La Orotava announces the beginning of its first pilot experience for the elaboration of some participatory budgets. In this first phase, the residents of the Villa will be able to decide the destination of 5% of the investments of the year 2023as well as 10% of items from areas such as Youth, Seniors or Business, with amounts yet to be defined. This entails direct consultation with citizens regarding the use of at least 300,000 euros of a budget for investments that in 2022 is around 6 million euros.
The process will take place throughout the year 2022, in different phases. The different groups will be able to present their proposals, also individually, but they will have to be technically validated. In the final stage, with viable proposals already raised, a voting phase will open and prioritization of the proposals for their execution during the next year 2023.
In these first months of the year, various information and training actions are organized with young people, the elderly and companies in the municipality so that they learn about the initiative and how to participate. Training will also be offered through workshops to present project proposals in a correct way. Since this month of January, different communication and information channels have already been openedsuch as talks, to encourage participation to be as broad as possible.
This process is an initiative of the Citizen Participation area of the City Council of La Orotava, which directs DElijah Escobar (CC), which begins its work for three key groups for the municipality: the elderly, the young and local companies and businesses. According to the mayor of Economy, Felipe David Benitez (CC)the proposals will be assessed “technically and economically to select the viable actions both in terms of activities, services and investments, as well as the necessary execution time”.
10% of games from various areas
This pilot experience of participatory elaboration of the budget of the City Council of Villa de La Orotava will also allow the neighbors to decide the destination of 10% of the items for Youth, Seniors or Commerce. Apart from 5% of investments.
Escobar explains that “in order to design the regulations that govern these participatory budgets, work has been done, also in a participatory manner, with the technical staff of the different areas of the city council and with the support of the Social Factory entityin charge of managing the different processes that this project requires.
The regulation aims to “provide clear and transparent rules and rules of the game, so that residents can participate on equal terms with a simple and effective tool,” according to the councilor.
“We are going to promote a clear, democratic and transparent participation strategy”
Mayor, Francisco Linares (CC), adds that this action is “a way to have the participation of citizens in public management, so that residents can make decisions in the management of part of the budget.” In his opinion, for this initiative to be successful “it will be necessary to have the technicians of the different departments, as well as the collaboration of the representatives of the political groups of the corporation.”
