Glenn moyer wrote:
Four categories are set-up to assign the points for the predetermined and
outrageous list of cuts, “low hanging fruit� and “No way, no how� are
the first two.
"gut-wrenching" and "shared pain" are the other two buckets.
but notice how these 4 buckets evaluate the game-playing
itself, and not the items in the budget.
http://www.gse.upenn.edu/node/732
In small working groups, citizens reviewed list of budget
cuts and revenue options the PPCE [Penn Project for Civic Engagement]
constructed from the
city’s budget scenarios. Working first as individuals, then
as a group, citizens prioritized ways to close the budget
gap by placing them into four "buckets" — Low-Hanging Fruit,
No Ways No Hows, Shared Pain, and Gut Wrenchers.
“Low-Hanging Fruit” means those options that are immediate
"winners", that generate a quick consensus. “No Ways No
Hows” represent the immediate "losers", or those choices
citizens believe to be off the table. “The Shared Pain”
bucket contains those options that are unpleasant and
unpopular, but that they feel would be acceptable. “Gut
Wrenchers” are those choices that no one wants to make but
they recognize as what needs to be done to help the city as
a whole.
- - - -
there has been feedback about how this process
pre-determines outcomes [feedback that doesn't appear on
penn's site]:
http://whyy.org/blogs/itsourcity/2009/02/18/structure-of-budget-workshop-left-many-frustrated/
Take Northeast resident Jim Curran who started his work
session with a friendly grilling of City Councilman Bill
Green....But it wasn’t long before Curran was up and out.
“This is all putting us down a cattle shoot - the questions
have already been prepared,” he said of the workshop design.
“It’s too pat, it’s all too pat. You should put this in the
paper or something so we can study ahead of time.”
And Curran wasn’t alone. I saw others leave their workshops
in similar frustration. One was Stan Strez, 65, of
Bridesburg.... His gripe? “This is ridiculous. Cutting jobs
on the police force? There’s gonna be so much crime its
ridiculous.” Later he explained a bit more, “They’re not
including everything [in the budget scenarios]. And not just
that, they’re not addressing what the real problem is coming
from.”...
Like Jack Morley, 46, of South Philadelphia. “They defined
the format and the structure on how the public was giving
input, and that hamstrung us,” he said of his group, which
only made it half way to its goal....
[online post by Jeannine]: There may also be serious
consequences for cutting instead of taking deeper
consideration of alternatives. Putting a mostly same-old,
same-old, cut-til-it-bleeds scenario to a largely naive but
motivated public felt like a bloody disservice to us all.
etc.
..................
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
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