The rulebooks list five principles under 'How we work': Empowerment (enable local people to decide how PB works in their communities and across the city), Transparency, Inclusion (make special efforts to engage people who face obstacles, are often excluded or are disillusioned with government), Equality in Cycles 2 to 6 replaced by Equity from Cycle 7 (accessible decision-making for historically underrepresented groups and spending that most benefits high-needs communities), and Community (bring people together across traditional lines of division). Here Empowerment is filed as Shared power and Community as Solidarity. Inclusion visibly drives rules: mandatory special assemblies for underrepresented groups, mobile vote sites where they concentrate, translated ballots (16 languages besides English in Cycle 8), no citizenship requirement, and a voting age that fell from 18 to 11. Equity is filed as aspirational because the evaluators (Cycle 3 report) called promoting and measuring equity 'an area for growth' even as tools like district needs maps and the equity matrix (Cycle 6) and Idea Ranking Tool (Cycle 7 onward) were added, and no source measures whether spending became more equitable. Empowerment is filed as aspirational because the body through which local people shaped the rules, the Citywide Steering Committee that voted on rulebook changes, became an Advisory Committee in Cycle 7 and by Cycle 9 only advises the Council and gives feedback on the rulebook. The early rulebooks were drafted by a Steering Committee of Council Members and community organizations led by Community Voices Heard and the Participatory Budgeting Project, so the values are partly partner-shaped even though the Council publishes them.