Marti Brown

Vision.   Strategy.   Planning.   Implementation.

Highlights & Accomplishments


Participatory Budgeting (PB) Vallejo (2012)
During Marti’s tenure on the Vallejo City Council, she spearheaded bringing PB to the City of Vallejo in 2012 becoming the first city-wide PB process in North America. At the time of its approval, PB Vallejo was the single largest allocation of funds for a PB process in the United States; received the highest number of actual votes as well as percentage of votes per capita; and it was the only PB process that allowed for funding of programs and services, as well as capital projects.

The Result:

In 2013, the City of Vallejo completed its first city-wide pilot PB process. It allocated ~ $3.2 million toward PB projects and nearly 4,000 people voted for 33 projects. of those, 12 projects won. The following year, the City hired permanent employees to staff the City’s 2014 PB process. Today, PB Vallejo is in its third cycle, and it has become an integral part of the City’s annual budget cycle.


In 2014, the League of California Cities recognized the City of Vallejo’s efforts in open and transparent government by honoring PB Vallejo with theHelen Putnam Award of Excellence. In 2015, Harvard University’s Ash Center also nationally recognized PB Vallejo as a Top 10 Program for Public Engagement in Government Award.’