Public Participation in Public Decisions: New Skills and Strategies for Public Managers.

• Author: Weatherly, Jr., J. Harry

Reviewed by J. Harry Weatherly, Jr., director of finance for Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, and member of GFOA's Executive Board.

Today's public-sector managers are faced more and more with varying levels and types of citizen involvement in the activities of the government. All managers in the public sector are challenged to include the public as they perform their duties. This may mean using the public to gather information, build consensus, share decision making, or provide advice on specific issues for the government. As the author points out, however, public participation has progressed beyond the blue-ribbon and advisory committees to a point where citizens and citizen groups demand more of a role in the decision-making process.

Public Participation in Public Decisions, a practical guide for managers, outlines a strategic approach for public involvement in the governmental sector. The book is written for current and aspiring public managers and can be used by elected officials, civic leaders, students, and nonprofit and private-sector managers as a guide for public involvement in government. The book is very well organized, beginning with an overview of the evolution of public participation and the challenges it brings to the modern government manager.

The most practical part of the book describes the author's effective decision model. This model is a means for managers to determine when and how to involve the public. Three chapters are devoted to describing how to use the model to decide whether or not to involve the public, to define who should be involved when public participation is desired, and to make the various decisions that call for extensive public involvement.

The last chapters examine techniques to involve the public in the various types of participation: gathering information only, seeking...