Calling Portland Metro residents!
The Portland metro area is hosting its first-ever Citizens’ Initiative Review (CIR), facilitated by Healthy Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit based in Portland. Up for review: the Metro Region Affordable Housing Bond Measure. A cross-section of 20 voters – who are randomly selected to match the demographics of the metro region in key areas such as political affiliation, race and ethnicity, age, gender, and education – will spend four days together examining and deliberating on information related to the proposed measure and produce an informative statement for the benefit of their fellow voters. They will hear testimony from experts and from advocates for and against the ballot measure, and then identify the basic information all voters need to know. The results of their work will be published as a Citizens’ Statement and publicized through local print and broadcast media – as information for voters by voters.
And, Oregon's Kitchen Table is offering an opportunity for folks who live in the Metro area (see the map below) to participate! We’re looking for up to 30 of you Metro residents to participate online at two different points of the process, for a total of 2.5 hours.
Thursday, August 23 (2:00pm – 3:30pm) – Join us to hear from an Independent Background Expert (live streamed presentation) on the issue, then as a group we’ll deliberate on what questions we would recommend that the CIR panelists ask of advocates for and against the ballot measure. We’ll bring the top three questions from our discussion to the CIR – and you can watch and see from the livestream what questions they ask.
Week of August 27 (exact date / time TBD) – Join us for a follow up session (1 hour) on-line to review and discuss the statement that the CIR panelists have created.
Only requirements for participation:
- You live within the Metro boundaries
- You’re over 18 years old
- You are able to join an online discussion (internet access, computer / tablet / smartphone access)
- You can join us online on Thursday Aug 23 from 2 – 3:30pm
And, if you’re not able to join OKT for this, you can still track the CIR. Click here for more information.