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Durham staff set timeline and equity goals for fourth participatory budgeting cycle; target 14,000 votes
Summary
City staff presented a plan and timeline for Participatory Budgeting Cycle 4: idea collection in spring, proposal development in May'June, community engagement in August'September, voting in October and council approval Jan'Feb 2026. The steering committee set an ambitious goal of 14,000 votes and reiterated equity targets.
City staff briefed the Durham City Council on the launch plan for Participatory Budgeting (PB) Cycle 4 and previewed schedule, equity goals and evaluation findings from the previous cycle.
Carmen Ortiz, community development manager who oversees PB, described the civic process: residents 13 and older submit ideas for one-time capital projects; budget delegates vet proposals for feasibility, equity and impact; winning projects are implemented. PB Durham has run three cycles since 2018; the most recent gathered more than 700 ideas and more than 12,000 votes, including about 2,800 student votes.
The PB steering committee set three priorities for Cycle 4: (1) increase participation among underrepresented residents; (2) implement projects that benefit underserved communities; and (3) strengthen resident-staff relationships. For Cycle 4 the steering committee again prioritized geography-based equity, aiming for at least 60% of collected ideas and implemented projects to come from areas identified by an equity map considering race, income (under $40,000) and transit ridership.
Staff presented the Cycle 4 schedule: idea collection in spring 2025; proposal development in May'June; community engagement in August'September; voting in October 2025; and council approval of winners in January'February 2026. The steering committee set a goal of 14,000 votes for Cycle 4. Staff said the program will again emphasize in-person outreach, including paper ballots and school-based voting, and will continue partnerships with the city's Office of Equity and Inclusion and the innovation team for evaluation.
Fallon Thompson and the Office of Performance and Innovation summarized evaluation work: a PB survey run with Duke's Center for Advanced Hindsight indicated that prompting residents to vote in PB improved stated trust in local government and increased stated intention to vote in future elections; the study used a survey prompt design where some respondents were asked to vote before answering trust and intention questions, and others were not.
Council members thanked PB staff and volunteers and discussed outreach and youth engagement. Council members emphasized the need to reach people who do not normally attend meetings and to use language-access and in-person strategies to broaden participation.
Ending: Staff said they are launching idea collection in spring, will continue targeted outreach to underserved communities and will return to council as the process advances toward ballot and implementation.
