At a special meeting of the City Council on the evening of Monday, December 1, there were just two Consent Calendar items on the agenda, though it was Item C1 that took all of the time.
C1 called for, “Approval of a Professional Services Agreement with Center for New Democratic Processes to Develop and Conduct a Civic Assembly in an Amount Not-to-Exceed $230,000 as Recommended by the Civic Assembly Ad Hoc Subcommittee.”
This originally dates back to May when, according to a staff note, “the City Council received presentations on the Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026. During the discussion, Council Member Fish and Council Member McMorrin proposed and received Council consensus that a one-time funding enhancement in the amount of $250,000 be added to the Finance Department budget to create a new community-centered budget process through the potential use of a civic assembly process.”
In June, “the City Council approved the Adopted Budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 which included $250,000 for budget outreach consultant services and requested that staff return to Council for more direction regarding how the funding would be spent.”
Fast-forward to October, and “the City Council considered conducting a civic assembly to develop strategies to increase public participation in the budget process. By majority vote, Council authorized conducting a civic assembly to consider how the public wants to be engaged or participate in the City’s budget process, placed a cap on the budget for the civic assembly of $250,000 to include all City costs and directed staff to solicit proposals from organizations to develop and conduct a civic assembly.”
“During the October 27 discussion, some members of the Council indicated that they would ideally like the civic assembly participants in place in time to observe the City’s existing budget process for the upcoming fiscal year and then convene the assembly for deliberation in summer 2026 so that the assembly could develop recommendations for Council consideration for the Fiscal Year 2027-2028 budget process,” the note continues.
The City received proposals from five organizations, prompting the establishment of a subcommittee composed of Vice Mayor Freddy Puza and Council Member Bubba Fish.
“During the week of November 17, the Subcommittee met with 4 of the 5 organizations: Healthy Democracy, National Civic League, Deliberative Democracy Lab and Center for New Democratic Processes. Unify America declined to interview due to its current workload. Each organization was asked to provide a 10-minute presentation to be followed by a 20-minute question and answer period.”
“After careful review of the information received, the presentation provided, and the interviews conducted, the Subcommittee recommends that the City Council approve a professional services agreement with Center for New Democratic Processes (CNDP) due to their experience facilitating deliberations focused on governmental process improvements with actionable outcomes. CNDP has worked with the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) regarding efforts to improve public participation in the municipal budgeting process. Additionally, CNDP’s original proposal leaves room in the budget to increase the number of assembly participants from 20 to 30,” the note continues. “The Subcommittee has asked staff to incorporate the increased number of participants into the agreement. If approved, staff will work with CNDP to prepare the scope of work and finalize the professional services agreement. Staff will continue to work with the Subcommittee as the project develops. Staff will return to Council in January to discuss and approve the demographic criteria for the civic assembly participants and other aspects of the assembly scope.”
Despite financial concerns from Mayor Dan O’Brien and Council Member Albert Vera, the item passed 3-2, with Vice Mayor Puza, and Council Members Fish and McMorrin all voting yes.
Item C2, “(1) Approval of a Purchase Order with California Hot Water Supply in an Amount Not-to-Exceed $60,000 to Replace a Non-Functioning Pool Heater at the City’s Municipal Plunge; and (2) Waiver of Competitive Bidding Requirements for the Procurement of the Pool Heater Per Culver City Municipal Code Section 3.07.075.F.3,” passed unanimously without fuss.