Full Report - Knight Program in Community Building
Full Report - Knight Program in Community Building
Full Report - Knight Program in Community Building
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HURLEY | THE PUBLIC PROCESS 12Experiences of that k<strong>in</strong>d led to the realization that anyone who cared about a projecthad to follow it through implementation. At the same time, mediators saw thatpeople who agreed to a course of action sometimes had to re-negotiate their agreements,either because flaws <strong>in</strong> the agreement became apparent dur<strong>in</strong>g implementation,or because the circumstances changed.Tasks common to the implementation phase of consensus-build<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>clude:• Document the process• Publicize the agreement• Influence legal decision-mak<strong>in</strong>g• Take action• Monitor actions• Re-negotiateDocument<strong>in</strong>g the process is taken very seriously <strong>in</strong> public policy dispute resolutionfor several reasons. To keep the size of a group manageable, participants <strong>in</strong> thecollaborative process are often represent<strong>in</strong>g entire <strong>in</strong>terest groups. Those representativesmust be able to keep their group apprised of the negotiations. Public policydispute resolution takes time, sometimes years, and <strong>in</strong>dividuals who jo<strong>in</strong> the group<strong>in</strong> the middle of the process must understand what came before. Perhaps mostimportantly, document<strong>in</strong>g the process adds to the transparency, and thus legitimacy,of the process with legislators and the general public. This transparency and legitimacymake it more likely that the group’s recommendations will be adopted.Charrettes typically have extraord<strong>in</strong>ary stakeholder <strong>in</strong>put. The uniqueness andspectacle of the event generate extensive media attention and public participation.The breadth of topics covered and the number of citizens participat<strong>in</strong>g is impressive.However, this <strong>in</strong>put is rarely documented <strong>in</strong> a methodical way. People who are <strong>in</strong>the room see that their comments led to changes <strong>in</strong> the draw<strong>in</strong>gs, but everyoneelse—the rest of the public and many of the decision-makers—have no idea howpublic comment affected the plan. People who did not participate can always claimthat their concerns were not addressed, because there is no record of what concernswere addressed.Lesson: Document the stakeholder <strong>in</strong>put. Make notes from stakeholder meet<strong>in</strong>gs,and make those notes available <strong>in</strong> the charrette report or on a project web site.Demonstrate how public comment <strong>in</strong>fluenced the products.