Policy Consensus E-News — June 2007

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In this issue:

Mike McCabe’s 5 Suggestions for working with Elected Leaders
PCI Video: Bill Ruckelshaus on the Role of Universities in Addressing Public Issues
PCI Hosts East and West Coast Workshops for University Centers
PCI Executive Director Steps Down
Case Study: Washington Adopts Collaborative Governance Structure for Salmon Recovery

Mike McCabe's 5 Suggestions for Working with Elected Leaders

PCI board member Mike McCabe has developed a sense of what it takes to work with elected officials in his years as Director of the Council of State Governments Midwestern office. While McCabe says these suggestions have come out of his work with state legislators and governors, he thinks they easily apply to elected officials at the local level as well. McCabe presented his suggestions at PCI’s June workshop in Florida (see story below).

Walk a mile in their shoes. Know the environment in which state leaders work. Know their perceptions of themselves and their roles. Understand the cycles of legislative work, and when there is time for consensus building and when there is not.
Be sure to speak the same language. Oftentimes, elected officials use the word “consensus” to mean a coalition of allies rather than the product of a collaborative process. “Consensus” and “collaboration” may have different connotations for them, so understanding the language and meaning of terms officials use is key to communicating effectively with them.
Help them find their “inner conveners.” Elected officials are in a unique position to play the role of convener, but they don’t often recognize it. They need to be reminded or coached in how to play that role or even how to think of themselves in that way.
Think strategically and always politically. Know the culture and traditions of the institutions they serve; one of the first sources of conflict with them is not understanding the rules of those institutions. Know who the leaders are and always keep those leaders informed. One of the worst things you can do is surprise a leader. Always work in a bipartisan fashion.
Be anticipatory. Elected officials aren’t always good at asking for help. Offer them a range of possibilities for dealing with a difficult issue. Don’t quit at consensus; make sure you help them move to implementation.

CSG Midwest provides staff support to the Midwestern Legislative Conference, members of which include eleven Midwestern states and three Canadian provinces. It also staffs the Midwestern Governor’s Association.

PCI Video: Bill Ruckelshaus on the Role of Universities in Addressing Public Issues

In PCI’s newest web video, Bill Ruckelshaus addresses the need for university centers that can assist leaders with collaborative processes and serve as neutral forums for addressing complex public issues. Since his years as EPA director, when attempts to solve problems didn’t work because of “flawed processes,” he has become convinced that university centers have a role to play in “suggesting processes that will really help people work through problems.”

“Why doesn’t our democracy work better than it apparently has in recent years that we need new processes to attempt to solve disputes?” Ruckelshaus asks in the video. “What we’re doing in engaging universities in this effort is a kind of exercise in making democracy work better, not by less democracy but by more.”

Ruckelshaus was instrumental in creating two such university centers, the Ruckelshaus Center, a joint program of Washington State University and University of Washington that acts as a neutral resource for collaborative problem-solving in the Northwest, and the Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, which promotes collaborative approaches in decision-making on environmental and natural resource issues affecting the West.

“There is a thirst for this kind of application of the assets of the university to be put against the problems of the state and to help the state in solving problems,” Ruckelshaus explains. “The universities are here to help the state and to help the people that are going to be impacted by a solution.”

Long an advocate for cooperation and collaboration, Ruckelshaus was the first and fifth director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, deputy U.S. attorney general, and acting director of the FBI. He was also a senior vice president at Weyerhaeuser and chairman and CEO of Browning Ferris Industries. He is currently a strategic director at Madrona Venture Partners and has led regional efforts for salmon recovery.

PCI Hosts East and West Coast Workshops for University Centers

PCI recently completed two workshops for university centers and programs involved in collaborative governance, one on the west coast in Seattle in April and one on the east coast in Florida in June. Representatives from over 28 universities attended the two conferences, which also included members of state dispute resolution agencies and various guests. The workshops gave attendees a chance to connect with other university programs and to discuss emerging issues, such as connecting research and practice, inter- and intra-university collaborations, and working with state officials outside of universities.

Bill Ruckelshaus, former director of the EPA, gave the opening remarks at the Seattle workshop, which was co-hosted by the Ruckelshaus Center, a joint program of University of Washington and Washington State University. For more information about Ruckelshaus’s talk, see the story about the PCI’s latest web video above.

Utah State Representative and PCI board member Ralph Becker closed the conference with a talk on how university centers can assist elected officials with collaborative processes. A portion of Becker’s talk is also available on the PCI website.

Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions and the Florida Conflict Resolution Consortium co-hosted the PCI east coast workshop . Florida Gulf Coast University President Richard Pegnetter and FAU President Frank Brogan discussed the role universities can play in providing forums and capacity for dealing with difficult issues.

“Public universities have a special responsibility in finding ways to reach out and create access points to address the problems of a region,” said President Pegnetter. Brogan advised university centers to make themselves known to their presidents. “When I am out in the community and someone approaches me about an issue, I want to know where within my university there are resources that can assist with community involvement and engagement, and play a role in community problem solving.”

Council of State Governments Midwest director and PCI board member Mike McCabe closed the workshop with a list of concrete suggestions for working with elected officials. To read McCabe’s suggestions, see the story above.

Both workshops addressed two emerging issues for university centers and programs, the challenges centers face in serving as neutral forums and joining together to form of national network of centers and programs housed in universities that engage in public service, teaching, and research in collaborative governance practices. To view summaries of those discussions and presentation materials from the various sessions at both workshops, go to the East Coast Workshop Presentations , the West Coast Workshop Presentations , or log on to the PCI Bulletin Board for University Centers and Programs.

PCI Executive Director Steps Down

Chris Carlson and Greg Wolf

PCI Executive Director Chris Carlson will be stepping down from the position at the end of June. Chris co-founded PCI in 1997 and has served as its executive director for the past ten years.

Chris will remain active with PCI as senior advisor, allowing her to contribute her ideas and strategic thinking. She will continue to lead PCI’s work with university centers and programs as they move toward forming a national network. “I’m convinced we are making slow but steady progress, encouraging leaders to convene people to work together on issues and universities to provide them with processes that will help our democracy work better," Chris says of PCI's work.

PCI board member and former Minnesota legislator Roger Moe credits PCI's progress to Chris. "She combines talent, tenacity and civility into a clear message about what collaborative governance is all about," he says.

Chris has been involved in the public policy dispute resolution field for more than 20 years. She has authored numerous articles and publications, including PCI's Practical Guide to Consensus. Prior to co-founding PCI, Chris was Executive Director of the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management. She has served as a local elected official and in advisory positions in state and national government.

“Chris’s devotion and contribution to public problem solving in the United States is simply unmatched,” says National Policy Consensus Center director Greg Wolf. “She has built a foundation that gives us a chance to create a new form of collaborative governance, and both PCI and others working in this field will continue to benefit from her knowledge and experience.”

Greg will be taking over as Executive Director of PCI. NPCC is a partnership between PCI and Portland State University’s College of Urban and Public Affairs and serves as the applied research and development arm of PCI. PCI will continue to pursue its mission - building capacity with state leaders and programs. Since PCI moved to Portland in 2003, Chris and Greg have been working closely together to develop PCI’s mission, goals, and services. “I can’t think of anyone who is better suited to take over this endeavor than Greg,” says Chris.

Before forming NPCC, Greg worked for seven years as the Community Policy Advisor for Oregon Governor Kitzhaber and served as the Governor's Sustainability and Dispute Resolution Advisor. Prior to this, Greg served as the Assistant Director of the Department of Land Conservation and Development. Greg brings 23 years of experience working in state and local government and expertise in consensus processes. He co-founded Oregon's Dispute Resolution Program in 1989.

Case Study: Washington Adopts Collaborative Governance Structure for Salmon Recovery

In 1999, federal officials listed Puget Sound Chinook salmon under the Endangered Species Act. Throughout the Sound, 22 populations of Chinook were at “high risk” of extinction and between 11 and 15 populations have already disappeared.

Shared Strategy for Puget Sound was conceived after the ESA listings. The organization and the concept were created by a group of civic leaders including former EPA chief William Ruckelshaus, former Governor Dan Evans, former Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro, and Indian leader Billy Frank.

Shared Strategy grew out of an informal consensus among these regional leaders that a new collaborative approach was needed for salmon recovery. This is unlike how recovery plans have been written in the past where the federal government makes natural resource decisions and prescribes local actions.