RE: Criteria for policy effectiveness/success

[Larry Teller <teller.lawrence@epa.gov>]

Peter's suggestions are good, and EPA's toughest task may be figuring out how to measure progress in the suggested criteria. Counting the number of comments and two-way sessions shouldn't be hard, but measuring the timing and value of these opportunities and their effect on decisions probably is. I wonder if using some of the feedback techniques used for years to measure customer satisfaction (such as surveys, focus groups, staff interviews) are readily useful for measuring the public's satisfaction with involvement in a rulemaking or decision. Would the results be unreliable (biased?) if EPA itself does the measurement? If using these techniques makes sense, should a third party do it? Would the public, or congress, see this measurement as valid? valuable? wasteful? self-serving? We at EPA are certainly sensitive about both the validity of our measurement, and how the fact of doing the measurement comes across.