Orville Thomas

Project: Increasing civic and political engagement among Vallejo residents

Orville Thomas, MPP '13 is interested in how political issues can be better explained to the public, and is researching how the City of Vallejo is attempting to increase interaction between its residents and government with “PB Vallejo”, the nation’s first city-wide participatory budging project.  His research focuses on increasing civic and political engagement among Vallejo residents while also focusing on how the city attempts to inform residents about government decisions. The ultimate goal of his research is to help create a communications and civic engagement strategy to help the City of Vallejo avoid legislation and policies which would lead them back into bankruptcy.