Public Hearings: Lessons Learned from An Underutilized Tool

1
Public Hearings Lessons Learned from An
Underutilized Tool

• Deborah Blanks
• Dave Celata

2
Presentation Overview

• What is a public hearing?
• Typical community action hearings v. civic
  orientated hearings
• When should you have a public hearing?
• What are the benefits of civic orientated
  hearings?
• Example of a public hearing lessons learned

3
What do we mean by a public hearing?

• We will use the term public hearing to refer to
  any event where the public is invited to discuss
  or submit comments on a budget, plan, policy, or
  social issue
• For this presentation, public hearings can be
  formal legislative hearings or more informal
  committee meetings

4
Typical Community Action Public Hearings

• Presentation of a plan
• Budgetary (typically CSBG)
• Programmatic (state or local)
• Designate a community action agency
• Component of community needs assessments

5
Civic Orientated Public Hearings

• Solicit public comments on issues in the
  community
• e.g. affordable housing, education, public health
• Receive public feedback BEFORE a plan is developed

SDC Commissioners receiving testimony at a
public hearing
6
When should you have a civic orientated public
hearing?

• For issues that are newly formed, but not the
  flavor of the day
• When more qualitative information is needed to
  understand an issue
• When a stimulus is needed to mobilize the
  community around an issue

7
When should you NOT have a civic orientated
public hearing?

• When theres little interest in the issue
• When its been repeatedly done before
• When youre not ready to do something about it
• Nobody likes to be a part of a report that only
  collects dust on a shelve

8
Benefits of Public Hearings for Community Action
Agencies

• Provides direction
• Creates community buy-in
• Inspires civic action/mobilizes the community
• Helps build collaborations attract partners

9
Example of Civic Orientated Public Hearing

• On June 18, 2009 SDC hosted a public hearing on
  the issue of black male joblessness
• The purpose of the hearing was solely to compile
  the experiences and thoughts of community members

Community member speaks at public hearing
10
Why black male joblessness?

• Its an important issue for the community
• Milwaukee has the highest racial disparity in
  male joblessness in the nation
• Its an issue thats getting worse
• There have been few public venues for discussing
  this issue before
• There was a great deal of quantitative data, but
  little qualitative data on the issue

11
(No Transcript)