Council is seeking 24 residents, good and true, to form a citizen jury to determine community projects for the next four years.
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The not-for-profit research group newDemocracy will randomly select jurors.
The project is expected to cost $100,000 as part of the council’s legislative obligation to show it was engaging with the community.
Eurobodalla Shire Council staff and councillors will not know who is selected until the first jury meeting, which will be after the September local government elections.
Jurors will be paid for their time, which includes attending six meetings on weekdays and weekends over a two-and-a-half-month period.
Meetings will be chaired by newDemocracy and any member of the public can write a submission or present to the jury.
Next week, invitations to join the jury will be dropped in randomly-selected letter boxes.
The process involves jury members exploring the work council does to consider the question: “Is Council spending your money on the right things? If not, what should we change?”
NewDemocracy executive director Iain Walker said the model sought questions, rather than answers.
“We provide a counter-balance by having invited voices,” Mr Walker said.
“By matching to the census profile, we get people from all age groups and all walks of life and a 50/50 mix of gender.
“It is a really representative group of people, rather than those that are most affected by a decision.”
Mr Walker said the jury was selected from land titles information.
“We don’t have a position on the issue, this is about innovating democracy. Whether people halve or double services is not the interest for us,” Mr Walker said.
“We sit in oversight of the meetings. The main thing is neutrality. We will be checking that the people are in control and it is completely neutral.”
Council’s general manager Dr Catherine Dale said the jury would decide what they believed should be priorities for council in the future.
Dr Dale the cost was in line with what has been spent previously.
“It is money well spent,” she said.
“It is important to spend resources to make sure we are on the right track.
“This is a really innovative way to seek the communities views. It is an open and transparent process.
“It is important for the community to appreciate that the integrity to the project is paramount to having the right outcome.”