Dayton citizens have established a tradition of involvement in City government decision-making dating to 1967 with Dayton's selection as a Model City. It took further shape with the formation of elected neighborhood councils as part of the Planned Variation Program. Those councils, known as Priority Boards, were officially adopted by the Dayton City Commission on June 25, 1975. They now have a quarter century of experience behind them, and have emerged as the respected and official mechanism for citizen participation in City government.
In the first 10 years, Priority Boards provided a vehicle for communication between citizens and Dayton city government. Priority Boards provided government with representative indications of the needs and priorities of neighborhoods as well as assessments of service effectiveness. City government in turn utilized Priority Boards to channel information to neighborhoods about government actions.
Priority Boards have enabled Dayton residents to be involved in policy decisions and other actions affecting their neighborhoods. This involvement has ranged from budget recommendations to suggestions of new programs and capital projects, from zoning decisions to liquor license renewals and from urban planning to programming activities at neighborhood parks.
As a result of the Priority Boards, Dayton city government has been more responsive to its neighborhoods. City government officials have been in a better position to understand what citizens want and expect, while Dayton residents have developed a greater appreciation for the capacities of City government.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Priority Board system has grown in both scope and sophistication. An innovative leadership development program provides a constant resource to identify and train new grassroots leaders. Citizen involvement in the City's budgeting, strategic planning and capital allocations has reached new levels of involvement with the establishment of the Citizens Financial Task Force in 1994. A national trend toward community-based housing and economic development has led to the formation and growth of neighborhood development corporations locally.
Priority Boards now include citizens from every Dayton neighborhood and representation from individual neighborhood groups. Each board has at least one relationship with a Neighborhood Development Corporation (NDC). Priority Boards elect members to the CND Task Force and its sub-committees and through that system are involved not only in Consolidated Plan programs, but also provide citizen review and input of the City's General Fund capital plans. The CND Task Force is the focal point for the development and implementation of the Consolidated Plan.
Dayton's Priority Board system has received considerable national and even international attention as a model of citizen participation. In 1992, Governing Magazine described Dayton as a city of remarkably assertive neighborhoods and neighborhood activists. . .ever since Dayton set up a system of area councils called 'priority boards' that press neighborhood concerns on City Hall, pass judgment on its plans for their communities and play an active role in its budgeting process. ....Dayton, Ohio is the state of the art in citizen participation. Other national recognition has come from studies and publications, including The Quickening of America, The Rebirth of Urban Democracy and Reinventing Government.
The Priority Boards and the CND Task Force conduct all of their meetings in the evenings and on Saturdays either at City Hall or at locations in the neighborhoods.