[Durham INC] City of Durham Neighborhood Engagement Workshops

[Tom Miller]

Dear INC delegates and neighborhood advocates:

Last week you may have received an invitation from Bertha Johnson, Director
of the Budget Management Office at the City of Durham to participate in a
Neighborhood Engagement Workshop on Saturday morning, February 27.  This is
the workshop I told you about at our last INC delegates' meeting.  Ms.
Johnson sent her invitation via the city's neighborhood list which we know
is not as up-to-date as it could be (more on that soon).  This workshop is
an excellent opportunity for Durham's neighborhoods to make an impact on the
city budget process like never before.  I urge your neighborhood to nominate
a representative to attend.

At the workshop, we will be challenged to work together to identify budget
priorities for the coming year.  Of course with another expected revenue
shortfall, the effort will not be so much about what money to spend, but
what not to cut.  Participants will be asked to identify services most
important to neighborhoods generally and to identify the neighborhoods where
the services needs are the greatest.  This means that some of us will be
called upon to say, "This year, instead of funding our project over here,
spend the money over there.  They need it worse than we do."  This is the
essence of good neighborliness, especially when there's not much to go
around. Among neighborhoods, the budget process this year cannot be a
winner-take-all horse race.

Those who attend should be authorized representatives of identified
neighborhoods ready to deliberate with the representatives of other
neighborhoods on difficult questions.  So please, get up with your
neighborhood's governing body and identify someone to attend.  Ms. Johnson
has handed us an opportunity we have never had before.  Let's not waste it!

The workshop will be held at the Holton Career and Resource Center at 401 N.
Driver Avenue.  It will begin at 10 a.m. and run until 1 p.m.  Don't worry;
the city will feed the representatives.  The program will include a brief
survey of city services and the budget, but the most important part of the
time we will spend together will be devoted to moderated, give-and-take
round table discussions on questions of budget priorities.

To participate, it is best if you register in advance and identify the
neighborhood you represent.  Please contact Jay Reinstein, Budget &
Management Services/Strategic Initiatives, via e-mail at
<mailto:jay.reinstein at durhamnc.gov> jay.reinstein at durhamnc.gov  or by phone
at 560-4111 ext. 20102 to confirm your attendance no later than Friday,
February 19. 

Tom Miller, President of INC

 

 

 

 

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