About the Community Involvement Committee
The Community Involvement Committee (CIC) serves as Multnomah County’s advisory body on community engagement and involvement.
The CIC plays a crucial role in bringing community voice into county decision-making. CIC members engage in an ongoing review of the County's community involvement policies and programs, bring community concerns to County leadership, and assist in facilitating communication between the County and the community.
Together, the committee makes recommendations directly to the Office of Community Involvement, County departments and the Board of County Commissioners about opportunities for community engagement and removing barriers to civic participation.
CIC members are appointed by the Board of County Commissioners. The CIC meets every other month on the third Tuesday from 6-8pm. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently holding most CIC meetings virtually.
In fiscal year 2024 (2023-2024), the CIC created recommendations related to community involvement in the County budget process and County gun violence prevention and response - The CIC will present their recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners on Thursday, June 27th, in their morning session. A brief summary of recommendations is below- read their recommendations from this and past years on the CIC Recommendations Page.
Community engagement in the budget process was selected by the CIC as a topic after learning it is a current priority for Chair Vega Pederson and the Office of Community Involvement. Over the course of the year, the Budget Engagement Subcommittee met with County program staff and community partners who work to improve community voice and power in the budgeting process, as well as reviewed recommendation letters from the County Auditor and Central CBAC. They explored current and planned Multnomah County programs, as well as how other jurisdictions engage the community in their budgets. Their letter shares findings of successful engagement opportunities that are only accessible to a limited number of people. They also found broad barriers to engagement across the County. This subcommittee structured their ten recommendations around three themes. Theme one is to implement best practices for broad and diverse community engagement on the budget: including broad engagement, County-wide budget engagement, and smaller budgeting decisions such as budget notes and adjustments throughout the year. Theme two encourages improvements to the Community Budget Advisory Committee program as well as feedback loops for all County advisory bodies as part of budget engagement. The third theme recommends future-forward community engagement programs in civic education and participatory budgeting.
The topic of community engagement on programs and policies are related to community violence, and especially gun violence, was chosen by the CIC following conversations about the subject's urgency and importance to Multnomah County residents, as well as it's complexity and difficulty for community to know what is happening and why. Subcommittee members met with County staff who work in many departments and offices involved in violence prevention and response, and attended meetings with partners as well as of the Multnomah Youth Commission. From these meetings they found many activities, programs, and collaborations among departments and jurisdictions, though there were not many opportunities for community members to get involved with the work. They also identified an appetite for increased community engagement, with barriers of funding limiting opportunities and staff time. The subcommittee uplifted five recommendations to the Board. The first recommends centralized information and creative data visualization to improve information access. The second focuses on improving educational opportunities for community and staff to be well informed about the ever changing response to community violence. Thirdly, the letter recommends increasing large scale events that provide opportunities for both education and input from community, with a goal of hosting one town hall or similar in fiscal year 2025. The fourth recommendation builds on the Budget Engagement Subcommittee's letter in recommending opportunities for communities impacted by violence to shape where and how money is spent on addressing violence in their community. Finally they recommend more work on this topic in years to come.
You can find fiscal year 2024’s CIC recommendation letters linked below:
Additionally, they are revised the bylaws and policies and procedures in an ad hoc governance subcommittee, current governing documents are available under the Meetings, Minutes, Documents page.
The CIC will present on this year's work and their recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners on Thursday, June 27th, in their morning session. Details for how to attend or view online are available here.
You can view CIC recommendations and board briefings from prior years on our website.
Applications for the CIC closed on Friday, March 15th, 2024 - a special recruitment for District 1 (find your district here) will open soon.
You can learn more about the application and preview the questions on the Frequently Asked Questions page.
Community Involvement Committee vacancies are assessed and applications are accepted on an annual basis. You can sign up for our quarterly e-newsletter to stay connected with the Office of Community Involvement and to receive news on other opportunities to get involved with Multnomah County!
Questions?
Want to know more? Check out our Frequently Asked Questions on applying for the CIC, and contact us with additional questions.
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