This week, Mayor Pro Tempore Jillian Johnson PPS’03 joined HLP Associate Director Lalita Kaligotla’s Lead the Way Durham class to talk about the city’s experience with participatory budgeting. Kaligotla opened her class to other students and Sanford community members interested in the subject. Ultimately, approximately 35 people attended the event.
Earlier this year, all Durham residents over age 13 had the opportunity to vote on how the city should spend more than two million dollars. In implementing a participatory budgeting process, Durham became one of the first cities in the South to test such an initiative and allocated it the most per capita of any city in the United States. Johnson was elected to the City Council in 2015 and helped lead the initiative.
Johnson will also present as part of our “Women, Politics, and the Electability Myth” event on September 26.
A video recording of the lecture is available below: