hand. With external support, Panelists filter information and conduct gaps analyses to ensure information is strong, reliable, and reflects many perspectives on the issue.
In-depth deliberation: Panelists define decision-making criteria, consider potential policy options, and prioritize alternatives through extensive discussions over multiple days. Panelists spend most of their time in small groups with trained professional moderators. Meticulous process designs enable collaboration between iterative small and large groups.
What role do stakeholders play?
Stakeholders and interest groups are vital to these processes, even though they do not sit on the Panel itself. Here’s how stakeholders are involved at each stage of the process: First, stakeholders serve as information curators for the Panel. A large number of stakeholders suggest ideas for presenters, and then a smaller Information Committee creates an initial slate of presenters to the Panel, as well as a menu of additional presenters the Panel should consider inviting. Many of these presenters will themselves be stakeholders, offering the Panel a wide variety of viewpoints, expertise, and ideas – and engaging directly with healthydemocracy.org • (503) 841-6865 • [email protected] page 3/5 Panelists during a lengthy information gathering phase of the process. After this phase, stakeholders act in an essential ongoing role, offering the Panel feedback on its work at multiple points, both in person and online.
Where else is this being used?
Around the world, governments are employing Lottery-Selected Panels – often called Citizens’ Juries or Citizens’ Assemblies – to put people at the center of governance. See OECD graphics. In over 600 examples globally to date, the model is gaining traction as a way for governments to deeply engage their residents in collaborative, inclusive, and durable policy decisions. Healthy Democracy has designed and convened Panels in five U.S. states and three countries since 2008. We are best known for Oregon’s Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR), which is one of the most researched deliberative processes in the world and was one of the first modern lottery-selected processes institutionalized in government.
Why can’t anyone decide to participate in the Panel?
Lottery-Selected Panels offer an innovative way of getting new voices to engage in public decision making. While everyone has an equal chance of receiving an invitation to join, self-selection alone tends to privilege voices with the most access. Panels almost always accompany many other public engagement opportunities in which any community member can make their voice heard – for example, public forums and open surveys. Any member of the community who wants to participate in decision-making related to the policy area is encouraged to be involved. If someone isn’t selected for the Panel but still wants to participate, all Panel sessions are available via livestream, and, like all members of the public, everyone is welcome to visit the Panel in person as an observer.
Common Concerns
Are everyday people really qualified to make quality decisions about technical policy questions?
Yes! When you give a diverse group of people access to quality, balanced information, sufficient time, and skilled facilitators, they can find common ground and make innovative and practical recommendations on even the most complex policy issues. Everyday people have weighed in intelligently on the financial plans of large cities, the location of a new hospital, and how to deal with nuclear waste.
Shouldn’t anyone be allowed to participate?
Lottery-Selected Panels are only one piece of the “democracy pie”. They are a missing tool in our public engagement toolbox – not the only one; other forms are still essential to our democracy. And, Panels can include informational inputs that are open calls for participation (e.g., surveys, workshops). We can’t all be involved on every issue. But we should all be deeply involved on some issues, sometimes – and have faith that others like us are deeply involved at other times. Lotteries allow that.
healthydemocracy.org • (503) 841-6865 • [email protected] page 4/5 Let’s focus on outcomes: Are we actually getting broad-based participation in traditional, open-to-all engagement processes or just allowing for the possibility of it? Open-in-theory doesn’t usually mean open-in-practice. Just because any can show up at a council meeting doesn’t mean that everyone has an equal opportunity to do so. We don’t want to only hear from the loudest, most active voices, we want to hear from people from all walks of life.
Isn’t this sidelining existing stakeholders?
No! In fact, existing stakeholders are essential to the process – they curate initial information, present to the Panel, and provide feedback later in the process. However, existing advocates are often not the right (or best) deliberators; that’s why trials have juries. While organized advocacy is vital to democracy – and to these processes – lots of folks are stakeholders, not just those who are organized. And all of us deserve a chance to be at the table.
That said, we know what it’s like to feel a stake, to believe in an idea – yet to struggle to even be given the time of day. So we don’t just build processes that work for decision makers and the wider public; we build processes that work better for everyone, advocates included.
Traditional processes often make us fight to be heard – limited to two minutes at a microphone or meetings where it feels like everyone is yelling and no one is listening.
Lottery-Selected Panels are the exact opposite: processes that take the time to hear from all sides, that pay folks to seriously consider every proposal, that encourage deep collaboration and innovation, and – most of all – that create solutions with inherent power that can’t be ignored. If you are a stakeholder who believes in the value of your ideas, we hope you’ll find the Panel a breath of fresh air.
Isn’t this too expensive?
Panels typically cost no more than traditional methods. Plus, this is not just engagement; it is an investment in new civic leaders and in new civic infrastructure. The benefits of Lottery-Selected Panels go beyond recommendations: a broader culture of mutual trust and reframing of government as a tool we all use and not some entity that does things to us.
We must also consider the quality and credibility of decisions – a strong process now has benefits later: smarter policy, more public legitimacy and support, and long-term financial savings.
Isn’t this equality and not equity?
Equality is a minimum guarantee. Democratic lotteries guarantee representation on 7+ demographic factors – all at the same time. That typically doesn’t happen even in equity-based processes. And equality is only a starting place. There are many ways to incorporate equity:
● In setting targets (e.g., based on future population, compensating for past disengagement).
● In informational inputs (e.g., stakeholder outreach). ● In the process itself (e.g., support for Panelist-organized, identity-based enclave deliberation).
healthydemocracy.org • (503) 841-6865 • [email protected] page 5/5 LotterySelected
Panel
Broader Public
Stakeholder &
Informational
Presenters
City Staff &
Decision
Makers
Santa Monica Airport Panel Process
Design &
Technical Team
Information Cmte
Stakeholders
Attachment C