Practitioners Corner
The TPEAC experience serves as a case study of a
collaborative, multi-stakeholder effort to reform
environmental permitting for transportation projects
in Washington State. Reflecting on the
Committee's
Process,
Products, and
Lessons Learned
reveals tips, tools, and resources to assist both in
the implementation of transportation streamlining
tools and in the pursuit of future collaborative
efforts.
Click on an item under the following categories to
read more and access related resources.
TPEAC Process
Problem Definition
Participation
Roles and Responsibilities
Meeting Management
Transportation Streamlining
TPEAC Process
Problem Definition
Clearly identify the problem(s) being addressed and
allow time for this definition to develop.
Defining the problem(s) to be addressed by a
committee can inform participant selection, initial
proceedings, and the establishment of subgroups.
However, if problem definition occurs prior to
convening a group, data supporting the focus on the
selected issue(s) must be provided to ensure
participant buy-in.
Lacking a clear problem definition at the beginning
of the process, time must be allowed for group
discovery and discussion.
A monitoring/evaluation system can provide necessary
feedback on whether the correct problem has been
identified and whether it is being adequately
addressed.
Participation
Encourage early involvement by all key
participants.
Recruit appropriate agencies and representatives at
the beginning of the process and periodically
re-check and make adjustments.
Prioritize and build respectful and effective
relationships.
Process initiators should make relationship-building
a high priority and strive to establish trust
between participants as early in the process as
possible. Define the development of respectful,
effective relationships as an internal process goal
and identify/utilize tools to facilitate the
establishment of mutual trust/credibility.
Be conscious of individual strengths and group
composition.
Consideration should be given to the balance of
policy level and technical level staff within a
committee and subcommittees. For example, the use of
technical, task-oriented individuals during the
initial period of orientation and visioning may
hinder the process and jeopardize the ultimate
success.
Participant strengths include an openness to new
ideas and potential change and a willingness to
examine process improvement.
Anticipate and plan for participant turnover.
If the process is long enough, there will be a
substantial amount of turnover. TPEAC began in 2001
and is still in progress. TPEAC representatives
changed during that time as well as subcommittee
chair persons and members. There were two
subcommittees that experienced a high rate of
participant loss. In other cases there were 3 or
more changes to the individuals representing an
agency.
Remove barriers and provide incentives for
participation.
Barriers to participation can adversely affect the
level of participation and significantly affect the
overall success of the committee. Several
participants indicated that federal and tribal
participation should/could have been greater in some
areas of TPEAC. The barriers to participation by
certain entities within TPEAC included:
- Lack of funding for an entity to participate: Agency
involvement was often proportional to the funding
committed to support that agency’s participation.
- Limited authority to require participation: The
state did not have the authority to require federal
or tribal participation. Funding and other
incentives (e.g. a goal to improve environmental
outcomes) were needed to bring these entities to the
table
- Committee voting rights: Concerns were raised by
nonvoting members of TPEAC that they did not have a
voting right. They felt they has a lot less
influence. They might be less inclined to
participate.
- Lack of incentives to participate: Without
incentives to participate, agencies will default to
continued operating in their own established,
familiar regulatory processes. They might either
decline to participate or participate in a
nonproductive manner.
Roles and Responsibilities
Define participants' roles early.
Explore each participant’s expectations and clearly define members’ roles early in the process.
Consider existing agency relationships and potential conflicts when defining the managing entity for the committee.
Because TPEAC focused on transportation streamlining, WSDOT's lead role ensured funding opportunities and a commitment to meeting schedules. At the same time, many participants expressed initial concern over WSDOT's level of control over the proceedings, motives for participating, and influence on the committee's outcomes. Some of this concern appears to have dissipated over time with the establishment of trust and credibility, but several participants indicated that the use of a neutral committee process manager (perhaps a joint legislative committee) would have been more appropriate.
Define committee and subcommittee roles and responsibilities.
Clearly define the relationship between the full committee and subcommittees/groups to ensure consistent expectations and effective communication.
Meeting Management
Carefully consider
the timing of group and subgroup meetings and
utilize meeting management tools to ensure
optimal participation, preparation, and
processing.
After TPEAC's subcommittees were defined, a
master schedule was developed and placed on the
TPEAC website. It allowed all participants and
meeting managers to easily identify potential
meeting schedule conflicts between the full
committee and subcommittees.
Neutral facilitation and other meeting
management tools can be valuable in the
collaborative process.
Consider the use of neutral facilitators and
other meeting management tools for subgroup
proceedings as well as for the full committee.
Provide funding for these functions.
Additional Information:
Transportation Streamlining
Take steps to
foster early, effective, and consistent
communication between entities.
First and foremost, it should be understood that
intra and interagency communication can take
more time than expected. Allowing ample time for
information to be distributed and processed in
and among participating agencies is an important
first step.
Communication strategies, including the use of
electronic tools and offline meetings between
smaller workgroups, can be used to increase the
efficiency and effectiveness of intra and
interagency communication. (See "Offline
meetings and smaller workgroups can be a very
efficient use of staff time" below).
A protocol for communication, including
appropriate contacts within an agency, is
particularly important for improving
communication between many smaller entities or a
larger, decentralized agency.
Additional Information:
Interagency teams and task forces can be
convened earlier in the process, even if only
for a few meetings.
These meetings could be held at the pre-SEPA or
NEPA stage, with the purpose of:
- Discussing the project design;
- Identifying resources, concerns and issues as
a foundation for environmental review and
permitting; and
- Identifying the timing for subsequent
Interagency Permit Team (IPT) participation.
The team should identify:
- Known critical resource locations that might
be affected by highway construction; and
- Existing restoration and restoration
opportunities in the vicinity or watershed.
Advance mitigation or mitigation banking
opportunities could then be developed.
Additional Information:
Offline meetings and smaller workgroups can be a
very efficient use of staff time.
Interdisciplinary teams (IDTs) should use
efficient communication strategies by using
electronic tools, organizing meetings according
to participants’ interests and increasing the
use of off-line meetings with improved
documentation of decisions and assignments. By
delegating tasks to smaller workgroups attended
only by interested parties, staff time and
resources can be optimized. The results of the
off-line meetings can then be reported back to
the whole group. Additional Information:
Be careful about selecting a very complex
project and/or a project on a very tight
timeline as a pilot.
Pilots require time to try out the “new” tools
or process. They also require participants who
have the time and are willing to work the pieces
out. Additional Information:
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