Policy Consensus E-News — Spring 2010

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Editor's Note: Collaborative Leadership

PCI has been working hard over the past decade to promote a new role for leaders in solving our public problems and seizing new opportunities. PCI believes that we need new forms of leadership - some might say a revolution in leadership - that brings Americans together to tackle the difficult problems we face today. For some time now we have been promoting what we see as a very powerful role that leaders have but as a rule do not use- the role of convener of organizations, businesses and citizens as well as government to address public problems and opportunities. In this issue of PCI E-news, we focus on the efforts of several leaders throughout the country who are doing just that.

First, the PCI Board recently honored Daniel Kemmis, a leader across sectors and levels of government, with the Ruckelshaus Award in Collaborative Governance. Read about Dan, who truly embodies collaborative leadership, below. The Board has also named Washington State Representative Jim Jacks, who has served as convener of a Solutions project, as a PCI Board member.  In this issue we are also highlighting a new law in Minnesota passed by the state legislature to create a Collaborative Governance Council.  And finally, two new PCI videos portray mayors in Oregon and California convening their communities to implement collaborative solutions to difficult issues.

PCI continues its work to train and support leaders in collaborative governance. Last month marked the third anniversary and annual meeting of the University Network for Collaborative Governance, a national network of 30 university centers that engage in service and scholarship in order to build the capacity for collaborative governance in their communities and states. In June, NPCC will hold its fourth training for public agency managers in collaborative governance in Portland, OR.

This winter, PCI’s affiliate partner, Maine Solutions, provided a bi-partisan training on “The Convener’s Role in Collaboration” for the Maine Legislature.  The training, which included legislators from both chambers, was sponsored by Senator Chris Rector, who currently co-chairs the Maine Solutions Advisory Committee, House Majority Leader John Piotti, and Representative Terry Hayes.  We also conducted a workshop for Women In Government, a national, non-profit, bi-partisan organization of women state legislators. In January it hosted its largest State Directors’ Conference with 38 states represented and over 130 total in attendance, including 80 women legislators.  PCI’s Chris Carlson was asked to make a presentation to the group on “Convening and Consensus Building.” The session was well received and included a lively question and answer session. And this spring, PCI returned to the Young Elected Officials Network annual conference, with two sessions on “Convening: the Leader’s Powerful Role.”

- Greg Wolf, Executive Director

PCI's Ruckelshaus Award for Collaborative Leadership

Ruckelshaus Award for Collaborative Leadership 2010 Awardee Dan Kemmis

PCI has been working hard over the past ten years to promote a new role for leaders in solving our public problems and seizing new opportunities. PCI believes that we need new forms of leadership, some might say a revolution in leadership, that brings Americans together to tackle the difficult problems we face today. For some time now we have been promoting what we see as a very powerful role that leaders have but as a rule do not use- the role of convener of organizations, businesses and citizens as well as government to address public problems and opportunities.

When PCI decided that we needed to recognize leaders who play this  role and that we needed to establish an award for that purpose we did not have to think long about who has demonstrated the art and practice  and come to symbolize this form of leadership and governance more than  Bill Ruckleshaus. Bill has demonstrated how bringing a community of interests together works to solve problems from the beginning of his career.  From the time when he served as Administrator of the EPA when he brought the approach to Tacoma in dealing with a copper smelter to the present where he currently leads the effort to restore Puget Sound to health, he has been a tireless convener of the people who can govern problems the best, the people who are affected by them.

Last month, the PCI Board presented the Ruckelshaus Award for Collaborative Leadership to Daniel Kemmis.  Dan, like Bill, hasn’t stopped at simply demonstrating collaborative leadership, which he did as Majority leader and Speaker of the Montana House and Mayor of Missoula, MT. He has also understood the need to build an infrastructure for it. He understands that we need places to go when a problem demands a collaborative solution. He understands that leaders need the support of skilled staff who can do the work of collaboration in support of leaders. So, Dan has aligned himself with university centers at the University of Montana, first with the Center for the Rocky Mountain West and second with the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy.

We have identified the traits that mark a collaborative leader - transparency, inclusiveness, integrity, consensus building to name a few. When you think of Dan Kemmis these traits are obvious. But he has become the intellectual leader of the emerging field of collaborative governance.  He has written books, starting with Community and the Politics of Place and followed by This Sovereign Land, that point us toward a new form of governance.

We stand at a point in history when truly collaborative solutions are needed as never before. Thomas Jefferson said that in a true democracy every generation needs a new revolution. If the revolution we need in the country now is to create places where our leaders bring people together to solve problems and seize opportunities in a spirit of collaboration, the Board can think of no one who has done more to set the stage for a new, truly democratic future.

Colorado Main Streets Initiative Uses Solutions System in 4 Pilot Communities

Main Street in Fowler, Colorado

In May, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter designated four communities around Colorado to pilot a new Sustainable Main Streets Initiative, which will target state resources to help communities overcome their unique challenges and achieve long-term stability and prosperity. Gov. Ritter signed an executive order directing multiple state agencies to partner and concentrate on creating more livable local communities.

“One of the greatest things about Colorado is that we are bound together by a fabric of distinct cities, towns and communities,” Gov. Ritter said. “Each of these places has a center or a heart or a Main Street that reflects the community’s unique character and personality. And each of these central business districts has its own struggles with vacant storefronts and disappearing jobs, challenges with aging buildings and deteriorating infrastructure, challenges with how to create a self-sustaining future.”

The Sustainable Main Streets Initiative will direct state agencies to identify and target specific resources to support community projects, ranging from increasing disaster readiness plans to improving energy efficiency in downtown areas to preserving the cultural integrity of the community’s core.

The Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) will lead the initiative to help communities achieve their desired outcomes. DOLA Executive Director Susan Kirkpatrick will serve as co-chair with Don Marostica, director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

Kirkpatrick said, “Here in Colorado, under Gov. Ritter’s direction, state agencies are pooling resources to strengthen communities. This is an innovative, efficient approach -- each community will define sustainability differently, depending on its unique circumstances, culture, history and values. Working together, we can maximize resources to tailor solutions to fit the community.”

Don Marostica said, “Our concerted, coordinated effort in delivering our services to Colorado communities will help serve a model for doing business throughout the state. We’re working to be even more efficient and strategic in how we address communities’ needs and this is an important milestone.”

The four pilot communities are Five Points, the Town of Fowler, City of Monte Vista and the City of Rifle. The communities are geographically distributed throughout Colorado with demonstrated management capacity and readiness to move forward with specific strategies to achieve sustainable outcomes for their downtowns.

The Initiative is utilizing the Public Solutions model to carry out the community projects, and DOLA staff, along with leaders from the pilot communities, have received training in the Solutions system from PCI as Colorado has developed the initiative. Wil Alston, executive director of the Five Points Business District called the Initiative “wonderful and significant news. Five Points has such rich history and heritage, but hasn’t quite grown into the community it could be. Like our rural counterparts, we’re looking to create a thriving and sustainable community that honors our past and keeps the future squarely in front of us. This investment by Gov. Ritter and the state is one more tool to help us to do that.”

Visit the DOLA website to learn more about the Sustainable Main Streets Initiative.

MN State Legislature Approves Creation of Collaborative Governance Council

In a bi-partisan gesture, Rep. Marsha Swails, left, and Rep. Carol McFarlane, right, give each other a “high five” after the conclusion of a May 3 conference committee that meant the completion of a bill the two co-authored that would establish a Collaborative Governance Council. Photo by Andrew VonBank, Minnesota House of Representatives Photo Gallery.

The Minnesota Legislature passed a bill that was signed into law to create a Collaborative Governance Council that will increase collaboration between state and local government. 

The council will include the State Auditor and a member of the League of Minnesota Cities; Minnesota Association of Townships; Association of Minnesota Counties; Minnesota School Board Association; American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Council 5; MN Chamber of Commerce; Education Minnesota; and Service Employees International Union.

The bill was a bi-partisan effort, co-sponsored by Rep. Marsha Swails and Rep. Carol McFarlane. 

Initially, Reps. Swails and McFarlane convened a work group to examine shared services among school districts in Minnesota.  Swails, a high school teacher, described the work group as “an informal process that was more like a classroom than anything else.”  McFarlane and Swails traveled across the state together, attending Education Service Cooperative meetings, and heard more stories about the challenges local governments encountered in attempts to share services among school districts or among other units of government, such as fire departments.  From these discussions, McFarlane and Swails realized that the question underlying many of these conversations was “what are the obstacles that keep communities from sharing?”

Swails noted that while some groups were initially skeptical of what the workgroup would accomplish, “Carol and I kept asking them to come to meetings.  Building trust was key to getting people to want to be part of a solution, and so we did what we could to break down formalities. Carol and I sat at the witness table facing the group in the galley and engaged them in lively discussions rather than a formal hearing process” 

As the bill passed in the House, 108-22, Rep. Swails twittered, “True bi-partisan work brought this to reality.  Most important bill of my two terms.”

State auditor Rebecca Otto, who will chair the Council, said, “"Local governments are already collaborating, but we want to identify other areas where they could collaborate in these tight times. If there are laws in the way of allowing that to happen, we will make recommendations to change current statute."

The Council’s first meeting will take place by July 30th of this year.

Above: In a bi-partisan gesture, Rep. Marsha Swails, left, and Rep. Carol McFarlane, right, give each other a “high five” after the conclusion of a May 3 conference committee that meant the completion of a bill the two co-authored that would establish a Collaborative Governance Council.  Photo by Andrew VonBank, Minnesota House of Representatives Photo Gallery.

PCI Video Series: Two New Videos on Mayors as Conveners

PCI Video Series

We are expanding our video library to include a series of videos that focus on leaders in local government convening collaborative projects. "Salt Lake Solutions" was the first video to chronicle a mayor implementing a collaborative governance system at the city level, and "The Tillamook Flood Reducation Project" featured Tillamook, Oregon, County Commissioner Mark Labhardt along with his co-convener, State Senator Betsy Johnson. We have just added two more videos on projects with mayors serving as the convener.

"Delta Ponds" tells the story of an Oregon Solutions project to develop the Delta Ponds area in Eugene, OR, as a regional center for passive recreation and environmental education through watershed and habitat watershed and habitat restoration of the Willamette River floodplain. Former Eugene Mayor Jim Torrey convened this effort and is joined by the Oregon Solutions Project Manager, Steve Greenwood, as they tell the story of the Delta Ponds. The project received $2.5 million in federal stimulus funds under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009.

"California Solutions: Mountain View Day Workers Center" highlights a Solutions model pilot project, with Bay Area non-profit, Community Focus assisting the cities of Mountain View and Los Altos to find a permanent home for a Day Workers Center. Los Altos Mayor Ron Packard convened a team from both communities, including day workers, and the group came to an agreement to pursue purchasing a parcel of land. Two years later, the Center owns the land and is building that permanent home on the site. Along with Mayor Packard, Center Director Maria Marroquin, local banker Cindy Luetdke, and project manager Sarah Rubin talk about their experiences as part of the Solutions Team.

WA State Representative Jim Jacks Joins PCI Board

Representative Jim Jacks

State Representative Jim Jacks, a member of the Washington State Legislature since 2008, has recently been named to the PCI Board. 

Jacks called joining the Board “a tremendous opportunity both for contributing to and for learning from the countrywide search for lasting, real-world, nonpartisan solutions to problems that have vexed our community way too long.”

He said he’s very excited to be a part of PCI because “these are folks who firmly believe that ‘business as usual’ is no longer enough to solve challenges that face us today. “I know that ‘thinking outside the box’ is a very over-used expression,” Jacks said. “But the fact is that we simply must be open to solutions that perhaps don’t fit neatly into our old ways of problem-solving.”

Jacks currently works in business development for the engineering, surveying and planning firm of MacKay & Sposito. He is an Assistant House Majority Whip. He is also a member of the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee, the House Capital Budget Committee, and the House Technology, Energy & Communications Committee. A former citizen advocate for the City of Vancouver, Jacks also served as Gov. Chris Gregoire’s representative in southwestern Washington. He established the Clark County Juvenile Court’s Victim-Offender Mediation program. In fact, Jacks has 15 years of conflict-resolution experience.

Jacks most recently served in the role of convener for an NPCC Bi-State Solutions project to enhance the sustainability of SW Washington / NW Oregon region through management of diesel emission of freight transport in the Columbia River. In 2009, Governor Kulongoski of Oregon and Governor Gregoire of Washington designated the Columbia River Clean Diesel Solutions Project as a priority for action and appointed Jacks, along with Jim Waldron, an Environmental Attorney at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt and the former president of the Port of Portland’s board of commissioners, to co-convene and lead the project. 

Collaborative Systems Initiatives Program Manager Joins NPCC

Jane Bacchieri has joined NPCC as a Program Manager with a focus on collaborative systems initiatives for sustainable communities and environmental issues. In her new role, Jane will lead the development of two new intergovernmental initiatives, the Pacific Northwest Regional Environment and Natural Resources Forum (REF) and the Livable Communities Consortium. 

PCI and the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution (U.S. Institute) have launched the REF initiative to link various levels of government both vertically and horizontally in collaborative problem solving processes. The forums will engage representatives from federal, tribal, state, and local government in collaborative problem-solving.  The Pacific Northwest region is serving as a pilot for the REF initiative.

The Livable Communities Consortium, a joint effort between PCI and Portland State University, will support the efforts of the federal Interagency Partnership for Sustainability, a high-level and visionary interagency partnership to assist American cities and towns in creating livable and sustainable communities.  The Consortium will build a platform for state, local, and tribal governments to integrate their own efforts to create livable communities with the work of the federal Interagency Sustainable Communities Partnership.

Prior to joining NPCC, Jane spent four years as a Natural Resources Policy Advisor for Governor Kulongoski, where her portfolio included water and watershed issues, invasive species, aggregate and sediment management, and Oregon’s implementation of Recovery Act funds for energy and natural resources. She has also worked with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, the Oregon Department of State Lands, and the National Park Service on coastal and watershed management projects. Jane has a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from Duke University and a B.A. from the University of Vermont.

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