The Metro Council unanimously adopted an amended version of an ordinance reorganizing how the agency monitors and improves its public engagement. With testimony from 1000 Friends of Oregon, the Coalition for a Livable Future, and Washington County Citizen Action Network supporting the new approach, the council voted to begin a new era of public involvement review replacing the former Metro Committee for Citizen Involvement.
Focusing on developing broader outreach, building public trust and harnessing best practices in the field of public engagement, the new multi-track process includes peer group meetings of public involvement professionals, an annual public stakeholder summit and the establishment of a new standing public committee called the Public Engagement Review Committee. That committee will include at-large community members, representatives from community organizations and public involvement staff from Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties. An annual Opt In survey and public engagement report will supplement these activities.
Former Metro Committee for Citizen Involvement member Hal Ballard was pleased to see staff and Council moving forward on a commitment to strong public involvement.
His advice to the Council? “Allow the committee to advocate, to be more than a rubber stamp.”
Linda Peters, former Washington County Commission Chair and chair of the Washington County Citizen Action Network, stressed the importance of effective evaluation mechanisms to assess the impact of outreach on decision-making. Promising to provide some expertise in this area, she said, “Washington County CAN stands more than ready to do its share to help with this new and revised cooperation.”
The lone voice in opposition was that of Kay Durtschi, a Metro Technical Advisory Committee citizen representative and former Metro Committee for Citizen Involvement member, who said "citizens are being left out of this process, especially when they (the committee) only meet a couple of times a year."
In response to her concerns, Metro Councilor Carlotta Collette proposed an amendment that allowed for expanding the number of at-large community representatives beyond the three proposed in the ordinance. The Council unanimously adopted the amendment, which said the committee will have a minimum of three at-large representatives, instead of the proposal to have only three.
With the adoption of the ordinance, Metro staff completes a two-year process to replace the Metro Committee for Citizen Involvement that previously oversaw the agency’s project- and program-level public engagement activity.
Metro Councilor Kathryn Harrington, who carried the ordinance, acknowledged the work led in 2010 by Metro Auditor Suzanne Flynn in evaluating Metro’s public engagement processes that resulted in many of the innovations undertaken by Metro communications staff.