Pasadena Councilwoman, Former Mayor Among Speakers at Conference on Public Participation

A group of prominent Pasadenans including City Councilwoman Felicia Williams will be taking part in a conference on increasing public participation with the Southern California Planning Congress this weekend.

“We the People: How to Make More Voices Heard” will be hosted online beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday, organizers said.

In addition to Williams, speakers are to include former Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole, Linda Vista-Annandale Association President Nina R. Chomsky, Creative Housing Associated LLC Founder and President Michael Dieden, the SCPC said in a written statement.

The strenthof democracy “rests on valuing basic human rights and equal opportunity, respecting the rule of law, electing representatives who can be held accountable, and supporting a well-informed citizenry committed to civic engagement,” according to the statement. “But as U.S. cities have grown and developed, the public’s participation in community planning has waned.”

Saturday’s panelists will explore what can be done to amplify more voices in the modern political discourse.

“Come join panelists with multiple views of planning in an open community discussion to explore ways to strengthen further our democracy and make better, more inclusive decisions about our future,” the statement said.

Williams said she was happy to be a part of the panel.

“Public participation is key to the public policy process,” she said.

“Effective participation involves a diversity of voices from residents [and] businesses who are directly affected by the proposed project or policy,” according to Williams.

“Currently, we are seeing a small number of groups dominating the public conversation, often to the point where they drown out the voices of regular citizens,” she said. “These groups often have an ‘agenda,’with many from outside of Pasadena and some are even paid to advocate for certain positions, so it can be very difficult to tell who actually supports what.”

As a member of the City Council, Williams said she wanted to hear from as wide a variety of voices representing the city as possible.

Chomsky said the ongoing pandemic has undoubtedly had a stifling effect on public participation in politics.

“We’ve lost our ability to go to meetings and talk to each other and see each other, to go to the City Hall and sit there and listen,” she said.

“One of the things I wanted to bring up Saturday is that the whole way that the virtual meetings are running due to the governor’s order. The details hurt public participation. Plus, we can’t go and interact with each other,” Chomsky said.

“One of my themes of Saturday is knowledge and interest. You have to be interested in this, and then you have to have the knowledge,” she added. “It’s up to us to get the information out and make it clear why things are important to our constituents in the neighborhoods or in Pasadena or within business groups.

Cole, too, said the pandemic appears to have been harmful to public participation.

“The second reason is that, traditionally, planning processes in cities have been dominated by the loudest and best organized voices. That often means developers and their lobbyists… And that’s led to really polarized and contentious planning processes. If we had more voices, I think we could get more done.”

Too often, voices of the public don’t emerge strongly until projects are well underway, Cole said. “The time to get people involved is at the beginning where they can help shape things from the start.

“It’s about: How do we make decisions? How do we have people feel like their government is working? How do we challenge people to participate in a constructive and meaningful way so that our city ends up being better off than we’ve been,” he said. “We need to make democracy work, and we need to expand it to people who today feel alienated from it because of their experiences.”

Saturday’s meeting will be held via Zoom at https://cpp.zoom.us/j/85419458461, with Passcode 032760. To dial in by phone, participants can call (669) 900-6833 and use Meeting ID 854 1945 8461.

Pre-registration is not required, but capacity will be limited to 300 guests.

More information is available online at socalplanningcongress.com/2021/01/we-the-people-how-to-make-more-voices-heard-on-2-6/.