Elmer Smith: Public input II on tap as $$ woes mount

THOSE WHO took part will remember the mayor's citywide "whup me, beat me, spank me tour" as a rare opportunity to dropkick a public official.

Mayor Nutter, blessed with a hide as thick as an alligator's, barely flinched as citizens emptied their spleens on him in the series of public forums that he held not long ago in the aftermath of the bad news.

The bad news was that the city faced a $1 billion deficit over the next five years, necessitating the closure of libraries, fire companies and swimming pools. The people were not pleased.

But they may come to look back on those as the good old days. The mayor had hardly toweled off from a month in the executive dunk tank when our fiscal fortunes nose-dived to a new low.

This time, with the deficit at $2 billion and possibly climbing, the mayor is interested again in our input, but maybe with a bit less output.

Starting in two weeks, facilitators and moderators will fan out across town to set up forums where the public can offer suggestions about how the city can adjust its priorities to meet this challenge.

This could actually be worth our time. First off, this is not about more mayor bashing. The mayor will not be present, except perhaps in effigy.

And these meetings will be held before the next round of tough decisions.

In the short term, what gets said in these meetings may shape the administration's response to this latest crisis. In the long run, public input may be even more important because you can't fill a $2 billion gap without some fundamental changes in the way the city does business.

"We're trying to develop new civic muscles," said Harris J. Sokoloff, director of the University of Pennsylvania Project for Civic Engagement, which will host the citywide forums. "The city is saying we're trying to develop good habits."

A part of me wants to dismiss this as just another dog-and-pony show. I've covered enough budget hearings to know that they generally draw only those whose oxen are about to be gored.

Forming blue-ribbon commissions and study groups is a time-honored dodge of city government. And the idea that the city solicits our input when the only options left are bad ones raises some old suspicions.

But Sokoloff's group has a track record for civic-engagement projects. The series of budget forums they held in each councilmanic district a year ago prodded citizens to describe what they think the city should be doing with their money.

And the mayor seems genuinely interested in establishing a process for civic engagement that is not triggered by crisis. He stressed civic engagement in his campaign, so it's not just a lifeline that he threw out as the red ink was rising.

A lot depends on the process which, in my opinion, is still a little too top-down for my liking.

The choices that will be presented at the meetings will be the work product of the administration.

The mayor's Cabinet members will be on hand to present the most viable options and to explain the rationale behind them.

After that, they will listen.

But there seems to me little chance that the options raised from the floor can be adopted by the time the mayor presents the budget to City Council on March 19.

"As much as possible," Sokoloff said, "we're going to frame it in terms of choices and present the choices before the decisions are made.

"It's not just about what to do, but why. The values that come up out of that process are what is really important."

Civic engagement is an acquired taste. The idea hasn't been embraced as freely in some parts of town as in others. But Sokoloff said that his organization and the city are contacting every civic association to attract people from every stratum and every region of the city.

There will be light refreshments served to compensate for the fact that you won't get to take a bite out of the mayor or his Cabinet. *

Send e-mail to smithel@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2512. For recent columns: http://go.philly.com/smith