Effective Use of Citizen Advisory Committees for Transit Planning Operations (2010) / Chapter Skim
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CONTENTS 1 SUMMARY 3 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Overview, 3 Methodology, 3 Report Organization, 4 5 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW AND PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT REGULATIONS Public Involvement Requirements for Transit Agencies and Metropolitan Planning Organizations, 5 Defining Citizen Advisory Committee, 6 Literature Review, 6 9 CHAPTER THREE AGENCY AND METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION SURVEY RESULTS Survey Process, Topics, and Response Rate, 9 Agencies Not Involving Advisory Committees, 9 Advisory Committee Use and Purpose, 10 Committee Membership, 10 Committee Operations, 11 Committee Responsibilities and Decision Making, 11 Feedback and Measures of Effectiveness, 12 Staff Support and Level of Effort, 13 Positive and Negative Experiences with Advisory Committees,13 15 CHAPTER FOUR SUCCESSFUL PRACTICES AND CASE STUDIES Metropolitan Council, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, 15 TriMet, Portland, Oregon, 17 King County Metro Transit, Seattle, Washington, 19 Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization, Miami, Florida, 21 Valley Metro Regional Public Transit Authority, Phoenix, Arizona, 22 26 CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION Conclusions, 26 Key Lessons Learned, 26 Areas for Additional Research, 28 30 REFERENCES 31 BIBLIOGRAPHY 32 ABBREVIATIONS 33 APPENDIX A SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE 45 APPENDIX B LIST OF RESPONDENTS 50 APPENDIX C RESPONSES TO MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
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The literature refers almost exclusively to ad hoc committees, rather than standing committees. The synthesis includes the survey results of transit agencies and metropolitan planning organizations.
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King County Metro Transit, in Seattle, Washington, began using community sound-• ing boards to advise the County Council on service changes in response to community controversy in the early 1990s. Today, a sounding board is formed every time the agency needs to change service in a particular area.
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Involvement of these committees is a standard practice for many metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and agencies and often is the foundation of a public involvement program.
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4 FIGURE 1 Responses received by region. REPORT ORGANIZATION This synthesis report begins with a review of relevant federal guidelines and requirements for public involvement that guide transit agencies and MPOs that conduct transit planning.
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Advisory committees offer a somewhat unique forum for continuous involvement, PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT REqUIREMENTS FOR TRANSIT AGENCIES AND METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATIONS Public involvement is a relatively young field, but it is one that has increased in sophistication since its inception. Today, public involvement specialists are commonly found on the staff at transportation agencies and project teams.
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DEFINING CITIZEN ADVISORY COMMITTEE CAC (citizen advisory committee) is commonly used in federal guidance and public involvement handbooks describing public involvement tools, but these advisory committees composed of community members go by many names, including the following: Community Advisory Committee• Stakeholder Working Group• Community Task Force• Stakeholder Advisory Committee• Public Input Committee• Public Involvement Committee• Stakeholder Sounding Board.• It is important to name committees carefully to ensure that the name correctly describes the committee's purpose and level of authority.
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According to Public Involvement Techniques for Transportation Decision-Making, meetings are sometimes run by a chairperson, with assistance from agency or MPO staff. In other cases, advisory committees are managed and facilitated by staff or consultants and either do not include a chairperson or include a chairperson who serves as an external spokesperson for the committee with limited responsibilities at meetings.
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In addition to the case studies developed for this synthesis, several case studies from published literature highlight interesting or innovative uses of committees. Business Impacts The Utah Transit Authority (UTA)
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This supports the commonly held idea that effective advisory committees, as with all other public involvement tools, be structured to fit the context of the agency or MPO, the community, and the issues to be addressed; a one-size-fits-all approach to public involvement does not support success. Best practices are related to strategic committee design based on agency, MPO, community, or project needs, as well as adherence to the most basic public involvement principles such as providing for meaningful involvement and clear delineation of roles and responsibilities.
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22.5 41 answered question 182 Note: ADA = Americans with Disabilities Act. Respondents generally had positive experiences with advisory committees.
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Charges take many forms, from statements of purpose informally developed by staff to formal statements dictated by agency bylaws or operating rules. Examples of charge statements submitted by survey respondents include the following: "This committee shall be an advisory committee to the • Board of Directors on policy matters relative to transportation services and facilities affecting the District" (Yolo County Transit District Bylaws)
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2.5 4 answered question 163
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Responses about what worked well included the following themes: General public participation: • Respondents reported that committee members became advocates for outcome and process, acted as liaisons between their personal networks and agencies or MPOs, and served as sounding boards for staff ideas. Many respondents noted that committees are an efficient, manageable way to share information and gather public input.
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14 when a concerted effort is made to recruit a diverse membership. Members can drop out of the process because the issue that motivated them to participate is resolved, because personal or professional obligations change, or because the member is somehow dissatisfied with the experience of serving on the committee.
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The Metropolitan Council has been using CACs as a form of public involvement since the 1990s. In addition to their standing Transportation Accessibility Advisory Committee, which focuses on general transportation policy and service
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. The CAC officially reports to the Metropolitan Council and the Central Corridor Management Committee, through the public involvement manager.
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According to Caufman, "the Metropolitan Council has really learned a lot about the needs of the disabled community." Lessons Learned Since the CAC was established in early 2007, two main challenges emerged. The first involved meeting format.
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Although the network of various committee types allows for the participation of elected officials and agency staff throughout the planning process, participation on the CAC is restricted to community members only. According to Ann Becklund, TriMet's director of Community Affairs, "For our community, peer committees of citizen representatives have worked well, rather than mixing elected officials or paid staff with citizen volunteers on our CACs.
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CACs establish a public record of citizen involvement and serve as a living document of how project decisions were made. According to Becklund, this kind of citizen involvement is what allows TriMet and Metro staff to "build better projects." kING COUNTY METRO TRANSIT, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON: RECRUITING FOR DIVERSITY AND INSTITUTIONALIZING THE ROLE OF ADVISORY COMMITTEES Agency: Metro Transit Contact: Betty Gulledge-Bennett, Communications Manager Committee: Ad Hoc Sounding Board for Service Changes TABLE 7 KING COUNTY METRO TRANSIT SOUNDING BOARD HIGHLIGHTS Members 10 to 15 members Selection process Open application process based on recruitment matrix Authority level Group recommendation Reporting relationships Reports directly to County Council and executive King County Metro Transit is the public transit agency in King County, Washington, that provides bus and rideshare CAC has 24 members.
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In 1993, the King County Council passed an ordinance adopting a Community Outreach Model for the County Department of Transportation. This Community Outreach Model included CAC concepts and institutionalized the use of sounding boards in Metro Transit's service change planning.
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According to Gulledge-Bennett, this has benefited both the community and the agency by making Metro Transit "responsive to new ideas that originate within the community." MIAMI–DADE METROPOLITAN PLANNING ORGANIZATION, MIAMI, FLORIDA: AN ADVISORY COMMITTEE STRUCTURE TO INVOLVE THE PUBLIC IN A VARIETY OF AGENCY ACTIVITIES Agency: Miami–Dade MPO Contact: Elizabeth Rockwell, Public Involvement Manager, and Wilson Fernandez, Transportation System Manager Committee: Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC)
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Contact: Howard Steere, Public Involvement Manager Project: METRO Light Rail Committee: Construction Impacts Community Advisory Boards (CAB) TABLE 9 COMMUNITY ADVISORY BOARD HIGHLIGHTS Members 25 members Selection process Open application and approved by Valley Metro Board Authority level Group recommendation Reporting relationships Reports directly to METRO's chief executive officer Overview On December 27, 2008, METRO light rail (the first light rail line in the Phoenix metropolitan area)
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Modeled from a similar program implemented by the Utah Transit Authority, CABs provided input on contractor performance. The METRO Board used CAB input to award quarterly financial incentives to contractors who exceeded the community's expectations.
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FIGURE 7 Contractor evaluation form. Source: Valley Metro.
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Source: Valley Metro. Contractor Response:• Contractors responded positively to the program because it gave them the opportunity to showcase the quality of their work.
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Even as the public involvement tools and techniques have grown in diversity and sophistication, advisory committees have maintained currency. While Web-based surveys and hands-on workshops provide new opportunities for public feedback, advisory committees provide agencies with input that is uniquely grounded in knowledge from consistent involvement of and dialogue among participants with different points of view.
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This understanding may be intuitive for a staff person who has a long history of working in a community; when it is not intuitive, stakeholder interviews, review of local newspapers and blogs, and discussions with local staff can help determine who stakeholders might be. Agencies tended to have strong opinions about the appropriateness of including elected officials or staff as part of an advisory committee.
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Handbooks on public involvement provide guidance on establishing and managing some types of advisory committees and generally are focused on project-level planning. Additional guidance on the full range of advisory committees from sounding boards providing individual input to decision-making task forces, including information on how to select the best advisory committee structure for a project, agency, or MPO's needs could be useful to practitioners.
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Without thoughtful evaluation, it is difficult to know which advisory committee practices are truly effective and successful. In addition, a methodology for assessing the relative costs and benefits of inclusion of an advisory committee in an agency or MPO public involvement program is not available.
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2. Public Involvement Techniques for Transportation Decision Making, Federal Highway Administration/Federal Transit Administration, U.S.
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