Source: Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI
On October 16-21, 2017, a second study tour to Poland was organized in order to learn Polish experience of the implementation of public budget initiatives. Among the participants were representatives of local governments and public activists from Mykolaiv, Dolyna, Energodar, Bila Tserkva, Myrhorod and Bilozirsk amalgamated territorial communities.
The tour was organized within the framework of the project “Public Budgets from A to Z: Information Sharing, Activization and Civil Society Involvement”. The Project is being implemented by East Europe Foundation and the Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI with financial aid of the European Union and PLEDDG Project, which is implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and financed by Global Affairs Canada.
The participants shared their impressions, observations and thoughts.
Poznań
Poznań, which lies in the central part of Western Poland on the Warta river, was the first city visited by the study tour delegation. Poznań, with a population of 570 thousand people, is one of the most active trading and industrial cities, cultural and educational centers of the country. In Poznań, the Ukrainian delegation had a chance to meet Rafał Janowich who shared Polish experience of public budget implementation in their city and pointed out the problems the city was facing during the implementation stage.
Poznań became one of the first cities where they started implementing public budget in 2012 and they had a lot of relevant experience. At the very beginning people were quite skeptical about it. Coordinators of Poznań’s public budget had an important task – to convince people that both the government and city residents have the same strivings and that there were “us” not “oneself”. It took time before the activists succeeded in winning public trust.
In the early stages of budget implementation experts in information sharing and promotion of this type of participation played a key role since projects were quite primitive. But as time went by residents began to submit more reasonable proposals focused on city development. The peculiarity of Poznań public budget is its complete transparency at all stages – from project submission to its implementation. The city budget allocates nearly 20 million zloty (PLN) to project implementation, which is 1% of the overall city budget.
After the projects are verified their authors can do a promotional campaign for 30 days. People can vote for 30 days using both soft and hard ballots.
Implementation of the public budget in Poznań opens a broad spectrum of opportunities such as:
– finding and developing public leaders;
– active involvement of the community in the budgeting process through non-governmental organizations;
– teaching people to spend budget money responsibly;
– minimizing civil servants’ interference in the public budget implementation process;
– implementation of a maximum of projects that are not costly in order to involve as many people as possible in projects with youth priorities.
Gmina Żnin
The population of the gmina is 25 thousand people, with 10 000 people residing in rural areas and 15 000 in urban ones. One of peculiar things about this gmina is a total absence of public budget as such. However, this region is characterized by quite good cooperation with non-governmental (public) organizations.
There are up to 100 acting non-governmental organizations in the territory of this gmina. Thanks to government efforts a Center of Non-governmental Organizations was established. The purpose of this Center is to provide consulting services related to developing project proposals in compliance with calls for proposals requirements at the level of gmina, powiat and voivodeship. The center is a place where NGOs can get together, organize training courses, use office equipment, send and receive mail. Every year the local council announces an official starting date for submitting proposals. Following the results funds are allocated to winning projects. Gmina Żnin has allocated 198 000 zloty in 2016 and 233 000 zloty in 2017 to fund the winning projects. Non-governmental organizations of gmina Żnin support primarily education, medicine (clown doctor initiative), sports, culture and volunteer services.
On the initiative of one non-governmental organization the central part of gmina Żnin was equipped with tables and benches to play chess, checks and domino. Another joint initiative of the government and activists was putting up beach stands to oversee the safety on water since gmina Żnin is located between two lakes. They also fitted out sports ground where marathons are organized for gmina residents most of whom actively participate.
Toruń
Toruń was yet another city where study tour participants found out more about both the conceptual framework of participatory budget implementation and its practical outcomes. Participatory budget has been implemented in Toruń for 5 years since 2013. It makes 6% of property tax and in 2017 it was 7 million zloty. It is divided into a city budget and a local budget. 30% of overall participatory budget is allocated to city projects, while 70% goes to local projects that are divided between 13 neighborhoods in accordance with the number of residents. One of special things about this policy is the absence of limits regarding the cost of project proposals.
It is important that the project does not exceed the established range amount. Every year around 180-200 projects are submitted. Anybody who is 15+ years old can submit a project and vote for it. The projects are submitted both in hard or soft copy form provided both the author and the voters supporting the idea have a computer-generated signature. Voting is done on paper ballots listing all the projects. The ballots are mailed out to voters.
Toruń residents can personally bring the ballot with checked projects or send it by regular mail at the address of the city council. It takes a month to process the ballots and count the votes. The city also holds a vote using soft copies. Once a person fills their personal information, they receive a text on their cell phone as proof of identification.
The majority of projects are about bicycle lane infrastructure, vehicle parking facilities, public transport stops, children’s playgrounds, athletic fields, Aerosol Art projects, organizing cultural events and festivals, urban gardens, setting up CCTV in residential neighborhoods, etc. Study tour participants got interested in the Projects called ‘Nature with one finger’. The idea is to offer people with disabilities access to the zoo and botanical garden. The project with the overall budget of 120 000 zloty was implemented in 2016. Both the zoo and the botanical garden were equipped with information plates in Braille alphabet as well as touchscreens that provide information about animal and plant species and you can even hear their voices. Participatory budget was also used to make improvements to a playground called ‘Gingerbread Town’. It’s a kind of theme park for both children and adults. Here people can escape the hustle and bustle of the big city and enjoy a game of chess, ping-pong and mini golf. There are plenty of sports grounds in the city, where city residents can work out and become fit.
Background information: Toruń lies in the North of Poland, it’s a home town of Nicolaus Copernicus, it’s historic part is registered on UNESCO world heritage list. The population of Toruń is about 230 000 people.
Gmina Lisewo
Lisewo is a rural gmina in the north of Poland with the population of 5,5 thousand people. This gmina consists of 18 communities (villages). Basically, the gmina is a self-governed community. Within the jurisdiction of gmina Lisewo there are primary schools, a kindergarten, a library, cultural establishments, markets, health care institutions, housing and public utilities offices, etc. There are two primary schools there and a sports club called Victoria Lisewo.
The gmina is self-sufficient and covers all the expenses related to running its territory and facilities. The gmina does a very good job trying to identify and respond to community needs. Its residents can submit their own proposals that are taken into consideration when designing development strategy, which later develops into territorial, financial and social development plan. The ideas are collected in specially arranged stations. During warm seasons such stations are arranged in tents placed in every community. One of specifics of the gmina is that they do not implement participatory budget but hold public hearings where gmina residents take active part in distributing Schultheiß funds.
Schultheiß funds is financial resources of gmina that are allocated to the village or Schultheiß (kind of office of mayor or head of municipality). The community or Schultheiß together with their mayor decide how the money should be spent. Majority of funds is allocated to housing and utilities needs, such as maintenance of water and sanitation facilities as well as street lighting. The rest of Schultheiß funds goes to cover other community needs, such as athletic fields and playgrounds, public transport stops, city gardens, etc.
However, the proposals that are financed by Schultheiß fund should be in conformity with the approved development strategy. Around 243,9 thousand zloty was spent within Schultheiß fund in 2016 (with the authorized limit of 249,8 thousand zloty) and this year’s budget makes 241,0 thousand zloty. The most important thing about the budget is that it is not the head of the council, neither the council itself, not its individual members that can decide how the money should be spent. Those are the community members who get together in a meeting and collectively decide how to divide the money to cover community needs. Thus, such approach guarantees full community involvement in gmina management and contributes to social cohesion and community spirit building.
Gmina Chełmża
The city of Chełmża was the fifth place visited by the study tour participants where they were able to find out more about the program called Good consulting service, Schultheiß fund and another type of participatory budget on the level of powiat (province). Gmina Chełmża consists of 34 territorial communities or villages with the total population of 10 thousand people.
Gmina Chełmża is different from other identical units. Here community members not only participate in Schultheiß fund, but also in Public Budget on the level of Toruń powiat or province. Budget funds are used to build sports fields and playgrounds, recreational and pedestrian areas, city gardens, improve city lighting, etc. In 2017 Schultheiß fund made 447,9 thousand zloty. The money was distributed proportionally according to the number of people residing in the village. Village residents could make their own decision on how the money should be spent. Each village spends 70% of all costs on infrastructure development (road maintenance, street lighting, water treatment facilities) and another 30% on other priorities, such as sports and playgrounds, building recreational areas, urban beautification, organizing festivals, etc.)
The main slogan of the gmina is “It’s all in your hands. If you are willing to do something ask yourself what you can do and begin changes by doing it.” Community can get together in a public library hall to discuss things, do training, organize sessions and community meetings. The library, which is based not far from school, is equipped with computers. It offers access to all interested people. Also there is a recreational room for young visitors. Following community initiative one of the rooms is now equipped with a projector and a screen, where young people can get together and watch movies together. There are three other libraries affiliated to this one located in other villages. As it has already been mentioned gmina Chełmża takes part in participatory budget on the level of Toruń powiat. The budget makes 200 000 zloty. In every participatory budget there are certain stages such as project submission, analysis, campaigning, voting and implementation. Projects can be submitted by gminas, not individual people.
Money allocated by participatory budget of Toruń powiat is used primarily for cultural and sports needs of the gmina. In 2015 54 projects were submitted out of which 22 were implemented, in 2016 45 were submitted and 21 implemented, in 2017 48 were submitted. Each gmina can submit minimum 2 projects, one of which is powiat development project, the other – local. Voting is done only in hard copy format during one month. One vote can go to support powiat project and one to support a local project. The budget of one project should not exceed 10 000 zloty. The objectives of the submitted projects were to organize cookery courses, sports events, city beautification, organize business forum, do CD recording of local talents, organize music festival called “The music of the talents”, etc.
Grudziądz
A very efficient and delicious recipe of building harmonious local community was offered to Ukrainian study tour participants by the representatives of the local authority of Grudziądz city, which our delegation had a chance to visit on 20 October. The city has introduced participation mechanisms to the community to take part in Public budget. Members of Ukrainian delegation got to know that one of the city strategies is to build cooperation between active and open-minded community members with the burgomaster and develop a corresponding brand of innovative democratic development called “#gru”. This brand together with the mechanism of public budget over the past four years helped convert the community into initiators of innovative ideas that were implemented owing to organizational, informational and financial support of the public budget. Thus, the brand mission of united efforts of active and open-minded people, who are patriots of their gmina, is being implemented for the sake of its economic, social and strategic development.
The gmina has been implementing public budget for the past 4 years. During that period 359 projects were submitted out of which 93 were selected as winners and implemented. One local budget should not exceed 100 000 zloty, while city budget – 250 000 zloty. 2017 budget made 2,6 million zloty. The population of the city is around 100 000 people. A lot of educational projects were implemented in the city. So called “soft” projects focused on organizing festivals, marathons, concerts of local performers, and “hard” projects were about building or improving the existing children’s and sports playgrounds, recreational zones, etc. Study tour participants were inspired by the gmina’s success story, which was about creating brand of economic, social, strategic and democratic community development.
Pruszcz Gdański
Pruszcz Gdański is a suburb of a bigger city Gransk. Over the last 25 years the population of Pruszcz Gdański doubled and makes 30 thousand people. Public budget initiative started here in 2015 at public hearing. Back then, it was decided that only those projects would qualify for voting that meet city goals and objectives (otherwise development strategy objectives), are based within the city limits and meet master plan requirements. The decision was made that each project cost should meet certain financial limits in order to implement several projects annually. All projects were divided into large and small with 30% of all funds allocated to small projects with maximum budget estimates of 70 000 zloty and 70% to the large projects. In 2017 14 small and 3 large projects were announced winners. The first cycle of public budget started in 2015. Application forms that were developed were very comprehensive and easy to fill. Each resident could ask questions to those in charge of the public budget.
There are three people in charge of the public budget of Pruszcz: coordinator, assistant and IT specialist. The budget of 2018 will make 600 000 zloty. Each voter can support five different projects, in addition they will have to rank them in terms of priority with number one being the most important and number five the least. There are two types of voting available in Pruszcz using hard and soft ballots. Each voter should be 16 years of age or older and reside in the city.
Since the population of the city is primarily young people, they choose to vote online. In the future they might get away with paper ballots completely since this method is becoming obsolete. For example, in 2015 71% of all voters voted online, in 2016 this number made 75%, while in 2017 – 81%. Each year a few dozen thousand zloty is spent on community information awareness.
This money is used to publish information in printed and e-Media of Pruszcz as well as nearby cities of Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia (since lots of people work there), make outdoor advertising, organize community meetings. Among winning projects that have been implemented were those related to improving infrastructure of kindergartens, improved security system of kindergartens, creating fitness parks, bicycle lanes, street town, grill town, equipping recreational zones with necessary amenities, creating lanes that would connect different neighborhoods and many others. Despite quite good publicity here in Poland the trend is towards decrease in motivation and involvement of community.
If during the first year 14% of people with voting power voted for the projects, then during the third year the amount made only 5%. That’s why public budget team together with the city government are actively working on raising public interest to the issue.
Gdansk
Gdansk is one of the oldest cities of Poland, its sea capital and tourist center. There our delegation found out more about a new type of public participation called public panel. This is a way of public decision making. All people who meet such criteria as gender, age, qualifications and neighborhood affiliation are invited to take part in discussion of certain issues. There are 56 elected panel members and 8 extras (to replace those elected should they fall out of the process due to unexpected circumstances). Panel members are elected following several stages. Experts such as university professors, civil servants, businessmen, etc. are also involved in the discussion. The meetings are normally moderated by two invited moderators.
The main rules of such public panels are mutual respect for each other, politeness, clarity and verbal intelligibility, openness of questions, clear and responsible recommendations and sticking to the subject under discussion. The key element of the public panel is debate. The participants get an opportunity to better understand the issue and the consequences of the proposed decisions. Through involvement in discussion and group work the participants can get different perspectives. The results of the panel is recommendations that answer the question – what decision is the most beneficial for the local community? Public panel is a form of deliberative democracy.
Group recommendations are mandatory and what is more important they have to impact future decision making. The minimum required support for a certain recommendation is 80% of all panel participants. Gdansk invests 120 000 zloty in the panel, 600 zloty of which is given to each panel member as an award for their involvement. Gdansk has already held public panels to discuss such issues as “How to improve the quality of air?” “How to better prepare Gdansk to the season of torrential rains?” Another discussion on the agenda is “How to convince people to act?”
The experience of holding public panels is totally new and very useful for Ukraine. And finally, it should be mentioned that social care plays a big role in Poland. Things are done for the people taking into account their needs and concerns. Since the cities and gminas visited by our delegation within the framework of the study tour are quite savvy and experienced when it comes to participatory budget initiative it was quite useful to learn about different challenges Poles came across when implementing this initiative. One of the specifics of Polish example is active involvement of people in cooperation and idea development process and methods of providing territories with necessary amenities.
Community meetings with the representatives of the government is a good opportunity to discuss things, develop common vision of city or gmina development. In certain communities they even invited a play assistant to entertain young children who came with their mothers. Defining and designing development strategy means developing future vision of the city or a village. Such long-term planning brings very good results despite the fact that it is quite a time-consuming process taking up to six months and 10 sessions. But we believe it is worth it. It order to get maximum community involvement personal invitations signed by the head of the city or gmina are sent out to residents.
Right strategy in application of funds and using different types of participation is the key to successful territory development be it the city, gmina or the whole country. We should not necessarily come up with complex decisions in order to achieve something. People have to believe in themselves, their power and learn to trust local government. This is key to success in all stages of participatory budget implementation.