Evaluating Advisory Commissions

By Laura Miller

"Ours is a government founded in the will of its citizens, and directed by no object but their happiness."
- Thomas Jefferson

Without the will of the citizens, park and recreation agencies and districts would not exist today. Citizens provide the lifeblood of our services as they provide the support to ensure our future viability. As Thomas Jefferson stated in the quote above, we need to understand what makes citizens "happy" to determine how and if we can meet their needs.

Public participation is one way to ensure that the park district is operating with the will of the public it serves and to provide a variety of forums for expressing citizens' ideals, concerns and desires. Public participation methods such as focus groups, public meetings, community surveys, advisory committees/commissions, and comment/suggestion forms help districts stay in touch with the public's attitudes and interests.

Through advisory commissions, agencies can inform the public while getting its reactions regarding proposed actions or policies prior to a final decision. This allows participants to contribute and become involved in the districts decision-making process. Commissions provide staff with a "sounding board" of diverse viewpoints, and members work on a purely voluntary basis. They are appointed by the local governing body or the elected or appointed chief executive. The Elmhurst Park District currently has five advisory commissions appointed by the executive director. Each commissions' goals focus either on a broad perspective of park district services or a specific area of park district services or facilities. They include the Citizen, Pool, Courts Plus Fitness Center, Prairie Management, and the Athletic Field advisory commissions.

Recently, however, the park district's use of advisory commissions had been questioned as an effective means for citizen input. Several of the commission members and staff had doubts about the commissions' productivity. Other commissions were viewed by both staff and its members as providing an essential service to the community that could not be met by staff. After determining that there had been a shift in emphasis on what were perceived as ineffective commissions, staff felt the current state of all the commissions needed to be evaluated.

Keys To Effective Commissions
To help evaluate its advisory commissions, the Elmhurst Park District used the National Association of Counties report on the "Use of Advisory Committees." It provided the following list of do's and don'ts for agencies to follow to form and evaluate a commission.

Do:
• Clearly define the agency's change to the group.
• Provide a specific time limit for single-purpose groups and discourage extensions.
• Provide the necessary commitment of time and staff resources.
• Define the relationship and role of staff and the authority and scope of the group, preferably in writing.
• Select the most representative members considering gender, race/ethnicity, geography, expertise, and other traits important for proper balance.
• Provide orientation and training for new members on their role, subject area and relationship to staff and elected officials.

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Don't:
• Neglect your groups.
• Ignore their advice on a regular basis or active participants will decline to serve.
• Let the staff direct or control the work of the group. (Sometimes less active groups want the staff to take control and remove responsibility from the group.)
• Go overboard in appointing large numbers of groups in the name of responsiveness and citizen participation. The usual result is conflict of groups with overlapping mandates, a lack of staff time to give adequate support, and a tendency for the agency to ignore the work of the groups.

Assessment
Once a commission has fulfilled its charge, you may want to change its mission, consolidate it with another, or abolish the commission. The review may include evaluating accomplishments, purpose, goals, representation, meeting records, and staff support.

To assess whether Elmhurst's commissions fulfilled the "do's" rather than the "don'ts" on the above list, we developed a review process (e.g. surveys, focus groups) for all five advisory commissions. The first step was to examine the role and accomplishments of the advisory commissions and determine the most effective forum for this type of citizen input. To meet this goal, staff sent a survey to its 64 commission members in January 1998. The survey included questions concerning the current structure, operating procedures, accomplishments, training, purpose, and effectiveness of each commission.

Staff also reviewed each commission's current operating procedures for inconsistencies with current practice and interviewed staff liaisons and chairs to the commissions for additional feedback. To gather different perspectives on the subject, Elmhurst also surveyed 13 other park districts regarding the current structure and effectiveness of their advisory committees.

After evaluating the feedback that had been collected, staff compiled a report including summaries of the survey results (54% return rate), interviews, operating procedures and trends. Staff reviewed the report and concluded that the structures of some commissions were ineffective and members felt that their needs were not being met. Other commissions felt they played a vital role in the agency's operation and received support from staff above and beyond expectations. Based on the study, staff discussed several ideas for addressing the members' responses such as eliminating or combining commissions, recruiting new members, and/or modifying their focuses. However, before taking action, staff felt that additional input was needed before taking action. Having the tables turned, the commission members were asked to evaluate themselves and be used as a "sounding board" to determine their own future. Staff felt that the commission members had specific interests and experiences that would ensure that their needs as volunteers, as well as ours, were met.

The park district asked a professor from a local college to facilitate a meeting with commission members to provide objectivity and an atmosphere of open discussion. The purpose of the meeting was to assess the current state of the commissions and how, if necessary, to improve communication and replicate successes. The facilitator recommended inviting two members from each commission to ensure equitable representation and a focused discussion. To prepare for the meeting, the facilitator prepared a discussion guide to help the participants clearly identify problems with the current structure and proposed solutions.

Recommendations
Based on the participants discussion, the facilitator provided staff with a list of recommendations to ensure effective participation in the future. The list included issues such as disbanding commissions that have outlived their purpose, providing more training, improving recruitment efforts, creating ad-hoc committees to address specific one-time issues, and conducting an annual focus group to foster communication.

Many of the recommendations mirror issues on the "do's" and "don'ts" list which illustrates the importance of conducting an assessment to ensure that the advisory commissions have the tools they need to succeed. The Elmhurst Park District is evaluating the recommendations and drafting an implementation plan to address them.

As the Elmhurst Park District learned, an evaluation of the advisory commissions effectiveness is vital. If you currently have advisory commissions you may want to go through a similar process to ensure that you are meeting the needs of the group and the needs of staff. Aspects of our process which helped make it a success include:

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Advisory commissions provide a valuable resource for organizations seeking public input. After the evaluation, you will be getting the best out of your commissions and providing the "lifeblood" of your agency with support they need. ž

LAURA MILLER
is the administrative projects coordinator for the Elmhurst Park District

Sources used for this article include: "City of Santa Clarita Citizen Participation Plan." Santa Clara, Ca, 1995; National Association of Counties (research staff). "Use of Advisory Committees," Washington, D.C., 1980.