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Topics: Environment

Army Corps Districts Use Alternative Dispute Resolution, continued

Index

Story: Army Corps Districts Use Alternative Dispute Resolution
Case Study Plus: An Organizational Assessment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in regard to Public Involvement Practices and Challenges: an extensive, 150-page assessment conducted by Stuart Langton in January 1994. Includes executive summary and recommendations, 3 long case studies, an historical profile, and bibliography.

I. Forward
II. Executive Summary
III. Organizational Assessment
IV. Case Studies

1. Case Study #1: Public Involvement Related to HTRW Problems Associated with the Expansion of the Winfield Locks and Dam.
2. Case Study #2: The Experience of the White River Dissolved Oxygen Committee.
3. Case Study #3: The Fort Ord Reuse Case.

V. Appendices

A. Selected Opinions
B. Historical Profile and Bibliography

Contents

A. Selected Opinions

A. Selected Opinions

The quotes relate to 12 issues and questions that were asked in interviews conducted in this project The issues and questions are as follows and are listed in chronological order.

I. Effectiveness: How effective is the Corps today in working with the public?

II. Changes in Public Involvement: How have public involvement practices and procedures changed over the past 20 years?

III. Changes in the Public: How has the public changed in regard to public involvement in the past 20 years?

IV. Defining the Public: How is the "public" defined today?

V. Needs and Problems: What are some of the problems the Corps has today in regard to public involvement?

VI. Organizational Factors: What are some of the organizational features and forces that influence the capacity of the Corps to involve the public?

VII. Technology: In what ways is technology influencing public involvement practice within the Corps?

VIII. Water Resource Development Act of 1986: How has the WRDA of 1986 influenced public participation within the Corps?

IX. Suggested Principles and Strategies: What principles and strategies should be employed to promote effective public involvement within the Corps?

X. Suggested Methods and Approaches: What methods and approaches should be employed to promote effective public involvement within the Corps?

XI. Public Affairs Role: What should be the role of public affairs offices and their staff in regard to public involvement?

XII. Training: What kind of training strategies and resources are needed to promote public involvement in the future?

I. Effectiveness

How effective is the Corps today in involving the public?

"Public involvement has changed for the better because it's not pulled out and identified as something you have to do. . . . Public involvement is now a way of life for almost everything we do."

"Public involvement is one of their problems. They are old fashioned and tend to ...don't like to be challenged. They are dealing with the public as a challenge to their technical capability--which is a big mistake."

"You hear about districts that are good in public involvement. But when we visited one that had a good reputation, the public we talked to said they were not involved."

"The people I work with are becoming far more aware of its [public involvement's] importance. The Corps has become much more sophisticated. So, I think it s a good opportunity right now to make public involvement systematic within the Corps."

"Even some of the people who were skeptics [of public involvement] have been won over. . . They see this is not inhibiting and no cost [especially in utilizing public affairs assistance].

"We have been able to convince study managers that E.I.S. works. N.E.P.A. works. We are doing more environmental assessment because of positive public involvement."

"The Corps of Engineers has always been a far more public agency than other D.O.D. agencies . . . or other federal agencies, and now, we are thrust into being even more public than we have in the past because the public knows what we are doing. . . ."

"Environmental awareness has forced us into a different posture as to how we deal with the public."

"We are now having [managers] who are actually having fun interacting with people on projects. Its like . . . if you want to really know what's going on in a study area, ask the people who have lived there for thirty years."

"New District Engineers realize that public participation has to be there. I think that is a mind-set and new realization that the new District Engineers have. . . . They're a lot more sensitive to having the public a part of the process. I think that carries over to project and study managers."

"Generationally, younger people today are better equipped to deal with the public. They have a stronger sense of accountability to the public than an earlier generation."

"Army folks know they have to do a good public involvement effort. They run a lot of workshops, meet with people, and keep it going. I get involved in a lot of things even though my time gets real strained, but I think this is a major part of our work."

"We have not done as well with public involvement in other parts of our business such as operations and recreation."

"When it comes to public participation, alternative dispute resolution, and partnering, no one can dispute that the Corps has been anything but a leader in the field."

"Every single one of the comments we receive in a public involvement process is reviewed and considered. We may aggregate them, but we look at each one through a team that reviews everything."

"It is not uncommon from the beginning of a project through a draft E.I.S. that three or four changes will be made as a result of public involvement."

"Because we are able to do better public involvement, we have to do fewer Environmental Impact Statements (which are more costly), and can do Environmental Assessments which are less costly."

"In our planning division, public involvement is a priority, and I'm proud of the quality of work we do."

"We have some real good experiences in public involvement, and some that were not so good. In the latter, I think the nature of the problems we faced were such that it was hard to get an outcome that pleased everyone."

"Sometimes we don't follow through enough on public involvement. Sometimes we do. But it is often never quite enough in terms of performance."

"Public involvement is not being handled in the right way especially in areas like engineering, design, construction and operations, and I do not think it will until it is overseen by people who really know what public involvement means."

"The approach in dealing with the public in relation to many of our plans is to "sell it" to the public. We are not going to have real participation although we will have public meetings, brochures and everything we do with public involvement programs. . . . But it is a facade. If there are real concerns from the public, we don't really change things substantially, we will just ignore it.

"The bottom line when you get done with a study today is did you get a project. If you didn't get a project, maybe, part of the problem may be poor public involvement. . . . I believe public involvement is more important and will become more important. . . . We have to evaluate its importance."

"The Corps needs to be sure that we do not run public involvement as a concocted process. We need to be sure to show how and why we made changes as a result of public involvement."

"We are getting a lot better in our efforts in involving the public. Today there is more readiness and openness. We trust the public more today."

"Our philosophy of management, which is not a traditional philosophy, is to get work done with people. And this works because our division manager totally supports this approach."

"In the areas of natural resources, we have tremendous needs and opportunities for public interface. So, we have a rigorous and strenuous public involvement process, especially in regard to regulatory issues."

"We do more public involvement, we are more conscious of the various public entities, and we are doing it at the proper time. . . . We have learned to meet with the public to tell people what we are thinking at the outset. to get their advice before we get very far into engineering."

"In the last five years, we have been doing a very good job with public participation and are involving people early on."

"In the District I come from, we had a lousy reputation with the public. One big reason is that we don't answer letters on time or not at all. This creates critics who are either antagonistic or apathetic when invited to get involved later on."

"We have experimented with a lot of public involvement methods and have continued to increase our capacity in many different types of projects and activities."

"Our district is good at public involvement in part because of the geography of the area. Without the Corps and the levees we maintain, the city and area wouldn't survive. So, we are forced to deal with the public around issues of great concern to them and about which they view us as a helping resource."

II. Changes in Public Involvement

"In the end of the 80s, we were more organized and cognizant of public involvement. We designed public involvement up front, it was a line item study cost estimate, we had specific procedures. . . . We all took the Synergy training course. . . ."

"I think things have changed positively. In the early 70s, we were dealing with activism, splash and flash, but that group of people have grown up as we have and become more knowledgeable. They have better things to tell me now and a better basis rather than gut feelings. It has been an educational process."

"The scope of public involvement has expanded a lot today to include activities such as alternative dispute resolution, multiple party mediation, partnering activities, etc."

"People are far more concerned about the federal dollar today. People want to know what we are spending money on, what it will do for them and should be doing."

"Public involvement used to be a courtesy thing, . . . but not anymore. Now we have stuff on the table and they dig deep. Now they have their stuff together. They have groups and committees. They go to other agencies and ask about us. They are into it heavily. This is good for us. It really makes our check and balances come out."

"Some of the abuses, so to speak, that led to the public clamor for involvement in public works planning no longer exist. There is much greater sensitivity today to things in addition to engineering considerations. We no longer have people beating down our door, and they trust the Corps to a much greater extent, relatively speaking."

"The districts are much more accepting of public involvement today. What you will see is that public involvement activities are a routine, line-item in putting together a study work-plan. What used to be difficult to do, is easier because now we have p.i. strategies and budgets up-front. We have consultants available to help and we have different kinds of people in the organization who are accepting of public involvement."

"A part of what we see today in terms of the lack of visibility for public involvement is that it has become a routine activity. Now this doesn't answer the question as to whether it is done well. I would say the Districts are somewhat selective today in terms of how much effort they put into it for several reasons. One is that on some relatively straightforward non-controversial projects, they have discovered that there is limited benefit of return on investment. On studies that are difficult because of controversy and competing interests, they will be inclined to up-front commitment for more substantial efforts. And that probably makes sense."

"When I first got here, the public meetings were raucous to say the least, but now the meetings are very calm. In most cases, people don't get up and shout at us anymore. I think good community relations has a lot to do with that."

"In general, people have a much better understanding of the Corps today and they tolerate a lot more of what we do than before."

"In recent years, we have reduced the number of public hearing-type situations in permitting [sic] by having a better informed public . . . . The meetings we have had throughout the District have helped."

"One change I have noticed is that we are not as afraid to drastically modify or deny projects as when I came to work in [regulatory affairs] 14 years ago. . . . It seems like most permits are modified today."

"1970s participation was more canned. It didn't accomplish near as much as the workshop type things we have today. . . . The things we are doing today are so much smarter than years ago."

"Back then [in the 1970s], public involvement consisted of a couple of mandatory public meetings the purpose of which was to fulfill a requirement or regulation. The attitude was that we surely must have a public meeting, but we won't let that interfere with anything we want to do. . . . There wasn't a lot of public interest then. . . . The post-N.E.P.A. era changed the public's and Corps attitude. . . . The Corps has matured over the past 20 years, and the Corps attitude toward public involvement demonstrates that more than anything else. Now we look at public involvement as something real and something of value."

"The positive value is that people who live and work in a local area probably have a better feel for the subtleties of a situation. Also, it keeps you out of court."

"It used to be that industry groups would send only one representative or a letter. Now, the various industry groups are getting more involved in providing data."

"Most of our work with hazardous and toxic waste cleanup is reimbursable work for others . . . involving split responsibility, including public involvement."

"Before N.E.P.A., we were like dictators. We would listen to the states because we needed their support, but not the public. But the requirements of N.E.P.A. forced us to deal with the public and provide involvement. The Water Resources Development Act of 1986 cranked this up even more and forced us to be more accountable to the public. Now we have to satisfy people at the local level who are paying part of the cost."

"Today just about every district has an environmental branch or group to work closely with environmental interests."

"The 1981 regulations curtailing advisory committees forced us to disband our river basin coordinating committee. That cut down on our on-going communication and support from the many states with which we must work."

III. Changes in the Public

"Most of the people I deal with (and I deal with the environmental community), have changed their attitude a lot. They have learned what the Corps can and can't do. We are greener in our outlook as far as they are concerned."

"The people we dealt with in the late 60s and early 70s were fairly polarized, and the Corps in the early days would be on the side of economic interests, very strongly. Although we had to take everything into account, this was the Corps tradition. . . . Our credibility with the environmental community was poor. Today it is more balanced and we have gained the respect with environmental groups over the last 10 years."

"The public has gotten better educated. They are a lot smarter. They know the N.E.P.A. rules as well as government agencies. The public therefore is asking more questions and expects better answers from civil servants."

"People have come to expect more involvement in government. . . People want to know a lot about what's going on that effects their lives."

"The most dramatic change I have seen is the amount of information the public has . . . part of that is that the public has forced government to provide more information."

""A lot of the technical areas that used to be accepted as gospel are now open and scrutinized publicly."

"It is very evident, particularly with suburban lakes, that local governments as well as local publics expect more public involvement. So, there is very definitely a need to train our people better in that."

"Citizens associated with the huge environmental programs that I am more actively involved with are being much more informed and educated on environmental considerations."

"The public has become more organized--especially the interest groups. They become involved more early and are more vocal."

"It becomes a very political game now . . . you have to deal with all the politics involved at the city staff level, then they go to the Council which is very much politics, and then you also have the public. This is further complicated by many interest groups--including environmental ones."

"Indians have changed. They make their demands known in very organized ways. A number are well educated now. They used to hire consultants and attorneys, but now they have their own who are tribal people. These people are so accepted that there is an internal openness that has developed in the last decade."

"The tribes are participating in rural water supply systems and making demands on the Corps to provide them with assistance for water inlets. This will effect operations."

"The documents that Indian tribes present today are technically sophisticated and very well researched legally."

"An issue here is the right to return tribal lands taken for reservoirs . . . While the demands are not enormous, they have a lot of implications because they are shoreline lands."

"Things are different today because of education and the media. Most folks today expect to be more informed and involved."

"In some cases, working with farmers and recreation interests can be as difficult as working with environmental groups."

"The public is not satisfied with being told what is happening. They want to be a part of deciding what happens. They are pushing harder and then getting more. There's a lot more congressional interest, and that is how the public is getting to us today to get our attention."

"In this day and age of instantaneous communication, of relatively small constituencies or special interests having access to mass audiences through technology ... you cannot ignore public involvement, and you will not survive if you go back to old days of closing the doors and pulling the shades. We are in a fishbowl. The public and the special interests are far too sophisticated for us to go back to the old ways."

IV. Defining the Public

"I define the public as everyone outside the building; the mayor, the property owner, the environmentalist, the guy that wants to ride a bike on top of a levee. Its a very broad range."

"Farmers are a very big part of our public. They liked us pretty good until the wetland delineation manual came out back in the 1980s. Then they hated us and now they are trying to figure out where we and they stand."

"Environmental groups have a lot of meetings in our district and we always try to attend the major ones."

"We define anything we do with anyone outside this office as public involvement."

"When someone talks about public involvement, I don't know where you cut it off. I don't know how you identify the public and say somebody is excluded. There is no person who is not a part of our public involvement."

"I separate the general public and special interest groups. The special interest groups show up everywhere even if it's not in their backyard. The general public have the property adjacent to a project. Usually what they are concerned about is entirely different."

"It is important to establish ongoing relations with other agencies, environmental groups and other public interests. I've found it effective to attend their conferences and meetings. They are important parts of the public."

"It is important to consider Congress and the administration as part of the public. Also local and state elected officials are important."

"Because our projects takes so long and go through so many phases, the public of interest changes over time. So, you have to keep asking who else should we try to inform and involve."

V. Needs and Problems

"One of the areas we need to do better in is feed-back mechanisms after we collect information. We need to find more innovative ways."

"We find the situation is further complicated . . . because our feasibility studies are two to three years in length and usually during that time you are going to have a turnover in the City Council and maybe the mayor, so who started the process is not ending the process."

"A particular need or problem area in regard to public involvement is when it gets to the construction phase. It seems that efforts are not kept up to keep the public involved during this period."

"We have not put enough effort into making sure our people understand the changing dynamics of the public and how you have to deal with them."

"We in the Corps wait too long to get people involved."

"Some resistance is subtle. Some is overt. There is the old Corps attitude that the media is out to get you and the public is out to challenge you. If we could operate differently and be more open, the public would not challenge as much."

"The public perceives us as a technically, extremely competent agency. We are also perceived as a bunch of arrogant assholes. We have to work to get rid of this image."

"We still look at public involvement as something that happens external to the organization. We are not yet ready to have the publics sitting here at the table with us as we strive to determine alternatives, etc."

"As with most plan formulations groups across the country, we have a very high turnover rate, and most of our people are very inexperienced. One of the first required courses I send them to is the basic public involvement, and then we include the advanced public involvement, and the third which I like very much is negotiating, bargaining, and conflict management, which I feel is an extension of those."

"We have a good reputation in our district, but it seems that some of the decisions that are made up there, at headquarters, tend not to support a good reputation. Like we're supposed to be the greening agency -- the environmental agency -- but some of the decisions they make don't support that when it comes back to the district."

"There are cells of resistance to public involvement around."

"There are still pockets of resistance here and there, but they will catch up once they run into serious problems with the public."

"Engineers find public participation more difficult because they are brought up not to criticize the designs of another engineer. So when they face criticism or second-guessing or a different approach from the public they are often uneasy."

"To some extent, we get locked into the engineer mentality. We think there is one right answer to everything. We are sufficiently cognizant that society is dynamic and you can't do a one time scan of something and think the solution will apply all the time."

"Years ago, we took people with the greatest innate ability and assigned them public involvement responsibilities. Now we do not have those kind of resources, we are not as staffed up. . . Now each study manager is responsible for public involvement. If he has innate ability, it is to our benefit. If not, the agency suffers, we take our hit."

"We still have too much of compliance mentality about public participation because of section 102 of N.E.P.A. You have to do an E.I.S., an E.A., and have public involvement. Unfortunately, we seem to have lost the meaning of Section 101 that we should live in harmony with nature. The Clear Water Act the same way. Exactly fifteen days of the application you will issue a public notice and then you will or must, etc."

"Community affairs is done as an ad-hoc thing within the Corps."

"The demands on the organization for public involvement and public affairs just continues to go up. So, if you don't resource that community appropriately, you cannot catch up."

"District Engineers don't really get involved much in dealing with public involvement. Now they may want to be sure a public meeting is run well. But to provide any directive or to say my first priority is to push public involvement, no, you're not even close to this."

"Bureaucracy and greater centralization in decision making in Washington gives a poor image to the concept of public involvement. It really taints the Corps, saying we can't really move things. . . . We do lose some credibility for sure."

"The situation with public involvement in the Corps is like implementing TQM, Total Quality Management. Under that concept, it must start at the highest levels, it has to come from the top. But I don't think it is. It is getting lost or swamped by other things. To some degree it's working, but it is not getting enough attention."

"Our District faces pressure in civil works to get more projects or to face cutbacks and downsizing. So, public involvement does not get the attention it deserves, or it gets caught up in our need to drum up more work."

"We need better public involvement within the Corps emanating from the Chief's office. We need think of the employees and the Congress as the public. The lack of public involvement, in my opinion, is what has created problems with the reorganization."

"We do not get the leadership we need from District Engineers. They are looking ahead to their merit assignment and their performance appraisal which comes in the first two years. So, they don't look far enough ahead to deal with what is needed for the Corporation. And they don't really get involved with the public."

"We have too much interest in the outcomes of proposed projects to have a meaningful public involvement process."

"Until success and failure in each district is measured by different outputs rather than how much did you build last year . . . until we are retooled to not think that way, public involvement is not going to work."

VI. ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS:

1. About the Organizational Culture of the Corps

"Our study managers today are much younger, and they are bringing to the job much more of a people-orientation than we used to have."

"The Corps is a very conservative organization."

"The Corps is excellent in terms of technical competence."

"Each one of the Districts is like an empire unto itself."

"The system has changed. The [Corps] has become less bureaucratic. . . As things have evolved they are far more attracted to public involvement and customer satisfaction."

"When I first laid eyes on the military during Vietnam, it wasn't too different from M.A.S.H. You had draftees of the lowest common denominator environment. Over the years, it has changed and become more professional."

"It does seem that we spend an inordinate amount of time shifting our gears to accommodate . . . differences between commanders rather than focusing on our mission."

"In working with the military, whoever is the proponent of the action takes responsibility for public involvement."

"Our greatest problem is with people who want the status quo and oppose any change."

"I am a strong believer in decentralization so long as the corporate headquarters holds very closely the following things: structure, corporate message, resource allocation, and performance measurement systems. We aren't doing these things."

"In a big and complex organization like the Corps, each level must have a very clear understanding of its roles and responsibilities. We have particularly lost sight of that at Headquarters. Goals and objectives belong to headquarters, along with defining basic organizational structure, resource allocation and policy and guidance. We are not doing these things, we have abdicated them to the field."

"I am concerned that we have no corporate code in the field. . . People are doing things on their own. I'm not sure we are using our resources best, or conveying an appropriate corporate message."

"Corps people, like people everywhere, would like a level playing field all the time. But, if that's where you want to be, it's not going to happen working for the federal government. There will never be level playing ground. We move one way for awhile, and then we may move into the opposite direction or even another direction. This is particularly frustrating for young people in the Corps."

"People in the field see a niche and want to fill the niche. They still do not understand clearly the basic governmental system we work in. They do not understand that the Executive branch has certain powers and prerogatives and that the Congress has others, and Congress often sees things differently from the administration. They tend to want to work for whichever serves their purpose, but they work for the administration."

"The senior civilian leadership of the Corps probably has more influence over this organization than any other single aspect. We have a thin veneer of military types, but the stability and institutional memory for good or for bad is largely with the civilian leadership."

"A persuasive and critical public involvement problem is that there has been a tremendous centralization of control and decision-making back in Washington--so much so that we cannot speak with confidence about the outcome of almost anything we do these days. Local cooperation agreement have to be signed in Washington and they are nit-picked to death. . . . There is a growing trend that people are leap-frogging the district and division and going straight to Washington."

"The system has gotten overloaded in Washington. They will tell you that is not true, and they have to do this because of poor quality work, which is sometimes true. They will also say that we are too close to the public. They say that a part of what we exist for is to nurture customer satisfaction, but this has almost no meaning today."

"When the agent interacting with the public at the local level is perceived as powerless to make any decisions, then it really limits the relevance of public involvement at the district level."

"There has been a tendency to try to manage the Corps of Engineers by the budget process . . . by defining the mission of the corps much more narrowly. . . . What is frustrating to us down here is that there is almost a complete lack of any reconciliation between what the Congress wants the Corps to do and what the administration is willing for us to do, and the system has deteriorated into gamesmanship."

"The Corps of Engineers is going down hill. We have developed too burdensome a bureaucratic process for review. We have too military a mentality which doesn't quire fit in the area of civil works. We will see more small projects, but we are not making adjustments to expedite them more quickly."

"If the Corps thinks it is adjusting to the changes it must face, it is not. They do not look at the whole process. They just make the change and try to fit in it."

"Our district is one of the several desirable ones for District Engineers because of the amount of work we do and our reputation. So, we attract the cream of the crop who are more futuristic, and they see and understand the importance of involving the public. . . . If you look back, a lot of innovations in public participation in the Corps came out of desirable districts like Baltimore, New Orleans, L.A., Mobile, etc.

2. Leadership and Management

"One can't say that planners are more open to public involvement than engineers. It depends on the persons. Planners, in many cases, may be more possessive -- especially on longer studies. If they started their contact with the public earlier it might eliminate possessiveness."

"The younger and newer people caught on quickly to public involvement because the negative paradigm was not well established."

"The District Engineers are younger, even physically younger. . . their imprinted differently with their exposure to the military. These guys didn't see Vietnam. . . . They have a different view. They are more oriented toward a corporate army.

"Project managers today are more attuned. They are a different generation and they know very well that if a project is not done to a person's satisfaction, there probably won't be more coming."

"You owe it to me as a 20-year career employee to keep District Engineers in the same place for three years minimum."

"Our people have better communication skills than they have ever had. But we are restricted somewhat in authority in being able to bring those skills to bear to the degree that we need to do." "Two things are happening with study managers. They are much younger, and they have better skills. Plus, they end up working with interdisciplinary teams of 6 to 8 people, representing backgrounds as diverse as environmental studies, archeology, biology, economics, cultural resources, real estate and design. As a result, they do not just focus on engineering issues, but provide a much broader focus on people and social issues."

3. Missions and Future Work

"Despite rosy colored predictions that we are going to be doing all new and innovative things like Magnetic Levitation, Hazardous Toxins remediation,, and cleaning up the world, in my judgment that will be extremely limited. The Corps will be doing what its doing now. It will have to do it smarter."

"I think it would be wise to get the Corps involved in infrastructure rebuilding. Let's face it, that's what we are good at."

"To be involved in infrastructure construction will be difficult because historically its been done by state and local governments using consultants. They don't want the federal government coming in and taking over a lot, making decisions... Districts that have not worked on cost sharing with local governments ... will find it difficult."

"There will be no less regulatory activity as environmental protection is a key value of the nation and the Corps... As population increases there will be a need for regulation related to water use."

"We do know that environmental regulations have grown and grown, and will continue to do so."

"What we are told by the Army is that they will be concentrating on HTRW work, modernization of living facilities for soldiers, and improvements to family housing. . . ."

"The military projects that hold the greatest challenge in dealing with the public are the HTRW projects at formerly used defense sites."

"In areas where the Corps is building up work, like in the HTRW areas, in cleaning up superfund sites and in FUDS programs, the public will be more involved than they ever were. Let's not kid ourselves, those are the things that scare the daylights out of people. In that area, I don't think we have begun to scratch the surface about what public participation means."

"I think the Corps will continue to face constraints, some changes in mission, and be downsized. We will do more environmental type things, we obviously will not build many more dams, we will refurbish the navigation infrastructure. . . . We will have on-going operations and maintenance programs, more environmental planning and design, and some construction, and about the same level of HTRW on the civil side and a little more on the military side."

"An area in which the Corps should become more involved is comprehensive storm water management. . . E.P.A. has come out with regulations and local governments are now developing plans. This is an area of potential that will also require a lot of public involvement."

"[In terms of new missions], I wish we could use the tremendous resources of the 49,000 or so people in the Corps to help serve the needs of our country in math and science education. . . . We are not authorized to do this, although we do on a volunteer basis in the adopt-a-school program."

"We have to work closely with state and federal agencies that have a role in water resources management."

"The Corps of Engineers was not set up to run parks. . . It is something we got into sideways. So, lacking a mission statement or legislative interest, it is going to be an arena of a lot of maneuvering."

"I think [the natural resources management mission of the Corps] needs to be clarified, legislatively clarified, because the structure of the Corps is so fragmented now. . ."

"One thing the Corps' natural resources management function has never had is an advocate--the Parks Service has them, the Forest Service does. . . I think it would be very useful."

"We get a mixed message from Washington telling us to be careful about how you go about looking for opportunities for work and not infringing on work that should go to private industry. It's not a well-defined line."

"We are reaching out more . . . including to the different elements of the military."

"We walk a fine line when it comes to new work. We are not supposed to market, but in reality, we must to survive."

"We get a mixed message . . . We can't market to compete with private industry, yet we have to survive and let people know about our mission and capability."

"At the district level, we must run a fine line in responding to mixed messages from Washington. The Assistant Secretary for Civil Works for the Army says we can't market. Yet, we get messages that our survival is based on getting more cost-sharing contracts. So, we have to get out and educate local officials about what we might do to help them, but we can't call this marketing."

"Our approach today is like a sales organization. We go out and meet with local directors of public works and talk with them about their needs and problems right now and how we can help."

"Although Congress and successive administrations have said we do not want the Corps of Engineers involved in recreation . . . but for whatever reasons, Congress continues to keep us in this business."

"The situation is simple but crazy. We are not supposed to market, but our district must market or be given new missions or it will die. . . ."

"As we look to the future, competing demands and greater expectations for more and stronger public involvement on properties we mange will intensify."

"The Corps of Engineers is providing more recreational use than any other agency of government and on only 2% of the land."

4. Reorganization

"We were heading in the direction of having a good strong basic philosophy for the Corps, but the reorganization has been killing us in every way under the sun. Yet, without a reorganization, things will not play out well."

"From the division perspective, reorganization will probably mean much less hands-on public involvement for our division. . . . Districts are going to have to think more globally . . . responsibility the division has now."

"We have to determine how divisions are going to fit into the policy review process in the reorganization."

"Whoever will become a technical center will have to make an extra effort to communicate with the public in another district. . . . People have to go and learn about the culture and leaders. It's going to make it harder and it's going to take time and effort. Those who don't do a good job will not be successful which is probably the reason a lot of districts are closing because if they were so good they wouldn't be closing."

"You have to have a special effort, extra effort, a double effort to be cognizant of the needs and problems of that local area. . . It will require a stronger push for public involvement. . . . It will take more time and money."

"In some cases, having planners move to another district makes little difference because of the great distances in our district. I have to send people to places far from our office as it is now."

"I think the biggest mistake the reorganization made is to take out a planning expertise in some districts. They have no way, they are cut off, they have buried those people. There is no way to get new work in studies and programs."

"It's not just marketing, it's taking away the wherewithal and how to. Most people don't know how to get things going or started who are not in planning . . . to take out planning is the death-knell for a district."

"There could be a real impact on our regulatory program, if some outside people come into our office . . . if they don't have to deal with the public as we do . . . the program could suffer . . . because you might get people working in this area who have no experience."

"It isn't clear about how this might effect the support services we need in regulatory affairs."

VII. Technology

"Project managers have a lot of schools they go to . . . on the technical aspects of projects. I see no reason why public involvement training units wouldn't be a good idea. Likewise, the military guys in their command and staff college now have a public affairs unit . . . but I'm not sure that they get public involvement training in that."

"Because of the advent of word processing and low-level technology like that . . . it is a whole lot easier for us to publish reports and modify and change them a number of times."

"Technology has helped a lot. Some of the information we put out, the brochures, the things with computers, automation, and electronic communication make it much easier. If you have to coordinate a news release or public notice with your sponsor, you can fax it right away to check it. It speeds up our process."

"Immediacy of information is one of the biggest changes. The fax machine is the greatest invention we have had in the 20th Century. In 30 seconds, we can distribute a press release."

"It is hard to believe we have gotten by without a fax . . . When we want to get a quick turnaround on a national permit we fax materials to other agencies. . . . Because some regulators have such a short response time, this helps."

"VCRs, dual-screen remote control presentations and better computer graphics are good. . . We exchange information when in a hurry by telephone and fax."

"You have to use different techniques depending on the sophistication of the public in question. . . . Audio visual techniques are good for communicating. . . One of the new things we are using more is Computer Aided Drafting and Design Equipment (CADD). We use a tool called Geographic Information System (GIS) and use the CADD for loading this. . . This is a great marketing tool. . . . We can carry a map to a meeting which identifies peoples' house and property in relation to a proposed project."

"We use fax and with private interest groups, like environmental groups, we are able to send them information that they may want that keeps a problem from arising. Just last week, we had a number of questions faxed from a potential local sponsor where they had questions they wanted surfaced in a forum, and it enabled us to prepare a little better."

"We haven't used much except desk-top publishing and so when we get there, we have better handouts."

"We have used computer-generated slides."

"Fax speeds everything up and provides quick access to information."

"Another technology that can really help to educate the public is their local access channel which can provide a good summary of a proposed project, alternatives, etc."

"Digital terrain mapping is a technology that really helps to explain things to the public. It can graphically show the threats to an area, options and how it will effect an area in general and a homeowner's property."

"Technology has helped us in our capacity to creative computer generated slides that describe the project in some detail and highlight issues like cost-benefit analyses."

"A thing that works very well with the public is for a study manager to be able to clearly describe with maps, charts or slides, the nature of the project and the alternatives that have been identified and are being considered."

"The use of computerized mailing lists, which need to be regularly updated, is a major technological contribution to our work in regulatory affairs."

"Communication technology is driving increased demands for public involvement. . . . Marshall McLuhan's idea of the global village is coming true, people are wired together and they want to pick up the phone and get an answer now."

"We can produce a report today very quickly and have it on someone's desk in minutes."

"Through the use of satellites, we can now monitor the stage of a river on and up to the minute basis."

"Computer graphics, especially in areas like hydraulics and economics, makes it easier to explain things more clearly to the public today."

VIII. Water Resources Development Act of 1986

"There are implications for change in the 1990 Water Resource Act also that require you to do public involvement in any reallocation proposals, if you are to change how to operate a facility such as changing from water storage to hydropower, etc."

"A city manager, mayor, county official, director of a port authority must have the support of their government and public to budget cost-sharing. So, in order for projects to go you've got the have local money, and to have local money, you better have local public involvement."

"Cost sharing has added a different dimension to public involvement from several perspectives. Sometimes the locals want to restrict public involvement. Sometimes they don't want to spend any money. We might say to do this right, this is what we think we need to do, and they say they will handle that local issue."

"One of the things that might be driving us in a bad direction is study cost sharing... When you sit down with people who have to sign up for 50% cost sharing for one of our studies and tell them you're going to spend $300,000 to $400,000 for public involvement in a $3 million study, then they are much more likely to challenge the need for that money than if you tell them you are going to spend $300,000 to $400,000 for hydraulic modeling."

"With cost sharing, the public is now the customer; and with the whole customer orientation, everyone is changing. All the engineers now aren't just looking at people to get out of the way so they can do their work. But now they see that these are the people who are going to determine if the work is going to be approved... whether or not they are going to have jobs... Joe Blow is now Mr. Customer."

"We have more workshops as a result of cost sharing."

"In some cases we find that our co-sponsors have a very prominent role in public involvement."

"Involving people in the reconnaissance phase is the best business strategy in the world."

"Because of cost-sharing, we attend local city council and county commission meetings and make presentations -- a lot more than ever before."

"Sponsors will participate with us at the meetings ... help us to find a place to meet, help with the mailing list and identifying interested partners, but they still rely on us because we have more resources to organize things."

"Cost sharing has made the Corps realize that partners must be kept informed about any changes in projects. In small communities, coming up with 25% of costs, that's a big burden for small towns. So, to get the public involved, we have worked more and more with our partners to get the public involved in early stages."

"Now that communities are putting more in, they scrutinize expenses, including public involvement more. And we answer more questions about project costs now."

"The Corps of Engineers has been brought into public involvement dragging and screaming because of the Federal Water Resources Development Act of 1986."

"The 1986 Act and later ones are forcing us to get out and work with a broader constituency of people and network with them."

Since the 1986 FWRA amendments, . . . local sponsors are more involved because during feasibility studies they have to come up with 50 percent of the money. It's turned out from being a Corps project to "our project," and that's changed things a lot. So now there is a two-tiered system of public involvement. The local sponsor is now a partner, and you now have the public to deal with in a partnership."

"The 1986 Water Resource Act Amendments have changed the public participation equation by putting more pressure on local entities to gain public support and approval. Now that they are having to spend money, they have to relate to their publics."

"The 1986 Act is ancient history. It hasn't effected anything. It hasn't slowed down our projects any."

"I have made a major effort on my part to get major cost-sharing partners to participate and do in-kind activity. But very rarely do they want to do that. They say you have the manpower and the expertise. Here is our 50 percent. Do it."

"Most partners say to use public participation. They don't lose interest. We have management committees and they are always involved, but they do not want to do the work."

"When we started doing cost-sharing, we saw a greater need to deal with sponsors. . . . Since we are spending other than federal money, we need broader involvement. Things have changed dramatically and positively."

IX. Suggested Principles & Strategies

1. In Dealing with the Public

"Be sure people who carry out public Involvement know and understand the meaning of it...If people do not understand that it is central to make the project go, you have the wrong people. You need to believe it will help you and is as important as getting water quality samples or anything else."

"We monitor newspapers and we see more scrutiny of the costs of all environmental projects and not just Corps projects."

"Early involvement of the public and use of non-traditional methods. No one likes to go to public meetings and just sit there. They are totally non-productive. They are typically emotional. You cannot argue with the person who is stating what they are stating. You wind up with half truths as gospel... We should look at every possible way to get out of such meetings."

"We are not going to really get the public involved until they participate in all of our activities, until we can internalize them as a part of our teams. We have a reluctance to do this. Now I don't think they should come to every team meeting, but the team meetings where you are exploring alternatives, it would be helpful to have public participation."

"Whatever works best is the best approach."

"Our feeling is that if you listen to the public you wont have controversy, and if you don't have controversy you don't have the requirement for resolving issues."

"If you go the public and ask them something, you must follow through. If you stop, you have done more damage than good."

"If people know in advance what we are doing, they don't ask so many questions and we don't have to spend a lot of time answering questions that are based upon false rumors."

"I think we have to continue the way we are going and have an open dialogue with the public. We have set a standard in the last five years...we have to maintain it ....If we reduce it we will suffer the consequences in future years because you will not have a good reputation."

"Public involvement is like a bowling ball. You try to keep it between the alleys but you don't know where it is going to go."

"Public involvement is not a hocus pocus, PhD-level thing. It is very simple. Our project managers, they go out and ask people what do you think about this."

"We have been light on our feet, and creative with the public [in attracting new work]. Those creative things cannot be done without public understanding and public involvement."

"If we do our homework and talk to people, it is impossible to have any unwarranted assessment go out for thirty days and receive no comment except thank you for sending it to us."

"Every single comment made regarding an E.I.S. is looked at and responded to in the E.I.S."

"We have had some very good projects with volunteers, and volunteers turn into the very best advocates."

"You can do it right or wait to the end and have to start all over again."

"The key is to inform as many people as early as possible. The success or failure of a project we design is very contingent upon dealing with the public."

"Do not let the politicians get out of the loop. Keep them informed. Keep them up to date. As you go along, get the general public to remember what it was like to get flooded a few years ago. Give them some benefit, like recreation. And also provide them with the best visuals you have."

"My recommendation is that we continue to be real open to the public in our dealings in military design and construction. There is no need for us to keep anything we do secret with the exception of a rare and occasional project. Public involvement in our projects can add nothing but a positive stroke to military projects."

"We have found in our District that it is very helpful to have quarterly meetings between the Corps and other regulatory agencies to review major needs, changes, issues, challenges and relational concerns."

"It would be ideal to have engineers and economists participate in public meetings. But it is a risk, since in some cases they can be a liability rather than an asset. Ideally, if they have good public relations skills, they can be a tremendous resource. How to assure this is a great challenge."

"The public is not so hard to deal with if they have all the facts. . . . We do not have very broad authorities to educate the public and that limits us."

"We need to listen and listen well. We bring a lot of baggage to the situation. . . . We have preconceived notions of what will and won't work. Do it systematically, logically and analytically. Ask questions, shut up, create a blank slate and listen to the answers. Only then can you capture what the public is saying."

"We have to go beyond public involvement and alternative dispute resolution approaches to achieve a common ground, a consensus between all the people who live within our river basin as to its use and management."

"If we don't do public involvement and don't do it correctly, then there is the potential of really messing us up."

"What is needed [in environmental remediation programs we undertake with E.P.A.] is a much more aggressive role, using the expertise we have, in hosting public awareness events and setting up information facilities on site that fully explain what we are doing and have an aggressive outreach program to keep people informed."

"You can have the best technical study in the world, but if the people who have to accept your study do not accept the methodology, you have no study. You just spent millions of dollars for nothing."

"When they took out formal regulations for meetings and made it like you design something good, useful and do it. So we slowed down a lot of the big formal public meetings. Nevertheless, we still have one. Before we finish a report, we expose it even though there is constant on-going public involvement and coordination. There are scoping meetings, workshops, etc. But I still like to have a major meeting where we say look folks this is where we came out. What do you say, last chance, give us you views. What do you think about it?"

"It is very beneficial to get all interests in the same room at the same time. They become less abusive and gain an understanding of other people's needs as well."

"A key to the success of public involvement is to build and maintain positive relationships with other agencies. This is critical in specific projects in which you must give and take with each other in responding to their concerns and the concerns of the general public."

"It is important in dealing with the public in a project to explain the process and the rules at the outset and to be prepared to continue to do this as people join the process."

2. In Organizing and Managing Public Involvement Functions within the Corps

"We need to recognize there is cost involved in public involvement as well as exposure to risk. We should invest in equipping people to do it. That might involve more public affairs resources and training of personnel in how to deal with contentious audiences."

"I don't think public involvement should be in the performance standards of the study manager...nor should there be specific regulations."

"I think public involvement should be more standardized coming up with ideas to get us out of formal approaches and get ideas for exchanging information without just telling."

"Now that we have project management, it's time to make public involvement systematic, and it is not."

"If you do the right planning there is hardly any reason to have to do an E.I.S. today--especially since we aren't doing that many big projects."

"We have a line item for public involvement in all of our studies."

"The complexity of a study, the issues involved, political sensitivity, environmental concerns--that drives how much emphasis you give to public involvement and how you go about it."

"I know it is costly to do public involvement with the budget cuts and all--but it is more important to do it today than ever before."

"The role of project managers are more critical today now that we have separated them from the technical elements."

"I don't think that the proper way is to put requirements in public involvement because each study or project is going to require a different level. You may run across more that have no opposition, therefore public involvement can be handled in terms of news releases and that sort of thing. But on very controversial issues you will have to go tot he opposite extreme. There are so many variables. . ."

"In the area of public outreach, our district engineer always makes public affairs a part of whatever team might be approaching a particular subject matter or group."

"Public service and involvement is required in regulatory affairs. But we try to go beyond this, as able with limited resources, in outreach programs to inform the public about our programs and ground rules."

"We have developed an approach that works well within our district. Different study managers assist each other in designing and conducting public workshops. In this way, we learn from each other in our section since at least three of us are needed in each workshop."

"We find it is best to have local sponsors host meetings, provide an updated mailing list and mange public meetings."

"Because we have manpower constraints within our district, we need to and do use contractors to manage our public involvement activities. We have been able to attract very competent individuals to do this."

"We have felt very comfortable and satisfied in working with the same public involvement consultant over many years. He understands our district, and we know he can manage public participation activities well. He has been involved in our largest project for many years. So, we view him as a resource and an adjunct member of our team."

"Who does public involvement, how its managed and how often it takes place is so situation-specific as to not lend itself to general rules."

"It takes more time and money to do public involvement, but I have seen where you can do a desk study up in an ivory tower, spending half a million dollars and end up throwing it in the trash. We try to avoid that and find if there is public support, need and local interest."

"When the regulations were structured--like you will have three public meetings--we followed that, but I didn't like the simplistic approach. I like it to be where there is constant communication and involvement with the people."

"If you carry out a simplistic, formal approach, you can't operate it in our district. We have too much interest."

3. In Promoting / Reinforcing Public Involvement within the Corps

"What would be most helpful if people could go see what is most helpful in other places."

"There has been less of an emphasis on formal meetings and this has been real good since it has allowed us to use other vehicles. . . It has allowed our folks to experiment with different techniques and find out what works and doesn't work... It gives your people a feeling of empowerment when they can do something they have thought of and not been constrained by the system."

"I think what your going to get when you're told to do something is non-interest in doing it because you have to. The public knows when you're interested doing and when you're not."

"I would like to see some things that other districts have done."

"Do not burden us with regulations, or anything like that, but just as you have a requirement to review your budget, you should have a requirement for reviewing cost-sharing public involvement. Leave this up to these guys [project managers], they're creative, they're smart, they're on top of a project. Leave it up to them to decide how to do it as long as they do it."

"Public involvement is real world. More encouragement and recognition would be good."

"I think that public involvement of the Corps is always going to be alive and well and have a good future. . . . I think it is time to breathe life back into the program and say by the way we have gotten away from some of the more formal practices of public involvement and now it's time to revisit those."

"To strengthen participation in the Corps, we need to overcome some institutional restraints, like the prohibition against advisory committees."

"An important thing we have learned in our alternative dispute resolution activities was from some of our smart people who said if we can resolve a dispute why can't we learn to avoid a dispute . . . This has led to a growth in interest in partnering . . . This is a natural extension of the concept of working together with people you have to live with and avoid conflicts."

"For public participation to be successful it has to be institutionalized. Much of it has been today, especially in civil works . . . . There may be new methodologies, a need to tweak it, and attempts to perfect it in new mission areas."

"The ideal way to deal with the public is to make all people feel accountable to the public, sensitive to the dynamics in dealing with public, and provide appropriate authority. It is not something you can write a rule-book for. It is a state of mind that they understand that they are accountable and must be free and open with them at all times.

"If a district like ours is involved in a TQM initiative, it would be excellent to have a process action team to address the issue of public involvement."

"Public involvement needs to be led at the District level. To survive, a local district has to do good public involvement. You need to build a constituency, you need to listen. In the old days, you used to shove it down their throats. . . . Today you need to build partnerships."

"The key to having a meaningful public outreach program was having District Engineers who had a vision and provided resources to back it up."

"[To assume quality in public involvement] we would have to rely on Divisions to provide oversight of their Districts."

"Ideally, public involvement has to become an ethic . . . like safety and what we are trying to do in environmentally sustainable development."

"Under the Army's Total Quality Management Program (Total Army Quality)...that stress lets do things right the first time, the problem is process and not people. So, I think that sometime in the future, one of the business processes that is going to be identified is public involvement. There may be process action teams looking at the Districts' public involvement program making recommendations. That is one thing I think you will see in the next few years." <> "We need more direction and guidance in improving public involvement. . . . We need more advocacy from management and better resources available to help us to continue to improve."

"Our public affairs community is uneven in terms of quantity and quality, and public involvement reflects similar characteristics. That is because so much autonomy has been given to District Engineers to form themselves as the system demanded. . . . Today, we need to insist on more common standards and grade levels."

X. Suggested Methods & Approaches

"We are strong advocates of interdisciplinary team approaches and when we have public involvement we include people representing different disciplines."

"We do everything possible to avoid public hearings if possible and develop more informal interactive methods."

"The Open House format where we set up seven tables with experts on different issues that people can speak too informally is one of the best procedures I have found."

"Get with the audience. Get off the podium. Get down front. Mix with people."

"Where we couldn't get good feedback at a reservoir, we sponsored a facilitated meeting that involved only facilitators and residents with no Corps personnel present. It worked great. The people really opened up. We got good feedback. The issues were taken back to an advisory council who acted on it."

"We had a 1 1/2 day workshop with environmental leaders to guide and direct us. Most importantly we provided them with feedback on what we did with their direction. It is probably time to do this again in relation to the 1992 Water Resources Development Act."

"We feel community relations is very important. The Corps in particular needs it, more so even than a military installation...Community relations brought about good public involvement because people knew what we did... Because of it we have good attendance at public meetings."

"Community relations impacts public involvement in that the point of contact is with the person. Through people contact, they have a face or a person they can identify with... to get one on one information or help from people who have come out to their community."

"We do evaluation of all public comments (related to permits). We may not agree with what the commenter wants us to do, but we consider it. They may request to hold a public hearing. If there is some way that we can resolve the comment issue informally, we will try to do that first. We have been able to do that pretty successfully."

"A lot of what drives having a public hearing, from our perspective, is if we need it to get more information about the project or proposal."

"What we get as input on a permit request can range from a letter to a petition signed by 5,000 people. But one letter will sometimes be as good. It is not a voting process. It is weighing the public interest versus a proposal as the District Engineer sees it."

"We used to have a more formal and structured approach... it has shifted now to workshops which we have on a more regular basis."

"My view is that frequent workshops are better than infrequent public meetings."

"I like workshops and frequent contacts as basic principles to keep people involved... Formal structures are not as useful and cost too much."

"We have not changed since the early 1980s except for going from a more formalized approach to a less formalized approach."

"Something I would like to point out...people have a long history in this area in dealing with Commanders, here they call them Colonels, and therefore, you have to have some formal meetings with the Colonel. They want that formal interface, they demand it in some cases."

"I would like informal interface with the public. We get much more on one on one."

"We set up project study management teams that meet about once a month including other agency representatives....and interest groups works well."

"When we do a workshop we like to start at noon and go to eight o'clock to cover the working people who can't get there otherwise. We had real good luck with people coming by. This provides one-to-one contact with people and gets them involved in the nuts and bolts of the study. They feel good about it, they learn us by name and feel good about calling up afterward."

"In each study, we have a requirement that the manager must brief by telephone their Division counterpart weekly and their co-sponsor monthly."

"Formal type meetings are a show. We tell people what we think, and the proponents and opponents tell their story, and its over. I don't know what it accomplishes but having a meeting. What we prefer is a meeting to really address concerns."

"We do all the standard things that we are required to do in the District, but we have to do much more."

"The procedure we used to use was a formal public meeting ... We still do that and they serve a purpose, but real public involvement is done through much more smaller groups and one on one meetings with various interest groups throughout the study phase."

"We are in our seventh year of the drought and we have changed our approach since the beginning. . . . We used to have formal public meetings . . . sometimes the public was numb and sometimes confrontational. We have tried some way to reduce conflict and achieve real communication, and we have found the workshop format to be very successful."

"There are two problems with the workshop format. First, it doesn't provide an opportunity for someone to share their views in front of the public. . . . Second, they are used to this, it is what they expect. . . . Some people want a public hearing so they can be heard and hear what their friends have to say."

"As far as meetings go, we run the gamut--it depends on the situation and what the needs are."

"It used to be that we would stand at the podium and then let people come up and make comments. That was the least effective method."

"We almost have a standard reconnaissance study standard--have a public notice, have some type of public meeting or workshop . . . and at the end of the study report back to the public . . .In between, study managers are in the field dealing with the local groups and collecting information."

"The use of a citizens advisory group has helped us to work smarter and harder to assure a project that responds to the needs and concerns of the community."

"We find public hearings are not functional because most people, except special interests, do not want to speak in front of a large group. Workshops are better because people must listen and talk with each other in small group discussions. This is a good way to get special interest groups to blend with the general public and government agencies in seeking common ground."

"Our interdisciplinary teams have workshops where they invite knowledgeable people in to work with them. Its scoping, like E.I.S., you send stuff to experts and interested people. But I don't think you can very successfully invite and impose on people's time and expenses to come to your office and help you with a study voluntarily."

"The study team meets monthly and reviews E.I.S. comments from the public."

"A valuable exercise we have found is after dealing with an emergency disaster is to sit down with those affected and those with whom we worked and identify lessons learned."

XI. Public Affairs Role

"Our job in public affairs is as an advising agency in public involvement. Many public affairs officers fear getting involved as `duty dummies,' in setting up chairs, etc. We look at ways to help in design."

"In our district, the technicians do not talk to the media. The public affairs officer does. Technicians do not understand the media, sound bites, or do they speak plain English. They brief us, and we try to interpret it to the media."

"We try to review script and visual aides for a public meeting in the public affairs office ahead of time."

"The District Engineer meets every morning with his three chief deputies. As P.A.O., I also attend. . . . Public involvement issues often pop up . . . and I can be a public involvement monitor."

"We assist the planning branch when they have a public meeting by handling the media, notification of media. We field general questions at meetings and arrange for engineers to address technical ones."

"I would imagine that the majority of public affairs people do not believe in community relations as such. Most stick to their own town or city and don't reach out."

"Our policy is if it is a general question, we let the PA office answer it. If it's a technical question, there are a few people in each office that we permit to talk to the media. We have select people who know how to relate to the media. We meter inquiries to the professional, but the right professional, and I feel you don't make mistakes that way."

"We have an outstanding relationship with P.A.O. from top to bottom. . . . They provide whatever assistance we need . . . managing interface with the media is the primary role they assume."

"As a PA office, we are getting more and more requests to help with public involvement in our district."

"Our P.A.O. assist other units in public involvement. At the district level we are a real partner."

"As the public becomes more demanding and sophisticated, the requirements for our district are going to exceed the abilities of project managers and study managers, and that is where the expertise of public affairs comes into play."

"Our public affairs community is uneven in terms of quantity and quality and public involvement reflects similar characteristics. That is because so much autonomy has been given to District Engineers to form themselves as the situation demanded. Today we need to insist on more common standards and grade levels."

""It's not a good idea to have public affairs offices take over public involvement because there are a lot of technical types that have to be brought into the public involvement process that need to be handled by program and planning people. But in so far as public involvement is an exercise in the way of communication . . . that's where the public affairs office can lend expertise."

"I think we probably have to rethink how we use public affairs as we evolve into more varied missions and responsibilities."

"On complex and sensitive projects, incumbent upon the project managers, public affairs should be more involved."

"We need to clarify the role of the Public Affairs Office in public involvement across the Corps. Maybe it is that they should have the expertise to tell us how to go about presenting things to the public. . . . The P.A.O. function needs to be totally reworked, its missions and objectives clarified. . . . We are getting killed with communication problems in our district and P.A.O. isn't helping us to deal with them. They are reactive and marginal, but we need more than that."

"We have a lot of people who are very inexperienced in communications in dealing with the public. There the P.A.O. can and should provide the monitoring, coaching, and direction for those people. This is a required element we need in the planning process."

"As far as getting public affairs people involved in public involvement, it depends on the personality and ability of the P.A. officer."

XII. Training

"Public involvement training should be mandatory for all P.A. Chiefs."

"I had a lot of training early on in public involvement in the 1970s and 1980s as a ranger, and that has been a good thing. I think we could use more of it. I see the need increasing as a result of working with diverse constituencies."

"The program associates course is excellent and should involve public involvement."

"You build on success stories. That is why case studies are important to undertake. They provide lessons that others can use."

"There is little training made available to rangers now . . . with the budget crunch going on and so many new rangers in . . . there are a lot of other courses they need first . . . so public involvement is pushed to the back burner . . . . There is competition for very scarce training hours."

"I think basic training at the lowest level should be afforded to everyone who work with the public."

"I have taken several internal Corps public involvement courses. Some of them have been conducted by consultants which is a good thing . . . a continuation of that would be good."

"Because of our commitment to total Army Quality Training, we have less time available for other training."

"Guidance material, case studies, examples of successful public involvement--things you can use here at the office would be useful since only so many can attend training."

"Public involvement has to be emphasized in the training that project and study managers receive."

"We have no training in these new political dynamics. . . . It is trial by fire."

"Training that includes case studies is very effective."

"The idea of case studies is an effective way to bring to life things that have been done in the past particularly if you can demonstrate the lack of public involvement and the assumed failure of a project and how public involvement successfully brought a project from here to here."

"I took the two prospect courses on public involvement and they were excellent."

"Huntsville is putting out some good public involvement courses. Those are really good. They use study groups, case studies, and stuff you can really take in."

"A lot of the public involvement courses have gone by the board."

"I have heard that the public involvement course is a good one, even though I haven't been to it."

"I like the approach of the Department of Defense Public Affairs training programs in Indianapolis because they use a lot of resource persons from outside the military and they bring a broader perspective."

"Last year, we had someone train our regulatory staff and others in our district on interviewing techniques."

"It used to be that when we came on board 14 years ago, there used to be a course on public involvement. I don't recall it being in the curriculum lately."

"We have 4 or 5 courses for regulatory people, and a couple of them have some attention on public involvement to a minor extent."

"We used to have a course or resolution of conflict. I never took it, but I would like to if I can get around to it."

"We have had people come in to give short courses on communication and how to give presentations."

"One of the things I believe is important in managing public involvement is active listening."

"The prospect schools have a lot of good information about what is working and what isn't working."

"I don't think we have had a lot of training in public involvement. We have had some. There's a course on that and we've gone to a course on negotiation and conflict management. The public involvement focused on structure of public involvement but was not as valuable as the conflict management. It would be good to get one that wrapped it all together."

"In our system, there's very little opportunity for training unless you're a P.A.O.."

"The Corps in the last six years has sent more and more public affairs specialists to the Defense Information School at Ft. Harrison, Indiana. . . . It's a joint service program . . . so we are more in line with the Army public affairs doctrine of maximum disclosure and minimum delay."

"If I have just so much money for more PA staff, I'm going to send them to the Defense Information School."

"Folks in the planning and regulatory branch needs to go to Huntsville to learn how to deal with particular publics. The Defense Information School teaches how you deal with the masses."

"If your district is involved in TQM programs, and the demands it places on your budget, there is little money left over to support other training needs."

"Guidance materials and case studies about public participation would be helpful today, particularly focused on changing missions, since fewer people can be supported to be involved in training."

"There should be more training for study managers in public involvement. It should be secondary, however, to training in plan formulation or budget management. . . . If training is a scarce allocation, then it may be more prudent for the agency to name one person as the public involvement specialist and then train him or her."

"A problem with training in this era of cutbacks and proposed reorganization is that people are afraid to be away from their job for fear their bosses may think they can get along without them."

"There needs to be some uniformity in the Corps in both public affairs and public involvement. There needs to be uniformity in training so that we can assure that certain standards are established and met. . . We need to be certain that Districts insist that people participate in training."

"We need practical case studies that tell us what does and doesn't work in dealing with the public."

"We are linked electronically on Corps mail, our E-mail system. We occasionally may discuss issues and seek discussion and feedback. . . . It might be possible to use this as a useful training tool."

"We have a Corps-wide regulatory conference and that might be a good place to do some training."

"We need training for everyone involved in public involvement. . . . It would be best to be done as a team in the district. This would be less costly, it would help with team-building and it would be more practical in focusing on existing or potential problems."

"I was disappointed in the prospect course offerings for FY1993. I wanted to take the advanced course on public involvement water resource planning, but they didn't offer it presumably because of lack of interest. That shocked me."

"One thing I have found that is not positive is that once a person has taken a public involvement course, they think they have taken care of it. If they had a class in 1975, they think they are covered. A common response is that I know how to do it. But public involvement changes like anything else, and you really need to keep up-to-date. I believe every person should have formal training and at reasonable intervals have refresher courses to keep up with the state-of-the-art. We do that in engineering."

"We have information overload today. So, I think the best training today would be shorter seminars on-site for our staff. This would be more cost-effective which is an important consideration today."

"The four hour segment on public involvement in the introduction regulatory course is not enough and the 40 hour course on participation in regulatory affairs was overkill. Today, I think we need more training on communication skills, meeting management skills, and dealing with the media."

Index

Story: Army Corps Districts Use Alternative Dispute Resolution
Case Study Plus: An Organizational Assessment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in regard to Public Involvement Practices and Challenges: an extensive, 150-page assessment conducted by Stuart Langton in January 1994. Includes executive summary and recommendations, 3 long case studies, an historical profile, and bibliography.

I. Forward
II. Executive Summary
III. Organizational Assessment
IV. Case Studies

1. Case Study #1: Public Involvement Related to HTRW Problems Associated with the Expansion of the Winfield Locks and Dam.
2. Case Study #2: The Experience of the White River Dissolved Oxygen Committee.
3. Case Study #3: The Fort Ord Reuse Case.

V. Appendices

A. Selected Opinions
B. Historical Profile and Bibliography

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