Who is doing public involvement?

[Sue Van Patten <svp01@health.state.ny.us>]

What I am about to say I know is off today's topic but I don't see it listed under another day's topics so here goes.

One question I think that we need to ask is who is doing the public involvement/participation?  The answer often is engineers, scientists, and other people who have no understanding or training about true public participation.  I think that often this is why the public involvement goes astray.  The "technical staff" feel their job is to get the site cleaned up or the facility sited.  Many of them have been trained in the technical end of things (e.g. how to properly engineer a cap for a landfill) but few know how and when to involve the public. To many of them, involving the public is a nuisance, or they worry it will delay their project, or they are just plain scared of the public.  

There are two ways to attack this problem.  First I think that technical staff should have basic public participation training.  I know that staff gets training in handling difficult people and topics like that.  What I'm talking about understanding and INTERNALIZING the principles of public participation. By the way, many of the fundamental principles of successful public participation are points that people have brought up (e.g. involve the public early and often, tell the public how their input is going to be used, ensure that people know from the start what their role is in the process, earn and keep the community's trust, etc.).  As part of the training, staff should be instructed to include public participation in every part of the project they work on. 

Secondly I think that there should be more public participation specialists trained and hired.  Most of the public participation people I know (at the state and federal level) are spread too thin to carry out the activities that people have been suggesting.  I have worked in the field for 11 years and I agree that an element of good public involvement is gaining people's trust, which takes time and effort.  I agree that not one activity will work everywhere and EPA (and states) need to tailor the activity to the community.  However, this takes time and people dedicated to public involvement.  

I think that making these investments in public participation will pay a huge dividend over and over again.