Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of authority is to accept the authorized public group's (e.g., CAC or TAC) recom-
mendation as long as it falls within certain bounds and meets certain criteria.
The critical consideration in determining roles and responsibilities is to assign a
role and authority to the public that is within their area of interest and expertise,
clearly state the commitment, and then live up to it.
For the basic public outreach program, participation is very simple, the
events are publicized, and whoever shows up participates. For expanded
programs, who participates and in what role is much more complicated.
Expanded programs almost always have a CAC or a similar steering group
as the focal point of the outreach program. Composition of the group is criti-
cal to the success of the program and members must:
r Be willing to commit to extensive time and energy demands.
r Collectively represent all interests and actively communicate with
their constituents.
r Be unbiased or must acknowledge that they represent a particular
point of view but be willing to listen to other perspectives and open
to compromise.
r Be conversant (not necessarily an expert but some background
knowledge and willingness to learn) on most of the aspects, issues,
local setting, and components of potential proposed actions.
r Be willing to accept and support the role and authority assigned to
the group.
r Be willing and have a demonstrated record of working productively
in a team or group setting.
So how is a group with such attributes selected and assembled? Similar to
establishing the roles and authority of the CAC, the selection is the shared
responsibility of the major players including the groups identified above
responsible for establishing the rules of engagement. These organizations
negotiate the structure of the CAC or a similar group, including its size,
interests to be represented, and member selection process. The agreed upon
structure often includes assigned seats on the CAC designated by major
stakeholders (e.g., specific elected or appointed government official from
the most affected municipality or from a heavily involved advocacy group).
Once the structure of oversight or advisory groups is established there are
several options for populating the group (Bregman 1999):
r Self-identification: interested parties volunteer and if the available
pool exceeds the available positions, a selection is made based on a
predetermined and publicized process.
r Group identification: groups (e.g., neighborhood association, water-
shed association, environmental or economic advocacy group) with
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