Program Areas:

Environment
Economics
Justice
Education
Public Partnership
War & the Environment

Projects:

San Francisco Bay Area:

San Francisco
 • Hunters Point Shipyard
 • Yosemite Slough
 • Treasure Island
 • Presidio
Alameda
 • Alameda Naval Air Station
 • FISC Annex
East Bay Housing
Oakland
 • Chinatown
Vallejo
 • Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Contra Costa County
 • Concord Naval Weapons Station
Suisun Bay
 • Mothball Fleet

National:

Military & the Environment
RABS

International:

Philippines
Okinawa
Hidden Casualties of War

Public Partnership: Building Democracy & Accountability Into Government Decision-making

The Public Franchise, An Endangered Right

Arc Ecology scientist testifies before a meeting of the Defense Environmental Response Task Force in Phoenix Arizona in 1998. Participants in the National Caucus of Restoration Advisory Board Community Members look on.

At the end of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government the founders had created. To the question he famously replied: "You have a republic, if you can keep it." Franklin�s observation is as true today as it was more than 200 years ago. The roll of the public in government activity and policy making has ebbed and flowed over the years. The rules governing major government decisions require public involvement during the deliberative process. Unfortunately public participation is rarely welcomed. With regard to base cleanup and closures, the Defense Department and most local reuse authorities have adopted a consultative model that invites public involvement but rarely gives community-based grassroots people a seat at the table, even when the outcome has a direct impact on their lives.

Partnership, Not Just Participation

Arc Ecology has a broader concept of public participation. We believe in public partnership; a doctrine that calls for the full integration of the interested and impacted public into the deliberative planning process. It means sitting at the same table with military, regulatory and reuse authority decision-makers when the policies are crafted. Building true partnerships with the public may make sense but it also makes some nervous. Nevertheless, creating true partnerships speeds decision-making, accelerates project implementation, and reduces litigation.

All Arc Ecology projects are multi-disciplinary and address multiple program areas. To learn more about some of our projects that have a strong focus on public partnership and democracy, see:

• Restoration Advisory Boards