The July meeting of the Richmond Participatory Budgeting Steering Commission will took place at the Downtown Public Library @ 101 E. Franklin St., Richmond VA 23224 from 5:30-7pm in the Gellman Room.

For this meeting of the steering commission continued reviewing all the work that has happened in the Spring of 2024 and plan for next steps this summer and fall. This included a subtantial list of updates, reviewing a conversation about the funding, setting up a few adhoc committeess, and doing some planning for upcoming events.

A primary conversation focus on some feedback the commission received about the rule book from the City Attorney. In the coming months we will be making some minor updates, which the commission will review at the next meeting.

We discuss the partner meeting that took place in June and efforts to create a memorandum of understanding with our partners. The goal of this was to build connections and find ways to work together. We share this great video of Shari Davis, the Participatory Budgeting Project Director, talking about redesigning democracy. Efforts are also underway to create a partnership agreement as we connect with other groups. This is focused on what does a true partnership look like and how does it allow us to support the broader community.

Leidiana discussed the Kick off event and partnerships with local schools. She is working up plans to move those forward.

The largest part of the meeting was focused on continued discussion about the implementation funding. The core questions is how to equitably spend funds in a way that aligns with the capacity of the team? There were two ways of thinking. One, is lets wait and see what we get. Two, should we just give certain districts more money based on their social vulnerability score. The team shared some data and we had a vibrant discussion. This eventually led to a vote with the commission approving funds be distributed in three buckets - $500K to the 8,9,6 District, $300 to the 3,5,7 District, and $200 to the 1, 2, 4 District. Even so, we are going to reflect on this as we start to gather ideas.

Lastly, we created a series of adhoc committee to help support specific parts of the Richmond People's Budget efforts.

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Agenda

Welcomes/Check in/Minutes Approval - 5min

Most recent updates - 10min

Funding - Summer/Fall - 25min

Recentering and Committees - 15min

RVAPB Video Planning - 10min

Record Why and Hopes - 15min

Action Steps/Next Agenda - 10min

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Video summary of meeting:

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGKfBW09bE/_eoMQK6yqKuUmCHB2zpHlA/view?utm_content=DAGKfBW09bE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=recording_view

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Link to files from meetings - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CHfx_eWna0lsCH0rKbwH_IWRjg7XShX1?usp=sharing

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