There is no set process for implementing the coordination requirement, but the following outline is a good guide.  Whatever the process or outcome, coordination facilitates solutions to local issues and is the embodiment and implementation of local control.

1. Identify the Local Government to Exercise Coordination

Coordination is performed by local units of government.  These normally include counties, incorporated cities, water districts, school districts, or any legislatively, statutorily created government entity with local planning, taxing, enforcement, or regulatory authority. If local officials haven’t initiated coordination on their own, begin by identifying which local unit of government will serve your interests best.

a. Educate Yourself:

Begin by developing a good working understanding of the process.  Reading this pamphlet is a good start.  Read through the statutory language applicable to the agency at issue found in the Coordination Workbook and online at www.americanstewards.us.  Read through the case studies and letters that have been written by local governments and received from state and federal agencies in the coordination process, also found in the workbook.  Attending workshops where you can visit one-on-one with those who have used this process successfully is also very helpful.  Call American Stewards with your questions.  You do not need to be an expert on coordination, but should be knowledgeable on how this process can help your local governments consider this approach.

b. Identify the Local Government Unit: Local politics can easily get in the way of implementing good ideas such as the coordination process.  If you do not already know the people on the various governing boards in your community gather as much information as you can on your leaders.  Consider their positions on different issues.  Visit with the elected officials to get a more personal understanding of their perspective.  Look at the board’s decisions to see where they align.  Through this research, it may become clear which unit of government would be most likely to utilize coordination.  If not, then start by focusing on your County.  They have responsibility over all issues in the County and are formally structured with regular meetings.

c. Meet One-on-One with Local Leaders: Begin with the County Judge, Chairman, Mayor, or President of the Board you have selected (or someone you already know personally on the board).   Ask for a meeting to visit with them about a process you’ve heard other local governments using to preserve their economy and way of life.  Bring copies of materials, such as this pamphlet or the coordination workbook for them to study after you leave.  Tell them why you believe the local government needs to be involved in this.  Discuss the issues that can be resolved through this government-to-government process by having a seat at the table with the agencies.  If they are interested in moving forward, ask for time on their agenda to present the idea and then begin meeting individually with the other board members so they have time to consider this and ask questions as well.  Remember to keep your discussion focused on local issues, not national problems.  Your local governments cannot fix problems in Washington D.C., but they can fix problems at home.  Stay focused on the issues that need to be resolved locally.

d. Navigating Potential Opposition: Depending upon the political climate of your area, you may meet resistance from advocacy groups or even elected officials.  In this case, you need to assess whether you should work publicly or quietly to get the local government committed to coordinate.  Identifying these people before you begin making the effort public is critical to your success.  You need to understand the political mine fields upfront, or your entire effort can be derailed.  The one-on-one conversations with the elected leaders whom you know will be friendly are very important to determining whether you should work to get the public behind the process first or whether you should work quietly to get the local government on board.  If there is going to be major opposition from board members, give strong consideration to choosing a different local government unit.  Key to successful coordination is a committed and unified board, one that cannot be swayed by agency pressure or politically split because there is no unified consensus.

e. Execute Simple Resolution: Once a local government unit has agreed to utilize coordination, all that is needed to begin the process is the adoption of a simple resolution by the local unit of government setting forth the following:  1) You are the duly elected governing body of your unit of government; 2) It is your duty to care for the public health, safety and welfare of your constituents, which includes a stable economy, productive industry and healthy environment; and, 3) Set forth that you are asserting the coordination authority to request the agency to coordinate with you as required by federal and/or state statute.  The resolution shows the unity of the board, to show that it is board action, and not one member’s action, that authorized utilizing coordination with the agencies.

2. Initiating the Process

a. Decide Policy or Plan:  You need to establish a clear agenda of what you wish to achieve through coordination.  Some refer to this as setting priorities.  What are the priority issues that must be resolved?  What is the outcome that would solve the problem for your community?  Discuss fully the issues you are having with an agency or several agencies; include in the discussion the federal or state agency action, plan, or policy that is harming your community or you think will harm you in the future.  Decide what you would like to see substituted for the government policy or plan, and formulate your local policy or plan to deal with the resource, economic or social issue discussed below.  Your local unit of government can choose to adopt a detailed plan, but these take much longer and are much more difficult to arrive at any kind of consensus.  Normally, it is better to start simple and deal, at most, with one or two issues.

b. Factors in Deciding Policy or Plan:  In developing a plan or policy, keep the following concerns in the forefront of all your choices:  What are the economic, environmental, social and public safety concerns that directly affect your local community.  For economic include the protection of your tax base, economic stability of your citizens and local businesses, resource revenue from farming, ranching, timber, mining, and all other resource extractions that benefit your local economy, protection of private property; for environment consider protection of natural resources, land improvement, wildlife protection, water and air quality; for social consider the welfare of your local school system and how your volunteer fire department and ambulance services are funded and maintained, recreational and tourism  opportunities, and all elements of the cultural structure of the community; and for public safety consider law enforcement and public hazards.  Remember, health, safety, and welfare of the community should always take precedence in your thought process.

Sample Policy:  If a Travel Management Plan is being prepared, your policy could be “All open trails and roads should be designated as open. Full open access should be made available to the public lands for local purposes such as safety, health, economics, and use of recreation as assured by Executive Order of the President.  No road or trail should be closed unless public safety or health demands its closing. No RS 2477 right of way should be closed.”  In Texas, it was as simple as: “No Trans-Texas Corridor shall be built through our jurisdiction.”

c. People Resources:  As you begin, it is desirable to gather together people who will become resources from which you can depend on for research, expertise, advocacy, and support.  These are called various things depending on how formal or informal the group is to the coordination process.  You can either have a simple working group or an advisory council or committee and it can be a formal or informal group.  If formal, have the elected body appoint the members.  Select a chair, vice-chair, and secretary, hold regular meetings that coincide with and function as a support group to the coordination process, and take minutes.  Remember, local units of government and their elected representatives are the ones who will perform the coordination process with federal and state agencies.  Your job as a support group is to serve if asked, make presentations if called upon during coordination meetings, and provide support with research and documents that help further the cause and focus the efforts of the coordination process.  These groups can include various industries of the area, affected individuals, landowners, businesses, and organizations that have a vested interest in the process. If there is no such group, you don’t need to recruit one.  If there is such a group, they can be invaluable to you as advisors on policy and strategy.  If you have such a group, name them as an advisory committee or a work group and let them help you set local policy.

d. Write, Sign, and Send Letter:  To begin the formal process of coordination with the agency a letter needs to be sent to the local head of the federal or state agency explaining that you have asserted your coordination status and that you would like to meet with him/her to begin coordination discussions.  If you have decided on a priority issue or two that you are ready to meet about, then schedule a meeting and inform the agency of your desire to begin coordination over your priorities/issues.

Sample Letter: “We would like to meet with you on ___________or_____________ at 2pm in ___________________.  Please call our clerk by (normally give them 30 days to respond) and advise us of the date convenient to you.  If neither of these dates is available, please arrange with her/him a date available to both you and the Board.”  If you have decided to discuss a specific issue then list the issue you wish to discuss.  The letter should contain a brief statement of the authority giving you the right to assert coordination.

In most instances, the agencies first reaction will be to ignore or reject your coordination request.  Never give up.  This will likely be their first introduction into the process.  On the other hand, local agency personnel may understand the requirements and try to neutralize your effort by convincing your elected officials to “coordinate” as a “cooperating agency.”  These efforts must be resisted if you are to successfully focus the agency on your local issues.  If the agency resists real government-to-government coordination, the local unit of government should send a second or third letter to the next level up the chain of command until you reach the head of the federal or state agency.  You may also eventually notify the Department of Justice as your final effort, so that they can clarify the coordination requirements to the agency.

3. Implementing the Coordination Process

a. Coordination Agenda:  After the meeting is scheduled, you should send an agenda labeled “Coordination Agenda for _______________,” state your agenda and then ask for the agency to add anything to the agenda they would like to discuss.  State that this will be a “government-to-government coordination meeting.” It will be an open meeting so that the public can attend, but there will be no public comment because of the government-to-government nature of the meeting.”  The Agenda should be sent at least ten days prior to the meeting date.  If they respond and even add to the agenda, then they have tacitly agreed to coordination.

b. Post Notice of Meeting:  Each meeting should follow all Open Meeting laws and be posted normally 72 hours prior to each coordination meeting.  The agenda should represent all the business that will occur and should be posted the normal way all other meetings are posted for the county, city or local unit of government.

c. Be Prepared:  Prepare well for the first meeting.  The agency will be checking you out to see whether you are serious about this process or whether they can just let you slide and you will go away.  Be prepared on your facts.  Use your work group to help get prepared for the meeting.  Study the agencies statutes and regulations so you can ask specific questions that they aren’t prepared to answer.  You want to be able to keep them on the defensive, which is why you need to know your facts.  For instance, if the meeting involves open trails or roads, be prepared to discuss some of the roads and trails you know are used and be able to tell them what the public safety, health, or economy issues are by keeping that road or trail open (always think public safety, health and economy). Be prepared with the latest agency map, that you are aware of, so that they can show you what they are up to; let them know that you expect a map on which they are currently working. You may have all or some of the advisory committee at the table with you as advisors.  If someone has specific knowledge about a road, let them describe the road and ask questions regarding its use.

4. The Meeting

a. Welcoming Statement:  As the local government body who called the meeting the chairman (head) of your local government is in charge of running the agenda. Welcome the agency and introduce your commissioners or special district directors and advisory committee members who may have a special part in your meeting.  Make sure you welcome them to a “coordination meeting,” then let the agency head introduce staff he or she has brought.

b. Opening Statement: Next, make an opening statement that says “this is a government-to-government coordination meeting made possible by federal and/or state statute.  It is an open meeting at which the public may attend and listen, but there will be no public comment period since it is a government-to-government meeting.  If any member of the public has a comment, you can make it at the public comment period provided at our next regular meeting.” Once finished, you can ask the agency head if he/she would like to make an opening statement.  Do not let this become an opportunity for the agency to monopolize the time.  Keep this brief and on point.

c. Proceed with Agenda: Begin to work through the agenda items.  The purpose of the meeting is to have an open discussion with the agency about the issues of concern.  Present your issues first to make sure that your concerns are delivered and time is not absorbed by agency officials discussing irrelevant issues.  Your concerns are the focus of the meeting.  Have each one of your elected officials prepared to ask questions on different topics so that the time is productive for both you and the agency.  For the more detailed issues, you can have someone (associate, consultant, committee member) prepared to address that issue in greater detail if necessary, depending upon the direction the discussion takes.

d. Identify Issues:  As the meeting ends, identify the issues that were not decided and that need more discussion or more information from the agency or from you (the new maps the agency is working from for example), and make a list of them.  Make a list of things the agency needs from you.  Then ask the agency head for a date for the follow up meeting at which the new information can be reviewed and discussed.  Agree on a date for the next meeting before ending the meeting.

e. Record Meeting:  If possible, purchase a digital recorder preferably with an attachable microphone so everyone around the table can be heard and recorded.   After the meeting, have your recording secretary transcribe the discussion attributing each statement to the person speaking so they can be identified as to who said what.  The secretary also needs to draft the minutes of the meeting to be signed by the members of the local unit of government and placed in the official record book of the coordination group.  All correspondence from and to the local unit of government should be placed in the “Official Record Book.”

5. After Meeting

a. Debriefing:  After the meeting, have a debriefing session with your members and the working group or advisory committee members that were allowed to participate in the coordination meeting.  Get their ideas as to how the meeting went and begin to develop your goals for the next meeting.  Remember, in this baby step process, if the agency agreed to come to the second meeting, progress was made.

b. Press Release:   If the press was not present, get a press release about your first coordination meeting with the agency to the local newspaper (s), and arrange to speak to an announcer on local radio programs about the meeting.  It is important that your constituents know that you are meeting with the agency.  Keeping the public aware of what you are doing is almost as important as the fact that you are doing it.  We live in a land of people who are sick and tired of doing nothing; they want action taken.

c. Letter to Agency:  Write a letter to the agency thanking them for attending the meeting and reminding them of the material you requested, and either provide information you promised or at least tell them that you will get it to them rapidly.

d. Gain Support/Allies:  Locate and contact either in writing or in person with organizations in your community that have issues with the agency and tell them about your first meeting with the agency.  Explain what coordination is, and ask them to advise you of any issues they are currently having with the agency.  Tell them about your next meeting, explain that it is an open meeting, but it is government-to-government with no public comment period.  Gain their trust the best you can and get them to help with research and/or to support the coordination process and the local elected officials who are performing the task.  This gets the public involved and keeps the elected officials focused and enthusiastic about the process.

e. All Follow-up Meetings:  For all subsequent meetings, follow the same preparation and presentation for the first.  Be working constantly to develop the strategy you will use with the agency regarding each issue.  Begin to prepare local policy for each of the issues you identified in the beginning stages of coordination.  Strategy is an on-going process -- coordination is a process run by strategy.  Always have your strategy in mind before you go into a meeting.  Each meeting you will learn something new.  If you have multiple meetings with multiple agencies, you will learn something from each that can be used to your advantage.  You will be told something that the other agency won’t want you to know.  Use it to your advantage.  This is why you need to record and transcribe your meetings so you can review and study what was said in response to your questioning.

6. The Plan

Is a formal plan necessary? No.  What is necessary is that you have a definite local policy, in writing, through resolution or a motion by the board, that shows the position you expect the agency to take. As you develop policies, it is useful to put them in a “Plan” document so that you have proof in quickly readable form of your policy, and so that your constituents know your policy regarding resource issues. The Plan, as a document, can be amended through additions of policies with background explanations of the policy.  Normally, you want to follow the KISS doctrine (keep it simple stupid).  Starting with one or two policies is much easier than developing an entire plan for your community.

7. Support

Remember, coordination is a process.  Victories come after long hours of work, research, meetings with the agencies, discovery, and diligence.  Perseverance is a virtue.  If you prepare and realize victories can be small or large, you will succeed at this.  Set your goals, work extremely hard to achieve your goals and watch how the coordination process produces miraculous results.

If you get to a place where you need advice, call our offices and we will help you through the next step.  We can arrange to meet by teleconference with your local leaders if necessary to help answer questions.  In some cases, we can also visit your area and work with your elected officials, committee members and others who will be vital to your success to help develop your specific strategies.  Our goal is to educate and train you and your key people to be able to handle all the issues you may face today and in the future.