Policy Consensus E-News — May 2006
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In this issue:
- New Mexico Proposes New Office of Dispute Resolution and Prevention
- NPCC and EPA Host Meeting on Using Penalties to Foster Collaborative Projects
- Case Study: Federal-State Interagency Team Works to Integrate Plans and Projects
- New Publication on Transportation Features Collaborative Governance
- Last Call to Register for PCI’s June Workshop
New Mexico ADR Council Recommends Creating an Office of Dispute Resolution and Prevention
In
2005, Governor Bill Richardson issued an Executive Order that established
the New Mexico Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council. The Council,
together with the General Services Department, was charged with developing “a
preliminary proposal for a statewide approach to implementing ADR programs.” Now
that proposal has been completed and sent to the Governor.
The Council recommends that the Governor create the Office of Dispute Prevention and Resolution as a 5-year pilot program. At the end of that time, they recommend that the program be evaluated and a determination made regarding its value, cost effectiveness and direction.
NPCC Hosts Colloquium on Using Environmental Penalties to
Go Beyond Compliance
The
National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC) and the US Environmental Projection
Agency (EPA) co-hosted a multi-stakeholder colloquium to consider how ‘supplemental
environmental projects’ (SEPs) could be incorporated into collaborative
efforts to benefit the environment. SEPs are environmental or environmental
health projects that are funded by violators of environmental laws in lieu
of paying penalties into the state or federal treasuries. SEPs have been
used to fund a number of innovative projects that have improved the communities
in which the violations took place.
EPA Region 8 coordinated a SEP involving nine partners, in addition to the violator Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, in eight public health projects.
In another SEP, the Trust for Public Lands coordinated community participation and leveraged resources l that resulted in the acquisition and remediation of three Boston brownfields, including a parking lot, former dry cleaner, and a former rail corridor. These are now part of the Boston Greenways.
Case Study: Federal–State Interagency Team in North Carolina Works To Integrate Plans and Policies
Recognizing
the need for better communication and understanding among the many agencies
involved in the delivery of North Carolina’s transportation program,
in 2004 the North Carolina Department of Transportation and Federal Highway
Administration convened a group of leaders from federal and state transportation
and resource agencies. They formed the Interagency Leadership Team. The
Team’s mission is to develop an interagency plan for North Carolina
that balances mobility, natural and cultural resource protection, community
values, and economic vitality.
The Team comprises agency heads and key personnel from North Carolina’s Departments of Transportation, Environment and Natural Resources, Commerce, Cultural Resources and Wildlife Resources Commission; and federal agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Highway Administration, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, and NOAA Fisheries.
Innovative Tools and Strategies in Transportation
Anyone
interested in transportation should get a copy of a new publication, Innovative
Tools and Strategies in Transportation, by the Utah-based Oquirrh
Institute. It focuses on environmental streamlining and stewardship, public – private
partnerships, collaborative governance, upstream planning, and economic
incentives and strategies.
The Oquirrh Institute, run by James M. Souby, a PCI Board member, was founded by former Utah Governor and now Secretary of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, continues to promote the principles of Enlibra, an environmental doctrine designed to help avoid and reduce environmental conflicts. The Enlibra principles have been adopted by the nation’s governors and a number of other groups. The transportation report particularly focuses on the Enlibra principle of “Markets before Mandates,” discussing the opportunity to bring market forces, including private investment, into the transportation infrastructure world.
Souby said the new publication “is designed to help elected officials understand how smarter planning and mitigation strategies can help us design and build transportation projects faster, while minimizing environmental impacts.”
The report features the Public Solutions System for Collaborative Governance developed by PCI/NPCC. It includes a number of case studies and examples, including some Envision Utah projects, to show how “upstream” collaborative planning can prevent or mitigate conflicts before projects get underway.
It can be downloaded without charge from the Oquirrh Institute. Copies may be obtained by contacting Jessica Evans at 801.261.5176 or writing to:
Oquirrh Institute
4001 So. 700 East, Suite 230
Salt Lake City, UT 84107
Last Call: PCI’s Workshop is June 27th and 28th
PCI ‘s workshop for state centers and programs is June 27th and 28th in Boston. The meeting will begin at 1:30 PM on Tuesday, June 27th and continue Wednesday, June 28th from 9:00 to Noon. The workshop is being cosponsored by the Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution which is located at U Mass Boston.
The workshop precedes the Association for Conflict Resolution’s Environment and Public Policy Sector Conference, which begins Wednesday afternoon, June 28th, and ends Friday afternoon, June 30th.
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