Yarra Valley Water is the water provider for nearly 2 million people in Melbourne. In 2017, they enlisted the help of a Citizens' Jury to help develop its five year price plan.
Problems and Purpose
Yarra Valley Water (YVW) is a water provider in Victoria, Australia providing water for nearly two million people in Melbourne. Every five years they are required to carry out a price review and submit relevant recommendations to the governing body, the Essential Services Commission [1]. In preparation for their 2018-2023 price review, YVW undertook a citizens’ jury.
The purpose of the jury was to help inform YVW’s price review with the considered view of their customer base, balancing the need for increased services, a growing population and improving infrastructure with the public’s willingness to pay increased rates. Making these decisions inevitably a number of trade-offs, such as improving infrastructure at the cost of increasing rates and possible service disruption. The backdrop is climate change and the increased unpredictability of rainfall which consequently affects water provision.
In addition, this is an issue that is low on most people’s priorities and is sometimes a service that is taken for granted. Therefore, there is not much in the way of public debate around the topic and little public knowledge about the complexities involved [2].
The jury was asked to find a balance between price and services that is fair for everyone.
Background History and Context
Yarra Valley Water worked with newDemocracy Foundation and MosaicLab to organize their citizens’ jury. Both the latter organisations are well-known in the field of deliberative practice in Australia. This was for the first time that YVW had undertaken such a process.
Organizing, Supporting, and Funding Entities
Yarra Valley Water convened the citizens’ jury and enlisted newDemocracy Foundation and MosaicLab for the design, organization and facilitation of the process.
Participant Recruitment and Selection
Participants were recruited through a random sample stratified for age, gender, household type (e.g. property owner, tenant) and locality [3]. Two modifications were used to make the sample most relevant for YVW. 10% of the jury were business members, since this group makes up a substantial usage of YVW services. In addition, YVW had developed eight customer ‘personas’, ‘representing the different value-sets across our customer base’ [4] which were also incorporated into the selection process.
Invitations were sent out to an initial 29,000 people through a mix of both electronic and traditional mail [5], to recruit 35 jurors to take part in deliberation [2].
Methods and Tools Used
What Went On: Process, Interaction, and Participation
In the lead up to the citizens' jury, there was a process of research and citizen engagement to inform deliberation [9].
The jury met over five days across three months, deliberating for a total of 40 hours. Prior to the process, they were provided with an information pack with relevant information. The jury were not asked to consider a specific proposal or recommendation in advance, but presented with the challenge and general issue and asked to come up with recommendations [6]. Jurors were given the specific remit question, We need to find a balance between price and service which is fair for everyone. How should we do this? [9].
A stakeholder reference group was set up to guide the process and these stakeholders helped select the expert witnesses that jurors heard from on Day 2 of the jury. Jurors also had the opportunity to select speakers that they wanted to hear from on Day 3. On Day 4, the jury began to work through their initial ideas into recommendations through meeting with the board of YVW in speed dialogue sessions. The aim of this was to test out the jury’s ideas and their viability. The jury prepared ten recommendations that were collated into their final report and presented to the board of directors of YVW on Day 5 of the jury. These recommendations were influenced the Yarra Valley Water Price Submission 2018-2023 that was submitted to the Essential Services Commission [9].
Influence, Outcomes, and Effects
Yarra Valley Water pursued all of the jury recommendations: eight in full and two with variations [7]. YVW also state that the jury process has
‘informed the way we work – particularly, how we seek insights and feedback from our communities and engage with them to deliver our services. The outcomes from the jury process have provided a platform to ensure we have a clear understanding of our customers’ needs and expectations’ [8].
Analysis and Lessons Learned
MosaicLab lists some of the challenges faced with this citizens' jury initiative:
- adequately delving into the process and issue while at the same time ensuring a range of views are considered
- building community confidence in process
- high risk for Yarra Valley Water's business and customer base to engage in this process
- appreciating the complexity of the issue and the factors that are involved
- achieving consensus among a diverse group of participants [9]
MosaicLab also lists some of the "keys to success" in this process:
- Yarra Valley Water remaining flexible in process to accommodate any requests and needs
- transparency of process
- clear expectations
- clear remit
- jury supported by senior decision makers
- all partners have same goal to undertake and achieve a good process [9]
See Also
References
[1] Yarra Valley Water (2017). Citizens' Jury to help determine water services and pricing. Available at: https://www.yvw.com.au/about-us/news-room/citizens-jury-help-determine-water-services-and-pricing
[2] newDemocracy Foundation (2017). Yarra Valley Water Price Submission Process 2017 Strategic Design. newDemocracy Foundation. Available at: https://newdemocracy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/docs_activeprojects_yarravalley2017_nDF_VW_PriceSubmissionProcess_StrategicDesign_2017_FINAL_7_March_2017.pdf
[3] ibid.
[4] Yarra Valley Water (2017). A customer-led price submission. Yarra Valley Water. Available at: https://www.yvw.com.au/about-us/our-strategy/price-review-and-determination/customer-led-price-submission
[5] newDemocracy Foundation (2017). Yarra Valley Water Price Submission Process 2017 Strategic Design. newDemocracy Foundation. Available at: https://newdemocracy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/docs_activeprojects_yarravalley2017_nDF_VW_PriceSubmissionProcess_StrategicDesign_2017_FINAL_7_March_2017.pdf
[6] Yarra Valley Water (2017). A customer-led price submission. Yarra Valley Water. Available at: https://www.yvw.com.au/about-us/our-strategy/price-review-and-determination/customer-led-price-submission
[7] Yarra Valley Water (2018) Our response to the Citizens' Jury's recommendations. Yarra Valley Water. Available at: https://www.yvw.com.au/about-us/news-room/our-response-citizens-jurys-recommendations
[8] Yarra Valley Water (2017). A customer-led price submission. Yarra Valley Water. Available at: https://www.yvw.com.au/about-us/our-strategy/price-review-and-determination/customer-led-price-submissionhttps://www.yvw.com.au/about-us/our-strategy/price-review-and-determination/customer-led-price-submission
[9] MosaicLab (2018) Case Study: Balancing Pricing Fairness for All. Available at: https://www.mosaiclab.com.au/news-all-posts/2018/4/5/case-study-yvw.