156 NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW [March

Citizen Action . . Kim Taylor, Editor

Choices for ’76 Is on the Air

‘Town Meeting’ Series Involves N. Y. Area Citizens

G R E Y T E R citizen participation in re- gional planning is the goal of a series

of six public service television programs to be sponsored by the Regional Plan Association (RPA) in New York City. The 20 million residents of the metro- politan region from Hartford to Trenton will have several chances to vote on alternative plans for the area before any solutions are selected. The shows will be based on more than $50 million worth of research to find solutions to problems of housing, transportation, environment, pov- erty and governmental organization. The series will give area residents, many of whom have become cynical about their opportunity to participate in planning the future of their area, a chance to pick spe- cific alternatives.

The series is called CHOICES FOR ‘76, 20th century town meetings. Begin- ning on the weekend of March 17-19, 18 television stations in the New York met- ropolitan area will, at different times, broadcast the first “town meeting” on housing. The other meetings will be held at two-week intervals, except the final one on. government which will be aired in the fall before the November election. (The others will be broadcast on March 31-April 2, April 14-16, April 28-30 and May 12-14. The stations which have scheduled the one-hour shows are Chan- nels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 21, 24, 25, 31, 41, 47, 49, 52, 53 and 71.)

Regional Plan began creating CHOICES by drafting background papers. Each posed about a dozen ques- tions, and outlined costs and benefits of

each suggested alternative answer. Those papers were reviewed by public and pri- vate agencies, and by a 120-member citi- zen advisory committee, representing the New York-Connecticut-New Jersey re- gion, which rewrote more than 80 percent of the questions to make them more easily understood. The papers have been pre- pared as a book, available this month: How to Save Urban America edited by William A. Caldwell (published by New American Library, 1301 Avenue of the Americas, New York 10036, $1.50). Radio stations and newspapers also have prepared special background programs and articles so that viewers will be famil- iar with issues discussed before the shows are aired.

Another important component of plan- ning for CHOICES is organizing citizen groups to increase participation through voting on issues presented. Those who will vote will need ballots, should be familiar with the issues and understand the procedure. Regional Plan contacted civic organizations in January, asking people to meet in churches, homes and schools. School superintendents, union leaders, corporate presidents and religious denominations were asked to organize their institutions into groups of 10-12 to view the shows and discuss solutions be- fore casting anonymous ballots.

To broaden the scope of participation each program will be scheduled at 18 different times, and a Spanish track has been made for each one. RPA has also recommended that group organizers try to include people who do not usually participate in local “politics.” If there are few viewing centers in some parts of the city so that some socio-economic groups are less represented than others, RPA will use statistics to try to achieve greater expression of opinion (e.g., if there is only one-tenth as much participation pro- portionately in Harlem than in another

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area, the Harlem results will be multi- plied by lo).

When the programs are over and the votes tabulated (by the American Insti- tute of Public Opinion), they will be widely publicized through radio, T V and newspapers. Area senators have hailed this as an important step in improving the democratic process by informing pub- lic leaders as to just what people want done about problems that affect their everyday lives.

The project has an estimated cost of about $1.5 million (not including the cost of the air time which the stations have donated), most of which had been raised as of January. The supporters of CHOICES are governments, corpora- tions and foundations. HUD awarded a grant to RPA to draft the background papers, write T V scenes, conduct scienti- fic polls before and after the programs to validate the results, and to mail out ballots to the participants. Corporations and foundations have provided office space, computers and other electronic equipment, staff and funding to organize “town meeting” groups and train discus- sion leaders.

Although RPA has made tremendous efforts to include most of the area’s resi- dents, it is hoping that 500,000 (3 per- cent) will participate. Even if only 3 percent do participate, it will be a first for this type of citizen involvement.

New York Civic Groups Urge Legislative Ref oms Six New York civic and community

organizations, in letters to members of the state legislature, have asked them to adopt procedural reforms to “promote accountability of the legislators in the performance of their duties and disclosure to the public of the activities that cul- minate in the adoption of the laws of this state.”

Specifically the groups request that (1) committee meetings be regularly scheduled

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and open to the public, (2) committee votes on bills be open and recorded and immediately available to the public, (3) a committee’s agenda of bills to be heard be announced by name and number three days before the meeting so that members of the public and other legislators may appear or submit statements, (4) complete tran- scripts of legislative proceedings be avail- able a t specific locations convenient and accessible to the public, (5) electronic voting be made mandatory and all votes be recorded and made available to the public, (6) messages of necessity must contain clear evidence of an emergency situation so that the three-day period dur- ing which printed bills must be on the legislators’ desks can be waived, and (7) all committees must be open until adjourn- ment.

The groups signing the letters are the Citizens Union, City Club of New York, Community Service Society of New York, New York Civil Liberties Union, New York Urban Coalition and Women’s City Club of New York.

Twin Cities Council Reviews Housing Survey

The metropolitan council of the Twin Cities area last March set up a housing advisory committee to develop a plan for the area. The committee members are in- dividual citizens, representatives of hous- ing organizations and local officials who surveyed state legislators on housing issues, held special meetings in local com- munities, and assessed established national and statewide programs.

The committee found that although local officials are concerned with housing shortages, programs most desired are not available without a housing and redevelop- ment authority (HRA), and therefore communities are not eligible for low-rent housing for the elderly, 3 percent loans for rehabilitation or leased public housing which would permit more scattered-site units. Most of the communities cannot

158 NATIONAL CIVIC REVIEW [March

afford the staff for an HRA which re- quires specialists.

The committee recommended the cre- ation of a regional HRA to operate with the consent of local communities which would participate at their own option. The HRA would make the whole area eligible for programs and would develop low- income housing at communities’ invitation. The HRA would provide technical assis- tance to communities and offer specialized help to HRAs already in existence. The committee recommended that the regional HRA be part of the metropolitan council. Such a proposal has been drawn up and submitted to local officials for comments.

ASPA Issues Publications on Citizen Participation

“One of the most significant events bearing on public administration in recent years has been the demand by residents of urban neighborhoods for a greater voice in the programs which affect their lives.” This introduction to a special issue of the Public Administration Rm‘m highlights the importance of two special issues re- cently published by the American Society for Public Administration (1225 Cotlnect- icut Avenue, N. W., Washington, D. C. 20036, $4.50 each.) The first, published in September, is devoted to the topic Citi- zens Action in Model Cities and CAP Programs: Case Studies and Evaluation (see the REVIEW, December 1972, page 577).

The second issue, Curriculum Essays on Citizens, Politics and Administration in Urban Neighborhoods, published in OC- tober, consists of 12 essays on various aspects of decentralization, citizen partici- pation and neighborhood control as they relate to public administration and par- ticularly to education for public service. Each article contains an extensive bib- liography.

The issue, funded by the National Sci- ence Foundation, contains articles com- missioned by the Center for Governmental Studies of Washington, D. C., following its conference on public administration and neighborhood control.

Citizens League Urges School Evaluation Program

The Citizens League (Minneapolis) has recommended that a new student- parent-faculty program be established to plan, assess and restructure school cur- ricula and activities. The report main- tains that parents and educators want to improve the responsiveness and produc- tivity of the schools. The constraints of limited resources and the desire for ex- cellence have generated a demand for a result-oriented system, the report con- tinues, for political reasons as well as to promote the best interests of public education.

In its report the Citizens League com- mittee suggested that the legislature re- quire school districts to establish a process in each school to plan annually for and assess progress toward educa- tional goals. The process should be flex- ible enough to build on existing forms of community participation within a dis- trict but must include students, parents, professional staff and other individuals. After goals are articulated and evaluated, the process should be extended so that individual school budgets can be devel- oped by the district around the community plans.

The report also suggested that the legislature set up a “center for manage- ment assistance” to help local schools set objectives, assess them and learn other management related skills. The center would provide leadership for the local schools in developing personnel techniques.