Surf Coast Shire Citizens Jury
Aireys Inlet
Originally uploaded by Derek Henderson.
There aren't too many deliberative events occurring in Australia, so it was a privilege to have been invited to help organise the Citizens Jury that completed this past weekend at Airey's Inlet, a small community along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, convened by Surf Coast Shire council. I sat on the Steering Committee and also provided guidance to the experts and stakeholders ("Witnesses") who spoke with the Jury.
Council staff had recommended a proposal by a civil engineering firm for a design of road, drainage and pathway works across the shire that would have cost several million dollars to ratepayers. A community reference panel was reluctant to endorse these works in total as sections of the community strongly voiced the preference to retain the informal, undeveloped character of the district. The Citizens Jury was convened to make an informed recommendation for one precinct. Over two days of learning about the problems and the options from a succession of witnesses, followed by a day of deliberation, the sample of residents recommended a minimal set of capital works to alleviate particular drainage problems, but rejected the bulk of the proposal as it related to that precinct, especially road surfacing. Whilst this was not unexpected, the inclusive and deliberative nature of the process left no doubt that the recommendation reflected broad community sentiment. The evidence-based approach of the recommendations showed the resolve of the Jury to remain respectful and objective in their analysis. Council has vowed to accept the recommendations.
Here are the comments by the Jury members near the close of the public presentation:
This Citizens Jury was a great experience, especially to be the first in the world [at this small scale].Having been an official observer of the deliberation, I can also add that every member of the Jury was fully engaged in their task, and attended to it with a cool rationality and intelligence. Their capacity to understand and extract the crucial elements from the mountain of technical details was inspirational. Importantly, it was their empathetic attention to the whole community which lead them to unanimously accept the crucial works, at significant cost to some who as individuals may have rejected it too. With the guidance and encouragement of the professional facilitator Dr Annie Bolitho, they were able to articulate recommendations that were precise and meaningful.
I came here with quite specific ideas. But I found my perspectives changed slightly after hearing the Witnesses and others on the Jury.
It was so valuable to find how strongly we all felt about our area and its character.
This was a very valuable experience. I learned about the dynamics of council. The Witnesses informed us about alternatives. It was a very good decision-making process.
It was interesting. We came to know each other better.
I'd been away, so didn't know what it was really about. When I set out on the first day, I said to my wife "see you in half an hour". Two weekends later I have finished a great experience. We tried to keep our thoughts open and push some personal ideas aside. We had different ideas in some areas but we were able to come together for a great result.
I really enjoyed the process. It was rewarding. I increased my knowledge about the precinct and of my neighbours by 100%. I want to complement council for this process to access our views. It was really worthwhile way to spend two weekends. It is a really great way to keep council on side, especially with long term goals.
Everybody took it seriously--I remember the day we were all out looking at drains!
We view our area not just as a geographical area, but as an ecology. The problems we addressed are interrelated. The experience was very rewarding.
This was a great opportunity to be engaged with the community I love. It was a very big challenge for us to understand all the issues and mechanics of drainage, the treatments for roads and their impacts. Although it was quite a challenge, it was a very, very positive experience.
I feel very positive and I learned a lot from the other Jurors. Everyone on the Jury contributed. The Witnesses were objective in presenting their material.
The Jury were a credit to their community and demonstrated with aplomb what deliberative democracy can deliver. Full credit goes to the Surf Coast Shire council and to its Community Planning and Development Coordinator Chad Foulkes for championing it.
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