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OCR for page 65
Case Studies in Airport/Stakeholder Communication 65
Provide Appropriate Leadership
An airport's senior leadership must be highly visible in the process, not only to lead the culture
change toward two-way involvement, but also to best represent the airport's issues and needs to
the community.
Need for Assessment Tools
Airports spend substantial sums of money for public information, public relations, noise staff,
and programs. As they feel the pressure from the community and from industry trends to do
more, they badly need a mechanism to determine what public involvement and public informa-
tion approaches have a real impact and are most cost effective.
Incorporate Dynamic Two-way Communication
Effective engagement with the public leads to understanding, stronger relationships, and greater
compatibility between the transportation source and the community. This is a major lesson not
only for surface transportation, but also for air transportation.
Best Practices in the Environmental Industry:
Stakeholder Involvement & Public Participation
by the U.S. EPA (15 )
The EPA represents another large governmental agency that has learned a difficult lesson
about public involvement. Though the range of environmental issues the EPA addresses is much
broader than just noise, the level of public concern and the intensity of disagreements can be
similar to that experienced by airports. The EPA began operation in 1970 and increased its efforts
into this century to involve the public "by giving citizens, industry, environmental groups, and
academics a much greater opportunity to play key roles in environmental decision making." (15,
p. iii) The report is based on a review of EPA efforts to review stakeholder involvement and pub-
lic participation approaches and identify lessons learned. The paper also has recommendations for
future EPA projects, but it is the lessons learned that are most directly applicable to airports and
will be the focus of this review.
Study Findings
Because the best practices paper had many succinct summary statements, this review quotes
a series of lessons learned directly from the report.
Lessons Learned: Establishing Trust Is Integral
Trust between EPA and the public is a crucial component of any stakeholder involvement or public
participation initiative in order to ensure an effective working relationship. (15, p. 4)
Lessons Learned: Credible Data and Technical Assistance Can Be Critical
Credible sources of information can serve a very important role in solving conflicts with stakeholders
and the public. Without a concerted effort to ensure reliable, trustworthy data, the stakeholder process
may prove frustrating for all participants involved. (15, p. 5)
Lessons Learned: Recognize the Links between Environmental, Economic,
and Social Concerns
By working harder to integrate social, economic, and even cultural concerns of the community, EPA
can enhance trust between industry stakeholders and the community. . . . (15, p. 6)
OCR for page 66
66 Aircraft Noise: A Toolkit for Managing Community Expectations
Lessons Learned: Successful Stakeholder Involvement and Public
Participation Activities Require That Agency Staff Receive Training
or Expert Assistance
A variety of skills and techniques in addition to adequate background knowledge are a must if the ini-
tiative is to be successful. (15, p. 6)
Other areas in which staff involved in public participation and stakeholder involvement activities could
benefit from training include: listening and communication, partnering, process management, negotia-
tion, consensus-building, vision-building, cross-cutting analysis, and multi-media approaches to envi-
ronmental protection. (15, p. 6)
Lessons Learned: Several Factors May Limit Participation
Factors limiting the willingness or ability of citizens to participate in public involvement
activities include:
· "Inadequate explanations of background and technical material
· Difficulty participating in technical discussions
· Inadequate minutes from meetings
· Overwhelming amounts of reading
· Perceived inability to influence issues
· Lack of time to participate" (15, p. 7)
Lessons Learned: Improving Stakeholder Negotiations
· "Clarify the type of process to be used, what the goals will be, and what the process can and
can't accomplish
· Educate stakeholders on both the process and technical issues
· Use a trained facilitator throughout the negotiation don't wait until troubles emerge
· Plan agency involvement carefully high-level participation is critical
· Include a full diversity of stakeholders" (15, p. 8)
Lessons Learned: Building Better Partnerships
· "Establish clear visions, goals, and action items
· Encourage a vision that everyone can accept
· Develop a shared context of meaning for stakeholders in partnerships with ambiguous
goals
· Closely involve local stakeholders
· Ensure that partnership goals, activities, and results will be effectively used" (15, p. 9)
Lessons Learned: Community Outreach
· "Know your audience
· Hold meetings at times convenient for community members
· Work hard to engage those community members not immediately receptive to your message
· Use websites to complement, rather than replace" (15, p. 9)
Lessons Learned: Effectively Involving the Public in Agency Decisions
· "Get the public involved early
· Ensure that public meetings and hearings allow public's concerns to be adequately addressed
· Clearly explain how public input will be used
· Give public adequate explanations if their input is rejected
· Re-double efforts to involve the public in Agency decision making if public participation is low"
(15, p. 10)
