Explanation
BACKGROUND: Columbus City Council approved an amendment to the 2025 Capital Improvement Program allocating $9 million in 2026 for the city’s Participatory Budget pilot.
In the Fall of 2025, an 18-member steering committee representing all 9 Council Districts convened to craft a framework and name for the participatory budget pilot. This work concluded with the development of a guidebook for the pilot - named Our Voice, Our Choice by the steering committee - in April of 2026.
The purpose of this resolution is to accept the recommendations from the steering committee and to clarify that the City of Columbus will play a supporting role throughout this process since it is resident driven.
CONTRACT COMPLIANCE: Not applicable.
FISCAL IMPACT: Not applicable.
Title
To accept the 2026 Participatory Budget Steering Committee's recommendations for the establishment of the Our Voice, Our Choice Budget and to acknowledge the city’s role in supporting residents in the execution of the remaining phases of this participatory budgeting process. ($0.00)
Body
WHEREAS, Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process where community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget, typically through brainstorming, proposal development, and voting; and
WHEREAS, the City of Columbus has allocated $9 million of capital funding, evenly distributed among the 9 council districts, to support implementation of the recommended projects from the PB pilot; and
WHEREAS, in the fall 2025 an 18-member steering committee met over the course of several weeks to learn about the city and its capital budget process, the intent behind the PB pilot, best practices shared by a national expert and to establish a general framework for the process; and
WHEREAS, the work of this steering committee resulted in the development and release of a guidebook called the Our Choice, Our Voice Budget Guidebook; and
WHEREAS, on April 29th, 2026, Council held a public hearing to unveil the guidebook and announce the Our Choice, Our Voice Budget initiative to the Columbus community; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That Columbus City Council hereby accepts the written recommendations presented by the Steering Committee and reflected in the Our Voice, Our Choice Budget Guidebook.
SECTION 2. That Columbus City Council and the City of Columbus will play a supporting role in assisting residents and community organizations with the implementation of the Idea Collection, Proposal Development, the Vote and Project Implementation phases of the process.
SECTION 3. That this resolution shall take effect and be in full force and effect from and after the earliest period allowed by law.