“The People’s Budget”

Rich: Welcome to RVA’s Got Issues, a podcast about politics and public affairs in and around Richmond, Virginia. I’m your host, Rich Marr. Each episode, we’ll tell you what’s happening in RVA, what’s next, and what you can do about it. On this episode, RVA’s got issues with participatory budgeting. What would you do if you could decide how your local government spends its money? Richmond City Government has a new initiative that does exactly that, and people are brimming with ideas.

[ VOX-POP MONTAGE START]

Ryan: the first thing that came to mind for me was improving, um, pedestrian safety

Knabe: something about like, people without houses

Alexa:  more protected bike lanes with a barrier, that way there’s no way a car can kind of like crash into you.

[ VOX-POP MONTAGE END]

Rich: We’ll talk to Richmond City Council President Kristen Nye about why this is coming to Richmond, how it works, and whether it’s here to stay. Also, RVA’s got questions about what to do with guns, like, literally. a listener has a crate full of guns and wants to know, how do I get rid of these? Finally, RVA’s got answers about spaghetti. For our community spotlight, we’ll talk to an activist and mom who fights cystic fibrosis by reaching people’s hearts and stomachs. All that and more coming up on RVA’s Got Issues.

 

Rich: Today, RVA’s got issues with participatory budgeting. Krista Nye is a two term member of the Richmond City Council, representing the 4th District, and currently President of the Council.

Rich: Welcome, Councilwoman.

Kristen: Councilwoman. Thank you. So, you

Rich: you were one of the patrons of a resolution in 2019 that established this new process in Richmond called participatory budgeting. We might call it P. B. for short. It’s a mouthful. So for our listeners never heard of this. It’s a process that lets citizens directly decide how to specifically spend a portion.

Rich: Of the city’s budget. So this idea comes from Brazil almost 40 years ago. It’s come to Charlottesville in Virginia recently and now to Richmond.

Rich: So Chris, what made you think this would be a good fit for Richmond?

Kristen: Right?

Rich: We talk to constituents every day, right? And

Kristen: And we’re always hearing about little things they want. And I think sometimes the little things get lost in the mix. And participatory budgeting, or we’ll call it PB, I think helps get folks involved into those little projects that probably have big meaning for residents. And it lets them go through a process, a community process, and then actually vote on the project.

Kristen: . Um, to see what will be installed in their community.

Kristen: So with the PB process. It’s going to give them more of that feeling of, Oh, I voted on this, and so I feel like I have directly influenced my tax dollars in my community.

Rich: So how does an idea like this come to Richmond?

Kristen: So, I have to give credit to my colleague, Andreas Addison, council member in the first district. He brought the idea up and to me it was a no brainer. It just seemed like a really cool way to allot a relatively small amount of money when you’re talking about a budget the size of ours. Three million dollars in a billion dollar budget is really nothing. So to, to set aside this little bit of money to give our residents a direct voice in the process.

Rich: I mean, you’re getting at this idea that people don’t really understand that much how the budget process works, how these decisions are made, , they might feel it’s a little unfair, , and this process, this participatory budgeting process is different from the normal budgeting process. without getting too deep into the weeds, like how does the budget process work normally?

Kristen: So the way it works in Richmond, and we’re a strong mayor format, so it’s a little different than other localities, but the way it works is the mayor pulls together a budget, the budget comes in front of city council. So then we put in amendments, we try and make some tweaks to the budget, and then per state code, we have to have it approved by, , May 30th.

Rich: But so this PB process it’s separate from this budget process the way you just laid out, right? And so how does that work? Citizens are going to make decisions on their own?

Kristen: What we’ve done is we’ve set aside money. So that’s the most important thing. That is step one. You need the money that the people can talk about allocating. So it’s 3 million. We’re breaking it down to 200, 000 per district. And then that leaves an additional 1. 2 million. And that will be allocated towards the end as an extra bonus, if you will, to underserved communities. And that will be determined by several factors that the Steering Commission has, has laid out and will be decided separately from Council’s involvement.

Rich: So each district will have, , a steering committee or a commission that will decide how to spend their designated money. And then there’ll be a process for everybody to come together to spend this bigger chunk of money for undeserved communities. That sound right?

Kristen: Yes, yes.

Rich: And so this process is going to take some time over the next month, year, five years, like how long of a time frame are we

Kristen: so I think our crunch time is really this summer, they’re going to be laying the groundwork, fall is, we’re in the season of the outreach, and then hopefully get to decisioning, , towards the winter, spring timeframe of 2025. Five. , and then decisionsby this time next year of what the projects are going to look like.

Rich: part of this is actually kind of educating people on how the budget process works, you have to take a little bit of a long view you have to take a little longer timing. Do you think this will serve an eduation purpose.

Kristen: think one of the biggest challenges there is too is trying challenges there is, too, is to get people to hone in on what sort of projects make sense for this type of money. This is not ongoing money. This is not ongoing money. money that will be there year after year. This is one time funding. You know, looking at, are there traffic safety type of improvements that, that folks are wanting in the community? Are there? Park types of improvements, playgrounds, a pocket park, things as simple as benches, art installations, those types of things. So I think it’ll be really interesting to see. As this process evolves, what do people actually want?

Kristen: INTERSTITIAL CUE, HOLD IN CLEAR FOR 3-4 Secs]

Rich: gonna take a short break, but when we come back, when can you vote on ideas? Also, will this experiment last, or is it just a one time policy blip? All that and more on RVA’s Got Issues.

 

Rich: We’re back. This is RVA’s Got Issues, and we’re talking about participatory budgeting with Richmond City Council President Kristen Nye. So Kristen, our listeners might hear participatory budgeting and think, great, we get to decide everything forever, yay. But this seems a little bit more like a kind of pilot project, right, where you’re taking a little bit of the budget, still a sizable chunk of money, 3 million, and then you’re But still, compared to, as you’ve said, the big size of the Richmond City budget, it is a small percentage of it. So what do you tell a constituent, or maybe one of our listeners, who might say, Oh, big deal, right? This is just too small. This isn’t gonna make a difference.

Kristen: I would just say, try it. You have nothing to lose, maybe a little bit of your time, I Really think this is a way for people to directly see the fruits of their labor, , and we’re, we’re trying to call it the people’s budget, and it really is, if people can get in there, roll up their sleeves a little bit, listen to what their neighbors have to say, and then bring their ideas forward. Bring it up at a meeting. Get it on the list. Have other people. Talk about it. Sometimes you don’t even know what you would want until you hear somebody else mention it.

Rich: Do you see this as bleeding back into the regular budgeting process? Like could some of these ideas not only affect this particular participatory budgeting process, but maybe find their way back into the normal budgeting process?

Kristen: think so. I think the more input we can get from folks in a organized fashion I think the more it could really influence what we’re trying to advocate for as we go through the budget process because in public service, I think you tend to get a lot of folks who,come to your meetings all the time, a lot of the same folks call our office, and we are happy to hear from everybody all the time. But it’s great to have a diverse group of voices. And I think this PB process could help pull out some of those voices that we don’t hear from all the time.

[ INTERSTITIAL CUE COMES IN CLEAR FOR A BEAT]

Alexa:  sometimes it can be hard. In a typical voting process, or even just going to the city council to get your time to speak to your council member. You have to find, you have to know how to talk to them too, and that’s such a barrier for so many people. And so, this is a really, like, very, very grassroots way to get everyone’s voice heard.

Ryan: Coming up with the ideas ourselves and voting them ourselves the sort of bottom up approach to Funding our city into politics in general I feel like that if nothing else that mental shift could go a long way in improving The way our city operates and cities across the country do

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Rich: Speaking of kind of new voices, not just from below, but from above, right? This is an election year. We will have a new mayor next year. We’ll have many new council members, including in the 4th district, right? Because you will not be, , running again. This is your last term. What’s the future of participatory budgeting? Will the people’s budget survive that election? Do you think that this is going to go on? Or is this something that, you and Andreas Addison have put in place and that might not have legs after this?

Kristen: I hope not. I hope that getting the process launched really, for real, right now, , and even though I’m leaving at the end of December, we’ll be mid process then, um I will certainly be keeping an eye on it. , as a resident, because I am curious to see where it goes. And the idea is to start at three million, , it’s actually a two year process.

Kristen: So you take one year, and that’s your outreach year. The second year is your implementation year, and then you start the cycle again. So there’s , a bucket of money every two years, and the idea is to increase it every two years. I do think there is a spirit of understanding the importance of this process. , we’ve hired some folks on staff to help with the outreach because it can’t be done with the limited resources that we have. And one of the things is really trying to reach out to parts of the community that usually don’t participate. They’re thinking, how do I even have time to go to a community meeting to weigh in on something like this? So we’re looking at things from a couple different angles in trying to make sure that we touch all parts of the community and get folks involved and kind of meet them where they are.

Rich: Very organized and intentional about what they’re doing. Absolutely. And I think once the

Kristen: Absolutely. And I think once the public sees how much input they can have on it, I think they will be asking for it. So if

Rich: So if the public is going to be interested , in participatory budgeting, how do they get involved? 

Kristen: Right now, we’re doing some limited outreach that’s laying the groundwork about what this process is going to be to get people to start thinking about it. Then it’s going to be direct outreach into, all right, let’s start thinking about actual projects you would like to see in your district. This is the amount of money. And then you go into this sort of drill down. Okay, these were the top ten lists of projects. People are going to vote on it. You can vote if you’re 14 years or older. , it, so it’s a very intentional process. And like I said, we’ve hired some staff who are working through the details and all of that will be made public and unveiled as the time comes up.

[ INTERSTITIAL CUE COMES IN]

Rich: Kristen Nye is president of the Richmond City Council. Thanks for being here.

Kristen: here. Thanks for having

Rich: you want to learn more about participatory budgeting in Richmond go to RV a PB org,

 

Rich: On each episode of RVA’s Got Issues, you’ll hear a community question, a fellow listener who wants to know something about local government, politics, or their community. For this episode, how do you get rid of a gun? Our producer, Amber, is back to help us out with this week’s question. Hi, Amber.

Amber: Hi, Rich.

Rich: This was sent in by an anonymous listener?

Amber: Yes, and it is a very unique question. So the question reads, I have a crate of firearms that I inherited from my father. I’m not much of a gun person, and I’m trying to get rid of them, and there just simply isn’t a way to do that. Here’s the note that’s a bit unique. I don’t even have the combination to the lock to get into the cabinet.

Amber: I forgot it years back. So that adds an extra layer to this

Rich: Right, it’s a mystery box of guns. So maybe that’s why this person is anonymous. Maybe they don’t want their neighbors to know they have this mystery

Amber: Yeah, let’s see what we can help them

Rich: Yes, so, over 40 percent of American households own a gun or have a gun in the house, but plenty of people are like this listener. They might be uncomfortable with them or at least unsure how to handle them. And it seems like this listener can’t even get to them. , they say it’s a crate or cabinet. It’s possibly a gun safe. Gun safes are good. That’s how you store firearms safely. You know, keep them away from kids and things like that. It’s not a bad idea. To have guns locked away, but whatever this box is, it seems like this listener has two problems, right? How to get this box open and then how to dispose of what’s inside the box. , so , the box itself, the crate, they probably should open it first. And to do that, I suspect they need a locksmith. And if they’re lucky, one who specializes in safe cracking, which sounds like the coolest job ever. Like a heist movie or

Amber: you have like the, the thing, and you’re like listening to the clicks.

Rich: Yes. So don’t try that at home, I guess. But, , there are a couple of, , locksmiths in Richmond who say they can open up any safe you have. So I would suggest calling one of those folks first. And then, once you get this crate open, the other problem is in how to get rid of the guns. If you find a gun, I mean, to me, this seems like the first person you might want to call a police officer. Does that sound right to you, Amber?

Amber: Well, it’s kind of like if you have like deer in your yard and you’re like, who do I really call for this? So it’s like, do I call the police for this? Do I call emergency, non emergency?

Rich: If you’re being robbed, you know you’re supposed to call the police, but just finding a gun. But it turns out that the police actually do this, right? A lot of times they take guns off the hands of convicted criminals, someone who has been ordered by the court to hand in a gun. But they can do it for anybody. So every police department has a non emergency number that you can find online or in a phone book and call. , you can call the Virginia State Police. They have an office here in Glen Allen. And you can call them and they will come pick it up. It’s legal. It’s free. They don’t give you a penalty They don’t give you a fee. They’re just happy to take it off your hands Now if you’re uncomfortable with having police come to your house, You can bring the guns to them. , I don’t know how you might walk into a police station with guns in your hand. Maybe?

Amber: Please call first.

Rich: Yes, I think that’s a good idea. Maybe leave them in the car. Leave them. Make sure they’re unloaded. Call first. Go into the police department. Tell them that you’re there. They will come to your car. They’ll take him off your hands and they’re happy to do it. So the bottom line for this anonymous listener with the mystery box of guns, check with the local police, see if they’ll just take this box off your hands. If not, then get a locksmith to open it up and then the police will be happy to take them off your hands. Now, it’s unlikely anybody has this same question, Amber, but what if they have a different question?

Amber: a different question or anything else that’s burning a hole in your head, , email us at rvasgotissuesatvpm. org. Thanks, Rich.

 

Rich: Finally, RVA has got ways to make things better with, among other things, spaghetti. For this episode’s community spotlight, we are excited to have with us Beth Saladino, a community activist who raises funds and awareness for the battle against cystic fibrosis.

Rich: Beth, welcome.

Beth: Thank you, Rich. I’m excited to be here.

Rich: , you are with the Virginia chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, but you got into this work because of your daughter, Lucy.

Beth: exactly right. Lucy was diagnosed when she was six months old with cystic fibrosis We did our very first great strides walk three weeks after that

Rich: just threw yourself right into

Beth: that became our new normal we were like, all right, that’s our jumping off point

Rich: And so tell us a little bit about Lucy. What was Lucy

Beth: Ah, she was awesome sauce. , , she loves sushi. Loved fresh food, loved Top Chef, loved Project Runway, , got tanner than you can imagine just by, hanging out in the sun a little bit, played soccer. My husband coached her team from second grade until the girls actually graduated. Lucy passed when they were freshmen in high school, but he continued on until the girls all graduated from high school. Yeah, and she was sassy, probably would be an activist herself.

Rich: That’s great. And, and so tell us a little bit then about cystic fibrosis. So what is this?

Beth: It’s a recessive genetic disease, so both the, , man and the woman have to pass on the defect. So my husband and I had a one in four chance of having a child with CF. One in four with no defects at all. And then two in four of carrying the defect. We didn’t know. We had, , no idea. Lucy was normal birth weight, but was not gaining weight and was labeled failure to thrive. And we were trying different formulas and things like that. And then low and behold, , our pediatrician, wonderful guy, , asked me one day if she tasted salty. And I said, yeah, just like a little potato chip. And he said, I think she has cystic fibrosis. So it’s a defect and forgive me because I was a fashion major. So not big science, you know here the simplified version of it is it’s a Transportation of chloride out of your cells so it affects the whole body, but really hits hard in the lungs and the pancreas, and we all have mucus on our lungs, but it’s usually real thin and slippery, and you swallow a bunch of it, you just don’t know that. But for people with CF, it’s thick and sticky. It’s like, a cross between hot glue and honey. In your lungs, it’s warm and moist, and it’s just a wonderful place for infection and, bacteria to breed, so it becomes a vicious cycle. But, things are different. Things are changing. In 1955, that was the year that the foundation was formed by parents, just like myself. , three sets of parents who wanted better treatment for their children. , at that time, the life expectancy was somewhere around school age. elementary school, , and that just wasn’t acceptable. So they went out looking for new treatments and better care. And now, I’m so happy to say the life expectancy is over 56 years of age for a child born today. And a lot of that has to do with, , the last four big drugs that we’ve brought to market or brought to our community, called modulators. And they actually correct the defect, they don’t cure it. Permanently, but they correct it. We had adults start on it and instantaneously, within a month, saw a vast improvement in pulmonary function, which is a biggie, and weight gain, which is a biggie. And now that is, it’s available for about 93 percent of our population. Which is also, a huge platform step up too,,

Rich: Right, and so There’s not a lot of federal funding for this disease. The, around 40, 000 people in the U. S. have it?

Beth: yep, about 40,

Rich: Is there a concern that there’s a sense that a lack of urgency? We’ve got the treatments, we’ve fixed it now, we don’t have to do anything about this anymore?

Beth: Our sense at the Foundation is, yes, we have a sense of accomplishment, but that urgency cannot go away, because, and as a CF mom myself, I feel it, and when I see the big wigs at CF Foundation, I’m like, alright, let’s go, let’s pick up the pace, and they are working incredibly fast, but the clock is ticking for someone who doesn’t have a modulator or, a viable treatment.

Rich: You mentioned the Great Strides Walk. What is that about? A, a walk to raise money for the foundation?

Beth: It’s a fundraiser. It is our community based, grassroots based, it’s my favorite event that we do. It’s really just, very family centric. We do a small walk, just, nothing strenuous, but we have fun things for the kids to do. We’ll do a medical update. We’ll recognize people.

Rich: Only thing you do, right? , you came up with a fairly unique way to raise money. We’re

Beth: you do, right? You came up with a fairly unique way to raise money. My husband and I were like, okay, good. Great. She said, I want to do an all night dance marathon. And she was a freshman in high school at Godwin high school. We thought, , that’s horrible. I can’t think of anything worse than, hanging out with teenagers overnight. And my husband had been a chef for many years and we were like, let’s do food. And so we came up with the spaghetti dinner. , Lucy was there for the first two. , we are going on our 16th year. It’ll be in November. We used to do it in the spring, right before Great Strides, but COVID reset us, and so now we do it Lucy’s birthday weekend. , and it has grown exponentially. Last year, we served about 380 dinners. We do takeout.

Rich: ha ha.

Beth: , my husband makes all the sauces. We roll over, yep. Yep.

Rich: 380

Beth: For 380 people. , yeah, we have a great group of volunteers that help us, store things in the refrigerators. They come over and they make meatballs with us. , the dessert ladies, the dessert table is something to see in person. And last year we raised about 35.

Rich: That’s terrific.

Beth: November 2nd at Deep Run Community

Rich: gosh, the founding, the

Beth: The Virginia chapter, we do a ton of events all through the year. We do six walks across the state, so we walk all through April and May. Then in June, we have a paddling event that’s going to be on the James River.

Beth: We’re launching, out of Osborne Park. It’s five miles, just leisurely paddles. It’s not a race. We also have our Richmond Brewers Ball, which is really quite a program. We recruit young professionals or they’re nominated for us. We do ask them to raise a little bit of money. And then we throw them a huge party this year at the Science Museum with local breweries and restaurants and a small auction and dancing, and it’s a great night.

Beth: Lucy’s been gone now about 15 years? Yeah. , so how do you find the strength to keep doing this work? What keeps you going? I think it’s two things. I definitely think of those. first parents that started the foundation, and the anxiety they must have felt, and uncertainty of knowing, the future for their children, and just what it took for them to get it off the ground. And now we’re, it’s just an amazing organization. And then Lucy, I get to talk about her and get to see, her peers who are thriving. It’s kind of like daily therapy for me to be able to talk about the progress, and we are making progress, and that is what, keeps me incredibly hopeful. We call it hope in action.

Rich: Beth Saladino is Associate Executive Director of the Virginia Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and she is forever Lucy’s mom. Thanks so much, Beth. That

 

 

Rich: That’s our show. Thanks to our guests, Kristen Nye and Beth Saladino. RVA’s got issues and we’re betting you do too. We want to hear about the issues you care about. Tell us about something exciting going on in your community or ask us a burning question about local government. Send us an email at rvasgottissuesatvpm. org. RVA’s Got Issues is produced by Max Wasserman and Amber Coles. Meg Lindholm is our executive producer. Gavin Wright is VPM’s managing producer of podcasts. And Steve Humble is VPM’s chief content officer. I’m your host, Rich Marr. Thanks for listening.