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Hugo Neighborhood Association & Historical Society

 

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Common Land Use Issues & Problems
Funding
Staffing
Time
Legal Constraints
Apathy
Technocracy
The Need For Predictability
Federal and State Mandates
The Overburdened Citizen
Oregon CI Advisory Committee

 

STAFFING

March 6, 2006

Land Use Committee
Hugo Neighborhood Association
Members of the CAC/NA Coalition

Common CI Issues & Problems In Josephine County

A common theme to all the citizen involvement (CI) issues and problems in Josephine County is a CI program that can be improved.1 According to the Oregon Citizen Involvement Advisory Committee (CIAC) the first 10 of the following CI issues and problems are common statewide.2

1. Common Land Use Issues & Problems
2. Funding
3. Staffing
4. Time
5. Legal Constraints
6. Apathy
7. Technocracy
8. The Need for Predictability
9. State and Federal Mandates
10. The Overburdened Citizen
11. Oregon Citizen Involvement Advisory Committee

Oregon CIAC Staffing Observations & Suggestions

CIAC Staffing Observations.3

Just as it takes money, it also takes people to run a citizen involvement program: planners to attend meetings, clerical staff to mail notices, and so on. An extensive citizen involvement effort for overhauling the local plan, for example, might generate hundreds of letters. Reviewing and replying to those letters could take hundreds of hours of staff time.

Unfortunately, some planning agencies do not have detailed work programs. And where such work programs do exist, citizen involvement tasks may not be mentioned. Rather, they are hidden in some larger category, such as "Planning Coordination."

This failure to specify citizen involvement in the work program causes three problems. First, citizen involvement work continually gets set aside as staff members work on more clearly defined tasks. Second, managers remain uninformed about the staffing needed for citizen involvement activities. They thus cannot plan for or manage such activities effectively. Third, managers and staff lack measurable standards and objectives. They therefore cannot evaluate their citizen involvement program nor meet its objectives.

More Information

CIAC Suggestions.3

Recognize that citizen involvement requires a significant commitment of agency staff. Develop and maintain a work program for citizen involvement. Such a work program should identify tasks; project person-hours needed for those tasks; lay out a schedule; and assign to specific staff persons the responsibility for those tasks. Explore alternatives: the use of volunteer groups; hiring of consultants to manage large citizen involvement efforts; soliciting money or labor from businesses and service organizations.

More Information. Would you like to learn more? Contact a member of the Hugo Land Use Committee.

Disclaimer. This brochure is as much about providing information and provoking questions as it is about opinions concerning the adequacy of findings of fact and land use decisions. It does not provide recommendations to citizens and it is not legal advice. It does not take the place of a lawyer. If citizens use information contained in this paper, it is their personal responsibility to make sure that the facts and general information contained in it are applicable to their situation.

1. Josephine County Ordinance 93-13.
2. Oregon Citizen Involvement Advisory Committee (CIAC). July 1992. Putting the People Into Planning. Salem, OR. Web Page - http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~pppm/landuse/docs/toc.htm
3. Rohse, Mitch & Ross, Kim. 1992. Putting the People Into Planning. Funding. by DLCD for CIAC. pps. 44 - 45. Salem, OR.

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