RE: The spectrum of public involvement

[Steve Tarlton <steve.tarlton@state.co.us>]

There are lots of ways to involve the public, but before you try to set up those mechanisms, I think you need to figure out what role they have in the decision making. I oversee the Rocky Flats closure for the State,and we have a very educated and active public. A key issue in involving the public is to define what the decision making process is. 

I suspect most people think this is straightforward, but as a regulator, my experience is that seldom do we define how the decision is to be made in advance. In our case it is particularly complicated due to the involvement of the state, EPA, DOE and their contractor. But, it really gets complicated if you do not clearly define the decision process and schedule at the beginning. 

Are you informing people about something that will be decided in the future? If so, when, and do they have another shot at commenting? Are we gonna vote on the remedy we like? Or, are you explaining a previous decision in order to lay the groundwork for another decision?  

The local governments around Rocky Flats have decided that they should have equal decision making authority as the State, EPA or DOE. Their opinion is, therefore, not stakeholder input, but an "assetholder's" contribution to the decision. This is further complicated by our overall "collaborative" approach to decision making that I'll probably talk about on Monday.

It becomes very important to define the decision process early on, define how input will be used and responded to, and how the decision will be reported/announced.

Steve Tarlton