5-3 Junction of Public Process Analysis – Mudbogging

The envelope please. The winner of the Oscar for Most Appropriate Collaborative Process is “ENGAGEMENT.”

The BLM is choosing to engage with other agencies and the public because it has not been able to find a solution on its own. Its resources are inadequate, and it needs to look outside the agency for help.

Collaboration is not appropriate because the BLM will retain control of decision-making. It is vested with the statutory authority to implement the resource management plan for the area.

Furthermore, all the stakeholders have the same interests – to stop mudbogging – so there is no need to negotiate among competing interests to arrive at mutually acceptable solutions.

If there were a way for the BLM to share its decision-making authority, it would have more flexibility in combining forces with environmental groups and local citizen groups. It would have more resources at its command. In that case, collaboration would be more appropriate.

Informing and consulting are not appropriate because there are heavily invested stakeholders, whose active participation is required.

When the BLM field manager states her desire to let the participants know that she has heard their complaints in the past and to enumerate to them the steps taken to date, she wants to inform them. I feel it would be more efficient to inform the participants by means of a written narrative distributed ahead of time. Then our meeting time could be concentrated on engaging together to generate new ideas. I will mention this at our next planning meeting. However, at that point there will only be 10 days before the meeting, which is not much time to prepare and distribute a narrative history.

4-3 (b) Initial Screening: The Homeless Problem

II. The City of Ashland and its “homeless problem”

A problem in my town continues to vex citizens, tourists, businesses, police and city government. There are people who live downtown: some are homeless, some are just hanging out. Some folks panhandle, and a fraction of them can be aggressive or verbally abusive to pedestrians. There are reports of individuals urinating and defecating in public places, theft and similar breaches of public order. Business owners are concerned that tourists will be dissuaded from shopping downtown. In the past year, there were two incidents where people set fires: one resulted in the destruction of a number of homes, the other damaged a business and the building that houses it.

It seems to me there are number of problems that become conflated in the minds of many. The situation is generally called the “homeless problem downtown.” But it seems to me that there are a variety of people downtown. Some simply have a different culture than the tourists and the bulk of the city residents. These folks dress differently, play music, enjoy lounging in public places etc. There are some formerly middle class people whose economic life has taken a severe down turn. Some people prefer living simply and don’t want a home. There are some people who earn a livelihood panhandling. There are others who appear to be mentally ill and probably there are some criminals.

Businesspeople and residents who have been confronted by aggressive individuals want “the city to do something,” which implies they feel powerless to change the situation. The city and the police would love to make the problem go away, but they are unsure how. They can’t outlaw panhandling because that is protected free speech. The council has erected a ban against camping in public places. The police cite violators of city ordinances, but the citations result in fines levied in municipal court which are unpaid and hardly a deterrent. The council wants to ban people for several months who have been cited for violating city ordinances more than once.

There is a interfaith coalition and peace groups who set up a listening project to speak to folks and find out their needs and motivations. There are now several times during the week where the hungry can share meals with the “homed” (what do you call someone who lives in a home?), and one church has opened up a shower facility once a week. However, there is concern that if our town provides better services than other towns, it will become a regional magnet for folks who are destitute.

Some of the problems are a local manifestation of national attitudes toward the poor, the unemployed and the mentally ill – the safety net is skimpy compared to European countries. These issues are not going away. An appropriate balance is called for between support and generosity on the one hand, and not taxing city and private resources by attracting more and more people. There are some competing visions of the city: “we a generous and affluent community with a responsibility to those less fortunate” vs. “we are a tourist town and we exist to provide a stimulating, easy and aesthetically pleasing experience for our guests.”

4-4 Junction of Public Processes Worksheet

The “homeless problem” in Ashland

The Issue

I spoke to the complexity of the problem, the controversy surrounding it, and the breadth of its impact in the previous post. My perception is that the majority of those affected have little understanding of the issues. The problem has been persistent; the urgency to resolves waxes and wanes over time. When an ugly incident occurs, the public pressure to move forward increases.

The People

The city council, the police and the courts are the governmental agencies who are responsible for responding to the issues. Business leaders in particular are vocal and powerful, and can effectively block a decision through their lack of support. Ultimately the voters select the council and mayor, and can change the composition of city government. The homeless, transient, unemployed and mentally ill are quite powerless and mostly invisible at this point during deliberations. My impression is that the city government is doing its best to solicit the opinions of all involved.

Parameters

Collaboration is crucial to gain support of the citizens and the downtown business owners in particular. Bringing in the voices of the homeless and disenfranchised by listening to them was a brilliant move by the religious and peace groups. Hopefully it will educate everyone as to the demographics of the “homeless,” and reduce the stereotyping. There are probably a number of issues going on – ranging from a need for shelter and bathrooms, for treatment for mental illness treatment, to a need for policing.

4-3 (a) Initial Screening: Mudbogging

BLM and mudbogging in French Flat

The Issue:

I was hired to facilitate a meeting among representatives of the Bureau of Land Management, of Fish & Wildlife, and six members of the public. They will be generating ideas to stop mudbogging by off-hIghway vehicles in French Flat, which is a designated Area of Critical Environmental Concern. Mudbogging destroys habitat, and in particular the BLM is charged with protecting “desert parsley,” which is a threatened species.

(I can’t help it, every time I hear “mudbogging” I think of the song “Barefootin” by Robert Parker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JzGJkmoREs  Or, perhaps mudbogging was the subject of the song by Nancy Sinatra: “These boots are made for mudbogging – that’s just what they’ll do – one of these days these boots are gonna mudbog over you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRkovnss7sg    😉

Although the issue is simple and all parties want the same result – the end of illegal mudbogging – possible solutions are elusive. The most obvious solution is more policing, but that is not possible because of budgetary anorexia. After the defeat of a proposed tax increase in this week’s primary election, the entire county will have only two sheriffs for patrol . The focus of policing in the rural areas is to thwart marijuana cultivation by drug cartels, clearly a much more compelling problem. Therefore, solutions need to be more creative, and the BLM field manager is congruently looking for help from outside.

People:

The invitees are people who have squawked to the BLM about the illegal use. They include representatives of environmental groups, well known to the BLM, who are in their turn knowledgeable of how the government operates. Some of these groups use the courts to advance their agenda, which results in headaches for the government. There is also arepresentative of local business development group. The local folks have pride in the area, and see the value of adding to recreational opportunities.

Parameters

Fish and Wildlife designated the species as threatened and BLM administers the land. BLM is strapped for resources, but Fish & Wildlife currently has more money. Although BLM has authority over the area, it moves slowly and any changes on the ground require careful planning and an environmental analysis.There is a resource management plan in place that calls for mixed use of the area. Furthermore, the area is open to entry for mineral extraction; it is not possible to prohibit mineral extraction without a protracted process.

The target land is bordered by private lands. Some or all of the prohibited vehicles enter the land via the private land. It would be an ideal solution if the Nature Conservancy bought the private land, because they could prevent access. However, because of the cost, this seems like a long shot.

Advisory committees to the government are strictly regulated. BLM is careful not to call this a meeting of an advisory committee; this group has been convened only to generate ideas. The BLM field manager retains decision-making authority.

The field manager who convened the meeting is interim. The new field manager reports on May 21, ten days before the meeting. My impression is that he does not know any of the other participants. If this is true, he would have positional power, but he might have no relational power / influence.

One of my client’s objectives for the meeting is to acknowledge the complaints made by the participants and review the actions taken by the agency to deal with the problem. I don’t understand why that is a concern of hers. Does she want to avoid litigation, is she uncomfortable with their frustration, has she gotten pressure from her managers to make progress on the issue?