Good morning.

Thank you all for being here.

This morning I'll turn it over to Ms.

Nelson and Mrs.

Flyer to get us started.

Thank you.

Good morning, Barb Dosek, Director of Law.

We're so excited to be here this morning to discuss Dayton's first citizen assembly.

I would like to start off with introductions of our amazing team that has contributed to this effort to date.

Our advisory board consists of co-chairs Michelle Riley from the Food Bank and Magistrate Brandon McLean from Dayton Municipal Court.

Also on the advisory board is Ms.

Valerie Lemmy from the Charles F.

Kettering Foundation.

Debbie Chess from the Dayton Metro Library.

Majan Ahasi from the Federation for Innovation and Democracy North America, and myself from the City of Dayton.

Supporting staff for the advisory board and citizens assembly.

Lily Hannibal and Mike Squire from Community Engagement.

Michelle Zarembo from the Dayton Mediation Center.

Amy Lee from the Ohio State University, Institute for Democratic Engagement and Countability.

And finally, Cole Spidel from Federation for Innovation and Democracy North America.

So Barb, can you say their name again and anybody's day in?

Because they wouldn't know who they are.

Yes.

They don't know who they are.

I'm sorry.

Why don't we have them introduce themselves?

Happy Yavon Duty.

I'm happy to start here.

I'm Amy Lee from the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability or Idea, which is much less of a mouthful.

The Ohio State University.

Good morning.

I'm Michelle Riley.

I represent Food Bank.

Um here.

And I'm Marjana Sasi.

I'm the um I'm with the Federation for Innovation and Democracy North America.

And it's wonderful.

Oh sorry.

I'm with the Federation for Innovation and Democracy.

I'm Matt Burnham with Unify America.

And hello, Paul, Unify America.

Lily Hannibal, community engagement.

Hi, Michelle's around by mediation.

Thank you.

Have Mike talk about our partners now.

Absolutely.

If I can briefly use an analogy, I have uh my best friends running a hundred mile race uh trail race uh this uh closer to the end of the year.

And I was thinking about her today, one, because I'm like, why would you do that?

Uh and two, you know, you often think of running as like an individual sport, but when you're running that kind of mileage, you have to have a support team around you.

And Sarah has like an amazing support team, and that looks like people that are guiding and directing, making sure the course is set and that she's not going off and running 150 miles or not finishing.

Um it looks like you know, stationary partners and teammates that are there to meet a certain mileage to provide dry socks and water and all that kind of stuff.

And it takes people that are running with her to set the pace.

And I would point to all of these people that fill different roles in that same manner.

Um, where we have financial support as you can see through the city, the fund for citizens assemblies, which is a national funder of this work through the uh democracy funders network.

Uh getting tripped up there.

And then most recently, the Charles F.

Kettering Foundation, uh, who is locally supporting us.

That financial support is critical for many reasons, but two that I'll point out that are really important.

One is that we are asking residents of the city to come and spend five Saturdays with us from eight to five.

It's a serious time commitment.

And so we want to remove every barrier that we can to participation so that people that do not normally show up to commission meetings or to public meetings that have barriers to participation, typically in civic engagement.

Those barriers are removed.

So we'll provide a stipend if needed.

We'll provide child care support, transportation support, things like that.

We truly want to hear from our community and have them participate.

So that the financial support helps provide for that.

It also helps provide support in that same analogy for our guidance.

We're learning this.

This is new, not just to Dayton, but to the United States by and large.

And so we're on the leading edge of this and having incredible partners from Unify and Ohio State and FIDA are helping us to make sure that we maintain fidelity to the process, that we're transparent, um, and that we stay focused on the task at hand.

Um, and then you will see it on the lower part of the slide.

Uh uh incredibly vital supporters, Ohio State, Fede Unify, but also the Dayton Metro Library.

We will have all of our sessions at the main branch library in the Northwest.

Uh, and then I'll briefly say the mediation center is such a critical part of this.

Facilitation is at the heart and core of the assembly as we bring people together that have diverse opinions and views and different backgrounds, being able to come together as a community to have conversation and deliberate is critical.

And that's how we get to recommendations.

That's how we move things forward.

And so I called Michelle fairly early on and said, hey, we're working on this thing, and we need facilitators.

And we need like seven or eight of them for eight to five for five Saturdays.

It's a serious time commitment for people.

And she immediately, without hesitation, said, Yes, countercent, we want to support this.

And so we actually had a facilitator training yesterday, and it was amazing to see the volunteers that stepped up and the staff that stepped that said, I want to be a part of this.

So we're very thankful and we're unique that we have such an amazing group like that.

So pass it off to Barb.

Nothing to say now after all those wonderful comments.

No, so why is citizens' assembly?

And I'll take a step back to talk about civic engagement, which Mike's already touched on.

We all understand that's the act of participation in the community.

We know there are aspects of it, whether it's political, making the difficult decision to run for office, casting your vote in an election, coming to speak to a commission meeting.

It can be community service, giving your time or resources to a social issue that matters to you.

It also can be collective action, working with others to solve community issues, and that's where citizens assembly falls.

We all understand that civic engagement improves the quality of life because it allows the community to directly shape local policies and social conditions.

It strengthens democracy, it fosters community trust, it creates a sense of collective responsibility.

It's without question how important civic engagement is to a healthy, thriving community.

I was inspired through this process in the work that we've done, and Mike's heard me talk about it.

The documentary Join or Die, which follows the decline of civic engagement in America over the last 50 years.

It's based upon the book bowling alone.

If you're not familiar with either, I would recommend.

And I was inspired because I understand based on the data that's been represented there that we're less socially connected now.

We're participating less now, and it's impacting democracy.

We know that civic engagement is important.

And we know that our that our community members are not as active as they once were.

So what can we do as a city to not only promote civic engagement, but to promote civic engagement with those that are not normally civically engaged?

And that's why we're here this morning to propose a citizens assembly.

We are proposing that we address a real and urgent community issue with the need for action with civic engagement.

As a result, we'll see an increase in trust in the city.

And we believe that a citizen's assembly is a viable tool in Dayton's toolbox that we can replicate in the future to continue to address complex community issues.

You're going to hear from the rest of the team today about more of the details and the process and how it will unfold.

Before I hand it over to Marjan, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the context of how we got here.

So you'll see this was the seed of this idea was really brought to us by Valerie Lemmy from the Kettering Foundation.

And I'm sure you all know Valerie.

She is an amazing uh person, amazing advocate for this work, uh, not just in Dayton, but across the country.

Um, she brought the idea to the city manager, and the city manager called me and said, Hey, I would like you to look into this.

And so we started that process in the fall of 2024.

Since then, uh city staff have attended three different trainings and schools to learn about this.

It's critical for us that we learn this process so that we can replicate it into the future.

We do not view this or see this as a one-off, but a tool in our toolbox that we have that we can use as a community when we have issues that come up that we need to get together to talk about and hear from the people of Dayton.

And so we're we're both piloting this uh as an idea, but we're also wanting to build something sustainable.

And so that has been part of the training and how our partners have been working with us to teach us how to do this.

Um, the last kind of touch point here is that we've publicly launched many of you heard about the assembly and the neighborhood presidents forum.

We've done a podcast, the connections newsletter on the front page, thanks to our public affairs group, um talked about the assembly to kind of start this early education about what a citizens' assembly is, because by and large, that is an unknown uh term and idea here.

And so we're we're starting to do that education.

And we wanted to bring uh to you today so that you could uh hear more from our partners that are all in town from various parts of the country.

Um, and so they could answer questions and things like that.

Um, as I pass off to Marjan, I I wanted to brag on her for just a second.

And I I say that to brag on her because she has really been an inspiration to me uh to our team um but also to let you know that we have like experts uh the premier experts not just in the country but in the world that are working with us on this they are really keeping us moving forward and on on task with this and so I'm very happy to have Marjon in Dayton we went to the silos last night so she got to a little sneak peek of of our great city well hand it off to you now.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Mike I I'm I'm really moved by what you said again maybe to turn green.

Sure we go loud.

Um thank you Mike and I'm deeply moved by what you said it's been a true joy to work with the with the Dayton team.

Um I just want to say it's an honor to be here with all of you and to have this time um to share uh the plans around Dayton citizens assembly.

Um I also want to recognize my colleagues and while um they did raise their hands I just want to make sure that you know that while I'm speaking about assemblies we have a whole team of voice by Dell and Unify America of course with Matt Byrne and and Willow as well as of course Ida and Amy will be talking to us about the selection of the topic.

So um I I think it's also just important to note just to add to what Mike said uh about how what a what a pleasure it's been working with the Dayton team we work with a lot of cities across the United States and there are really few that I believe have shown the combination of heart and head um the approach of the city from the very beginning when I first met with the city manager um Disney has been incredibly thoughtful really driven by a desire to hear from citizens but also really acknowledging how important it is to make this really meaningful the city as well so I just want to make sure that I acknowledge that so I've been asked to oops here we go.

I've been asked to spend five to ten minutes um sort of taking you through what an assembly meeting is um and before I do that I just want to mention that we as as FIDE we work very exclusively on citizens' assembly so we we are very much about training designing and evaluating citizens assemblies this is the one platform that we work on across North America.

I think before I go to that um I thought it might be helpful just to sort of before we talk about what an assembly is to just to tell you why we think there's been such growing interest around assemblies because if you look at the citizens assembly movement around the world and more specifically around Europe there have been records of between 700 and 850 or so assemblies that have happened over the past 10, 12 years.

And it's important to stop and think about why.

In our conversations especially over the past two years in the United States what we hear most from elected who are interested in this work from appointees who are interested in this work is really threefold.

One there is the sense from most city officials that we see to disconnect with with their citizens as was mentioned earlier that they're really not reaching people beyond the usual voices.

That is a real problem for us I think across the United States.

Another real issue is that they're hearing from experts and it's very important to hear from experts but they're not really hearing from the people they're not hearing from marginalized voices across their community.

And then of course there's also the the the sort of the result of all of this which is low trust and you know we don't have the time to go through that data but you are I'm sure very familiar with how low trusted political institutions as well as um political leaders.

So the way we talk about it as FIDA is that you know citizens assemblies help us put the public back in public policy.

And so what do we mean by that?

I thought maybe we could spend a minute just talking about the foundations of a citizens assembly and um they are mandate, civic lottery and assembly process.

So what do we mean by mandate?

And Amy will talk about this Barb alluded to this the reason why an assembly can work really well is when you have the leader a a an agency has a public problem that is really complicated and you really want to hear from your constituents voices about the clean off about the competences that are necessary.

And you really want to hear from your constituents' voices about any clean-offs, about the competences that are necessary.

And so that is what we mean by the mandate.

It's a clear question that takes hours of workshopping to get right, but it's one question that you're asking this representative sampling of people to tackle and to propose policy proposals to you on.

It's driven by all sorts of different reasons.

Sometimes our electeds are looking for buy-in, sometimes they just really want to hear from marginalized voices.

Other times, and this is a sentence that I've heard used by actually someone in Brussels, and I quite like it might be that you're giving that just a little bit of power, but you're gaining in legitimacy.

And that is quite a powerful way to think about an assembly.

The second piece of an assembly is a civic lottery.

And this is where we do sortition.

It's a two-tiered process, and we can talk more about it.

I'm happy to sort of describe it in fully detail.

We can talk about any of these pieces for hours.

But typically we will send out a letter to a population, about five, 10,000, 15,000 sometimes letters, to gather a pool of volunteers that are interested in coming together to talk about that topic.

Once we get that pool of volunteers, we then use criteria, depending on the question, the mandate, to make sure that the group of people that are gathered, whether it's 36, 48, or 180 people, are representative of that body.

And I will say to you that having worked internationally on citizen engagement processes for now almost 18 years, there is no process.

It's not perfect, but there's no process that gives us as representative a sampling of people as a sortition-based process.

And then finally the assembly, the assembly process.

And this is where we use three different phases.

We have a learning phase, a deliberation phase, and a proposal writing phase.

And this is one of the reasons that I was attracted to assemblies because before anybody argues and yells at each other, they're learning together.

And we see the data suggest how they change, maybe not their entire perspective on that issue, but they do change their position on different parts of it.

That's a really big part of this.

And then of course they deliberate together and then they write proposals that they then submit.

I'm not sure.

I feel like I, especially since some of the commissioners have to leave.

I won't go through all of the different parts, but we are happy to answer any questions during the um during the QA.

Thank you so much for time.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Marjan, for uh saving a little time.

And I will also try to make sure I may uh skip some of my slides actually, and be willing to go back into depth in them if people have questions, which is what our poll.

Yeah, right.

There, better now.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um, all right.

Well, to start off with, um, I'm Amy Lee.

I am the associate director of the Institute for Democratic Engagement and Accountability at Ohio State, which is a research organization that studies democratic civic innovations and how those can be useful to elected officials.

I'm also a board member of the Uni North America.

And I am a proud Daytonian of over 20 years and a former neighborhood president.

So I think it's interesting that this overall project, Dayton Deliberates, is bringing together all of those things.

It's bringing together local uh Daytonians, it's bringing together the uh democratic civic innovations of citizens' assemblies as well as a deliberative town hall, and it's bringing together a world-class research component to this.

This is going to be one of the this is going to be the first ever random control trial experiment done using a citizens' assembly and a deliberative town hall, and it will be meeting edge research for the field of civic engagement.

So I'm going to skip down.

So I'm going to talk about the Dayton Deliberates process overall.

We've been going deep about the citizens' assembly and what that is because it's by it's definitely the densest part of the process, but it's actually the stage two that we are getting ready to go for as soon as we are able to select the topic with your uh feedback and guidance today.

So the first part is topic selection for the entire project.

Um we wanted to come from residents.

We didn't want this to be uh something where a small group decided what the issue should be.

We wanted to make sure that it was rooted in real community concerns.

Then once we have that topic that we know is a feasible one for citizens to weigh in on, then we have the uh in-depth citizens' assembly uh using the small group techniques uh to meet over several sessions and come together with thoughtful, actionable recommendations.

Then a couple months after that, we have a deliberative town hall where we also recruit again a large representative sample of Daytonians to weigh in on and discuss the assembly's recommendations and kind of verify the broader public support for those.

And then finally, there's the response, in which the city has time to prepare to review the recommendations and provide a rationale of why or why not uh those might be accepted.

So that's the overall process.

So the project overview, I uh the goals, I think, are to first identify priorities, then to develop the recommendations, and then to validate those.

And the impacts, as Marjon talked about a bit, are that you will have actionable community-driven policy recommendations.

Those policies will then have perceived legitimacy, and that equates to public trust, approvement, approval, and engagement with local officials.

Um, to do the topic selection, we started with three sources of citizen input.

We started with the Dayton Residence Survey and took the top 10 issues from that and arranged them into kind of the larger clusters so that people could talk about it feasibly in a shorter amount of time.

We also considered uh the ballot initiative that citizens passed last November about the public hospital, and we had a focus group to discuss these uh issues in depth and talk about how these uh actually were experienced by citizens in their day-to-day lives.

Um the focus group was a representative uh section of the city, uh, but particularly we focused on attracting citizens who do not normally come to city commission meetings or contact you all.

All of uh the folks, many said they had voted, but not many had actually attended city meetings.

Um, the topics that emerged out of the focus group discussion were neighborhood blight programming and the public hospital.

And I'll go into depth about more of those if we have time to, but just kind of keeping in mind that some people have a hard stop, I will go to uh the our evaluation of these topics.

So the neighborhood blight was a top priority for residents, and there was broad agreement about what needed to be done.

It's a widely recognized issue, and some of the ideas that citizens had about what they needed to be done are things that the city is already doing.

They would just like them done better and faster and more efficiently.

And I'm sure that this maps onto some constituent engagement that you all have been doing and processes, new programs that are already in developed.

So while it's a priority, it's kind of a known quantity as well.

Then there was youth programming, which interestingly was not super high up in the initial survey, but it did come up across every topic shift in the in the focus group.

Uh citizens saw it as being uh related to not only neighborhood blight and that that kind of drives you know the need for youth programs, it could make drawing youth into crime, and they very much viewed it as a city responsibility.

We think that this would be an excellent topic for future engagement, but as it is something where there are multiple other stakeholders involved that you'd have to work with, it is a great topic for when we have more time to do this, and maybe there's a little bit more knowledge of the process embedded throughout the city and stakeholders.

Um it could be a great, great uh topic for future engagement.

And then the last public hospital one.

So people did not know very much about this issue at all.

But when we prompted them to talk about it, they were very willing to engage on it.

And they they mentioned um a lot, once they heard about it at all, they had some views, but a lot more questions.

And I think that um most of the citizens had pretty much no idea about how much the uh levy was likely to raise, over what time span, um uh who would be involved, the future, the choices about implementation of it to be made.

They had no ideas, and once they they had no idea about that, and once they knew more about it, they had more questions.

So I think that if this were something that the city were to move on in the absence of that, there's not like yet a clear mandate from citizens about what they would like this to achieve.

So, because of that lack of level of knowledge, and that's where a citizen's assembly process is really key, and the city is the key decision maker on this one, and it's a timely and complex issue, more so than maybe like housing and neighborhood blight.

That is why we um would advise that uh the public hospital be the topic for the citizens' assembly.

Um, yes, the public hospital is the one where the deliberative public input could have the most impact.

That's not to say that neighborhood blight is not a high priority for action, but it is not necessarily the very topic for just future engagement.

It needed is for action and more frequent engagement on neighborhood blight, whereas deeper engagement is probably better suited for the public hospital.

And uh, so our next steps will be I'd like to give you all a couple of moments to answer to ask any questions that you might have.

I can go into depth about any more level of the process or Marjon about the citizen assembly process that we'll be working to design the remit for later this afternoon.

Um, but I would just like to uh say thank you, and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you very much.

I turned it over to my side.

Sure, they have questions, and I know I have a number myself.

Yeah, um, the first question was around the focus group.

How were the people selected for that?

How Ron, what how many people were part of that?

Absolutely.

So we invited about 300 data students uh to attend the uh or to to register for the focus group.

And of those, we actually had an extremely representative uh selection of people uh apply to this from all zip codes, age uh groups, gender, uh zip codes throughout the city, level of education, and party ID.

We segmented on all of those different characteristics, and we were able to choose a representative group, but we chose from the smaller subset who had not previously who had not attended a city submission meeting um in the last year or contacted their local official in the last year.

Was it were they randomly selected or randomly selected from within that subgroup?

And then 15 of those participants um uh actually attended the deliberative or the focus group.

16 showed up, but one person was having a lot of technical difficulties and wasn't able to participate really.

But the other 15 stayed on and participated fully for the full hour.

And we the recommendation is for the hospital is that um from the advisory group is that Michelle um management uh McLean, uh Valerie Lemming, Debbie Chase is that group.

Um director.

Um and then is that a recommendation for us um to accept that three, or do we have the uh ability to choose um one of the other two topics that were so uh what we are doing is we are uh a steering committee, we are in charge of uh setting up well merge uh uh the members of the committee are actually in charge of selecting the process.

We would very much value your guidance and feedback on this.

Um uh Michelle, would you like to speak to this?

Um I don't I don't know where to start.

I'll try not to be worried about it.

First of all, I'm not sure how I got here.

Let's hope it's fine.

Uh so I'll say why I said yes.

I think that'll be helpful to start, right?

I said yes because I'm really happy with the leadership and you're new, and you ran on the ticket that you listen to the people.

For me, in a time when I worked for an nonpartisan organization, I feel more and more like my voice is silenced because my line represents the nation.

We have 50% of Democrats in our line, 50 part, 50 percent are Republicans, same with my donors and my stakeholders.

And I think people just they were excited about what you had to say and what you did.

And I think this is a way where people who otherwise couldn't use their voice.

That's why I said yes to this because I can be here as the voice of the food bank in a nonpartisan way.

Uh the second thing is I saw the impact of this firsthand when we were delivering our building.

So we held specific for zip code 0506 and 17, and they developed our community center.

And the response and the outcome has been spectacular.

They we were cognizant to not uh duplicate uh duplicate services.

We listened to what the citizens in that neighborhood wanted.

You, I don't know for those of you that are engaging on seven million dollars in it.

It was directed by the community in an area that otherwise was not going to be developed.

So we've seen firsthand how citizens showing up.

Uh they value the process.

And when I said yes to this group, I thought it was very important that we said three things that if we say no to something, we say why.

If we say yes, and we've got to go raise more funds to do this, right?

And or yes, we can do this right now.

And of those three topics, the one that made them the most sense for this platform was the hospital.

Because for me, uh having been born and raised working and playing in Dayton, that number one has been on all of your lists.

You know, my wife of 28 years, it was on her list when she was in commission.

So blighted property, safety, those things uh have been on the list, and it's a checklist.

But for true civic engagement, it has to be something where a sector can show up and have meaningful input and see that you will listen.

And they, you know, you have control over you might say through the citizens assembly, we want three options.

What are then you walk through the process of working that forward?

Um, so I hope that was helpful.

Thank you.

Um I apologize, I didn't say thank you, and to say how excited I am for this.

And you're right.

And I see this is a great extension to that, the spirit of that work.

And so I'm very excited.

I'm in really Mr.

Squire, the uh the partners that have come together from the Kettering Foundation, Ohio State, our international partners is really impressive.

So I'm very excited.

I'm very excited because we like to move forward and being a data-driven organization.

And so you know, I thought that this is going to be some meeting edge research on civic engagement.

And then I would just say finally the moment we're in when you know talked about the decreasing social cohesion we have, but I would also say a political leadership that is divisive and really straining the fabric of our society almost to the point that we don't have a we the people.

So I think all that's um remarkable, and thank you.

Um, as well as the quality of the leadership that you have the advisory pit.

Um I'm curious about this issue of trust because there are issues that we have identified in the past in the neighborhood conditions, the youth.

There's been times we've pulled together citizens to talk about youth, and then we have really not taken concrete action.

And so you can imagine why there's some lack of trust.

Um the issue of neighborhoods has been there for 40 years.

You know, we're starting to get some really great traction.

But again, you can imagine why there's there's trust from citizens on those two issues.

We have a new issue.

Um, you know, when you rank them, you know, you had neighborhoods and then youth and then the hospital.

Um so I'm curious about stepping over two that we know are important to citizens and that they have said are very important.

So one that we really had to kind of prompt to get them engaged, which it feels like we're almost kind of leading to to get there, as opposed to ones that were top of mind.

And so I'm just kind of curious about your thoughts on trust there.

I think we're supposed to use this one because that one's okay.

So I don't know if you're familiar or not.

I agree with you, and I had the same concerns, right?

Because I don't want to take something to, and we're just asking you to bless the plan that we're gonna have all these talks, but we really here's just the plan we want you to bless, right?

That's what number one felt like.

The reason number two for us, um, first of all, keep in mind too, these are ranked from 15 people, right?

So that's very important to think about when you're thinking about priorities.

But the second part for me was when you think about youth programming, it feels like the panel that you would have to have on experts for that and the collaboration you would have to bring to the table for trust, for safety, for parents.

So I don't tell you how to parent your child.

I'm not gonna tell you what things they should be going to.

It was almost so big that it that the experts in the room might actually direct the conversation as opposed to the hospital was something where you could have open conversation.

Um, in it was about seven or eight years ago uh when uh our uh president Trump was first in office, the League of Women Voters went about this, but they we I was a facilitator for that called women stand for common ground.

The only way you could get in the room was if you brought someone whose head, heart, and voice you trusted from the opposite political party, and you were not allowed to identify your party.

So from those talks, you know, because there were Democrats and Republicans in the room and an equal amount, we knew we couldn't talk about pro-choice when we couldn't talk about abortion, but we could talk about adoption.

We couldn't talk about certain things, but there were things that we skipped to, and from those talks, we had three people run for elected office, showing even in his first administration how hungry people are to have real respectful and honest conversation.

I'm more worried about what I have termed as cave people, citizens against virtually everything, who show up at all of your meetings and they want to be in front of the microphone.

It was very important for us that we have some vehicle with which we could say from our focus group we weren't hearing from those same people, um, and that they had invested interest in this committee.

So that's how we chose three.

It wasn't necessarily stepping over, it was this smaller focus group that was picked, and that was the one that felt like it was the most valuable, respectable conversation in a platform where they could actually bring you some options that you could then met.

And so a lot of that preliminary work has been done in terms of being able to bring people together.

And there's a like very important next step to be taken on that work.

I agree.

And that's exactly the blessed plan, right?

So we work very closely.

I just quit teaching in the dealing foundation.

So learn to earn and um the hope center and the work that they're doing is transformational.

But that is what I meant by blessed plan.

That kind of felt like that's standing has legs of its own, and people have weighed in on that.

Um, and the it the work is being moved forward.

So that's why.

So we did actually, I did actually talk about that.

And just to add very briefly, in response to your uh remarks about the history of work on some of these issues.

I think you're right, and some of those things have been noted by people who were in the focus group.

I think that what we'll take to restore trust on uh this issue is actually more action and more frequent engagement engagement about uh small wins as they're happening in community when there are some uh actions when some of the new programs that have been um uh stood up are getting ready to launch very recently about housing and blight issue six and and some of the other um spending that happens, then will be an opportunity to engage people and let them know about what is actually happening there, and the same way with the programming, the one where it's in the future and people at the tax is not really real to them yet.

Uh, the idea of like the hospital, where it might go, what it would even focus on, none of that is particularly real to folks yet.

That's actually kind of a dangerous situation to not have better community input on.

And the kind of community input that you're gonna get from two minutes in a mic meetings is not where you're hearing from everybody who is already engaged and already has a position and wants to tell you what it is, and you'll be in a position of choosing winners and losers on that, as opposed to curiosity, as opposed to curiosity as opposed to problem solving.

It's the the public hospital option seems to be one that's suited to problem solving, whereas the other two, you probably need more action before you have the trust.

At this point, further engagement won't buy you as much because what people just need to see is action on the priorities that have already been identified.

I'm interested in how much robust um row of recommendations that can be presented from the citizens, given that our law department has really narrowed it down to two, and it seems like the conversation will come down to you like you know, talking about a given package, and it seems like the question will come down.

Do you want the city to do it, or do you want uh to outsource it to a third party?

And it seems like a very narrow deliberation.

I think the commissioner, that's a valid point, and and we discussed that, especially when the advisory board voted on the topics about the hospital and feeling that it was narrow.

Um, as we presented at the commission meeting in regards to the guidance that we have legally, we know that there's decisions that have to be made in regards to the operation and the governance of the hospital.

I think what is interesting about the citizens assembly is that in the way the that the process is um created and facilitated, there will be an expansive part on the front end of education, right?

About legally what we're allowed to do and what the options are.

I think also you have to remember that there is a lot of unknowns here, right?

As I told you, standing at the podium, there is no roadmap.

Um, we know that the, for example, that the hospital can be built in phases.

We know, so if if let me, and I'm gonna give a hypothetical, which is a lawyer, I can't help myself.

So let's say, right?

That the citizen assembly gets together and has a discussion about that.

They could provide recommendations that talk about what services are most important to them based upon the limitations that we will have financially, legally, otherwise.

And so I hear you very loud and clear about they can only say these two things, but I would suggest that we may be surprised with the things that they come out of the citizens assembly saying, and that's why I mean that's why I voted for it on the advisory committee.

I think this is a really complex and urgent issue that has the need for action, which is the perfect topic for citizens' assembly, in my opinion.

And what's the timing of the public is setting assembly, particularly?

I don't think we had clear timing on when the city commission was going to have to make a decision.

You law department had brought forth.

Yeah, so for the assembly, we will kick off May 2nd.

The second session will be May 16th, then June 6, June 13th, and June 20th will be the final session.

So we we will be completed by the end of June with the citizens' assembly.

We would like to validate the recommendations of the assembly through the deliberative town hall that Amy talked about, which is a broader uh uh group of people, it's a bigger group of people to ensure that those recommend recommendations from that smaller group of patching the bigger.

And wouldn't when would that be September?

Ms.

Dosy when you thinking you're going to get a decision from the city commission.

In regards to the citizen, the recommendations or I mean if you presented to the city commission about concept that we could make, and it seemed to me that sometime in the spring you wanted direction from the city commission on that.

And that was based upon my understanding that that there was conversation about if one of the items that was selected, which was partnering with the nonprofit, that that would have to go to the ballot.

And I believe that someone or some multiple people posed the question about when it would have to be prepared to go to the ballot in November.

So that was the timeline that we spoke to.

I mean, we provided a legal opinion in that regard.

That's not me driving that timeline.

That was based upon the feedback from the commission about thinking through the next steps.

So I would say to you, there is no set timeline in the revised code or otherwise.

And as the elected leadership, I would look to you all to drive that timeline.

So if we use the public assembly process around the hospital, then we're looking at not taking anything to the public in the November ballot.

That's absolutely right based on the timeline that's that's presented.

But it doesn't be closer to the it's exactly right.

It could go in the primary, yep.

That's right.

Um thank you.

That's helpful.

Um just say my fear is that we will vulnerability of losing trust if people come with ideas and conversation and they get told we can't do this, we can't do that, we can't do this, and it gets narrowed down to it feels like um you brought us together this year, but we and that's a a high likelihood around this issue because of um precedent, being under statute, upstate statutes and then the board is that we passed.

So there are really a narrow or we're in an unknown territory, and the constraints seem to be pretty um strict on us already.

Can I just mention something to that?

Because I think you raise a an absolutely a valid concern.

Um, and I think that is why the writing the remit the right way and making sure that we're not inviting them to come to talk about things that the city will not be able to deliver on is really important.

And also the learning phase will be really important.

What are we introducing to them?

How are we helping them think through the frameworks of what it is that they can propose and what they shouldn't be proposing?

I think ultimately, though, I will just say I don't know much, and I'm not from Dayton.

Um, I was very surprised during the focus group that so few people knew of this.

Um, and the two who did had voted against.

And so, in my view, just going back to what everyone else has said, this is a very controversial issue.

And by virtue of citizens' assembly, you're also showing the city that you're willing to educate them about something that's going to impact every single Daytonian.

Um, and very few know about.

So I think there's a way to work through that and to make sure that the participants that come on board what it is that we're asking them to propose and what those frameworks are.

Is it this one?

I love for you too that you will skip the noise of the midterm election.

I mean it's a gives it gives citizens an opportunity to let their voice be heard be working on something productive that people show up curious and are trying to work for a resolution and you skip the midterm election.

Because the noise of that, I feel like if you try to rush this process, it it will not be successful.

And we we do our intent is to do no harm.

Um I could add just one more uh small thing about this.

It would be that um I think that the hospital one is also one where there is actually a requirement that you know, there is a legal requirement that action be taken um passed by the ordinance, and so there is going to be absolute city response to uh participants' feedback in this, whereas in some of the other issues, more engagement could be seen as more happy talk and not necessarily action.

And I think one of the most important things that really is required of the city, and that so far, I think uh Mike and the rest of the team have done a really great job of bringing so many people throughout uh the city involved in is making sure that there will be action on this.

We know that there will be action taken on some of the other topics already, it's in progress, but um, we think that uh it's really really key to make sure that there is that impact, or you could have people end up more demoralized by the process than not.

And I'm asked two last comments.

One, I want to come big time from my colleagues.

Um there will be no good time in the election cycle to bring it to the ballots because you said that I'm mindful that two of my colleagues will be up for election in 2027, and so then that becomes a dynamic that we need to be mindful of, you know, that it there's an impact.

Um, and then I was curious what do we do?

Um, because there was some mistrust created in the community by a report that we paid for that um talked about the um the lack of feasibility for the hospital, and it was based on a 300 hospital, it's been in news reports, and so and and citizens thought that that was an unfair report because it didn't match what the citizens were imagining.

And so the city is already so there's two questions like how do we deal with that, and then two how do we do the education?

Who's responsible for the education for the citizens?

And you know, is the city going to be using that report to say, oh, we can't do this because our consultant has said this and those kind of so I'm concerned about that.

I think Marjon could talk to the fidelity of the process, but I'll I'll just say one of the things that impressed me about the Citizens Assembly was the very detailed design of the process.

Every minute of every day has tension to it, and part of that, and one of the bigger pieces is education that is not one-sided, it's not driven by the city.

And in fact, for the most part, uh maybe there might be some caveat to this, but generally speaking, we would ask that you all not show up to the assembly sessions.

Same for the city manager and others, that there is an arm's length that the city has from the process and and why some with some intentionality that we have private funding that is funding for this so that our residents uh can look at the process and say the city didn't buy a recommendation here.

Um, and so that for me, I felt like that was really an important piece.

Um Marjon, maybe you could speak a little bit more to that education part.

Happy to so again, great, great concerns and great questions.

The way that we think about it at FIDA is that we talk about designing for legitimacy.

So every step for the assembly and during the assembly has to be designed in a way that we can actually defend, right?

So if you think about that, and I will just mention as well again, the process that Mike and his team and and Barb have been leading, has been very much aligned with that.

So the fact that you have this incredible steering committee with incredibly distinguished members of Dayton, it's not being run by the city.

It is being decisions are being made by the steering committee.

The city has brought on board Unify America, an independent organization that has been doing this in the United States and has an incredible reputation.

All of these things allow you to have this arms-length relationship of the process.

So during the learning phase, and I don't want to speak for Matt, but as we're working together, I feel like maybe I can a little bit.

Um, that report that you mentioned, I have not read that report.

Um, but that report will be part of the learning.

It will not be the the sort of the cornerstone of the learning.

The learning phase typically we bring people that fall within three different categories.

One are experts that come in to provide completely objective testimony.

Another part of the learning are stakeholders.

So we bring stakeholders from all sides who will be able to provide different perspectives on this issue.

And then the third is people with lived experiences.

And so that will be really important as we're building out that learning phase to make sure that the assembly members are sure that they have access to all the diverse perspectives.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Shaw.

Uh, this is not working.

Well, first of all, thank you all for being here and lending your expertise to this this process.

I'm going to be very brief because I want to allow enough time for my colleagues to kind of interact with specific Commissioner Joseph because he has some kind of high-level things that we want to talk to you about in the space.

But when I was first briefed on the Citizen Assembly process, immediately I thought to myself the public hospital conversation is best suited for this.

And frankly, I couldn't think of another way to resolve kind of these complex um other than a process like this.

So I'm very excited about this and looking forward to to the outcomes that we see.

So this is a great process.

I'm really excited about the future of this and uh look forward to hearing uh back.

Thanks.

Thank you, Mary.

Um is correct.

This is very exciting.

Uh I do have things to say.

I want to say that I really appreciate the fact that you're focused on uh isolated and independent quality education.

So that's really important, especially on a topic like this.

Uh that's awesome.

Keep us arms length, keep city arms length.

Uh, and I'm really curious to see what comes out of this.

It's an interesting choice.

Uh, I can't say I would have expected it as uh as a choice.

And I just haven't one maybe process question.

Um how did you come to these three?

I mean, were there was there a list of 10?

Or were there suggestions from them or suggestions from us, or how did that happen?

So we so we started by taking a look at the last two years of the um uh Dayton residence survey, and we took the top 10 issues and we clustered that saw that there were normally there's about two clusters of issues in the top 10 crime, uh crime, gun violence, drug use, mental health homelessness, kind of like safety crime and safety concerns.

Crime and safety was one where people actually rated the city as doing a fairly good job, and it was number one in importance.

The other issues in that cluster were ones that were also in the top 10 of importance, but the city's performance was not viewed as positively.

Um so we did that cluster, then our second cluster was around abandoned homes, blight, litter and trash, all the other top issues in the top 10 of the survey.

We added the public survey or the public hospital lab because citizens voted um and kind of put it on the agenda themselves by by passing that initiative uh with whatever level of knowledge they brought to the voting.

So those were how we chose the original three topics.

That makes sense.

Thank you.

I really look forward to hearing what they come up with.

I'm I'm hoping there's something like you say something innovative, maybe something we haven't considered an entrepreneur moving forward.

Yes.

Looks sort of weak right now, you know.

So uh that's great.

And I I look forward to watching the model for because I I'm seeing this is my first experience talking to you all.

I'm seeing other applications potentially here.

So I'm really curious to see.

So thank you for being here.

Thank you, Mary.

Thank you all, you commissioners, for your comments.

Um, I too am very thank you for following the function with following the city of the ends and my final work of the thing and seeing where the topic will be.

But to your point, I didn't hear this being some of you think your comments all of you about the initiative for the end still impacts, right?

So I think it academic civil level um awareness education that needs to go along this process, but yeah, it's still too bad in the back of the name.

So, how do we take the next steps to make sure that yeah, so I'm very excited about in again John E the nominal hey, the blind skin programming, those are programming, those are issues that we haven't necessarily mastered, but there is in fact a way forward.

There is um some prescriptions in place for us to address those issues.

So the fact that you highlighted that thank you very much.

I would be on this without mentioning that this puts me in the frame and then in the mind of uh the framework that we model in that was in fact more, and that is in fact our priority boards, our priority boards is to be on the model cities and see this is remarkable.

Um I came from the party boards, and many of us came to party where SAT how the leadership back many uh predecessors, how they were involved in um being processed itself is through the party boards, right?

Congressman Territory, former mayor, um Dyson and some media submission members does on and on the court.

Um, but what that means is I've seen it is just powerful, and I'm very excited about it.

A couple more questions.

How in fact master say between the arms land between the city and the electeds?

How do you do that?

Being that you have city staff that are in that department of the assembly are part of the steering committee, and they do in fact report back to the city managers office.

So what are the provisions that will be in place to make sure that if I go through to this arms?

Yeah, please go for a question.

Um, so again, another great question.

I think that the way that just best practice seems to, you know, is evolving in this space.

The the models that are most successful are those where an assembly is being mandated by a government body, but not really managed by that same government body.

And we're seeing sort of mistakes done everywhere.

We're also, you know, an experimental phase.

So I feel, and I've often talked about the model that is being kind of implemented in Dayton as the best of all both worlds, because it is being mandated by the city manager's office, but in every other way, the team has done everything up to now, and I I trust that the same will continue to keep that arm's length relationship.

So what do we mean by that?

That means that it's important to have that mandate with the city manager's office because there's accountability, right?

As has been raised, we don't want to go through a process where at the end there are proposals that are written that are not really taken seriously, that are not being considered, that are not being reviewed.

So having a body of government mandate this is really really important.

Now, other important decisions throughout the design and the process are done in consultation with that mandating body, but the ultimate decision is not with them, it is with the group, the steering committee, the advisory committee that has been set up, and that's the way that we have modeled this moving forward.

Now, there are important moments where the city manager's office will be there to make sure that they acknowledge, for instance, on the first session, to make sure that they acknowledge the presence of the panelists and the Daytonians who are going to be there, explain to them what the charge is, and they will be there at the last session to accept the recommendations and explain to people how they are going to move forward with this.

Are they going to respond to them in two months in three months in four months?

All of that needs to be worked out.

Um, and I also just want to mention that, and I'm I maybe should have said that, but you know, assemblies are not binding.

They are consultative.

And your citizens, your members, Datonians will know from the very beginning that this is the framework, this is what they can accept in terms of expect in terms of accountability, but that those recommendations are not binding, right?

Okay, thank you.

Um what is the process rather seems to be to make sure or to ensure that the final recommendations or the report itself is in fact um authentic and clear um to include or to make sure that the all members are aware of the report in the final recommendation itself without it being to make sure that it is authentically shared with the with all parties, whether it's the administration's eye and the elective side process, how does that process yeah, and on a practical side, Marjon can follow up if I miss anything here, is I believe we would view the delegates and we'll find out who they are and identify through the citizen assembly session delegates that would speak on behalf of the assembly, so that there would be one or two or three people that kind of represent the body as a whole, and they would publicly present the recommendations to you so that they're speaking on behalf of their group, you know, and and we further have case studies and research that's being done on the back end that's independent of the city as a whole.

Um, so I don't know if you add anything.

Well, and it's followed then by the deliberative town hall, right?

Right.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

So what will happen is the citizens' assembly will uh will conclude in mid-June, then we will have uh more than a month on a month to analyze the data and produce a report, then that can be shared with the city, hopefully in August, and you all uh as well as the uh city uh the civic assembly members will have a month to kind of prepare for this, and then it will uh do the deliberative town hall with the broader section uh cross section of Daytonian residents, and that will be able to kind of you know find out where there are still questions where public support is for that issue, and then after that, you have time to respond.

Okay.

Can I just add really quickly to everything that that has been said?

Because I think part of your question is how do we make sure that we're working with the different bodies of government really well as well?

And I just want to tell you that from the work that we're doing with a lot of different cities, I have not seen any city do as much pre-work as Dayton is doing right now.

These conversations, these meetings are not happening in every city that's moving forward with an assembly.

So making sure that we bring the different bodies on board with us throughout this journey is also the other comments or questions.

Yeah, I was curious.

Um other advisory boards.

Is it common practice to have someone because we're talking about this length arms length between the city and the um is it common practice to have a staff person, particularly a senior staff person, like the law director on the advisory committee?

I mean, is that true in Akron?

True in other cases.

I I was making a joke.

I did not ask to be on the advisory board.

I would just looked at Mike.

Yeah, take the mic.

Can we ask a question first?

Yeah, now can you hear me?

Yes.

May I ask you a clarifying question first?

Do you think that that might change the conversation in the room?

Uh, because I know as a CEO, when I walk in and my employees are speaking, it changes the conversation.

It does does.

They don't mean it to be disrespectful.

So could you say more about your question?

I'm thinking about the question of trust.

And I'm curious what the best practice is because I think there will be pretty good members of the concern clergy coalition who will look at the composition, see the law director on the advisory board, see that this got picked, that the law director is there.

So I'm it's about arms length, conflict of interests.

Does this really give us armed length if we have the the same person who presented the two pathways on the advisory committee?

So I mean, I think it's a balancing act, right?

So I think you're right to ask the question around perceptions of legitimacy.

Um, first of all, I think it's important to know that not all assemblies have steering committees or advisory committees.

Many assemblies are run by government bodies.

Some assemblies are just run by implementers who are working with the government.

In this case, I would say it's a balancing act between, first of all, I think Mike especially did a beautiful job of bringing two co-chairs that are not part of the city, right?

Michelle and her counterpart Brandon, neither of which are part of the city.

And so they are co-chairs of the oversight committee, which I think is really important.

And we have not seen this in other cities across the US.

So that's a plus.

Um, I think the tension a little bit is first of all, I'm just saying this in terms of perception, because there has been no sense at all in the conversations that you know anyone is is trying to move the the advisory committee in any direction whatsoever.

Um, but in terms of perception, it's hard not to have someone in from the city sitting on that committee um and and explaining to the other members what can and cannot be done.

I would argue that if you didn't have a member of the city sitting on that committee, then you might end up with recommendations and policy proposal at the end that cannot be considered and don't that would be the worst case scenario to to sort of have an assembly that goes off in directions where the proposals are not really relevant to the question speaking.

Did they have an advisory inaccurate?

Why don't I ask?

Yes.

Yep.

And did they have someone, and I don't know off the top of my head, the city, the form of government there, but did they have either elected official or a member of the senior leadership team?

Yes, there is a member of the city staff on the on the advisory committee for Akron.

Are they senior leadership or are they someone at uh romantic with you?

Um it's the purse I would characterize them as senior leadership just below the mayor.

All right, thank you.

And then I'm curious.

Um Akron actually looked at housing.

And so you know there was presented here that you know that might not be a good topic for Dayton because of these reasons.

I would seem assume those are the same kind of reasons that Akron have.

Um so I was curious why what makes Dayton different, except I guess maybe that we have this other opportunity.

Yeah.

The tagline uh rental is the new redlining comes to mind.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know that we need to say more about that.

It wasn't in the survey or the three ways with that we chose the topic housing wasn't in there, except as it relates to Blight.

I'm saying as a topic similar to Blight, that Akron has done lots and lots of work on housing.

Um, but yeah, they went back to their citizens to hear on it.

So yeah, could you speak to that quickly?

Like the development and the challenges for the trade-offs of the board.

I I all I can sort of say at a high level is that every context is different and the specific policy cycle in Akron relative to the housing initiatives was just timely for for that project.

A lot of times in projects like this, timing matters an enormous amount.

And so that's just that more so than is housing a bad topic per se.

No, I would I would not say that.

I don't think that's kind of the perception here.

It's more just timing.

Thank you.

So we just want to get making sure we're saying that one stand.

So we definitely need to be involved.

Um that's fair to say it's just again making that our involvement so that the model um re-assuring stress and architecture.

I think that is it's it's very key and bottom songs.

Thank you all.

This is very more than anything with me, maybe staff, um, to the whole main department centering process.

So I think that we will get more information about what those next steps will look like and then clear uh definitive um online, if you will, the town halls.

I know you said May 2nd, 16, 30th, and we need a title at time in my understanding that we will um very um far removed if you go from this, but uh will be um more admitting if you will uh appreciate that if we could have some level of an update.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you, Department.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Well, I don't have the microphone that's operating, but I then I missed my opportunity for opening remarks, but I apologize.

And my audience has significantly dwindled, but I want uh the team, the partners, what an incredible partnership.

Uh very unique.

And I've known Mr.

Squire professionally for about 15 years now, was immediately upon meeting him impressed with his talent and potential.

So for him to be to be able to be on stage, uh and this is really well suited for his work, but I think I won't put words in his mouth, but this is a unique opportunity within the work that he does to do something differently.

Um and then as Ms.

Dosex suggested, this is squarely in the other duties as assigned category of the job description.

So the work that they put behind this ahead of today is highly impressive.

So I just wanted if nobody else to hear that thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you all very much.

Thank you.

I apologize, I gotta rush to another meeting.