Exec Director Ashley Trim (MPP '09) on Davenport Institute Work in Tech and Engagement | PC Mag

June 27, 2017

This Malibu Retreat Preps Cities for a Tech-Savvy Electorate

June 27, 2017 | Sophia Stuart | PC Mag

How do you train local governments to handle an increasingly civic-minded electorate? A three-day retreat in Malibu hosted by Pepperdine University is just the start.

Since the 2016 election, many people have found a sense of civic purpose, getting involved in national and local politics. But what about local government officials themselves? How are they using tech for the good of their cities?

Next month, California civic leaders will head to Malibu to get a certification in public engagement. Part of their three-day experience will focus on technology's role in impacting democracy: how to avoid pitfalls, use state-of-the-art tech tools, develop collaborative leadership skills, and become more inclusive.

PCMag met with Ashley Trim, Executive Director of the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership within Pepperdine University, in Malibu, to find out how her team developed this year's program.

According to the last Census Bureau report, there are almost 90,000 local governments in the US, which is a lot of bureaucracy that could benefit from entering the digital age. What's the Davenport Institute's role in this?

Our mission here is to be a champion of engagement at the local government level for the 21st century, enabling citizens and officials to pursue opportunities and solve problems together. We've trained staff and elected officials, and facilitated public processes in over 100 local governments, and regional government associations, across California. We recognize the vital role technology can play, particularly in establishing and maintaining public trust. For a start, the digital platforms must work, and work well.

The perils of not answering a tweet from an irate citizen about road repairs, and so on?

Social media is definitely a tricky area—and needs a solid strategy—but also a lack of technical knowledge inside local government is disastrous. Citizens have a level of expectation about the sophistication of digital in their everyday lives, from booking travel to ecommerce, but there's often a disconnect when they come to interact with local government—we want to help change that.

So what are the practical things you offer to public policy makers here at the institute to help them improve their game?
We have a variety of methodologies: we run "Gov 2.0" training courses and our grant program awards up to $50,000 annually to support local government engagement processes. This program is especially useful in places that might be low on resources and not sure how to justify tech investment—those are also a good source of case studies for us.

Our How Are WE Doing? programhelps evaluate successes and identify room for improvement. And then we have the upcoming Professional Certificate in Advanced Public Engagement for Local Government on July 28, when 20 participants will be coming here, to Malibu, for three days. This has been a pet project of mine for a long time and I'm thrilled it's come to fruition for 2017 at last.

Before we get to this summer's event, can you give us a case study on what you've done here with local government engagement?
Absolutely. We provided public engagement support to the City of Bell, CA which is inland between L.A. and Long Beach, after they'd had a series of scandals involving public officials. They brought us in as part of a team to consult on how to turn their public engagement around. They completely embraced open data and transparency, putting their entire city budget online up for discussion. It changed the way residents could interact with local government and hugely increased levels of trust.

Other examples we've seen in our work include local governments asking for direct feedback from citizens on local transport policy decisions—just simply, via SMS, from calls to action on bus signage. That sort of ground-level action is actually more instrumental in fostering engagement than some of the flashier social media strategies we've seen. It just changes the dynamics of how local government functions.

We wrote about how the City of Malibu uses technology to prep citizens for the earthquake California hopes will never come: 'The Big One'
Emergency response, disaster preparedness, public safety—all key components of a local government tech strategy.

Let's cut to the professional certificate. What will participants be learning about technology during their three days here in Malibu?
It's important to state that technology is just one part of what we'll be doing for the certificate. But two sessions stand out: "State of the Art Public Engagement" and "The Role of Technology in Public Engagement." In these they'll be studying best practices and innovative techniques in public engagement across a local government organization, including hands-on experience with tech tools for innovative engagement in planning, budgeting, capital projects.

They'll also be getting clarity on the terms open-gov, e-government, and online engagement; the relationship between transparency and engagement and how best to use mobile and social media, various platforms, apps and survey tools—away from the influences of local vendors. To sum up, we want them to understand how technology can facilitate face-to-face engagement.

That's interesting: so it's less about 'virtual' local government and more about IRL interaction?
Contrary to popular belief, younger people, in particular, have a desire for real-life interactions. Local government functions best when it brings officials and people together, offline, for collaborative purpose.

What we've discovered through our training sessions, research case studies, and other work here is that the local officials who stand in positions of power are often the least equipped to communicate effectively with citizens. They have the expertise, but lack the facilitation skills to foster real public engagement. As resources get tighter, we must all learn to do more with less, especially being smart with civic tech tools, to ensure municipal leaders meet their remit, in successful partnership with citizens.

Shifting the civic government model from top down 'City Fathers' to a more collaborative approach?
Exactly. Here's another good example: hunger is a growing problem in our local communities and, recently, we've seen local governments work with citizens on mapping projects which show which facilities provide free meals. Everyone contributes to the data pool, showing not just official venues, but local organizations which run picnics, places of worship with soup kitchens, and so on.

That's a good example. So using digital effectively within local government is often more about facilitating authentic two-way conversation with citizens than having a flashy website?
Yes, that's it. Technology has made transparency and open government possible. Now it's time to ensure local officials use technology in a positive way to bring about real change.

School of Public Policy