Civic Catalyst Newsletter
Winter 1997

Seattle's Mock Citizens Jury Convicts

By Eric Pryne and Marion Woyvodich

Guilty, guilty, guilty! That was the verdict when the "Front Porch Forum" staged a mock trial charging the citizens of the Puget Sound region with failing to do enough to preserve the area's quality of life.

The trial was the culmination of a year-long project titled, "Puget Sound 2020." It pulled together a demographically mixed group of 97 citizens who

The Seattle Times devoted four full pages to the mock trial. The paper outlined "charges," the "jury," the "prosecutor" and "defense attorney," the "deliberations," and the judge's "sentence," requiring the jurors to come up with action steps that leaders and citizens must take to prevent such "guilty"verdicts in the future.

spent two full days deliberating on problems caused by the region's rapid growth. What they produced was a laundry list of solutions to the area's most-pressing concerns.

The region -- often described as the nation's most liveable -- is in fact becoming a less desirable place. Business is booming; jobs are plentiful. Traffic is gridlocked; housing is unaffordable. Developers are squaring off with open-space advocates. Air and water quality are growing concerns. It's predicted another 1 million people will reside in the region in the next 20 years. All of these factors are contributing to a growing sense of despair.

The "Front Porch Forum" employed a "funnel" strategy: start wide, narrow the focus and go deep on the most important issues. The project began by inviting area residents to host pizza parties for family and friends to talk about regional issues. More than 250 citizens accepted the invitation and hosted parties in June that were attended by more than 1,500 people. Partygoers were asked to respond to four questions: What do you value most about your neighborhood/community? Is there anything you wish were different about your neighborhood/community? What do you value most about living in the Puget Sound region? If you had one wish for something you'd like to see happen (or stop happening) in the region over the next 20 years, what would that wish be, and how would you make it come true?

Responses to partygoers' questions were used to develop a region-wide, 50-question, public opinion survey that polled 400 citizens just after Labor Day. Findings helped to focus issues citizens described as being of greatest concern. Chief among the issues cited were traffic congestion, rapid development and loss of affordable housing.

The Forum retained David Harrison of the University of Washington's Graduate School of Public Affairs, David Messerschmidt of the Public Affairs Media Group, and Stuart Elway of Elway Research to develop the mock-trial format.

From the list of pizza-partygoers, survey respondents and citizens-at-large, Elway recruited 97 individuals who were willing to devote two full Saturdays to the deliberations. They convened at a local community college.

The trial was set in the year 2020. The charge: "Citizens and government leaders of the metropolitan area failed in 1997 to take necessary steps to prepare for ongoing population growth, thus causing deterioration of the region's treasured quality of life."

The "jurors" were instructed to "look back on 1997" while listening to the arguments of a "prosecutor" and "defense attorney." They heard testimony of four "expert witnesses" to learn more about public efforts that were under way at that time. The jurors then weighed all the evidence. Using hand-held electronic polling devices, they voted overwhelmingly to hold the region's citizenry guilty as charged.

The "judge," Hubert Locke, dean emeritus of the UW Graduate School of Public Affairs, "sentenced" the jurors to continue living in the communities that their actions and inactions had created. However, Locke said he would suspend the sentence if the jurors would identify the action steps leaders and citizens could take to prevent such guilty verdicts in the future.

At this point, the jurors broke into four sub-juries. Each was led by a trained facilitator, who was instructed to capture the jurors' emotional depth and push them toward specific solutions. In addition to the problems of congestion, development and housing that had been identified in the pizza-parties and region-wide survey, the desire to recapture a sense of community and re-connect citizens and government rated high on the sub-juries' lists.

"I was amazed at how eloquent some of the people were," said Robert Smith, KUOW reporter who covered the trial. "I had plenty of great tape to use."

"The language of the jurors was fresh," said trial-planner Messerschmidt. "The 'randomness' of the jury was an extraordinary feature. . . there was real interaction and give-and-take."

When the court reconvened, it was with scores of juror-inspired solutions real people could employ. Among them: Promote high-density housing, retail and business development; purchase and protect more open space; encourage everyone to give up their cars for a week, during which transit services would provide free "commuter happy hour" service, employers would subsidize carpools, and elected leaders would set an example by using alternative transportation.

Jurors also advocated making community service a high-school graduation requirement, organizing more community tree plantings and encouraging neighbors to barter services for services. They advised government to become more customer-service oriented and involve citizens in planning from its inception.

"Judge" Locke commended jurors for being "tenacious, inventive and imaginative" in their deliberations and proposals. He urged them to fight for the same sense of community in their neighborhoods and region that they displayed in their deliberations. He then suspended their sentence.

Juror Joanne LaFond praised the process for helping people "cross boundaries."

"In my every-day life, there is very little possibility that I would meet a housewife from Renton, a teacher from Snohomish County or a janitor from South Seattle. I think the regional nature of the group gave it a dimension other citizen groups don't have," she said.

After the trial, 10 jurors were recruited to serve on citizen panels for the media-sponsored candidate forums. This helped to put the jurors' concerns to the candidates running for Seattle mayor and King County executive. The trial planners planned to present the findings of the citizens' work to 70 newly elected municipal officials in January. They planned to ask the newly elected officeholders to respond to the same survey questions posed of citizens and then compare the findings.

The jury proceedings were featured in one-hour documentaries by KCTS public television and KUOW radio, and two double-truck packages in The Seattle Times. Both radio partners also featured reports.