Making Public Participation Legal

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Sandy Heierbacher

Most of the laws that govern public participation in the U.S. are over thirty years old. They do not match the expectations and capacities of citizens today, they pre-date the Internet, and they do not reflect the lessons learned in the last two decades about how citizens and governments can work together. Increasingly, public administrators and public engagement practitioners are hindered by the fact that it’s unclear if many of the best practices in participation are even allowed by the law.

Making Public Participation Legal, a 2013 publication of the National Civic League (with support from the National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation), presents a valuable set of tools, including a model ordinance, set of policy options, and resource list, to help communities improve public participation.

The tools and articles in Making Public Participation Legal were developed over the past year by the Working Group on Legal Frameworks for Public Participation — an impressive team convened and guided by Matt Leighninger of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC).

In addition to DDC, NCL and NCDD, the Working Group also includes representatives of the American Bar Association, International Municipal Lawyers Association, National League of Cities, Policy Consensus Initiative, International Association for Public Participation, and International City/County Management Association, as well as leading practitioners and scholars of public participation.

The publication was released at a launch event on October 23rd at the Brookings Institution in D.C. The launch event was opened by Darrell West, Brookings’ VP and director of Governance Studies and the director of the Center for Technology Innovation. Members of an expert panel described the overarching problem as the lack of guiding principles to govern civic engagement. The panelists included moderator Matt Leighninger, executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium, Lisa Blomgren Amsler, professor of public service at Indiana University, Mike Huggins, former city manager in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Kevin Curry, Program Director for the Code for America Brigade.

The main remedy the panelists proposed was the Model Municipal Public Participation Ordinance. Prof. Amsler said it would be a starting point to set the ground for whoever wants to innovate. The way public participation is defined in the ordinance allows for increased freedom of discussion and innovation. She also advocated for local government offices to appoint an individual to learn about public engagement, pass on that knowledge, and bridge the gap between the local government and the people in regards to public participation.

Leighninger described the situation created by the ordinance as “a model which … does not require public participation in any particular format but enables and supports what we hope will be better public participation.”

Huggins also supported the ordinance because it would create a positive definition of public participation as a public good. He saw it as an important way to foster more communication between the government and the public. To Huggins, the ordinance would build a capacity for local elected officials to have support from the community through discussion and innovation.

See the Brookings Institutions’ full overview of the event here, or download the audio archive here.

Resource Link: http://www.allamericacityaward.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Making-Public-Participation-Legal_Layout-1-8.pdf (or our shortcut link, www.tinyurl.com/p2law)

Tackling Wicked Problems Takes Resident Engagement

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Courtney Breese

This August 2013 article addresses the increasing need for local governments to utilize public engagement and collaboration in order to address local, national and global issues despite the trend of citizen detachment from public problem solving, and the challenge of may government officials not having the resources or knowledge to do so.

It was written by NCDD Supporting Member Mike Huggins and Cheryl Hilvert for the International City/County Management Association’s (ICMA) magazine, Public Management. ICMA’s mission is to create excellence in local governance by developing and fostering professional management to build better communities.

From the article:

In dealing with the local impacts of national and global issues and the myriad other problems confronting local governments, managers must do so in a public policy context more frequently characterized by widely dispersed expertise in the community, rapidly expanding social media platforms and venues for sharing information and opinions, more organized and active advocacy groups, more incivility in public discourse, and a declining public trust in government.

The difficult issues and challenging environments confronting local governments result in managers operating more and more in the realm of what may be called wicked problems: complex, interdependent issues that lack a clear problem definition and involve the conflicting perspectives of multiple stakeholders.

While collaboration and engagement are suggested as an appropriate approach to wicked problems, to many this represents a challenge that is wicked in and of itself. Many managers simply don’t know where to begin, how to plan effective programs for engagement, how to measure their efforts, or where to turn for resources and assistance.

Strategies:

The article outlines several emerging strategies coming from a variety of sources, including Carolyn Lukensmeyer and the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2). Following a review of the research findings, the author’s provide a list of 10 suggestions that managers should consider in building an effective engagement strategy for their communities:

Take stock of what you are already doing, distinguishing between exchange and engagement efforts.
Assess how receptive your organization is to initiatives from community groups and to what extent your organizational culture supports civic engagement.
Work with your elected officials to convene a community conversation on engagement to hear from residents how they wish to be involved in shaping community life and how local government could contribute to meeting their aspirations.
Identify potential issues that need resident engagement and involvement, including new ways staff could interact with residents in the day-to-day delivery of services.
Plan an engagement event by matching the purpose and intended outcomes with the appropriate technique and activity.
Actively recruit diverse stakeholder groups beyond the “usual suspects” who always participate.
Provide participants multiple opportunities to compare values and interests and articulate self-interests, and include opportunities in both large forums and small-group discussions.
Seek to combine both online and face-to-face engagement opportunities and venues.
Design engagement initiatives to move from talk to action by identifying tangible goals and desired outcomes; then, measure your success.
Develop an ongoing program in partnership with residents and community organizations to build meaningful engagement and facilitate resident problem solving in the work of local government.

Article conclusions:

At the end of the day, effective civic action and problem solving depends on ordinary individuals thinking of themselves as productive people who hold themselves accountable—people who can build things, do things, come up with ideas and resources, and be bold in their approach. Communities need places and spaces where people can develop their civic capacities and their public lives.

Local governments need to recognize the importance of engagement work as well as the need for effective plans for engagement and ways to measure the results of their efforts. The local government manager will play a key leadership role in achieving these goals.

Resource Link: http://webapps.icma.org/pm/9507/public/cover.cfm?title=Tackling+Wicked+Problems+Takes+Resident+Engagement++&subtitle&author=Mike+Huggins+and+Cheryl+Hilvert

Rulemaking 2.0: Understanding and Getting Better Public Participation

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Courtney Breese

This 2013 report from the IBM Center for The Business of Government is based on five case studies of e-rulemaking experiments to better engage the public, and offers advice on how agencies can increase the quantity and quality of public participation. By authors Cynthia R.Farina and Mary J.Newhart with CeRI (the Cornell eRulemaking Initiative).

From Center Executive Director Dan Chenok’s announcement:

This report provides important insights in how governments can improve the rulemaking process by taking full advantage of Rulemaking 2.0 technology, building on the progress made by the U.S. Government’s longstanding Regulations.Gov initiative. The report’s findings and recommendations are based on five experiments with Rulemaking 2.0 conducted by CeRI researchers, four in partnership with the Department of Transportation and one with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

While geared specifically to achieving better public participation in rulemaking, the concepts, findings, and recommendations contained in the report are applicable to all government agencies interested in enhancing public participation in a variety of processes. The report offers advice on how government organizations can increase both the quantity and quality of public participation from specific groups of citizens, including missing stakeholders, unaffiliated experts, and the general public.

The report describes three barriers to effective participation in rulemaking: lack of awareness, low participation literacy, and information overload. While the report focuses on rulemaking, these barriers also hinder public participation in other arenas. The report offers three strategies to overcome such barriers:

Outreach to alert and engage potential new participants
Converting newcomers into effective commenters
Making substantive rulemaking information accessible

This report makes an excellent companion piece to two previous IBM Center reports. In 2011, the Center published Assessing Public Participation in an Open Government Era: A Review of Federal Agency Plans, by Carolyn Lukensmeyer, Joe Goldman, and David Stern. That report addresses how public participation can be increased via online public participation, face-to-face public participation, and formal public participation (such as rulemaking and federal advisory committees). An earlier IBM Center report, The Management of Regulation Development: Out of the Shadows, by American University President Cornelius Kerwin, addressed the need to government to give increased attention to its role in regulation development and rulemaking.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
- Purpose of this Report
- Intended Audience and Outline
Understanding the Barriers to Rulemaking Participation
- Case Studies
- Barriers to Effective Participation
Understanding Types of Potential Rulemaking Participants
- Type One: Sophisticated Commenters
- Type Two: Missing Stakeholders
- Type Three: Unaffiliated Experts
- Type Four: Members of the General Public
Strategies to Lower Participation Barriers and Enhance Participation Quality
- Strategy One: Outreach to Alert and Engage Potential New Participants
- Strategy Two: Converting Newcomers to Effective Commenters
- Strategy Three: Making Substantive Rulemaking Information Accessible
Recommendations
- Understanding and Getting Broader and Better Rulemaking Participation
- Building a New Culture of Rulemaking Participation—From Inside the Agency Out
References
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
Key Contact Information

About the IBM Center for The Business of Government
The IBM Center for The Business of Government connects public management research with practice. Since 1998, the Center has helped public sector executives improve the effectiveness of government with practical ideas and original thinking. They sponsor independent research by top minds in academe and the non-profit sector, and create opportunities for dialogue on a broad range of public management topics. The Center’s publications focus on the major management issues facing all governments today: e-government, financial management, human capital management, managing for performance and results, market-based government, and innovation, collaboration and transformation.

Resource Link: http://www.businessofgovernment.org/blog/business-government/new-report-examines-state-rulemaking-20

Direct Download: http://www.businessofgovernment.org/sites/default/files/Rulemaking%202%200.pdf

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Category Archives: great for public managers

Making Public Participation Legal

Tackling Wicked Problems Takes Resident Engagement