2.2.3. The Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”       

Margaret Mead  

 

Organizing and working with a Citizen’s Advisory Committee (CAC) for the duration of a project is an extremely effective technique for use on CSS projects. If any of the following statements applies to your project, consider organizing a CAC:

• The project covers a large geographic area / corridor
• The project has regional significance in terms of how connectivity/mobility may be affected
• The project area is under consideration for, or undergoing redevelopment
• There is current or expected opposition to the project
• The project is in a Central Business District, highly developed area, or area with multiple residential communities
• A number of community features be affected by the project  (historic, archaeological, environmental, social, or cultural resources)

 

A CAC’s basic characteristics and functions are:

• A broad range of stakeholder interests are represented by the CAC. The CAC serves as a community liaison — providing a conduit to/from the community.
• The CAC meets on a regular basis throughout the project development process, typically monthly. 
• The CAC comments and points of view of participants are recorded
• Consensus on issues is sought from the CAC, but not required
• The CAC is assigned an important role in the decision-making process. CAC makes recommendations to the project owner. 
• The CAC serves as a conduit to/from the community and stakeholder groups.

(Source: USDOT/FHWA 2005)

 

Establishing a CAC

If you have made the determination to organize a CAC for your project, do so at the earliest stage possible in the project development process. The primary purpose of the CAC is to communicate the scope, status, outcomes, recommendations and schedule of the project or study to the public, and to disseminate information to the groups they represent.  Ideally, members of the CAC should be members of the group they will represent.  CAC Members should understand the design (or study) process and the importance of design criteria in determining the final concept. 

 

Providing a list of nominees for the CAC should be undertaken with the consultation and involvement of stakeholder groups who can make an informed recommendation of persons or other groups to include.  Working with the area’s MPO, the RDC, or the District Public Information Officer, and the groups mentioned in Section 2.2.2. Identifying Project Stakeholders, care should be taken to represent the type of project, a description of the anticipated project, process, schedule, types and frequency of meetings, input sought and discussion of alternatives.  The person making contact should determine any level of interest among those groups contacted. 

 

Lists of names for contact should be requested and will hopefully, be provided from pertinent resource groups.  Develop a pre-screened, comprehensive list of at least 10 CAC members.  The optimal size of a CAC is no more than 25 members.  Groups larger than 20 to 25 persons tend to be unwieldy and difficult to manage, while groups smaller than 10 persons may not provide a broad enough cross-section of interests and perspectives to be helpful or comprehensive. 

 

CAC members should be asked to volunteer their time to meet with the project team on a regular basis (typically monthly) to act as liaisons between the project team and their respective group, organization, or geographic area, and to offer input on issues and potential alternatives on behalf of their interest group, organization, or area.  Each member, representing a very unique aspect of the community, will tend to look at the same issue or information in a slightly different way and will often draw a different conclusion than the next stakeholder.  This is what makes these groups so dynamic and greatly adds to the success of most projects.

 

If the project is sufficiently large and important to the MPO, it may be appropriate to present the results of the CAC meetings and/or an overview of the project to the MPO, CAC or TCC committee.

 

For a complex project that involve a myriad of social, technical, and environmental issues and that affect many stakeholders and jurisdictional agencies, consider organizing two work groups within the CAC:  a Staff Work Group comprised of technical staff from a range of affected agencies and a Community Work Group comprised of representatives from organized interest groups in the project area and other stakeholders.  When preparing documents, reports, or presentations to be relayed to the CAC Staff and Community Work Groups, take care to address the different levels of technical expertise possessed by each group’s members. 

The CAC framework, including staff and community workgroups is illustrated in Figure 2-3 below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below are the key members that would make up a CAC.  Responsibilities for each CAC member are described in Appendix B:

Community Work Group

A Community Work Group is typically comprised of a broad range of representatives from organized interest groups in the project area and other stakeholders.  

Staff Work Group

Staff from local, state and federal implementing agencies and authorities, local jurisdictions, utility companies, affected resource agencies and other interested agencies will make up the Staff Work Group, which should meet on a regular basis to assess project development and review technical findings. 

Committee Facilitator

The responsibility of facilitating CAC meetings can be designated to the Consultant Project Manager, an independent facilitator, a public involvement specialist, or a member of the CAC who is elected to the position by the CAC.

 

The CAC facilitator is primarily responsible for keeping the meeting topics focused and moving according to the Agenda.  The CAC Facilitator should be neutral in regard to issues and topics by structuring discussions without influencing content.  

Project Manager

The Project Manager is the link between the CAC and the project team.  Project Managers provide technical information about the project and guidance to the CAC.  In turn, the CAC offers suggestions, thoughts, and concerns that should be brought to the table during the project development process.  As needed, the Consultant Project Manager should invite technical experts to brief the CAC on specific areas of concern. 

Additional information on establishing a CAC, roles, responsibilities, and public involvement techniques for use with CAC’s can be found in the online USDOT FHWA manual: Public Involvement Techniques for Transportation Decision-making.

Goals of the First (an Early) CAC Meeting(s)

A “game plan” should first be considered and prepared for CAC meetings, which includes an agenda, desired results and outcomes, and a public involvement schedule, if possible.  The following are goals of the initial organizational and orientation meeting and subsequent early meetings:

 

• Introduce all CAC members to each other through self introductions, with affiliations noted; and keep a sign-in sheet for each meeting
• Ensure that all contact information for attendees is correct
• Ensure all affected communities or affiliations are properly represented
• Introduce the Need and Purpose of the project
• Discuss the need for the project or study
• Discuss any relevant political, economic(revenue/cost) and/or environmental issues which may affect the project, or any constraints which may need to be addressed
• Provide or communicate a vision for the project with possible design suggestions and parameters to illustrate how the project would address the need, and overcome any constraints which might need to be noted
• Discuss special circumstances or environmental or historical factors
• Discuss any local revitalization or redevelopment goals including land use which might impact the project or the Concept or alternatives to be developed
• Discuss Context Sensitive Design (CSD) and what CSD means for the project and how the project may be influenced by CSD
• Discuss any factors introduced alone or in combination with other factors which may affect the result, including but not limited to alignment, access management, median or turn restrictions, pedestrian crossings or bicycle routes, right of way, lane width or other issues
• If the project will likely have a raised median, consider using the presentations developed on the benefits of medians (or other issues) to reduce accidents and improve levels of service, to educate the CAC
• Discuss any potential or possible design variances from the Department, if applicable and necessary and their impacts and effects
• Discuss and field questions regarding the proposed concept and identify issues of local interest or concern
• Record recommendations, questions, and needed/possible changes to the proposed concept
• Discuss alternatives, if any
• Determine the need for any additional concept work and likely follow-up meetings

Ensuring the CAC is Effective

To ensure that the project CAC works effectively towards identifying community issues and concerns and resolving those issues, the project manager must ensure that the CAC remains committed to working with the Project Team through the project development process. 

 

Specifics on working with the CAC and the public to find context-sensitive solutions to effectively resolve community issues and concerns are offered in Section 2.2.6. Finding Solutions through Collaboration.