How to alleviate the uncertainty of public hearings
How to alleviate the uncertainty of public hearings
This is part 2 of a series about public hearings. Check out part 1 here. “It’s a done deal!” “No one asked me about this.” “You’ve already made up your minds.”
These are just some of the things I hear community members say at public hearings. In many cases, these complaints ring true. Up until the night of the public hearing, it’s likely that no one had, in fact, asked them what they think. And in many cases, by the time the public hearing rolls around, decision makers have made up their minds. It is a done deal.
But in most cases, this dynamic is not the result of malicious or dishonest decision makers. Rather, it’s a function of the decision process and the timing of a hearing. In part 1 of this series, I described why public hearings are the worst time to engage the public. But out of habit and adherence to convention, we wait until the very end of a decision process (i.e. the public hearing) to ask the pubic for feedback.
“Difficult” people
From the public’s perspective, the only way to influence a decision that has reached a public hearing is to try to reverse it completely and start over. But even then, there is no clear path for them to do so. While some municipalities offer a formal appeals process, in many places there is no apparent way to alter the decision at hand. At the same time, there is no clear threshold at which public opposition will influence decision-makers. The strength of opposition needed to reverse a decision is different for every level of government, every community, and every decision. So community members are left to determine their own rules and methods for mounting a campaign to oppose a decision. Depending on how organized and committed the community is, the opposition can rise to the level of outrage and protest. If you’re reading this, you probably know what that looks like: a hearing room packed with angry neighbors, many with arms crossed, others holding signs.
When I give talks or trainings, I’m asked a lot of questions about to deal with the above scenario. The question is usually something like, “ How can I deal with difficult people?” I think that’s the wrong question. The questions we need to ask ourselves is, “ Why are we are putting people in a difficult position?” and “ How can we make it less difficult for people to participate in this decision?”
Try this
In my experience, the most effective way to remedy dysfunction and unpredictability at public hearings is to provide opportunities for the community to engage earlier in the decision process.
This can be a win-win:
- For the public: they get to learn about a project and provide feedback before the project hits major milestones that would be expensive to reverse.
- For decision-makers: they learn what the public thinks about the project early, meaning fewer (or no) surprises at the public hearing.
Think about the public hearing as the last stop on a journey, rather than the first. The goal is to engage early and often enough that most members of the community don’t even feel the need to attend the public hearing.
Check out my other posts that describe the types of activities and techniques that work best during the earliest phases of a decision process.
Originally published at https://hoplands.com on January 21, 2021.
