Councilmember-elect Jeralee Anderson asks for feedback on infrastructure projects

The following is a letter from Dr. Jeralee Anderson, Redmond Councilmember-elect demonstrating the thorough community engagement process her company, Greenroads, requires to achieve sustainable certification on infrastructure projects like the King County Sewer Update project.  After reading her Letter it's quite clear Dr. Anderson should be looked upon as a key Redmond community engagement expert and leader for ALL aspects of city government.

Jeralee Anderson

LETTER:  I'm including an excerpt from Greenroads (my company's recipe book for sustainable infrastructure projects) about community engagement, which is a required practice in order for projects to qualify to achieve certification for sustainability performance in our program. I thought you [and others] might find it helpful when framing feedback to council. What specific areas (the four bullets) noted below need work, in your opinion? If it's "all of them," what is the priority you would place on making improvements in each area? It will be helpful information for me to bring your perspective on the system in place with me Jan 1. Based on what I heard from a number of people and other candidates, this is a major issue. 

I'll ask Councilmember-elect Steve Fields if he can schedule a public coffee time to study Jeralee's needs. BY

Goal

Promote active participation from community, agency, and business stakeholders in Project decision-making.

Instructions

Create a Community Engagement Plan (CEP) and implement it at the beginning of the Project’s initial scoping, land acquisition, and design development activities. The CEP should extend for the duration of project planning through completion of design.

The primary components of the CEP are:

• Information gathering: A process for collecting direct input and feedback about community stakeholder needs, values, and opinions relevant to the Project.
• Information targeting: A process for shaping the information to cater to the specific needs of the community affected by the project.
• Information dissemination: A process for responding to input and feedback and for notifying the community about upcoming outreach activities, results of past activities, and the resulting scope decisions made for the selected alternative.
• Community outreach: Engagement events with meaningful participation by the community.

A CEP shall include, at minimum:

1. A set of Project-specific goals and objectives to be achieved by the CEP.
2. A list of all parties impacted by the Project, including local residents and other members of the general public employed or living nearby, local businesses owners, community leaders, public agencies, regulatory bodies, and utility managers.
3. A list of planned community engagement activities for the duration of project development, including dates of engagement events, venues, agendas, and necessary materials.
4. A dedicated responsible party for communicating with stakeholders, soliciting and receiving feedback, and responding to stakeholder comments.
5. Multiple means of delivering the information about engagement activities to the impacted parties, including a digital or electronic component, a media relations component, and an educational component.
6. An allocation for funding the proposed engagement activities, especially for participants that are disproportionally impacted by the proposed Project.
7. An approach for measuring and monitoring the effectiveness of engagement activities, including routine updates to the CEP, correction or revision procedures, and a list of items to be measured.

There are at least 60 other things that I'm excited to bring from my experience on my list for Redmond, too. :)

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!