Policy Consensus E-News — May 2008

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Now Available - PCI's New Trainer's Manual: Getting the Most from a Collaborative Process

PCI’s newest publication, a trainer’s manual on Getting the Most from a Collaborative Process, contains the essential information for training leaders from agencies and organizations interested in learning more about how to use collaborative processes to address public issues.

These materials are practical and problem-centered, designed to capitalize on people’s experience and to help them integrate new ideas with their existing knowledge. They are presented in eight modules, each module covering an aspect of the “best practices” for sponsoring, organizing, and conducting a collaborative governance process.

Each module includes descriptions of key points to cover and activities to address the key points. The Manual also provides audio visual materials in the form of a CD with PDF handouts and slides and a video DVD of various leaders describing their roles in collaborative processes. These materials are designed to be used in conjunction with PCI’s recently published Practical Guide to Collaborative Governance.

Order the Trainer’s Manual (which includes a copy of the Practical Guide to Collaborative Governance as well as a CD with PDF handouts and slides and a video DVD). 

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Three University Leaders Highlight the University’s Role in Assisting Leaders to Engage Citizens

We want to draw your attention to two recent articles by university presidents in The Chronicle of Higher Education as well as a speech by Syracuse University Chancellor Nancy Cantor.  These three university leaders address the important role universities and colleges now must take in their communities by providing a neutral forum for collaboration around public issues. As this month’s Governing Magazine notes, universities “convene faculty, students, researchers, investors, entrepreneurs, and others who can share ideas and dream up new ventures. . . . but local political and civic leaders are just starting to think strategically about how to use academic institutions. . . .while university administrators are getting accustomed to the higher expectations thrust on them. . . . Most communities. . .are aware of the possibilities and the need to take advantage of them, but not yet organized to get there.”

Chancellor Cantor said, “It’s time that private universities expand our definitions of the spaces we can and should occupy.  It’s time to re-define our terms of engagement with the wider world.”

Virginia Commonwealth University President Eugene Trani urges both universities and their surrounding communities to invest in their relationships, especially when the economy takes a downturn.  “Universities have become indispensable participants in the capacity of cities, regions, and states to shape their futures in a way that is beneficial to their citizenry. That is a responsibility that we must assume and that cannot be casually discarded whenever economic conditions are less than desirable,” Trani writes in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Another university president, Claremont Graduate University President Robert Klitgaard, underscores both Trani and Cantor in his article “Universities Have the Responsibility to Tackle the World’s Toughest Problems”, “The university can be a safe place to bring together leaders from business, government, and civil society for creative and practical problem solving and for forming new partnerships for action.”

Read the rest of Chancellor Cantor’s speech “Universities and Their Connected Communities: Creating Capital for the Future” (March 6, 2006).

Read the rest of President Trani’s article “Even in Hard Times, Colleges Should Help Their Communities” (May 16, 2008).

Read the rest of President Klitgaard’s article “Universities have the Responsibility to Tackle the World’s Toughest Problems” (Feb 1, 2008).

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Update: State Legislatures Sign onto Great Lakes Compact

This past winter and spring, five Great Lakes state legislatures and governors (Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, and Wisconsin) have signed onto the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact.  Under the Compact, the eight Great Lakes states and two Canadian provinces will cooperatively manage the Basin’s water resources under common minimum standards, which are then incorporated into state law and implemented individually.

The Council of Great Lakes Governors will identify priorities and develop plans and policies related to Basin Water resources and will oversee water resources inventory, registration and water conservation and efficiency programs. With some exceptions, such as for areas straddling the Basin, all new or increased diversion of Great Lakes waters are prohibited by the Compact.

In 2005, all eight governors of the Great Lakes states signed the Compact, which must also be approved by each state legislature and by Congress.  As of May 2008, six state legislatures have approved the Compact and passed implementation language.

For more information about the governors’ agreement, read PCI’s December 2005 Enews.

The Great Lakes are the world’s single largest source of fresh surface water, producing 20% of the world’s supply.  The restoration and protection of the Great Lakes is a top concern for region's residents, officials and resource managers in all levels of government in both the United States and Canada as well as for business and environmental interest groups.  As demand for fresh water grows, states and provinces surrounding the Great Lakes Basin are concerned with protecting their local resources from degradation, contamination, and the potential diversion to other parts of the country or the world.  In addition, the region’s primary economic activities, agriculture, auto manufacturing, steel production, shipping, commercial and sport fisheries, and recreation and tourism rely heavily on the health of the Great Lakes.

PCI Board member and Indiana State Senator Beverly Gard was instrumental in the unanimous passage of the Compact bill in that state. Indiana became the first state in February to pass the bill and its implementation measure through both champers of the state legislature. “This compact allows the states to use their sovereignty together to make sure we preserve our vital natural resource,” said Gard. “The Great Lakes serves as a national driving force behind industry, energy and economic development.” Gard discusses how she worked across the aisle and across chambers to ensure the bill's passage in a forthcoming PCI video.

In Michigan, the state legislature unanimously approved the compact in May, but Governor Jennifer Granholm has not yet signed it.  Ohio and Pennsylvania still need to still need to pass legislation through both their state chambers to sign on to the Compact.  The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec have a parallel agreement to the compact governing Great Lakes diversions and water use, but Congressional approval is needed before the U.S. states can enter into a compact with foreign governments.

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Local Officials and Deliberative Democracy Practitioners Hold First Learning Exchange

- Excerpts from the DDC Learning Exchange Wiki Report

At the National League of Cities (NLC) 2008 spring conference in Washington, members of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium (DDC) joined the members of the NLC Democratic Governance Panel for a discussion of the overlapping interests and priorities of the two groups.

The intent of this learning exchange was to allow the local officials and the DDC contributors to share what they’ve learned about involving citizens in deliberation, decision-making, and problem-solving. Thirty-one people attended, including 16 local officials and 15 representing organizations in the DDC.

The discussion on the role of local officials, and of deliberation practitioners, in this work concluded that efforts to engage citizens must reflect 1) an awareness of successful democratic principles and 2) an awareness of the political context and how the project will contribute to community change.

The most popular topic of the meeting was communications. Both the panelists and the DDC participants lamented the inadequate, outdated way in which officials and citizens communicate about public issues. “Communication is limited – basically one way – top-down rather than lateral or bottom-up,” said one participant. Several officials complained that journalists made the problem worse rather than better: “The media doesn’t adequately represent what we do.”

Democratic governance was seen as a kind of antidote to this lack of communication, but both the officials and the practitioners expressed great frustration with their inability to describe democratic governance in plain, compelling terms. Neither journalists nor citizens seemed to “get” this work until they had actually been involved in it.

For the local officials, the main motivating factor underneath these concerns was trust. Officials often mentioned their desire to “build an environment of democracy and trust.” Involving citizens in “hot-button” issues, they felt, wasn’t just important for dealing with key public problems: it was a means to the end of strengthening the relationship between citizens and their elected representatives.

Two areas emerged that seemed to be new frontiers for democratic governance, where the meeting participants felt that not enough work had been done. The first was dealing with city staff, rather than just the elected officials. In some ways, officials seemed to see themselves as having more in common with their constituents than with local government employees – “we were citizens before we were elected” – and felt that staff were often an obstacle to democratic governance efforts.  Another frontier was the desire to “to go beyond single-issue engagement” and find more holistic, sustainable ways for citizens and officials to work together over the long term.

Read the whole Learning Exchange Report on the DDC's Wiki site.

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