Guidelines for citizen participation in Offenbach am Main
The City Council has approved the "Guidelines for Citizen Participation" developed by citizens, politicians and the administration on behalf of the City Council. Citizen participation in the City of Offenbach am Main takes place in accordance with the documented guidelines. Implementation began with the establishment of the service and advice center for the promotion and implementation of citizen participation at the end of 2023.
Preamble
Shaping Offenbach am Main together, discussing important decisions on the future development of the city together with the urban community and weighing them up in dialog with residents.
The participation of urban society is an important concern for Offenbach. Today and in the coming years, important and in some cases groundbreaking decisions will be made. To this end, the forms of citizen participation that already exist today are to be improved and a variety of methods are to be used.
A large number of interests of city residents must be weighed up and reconciled. This requires a framework that fundamentally structures citizen participation for Offenbach. The guidelines for participation ensure that citizens, administration and political representatives can jointly agree on good solutions and that decision-making processes become transparent. The Offenbach guidelines are defined as follows: Citizens always means all residents of Offenbach, regardless of their right to vote.
The guidelines are also intended to clarify in a binding manner when and how people will be informed and involved in future projects, how they will meet in participation processes and what will happen to the results of participation.
Reliable framework for participation
The guidelines form a reliable and binding framework for citizens, politicians, the administration and the people of Offenbach ...
- on which topics and projects
- to what extent
- at what time and
- in what way
...citizen participation takes place in Offenbach
Important general objectives
The guidelines for citizen participation were developed in a broad-based, trialogic process. Together with Offenbach residents, representatives of the city administration and politicians, the principles of participation were developed, discussed and aligned with Offenbach's local requirements. The working group set up for this purpose (AG ELLBBB) structured its own work process, prepared public dialogs and processed the proposals received, including from the administration, into the guidelines. The result is 10 guidelines for Offenbach - as a guideline for dialog, participation and discourse.
Guiding principle 1
Citizen participation generally takes place in an exchange between the Offenbach population and representatives of politics and administration. All groups in Offenbach's urban society must be appropriately involved.
Principles of application
1
Through the cooperation of the above-mentioned groups, a process of understanding can be initiated in which the different knowledge and perspectives on plans and projects are brought into the process and a path for the implementation of the project is jointly developed.
2
In all projects, care should be taken to ensure that the citizens involved reflect the different interests of the urban community. Other interest groups can be consulted on a project-related basis if required.
Guiding principle 2
Citizens are involved in the City of Offenbach's projects - as part of informal public participation at an early stage in accordance with these guidelines and as part of formal public participation in accordance with the statutory requirements.
Principles of application
1
Informal participation refers to the voluntary involvement of citizens in planning and design processes over and above the legally prescribed measures. The City of Offenbach has adopted these guidelines for this purpose.
2
On the other hand, there is formal participation, which is regulated in various laws, such as the Building Code or the Hessian Municipal Code.
3
As a rule, early participation begins with the basic decision of the City Council or the municipal authorities for a project if there is still scope for public participation.
4
This does not apply to topics and areas in which public participation is explicitly excluded by law (e.g. personnel matters).
5
The scope of public participation and whether a participation concept is to be drawn up is clarified as part of the decision-making process by the municipal council.
6
Depending on the content of the project, the city administration will make cooperative proposals in the draft participation concept as to which groups of the urban community should be addressed in particular. If necessary, this can be expanded during the participation process.
7
Citizens can find out about the guidelines for public participation and the other (legal) provisions on public participation on the Internet and/or in a printed version.
8
The municipal companies of the City of Offenbach are recommended to voluntarily apply the guidelines for informal public participation in their projects.
9
In the case of major projects by private investors, they are also requested to apply public participation in accordance with the guidelines.
Guiding principle 3
The Office for Public Relations operates a service and advice center for the promotion and implementation of citizen participation.
Principles of application
1
The Service and Advice Center for Citizen Participation has the task of implementing the Offenbach Guidelines for Citizen Participation and filling them with life.
2
The Service and Advice Center for Citizen Participation is the point of contact for citizens as well as for administration and politics.
3
The Service and Advice Center for Citizen Participation designs the public relations work with the aim of anchoring the guiding principles in the consciousness of urban society, politicians and employees of the city administration. The aim is also to achieve broad use of the opportunities for participation in the planning processes.
4
The Service and Advice Center for Citizen Participation sets up the "Citizen Participation in Offenbach" dialogue platform with the digital project list on the City of Offenbach's website, moderates the platform and keeps the project list up to date.
5
The Service and Advice Centre for Citizen Participation advises the offices and departments on the development of participation concepts and provides support in all organizational matters relating to the participation process.
Guiding principle 4
In principle, Offenbach's citizen participation formats take the entire urban society into account. Those sections of urban society that do not have easy access to democratic participation processes are involved through targeted information services and outreach formats. Inclusion and accessibility apply equally to all participation processes.
Principles of application
1
The term urban society refers to a communication community in the sense of inclusion, i.e. that all groups and people present in a municipality should be included.
2
Inclusion and accessibility must be taken into account in informal participation processes. The necessary prerequisites for this, such as public relations work, information services in various languages and in simple language, are gradually being developed and provided by the Service and Advice Center for Citizen Participation.
Guiding principle 5
The result of the public participation process is a joint recommendation by the members of the urban community represented in the participation process and the participating representatives of politics and administration. As a democratically elected body, the City Council is responsible for the final decision.
Principles of application
1
The discussion process and the suggestions for the respective project are brought together by the moderator of the participation process to form a recommendation and then made available to the group of participants. This recommendation from the participation process should be supported by consensus wherever possible. However, the recommendation may also contain dissenting votes.
2
The administration prepares the recommendation for the resolution of the city councillors.
3
The participation process works with the people who are involved in the process. This cannot replace the decision of the elected representatives. The Offenbach City Council is ultimately responsible for deciding how exactly the recommendation from the participation process should be dealt with. If it does not accept the vote from the participation process or only accepts it in part, it must justify its deviating decision.
Guiding principle 6
The City of Offenbach am Main draws up a list of projects that records projects with and without public participation in a transparent and up-to-date manner. It is published in a dialog-based format on the city's website and in printed form as required.
Principles of application
1
The list of projects of the City of Offenbach am Main contains all projects for which informal public participation is planned or can be suggested in accordance with these guidelines. It also contains projects for which citizen participation is not possible for good reason. The administration thus has the opportunity to present the diversity of its activities to the municipal community in a transparent manner.
2
The list of projects is given an easy-to-remember and clear internet URL
3
For each project, the respective department creates a profile that briefly explains the project, outlines the planned participation and introduces a contact person.
4
The profiles are submitted to the city councillors together with the presentation for the decision in principle.
5
The fact sheets in the project list present the current status and are updated at least every six months or as required.
6
Completed public participation projects are archived three months after the end of participation. For this purpose, an archive is created on the digital project list in which the projects can be viewed for at least one year, if necessary until they are realized.
7
The list of projects is also published once a year in printed form together with the report on public participation. It is displayed in the town hall and in important public facilities with a lot of public traffic.
Guiding principle 7
Citizens can initiate public participation. This can be for projects for which no public participation is initially planned or for completely new projects. The decision as to whether the application is accepted and public participation is carried out is made by the municipal council.
Principles of application
1
On the dialogic website of the City of Offenbach am Main, the possibility of suggesting citizen participation, the so-called right of initiative, is set up. A form similar to the project profile will be available there, which can be used to apply for public participation.
2
Citizen participation can also be requested in writing from the Service Center for Citizen Participation or by e-mail.
3
All residents of Offenbach am Main who are over the age of 6 (eligibility for the youth parliament) and who are resident in Offenbach can apply for civic participation.
4
The initiation of a public participation process requires the support of 142 residents (twice the number of city councillors).
5
The Service Agency checks whether an application meets the above-mentioned formal requirements (residents, age, number of supporters) and coordinates with the offices to prepare the decision of the City Council.
6
It then forwards the application with a proposal for a participation concept via the municipal council to the municipal council for a resolution.
Guiding principle 8
A participation concept (see guiding principle 2) is developed for each public participation procedure. To this end, the service center and the offices involved in the project work together on an interdisciplinary basis. Participation processes are moderated impartially by independent persons.
Principles of application
1
The aim of the participation process is to gather suggestions and develop a recommendation for the project. The draft of the participation concept as part of the project concept clarifies the scope, questions, participants and, if applicable, special target groups of the planned participation process. It contains statements about
- which specialist areas are to be involved and who is in charge of the participation process,
- what degree/level of participation is possible: information, consultation, cooperation
- who the groups to be actively involved in the participation process are, if applicable
- which participation formats are planned and
- what the rough timetable looks like.
- the budget for citizen participation
- the staffing to be allocated to the project in the department
2
The participation concept is developed jointly by the departments and the service center. The implementation of public participation is the responsibility of the departments, which are supported by the service center.
3
To ensure the quality of public participation, the participation processes are carried out by an independent moderator. These can be external service providers or employees of the administration who have been specially trained in moderation (pool of moderators). It is important that the moderators themselves have no substantive interests in the project.
4
Once the process has been completed, the results of the process and the decision of the City Council will be reported on the digital project list on the City of Offenbach's website.
Guiding principle 9
In order to further develop knowledge and expertise in the field of citizen participation, appropriate training courses are included in the city administration's offerings. Further training in citizen participation will also be offered to the municipal community and representatives of political bodies.
Principles of application
1
The Citizen Participation Service and Advice Center develops training courses for employees of the city administration and for trainees, if necessary in cooperation with other offices that have a lot of experience with participation. It also conducts these itself.
2
Cooperation with the city's education provider, the Offenbach Adult Education Center, should be sought first for further training courses for the city community.
3
Information events on the guiding principles for citizen participation are to be offered to representatives of the City Council and the committees.
Guiding principle 10
The structure, concept and implementation of the participation processes are regularly reviewed by an independent party.
Principles of application
1
Citizen participation processes should be evaluated on an ongoing basis in order to enable continuous further development and learning effects for all participants.
2
The evaluation should provide information on
- who was reached by the participation process (e.g. age, gender, level of education, migration background) and who was not,
- whether pre-formulated and any additional objectives of the participation process were achieved
3
The Service and Advice Centre for Citizen Participation develops a suitable standardized procedure that is used to assess all participation processes. It includes, among other things
- Issuing standardized feedback forms during and at the end of the processes
- Online feedback on whether the process was successful from the participants' point of view.
4
The results of the evaluations are published on the City of Offenbach's Citizen Participation website and also made available to the administrative and political staff involved.
5.
At regular intervals, the Service and Advice Center for Citizen Participation will invite representatives of the citizenry, the city's political bodies and the administration to a joint workshop or round table. The aim is to discuss experiences with citizen participation from different perspectives and to gather suggestions for the further development of citizen participation and the guidelines.