Federal Agencies have several processes available that they can use when preparing land use plans to ensure the involvement of local governments, tribes, other agencies and the public. These include “Collaboration, Cooperation, and Coordination.”
Collaboration: Designed to involve the Public in the planning process
Cooperation: Designed to incorporate other State and Federal Agency expertise
Coordination: Designed to resolve conflicts with State and Local Governments
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Collaboration – A Process for Public Involvement
“Collaboration” is an appropriate forum for the public to advocate their position. The collaboration process allows various stakeholders and interest groups to meet together and come to a consensus on planning issues. Each stakeholder has an equal say in the process. This means that a non-profit advocacy group’s position is equal with local governments, even though the government entity has state delegated planning authority and responsibilities.
While local governments may want to participate in the collaborative process, they should do so only with the understanding that the final plan must be coordinated with them to ensure it is consistent with the local plans and policies.
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Cooperation – A Process for Agency Expertise
The cooperative agency process was created so that federal and state agencies could share expertise in the development of Environmental Impact Statements. During the cooperative agency process, meetings are held behind closed doors and the discussions and documents prepared are held confidential. The very nature of the cooperative process makes it impossible for the body of a local government to participate, deliberate and negotiate policies with the federal agencies to achieve consistency. Doing so in this fashion would force them to violate state open meeting laws.
The Cooperative process was not designed to reach consistency, but was designed to allow interagency participation in the drafting of Environmental Impact Statements under the National Environmental Policy Act. The Cooperative process is a closed forum to the public. While local government representatives can participate in these meetings, the full governing board cannot, and therefore, cannot participate in good faith negotiations to reach consistency. When agencies insist that local governments coordinate in the cooperative process, they are asking them to violate state open meeting laws.
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Coordination – A Process for State and Local Government Consistency
The coordination process is an open, public process that complies with each state’s open meeting laws. It allows the governing board of local government entities to discuss and make decisions regarding various issues, projects and policies that are inter-related to federal projects. In this government-to-government forum, elected officials can conduct in-depth discussions regarding the various issues impacting the local community, and expect reasonable answers. Because the agencies have a duty to resolve conflicts and reach consistency with the local position, it is also the only process that can prevent the federal agencies from rejecting the local position.
Coordination is a process far stronger than collaboration or cooperation. It requires federal agencies to come to the negotiation table on an equal basis with State and local governments, and use good faith in trying to resolve conflicts between local and federal policies and plans.
