I.E: Leadership and Cultural Change

Encourage the adoption of open government principles in all aspects of our operations and employee performance

Other Information:

History and Path Forward - Again, EPA leadership is committed to encouraging the adoption of open government principles in all aspects of our operations and employee performance. EPA has and will continue to reward employees who make significant contributions to enhancing the Agency’s transparency, participation, and collaboration. We will encourage designated employees to incorporate at least one new media and Web training into their individual development plans. At EPA, we have an established policy (www.epa.gov/publicinvolvement/pdf/policy2003.pdf) with a variety of tools to help our staff reach out to and involve the public (www.epa.gov/publicinvolvement/index.htm). We strive to: * Involve the public early and often throughout a decision-making process. * Identify, inform and listen to the affected public (providing extra encouragement and technical or financial resources, where possible, to support public participation). * Involve the public in developing options and alternatives when possible and, before making decisions, seek the public's opinion on options or alternatives. * Use public input to develop options that resolve differing points of view. * Tailor public involvement efforts based upon many factors. * Work in partnership with state, local and tribal governments, community groups, associations, and other organizations to enhance and promote public involvement. Our current policy calls for Agency staff to strive for the most meaningful public involvement opportunities appropriate to each situation. In addition, we have established an interim policy on the use of social media platforms that offer us the chance to engage with guidance to employees on the use of these tools. EPA has identified a range of possible levels of public involvement, shown in Figure I-2. Every day individuals in all offices, regions, and laboratories seek to effectively engage people in the work of EPA at all five levels of the public involvement spectrum. For example, EPA has staff dedicated to support effective and meaningful public involvement in the Superfund Program, the Office of Policy Economics and Innovation, and the Conflict Prevention and Resolution Center. 1. Changes to Internal Management and Administrative Policies The Agency is taking longer-term action intended to create lasting benefits through culture and process changes. In essence, EPA is breaking down internal and external barriers to be more open, fair and inclusive. We have policies in place promoting use of social media, as previously described, and are reviewing ways to share successes and challenges. We are looking to collect and share best practices and lessons learned on open government efforts across the Agency. In an example of a policy shift, we recently identified a creative solution to involve the public earlier in the process of revising a rule. Legally mandated, public involvement begins when a draft rule or rule revision is published for public comment. We have a proposed change that will require regulated entities to electronically report their data in support of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Moving from a paper reporting method to electronic created a great deal of interest within and outside the Agency, so we established a cross-Agency rulemaking work group for the NPDES Electronic Reporting Rule to keep the public informed and involved. The work group recommended a dedicated Web page, and we decided to use Regulations.gov as an existing application and technology to meet the need. We are now poised to launch the NPDES Electronic Reporting Rule Web page, which will host a discussion forum as well as provide public meeting information and rulemaking progress – all well in advance of the legal requirement for public comment. In addition, we will identify other management and administrative policies such as data prioritization. 2. Challenges and How the Public Can Help EPA Headquarters offices, regions, and laboratories have each advanced innovative approaches to engage our stakeholders. Our challenge is to create a more cohesive and agile set of approaches, in close coordination with our state government partners, without disrupting existing processes that work. The initiatives outlined in our Flagship Initiative, along with continued feedback from the public, will help us to overcome this challenge. We have received over 200 ideas, 360 comments, and 3,700 votes on OpenEPA (EPA’s Public Engagement site based on IdeaScale), www.openepa.ideascale.com. As of the publication of this plan, we have implemented some of the most critical suggestions including keeping our OpenEPA Forum open indefinitely and posting our Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) inventory. However, many of the suggestions require additional analysis and collaboration across our communities of interest. We ask that all contributors continue to provide us feedback, and we will respond and keep you up to date as we move forward. EPA has provided a significant amount of data to Data.gov. However, we recognize that we need to continue to provide high-value data, and that we need to provide context to describe the value of these data in the future. We ask for your help in giving us ideas on what additional data we can provide, and to share with us innovative uses of EPA data at (www.openepa.ideascale.com). Many of the activities EPA is pursuing have resulted from prior experience or from public suggestion. To realize the full potential of our new efforts, we need insights and reactions from the public. This is certainly true in cases where we are testing new strategies, and for processes that are repeated frequently or have lasting consequences (e.g., regulatory development or standards for citizen-collected data).

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