EZ/EC Evaluation

[Steve Taylor <Steve@miltoxproj.org>]

The evaluation commissioned by the federal government (Department of Agriculture, I believe) of its Economic Zone / Empowerment Community program (sorry if I got the name wrong) is critical to some of the issues raised today.  The EZ/EC program pumped large amounts of federal money into low income communities for economic development purposes.  Part of the program was an attempt to include the public in design and review of the program at the local level.

The evaluation found (to the best of my memory, I haven't looked at it in a while) that public participation was only really effective in areas where there was pre-existing community organization.  In other words, while the program sat community members at the decision-making table with local power brokers, those community representatives could not effectively act as peers unless there was community organization to back them up.

The point, of course, is power.  Many "stakeholders" - including federal and state agencies and especially polluters - have great resources and power to influence decisions, both within and outside of formal processes.  If EPA wants real public participation - which many of us question - then the Agency must ensure that community organizations are intimately involved and that community participants have access to resources and TIME to organize.  Anything else is close to a sham.

Steve