Agenda - Council - 01/22/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

IV. issues have to groups beyond the Metropolitan Council. A current effort under way is a minority leadership meeting at the Council. Co- sponsored by the Council and several minority organizations, the purpose of the event is to inform minority co~nunity leaders mbout the Council, to inform Council members about important issues in the region's minority communities, and to discuss how the Council can better serve and-involve minority people in regional planning. ISSUES IN CITIZEN PARTICIPATION During the past year, the Metropolitan Council has taken a serious look at its citizen participation structure and process, in order to assess how successful it has been at receiving public input into regional decisions. Four sources have been tapped to assist in this effort: a staff ad hoc con~nittee representing Council departments and programs that have had active citizen participation efforts over the past few years$ a group of people from outside the Council who have been active partici- pants in and observers of the Council's decision-making process; a Council survey of lg5 mayors, town board chairs and county board chairs in the region; and the Council's Metropolitan and Con~nunity Development Cor~nittee. Five major issue areas were identified and several recon~nendations were made to guide the Council in strengthening its citizen participation program. These issues and recon~nendations form the basis for the citizen particiption goals, objectives and strategies presented in Part V. The major issues and recommendations cited by the above sources are: EARLY INPUT INTO THE PLANNING PROCESS Potentially affected groups and individuals need to be bro.ught into the planning process earlier. In some cases, very basic policy decisions have been made before public input is requested, putting the public in a reactive role rather than a proactive, participatory role. Also, without early citizen input, Council staff and Councilmembers may become defensive of their technical and policy decisions, and thus reluctant to change them because of public reaction. The Council needs to have a more direct relationship with local governments. Local officials want individual Council members to holdmore meetings with local officials in their districts to discuss emerging problems or policy proposals at a point early enough in the planning or decision-making process for input to be effective. Potential conflict should be dealt with early in the planning process. Timely citizen involvement is crucial in helping manage the conflict that certain projects naturally generate. Council programs need to qpen up the planninq process before recom mendations.are [eleased for public hearing. All programs need to Consider public participation techniques other ~han mandated public hearings, which occur near the end of the decision-making process. Problems are sure to arise when recommendations for implementation are made without input from those who are responsible for implementation.