Bridging the implementation gap: Designing a course of action with Michigan Public Advisory Councils

Abstract

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) enlisted the help of three past capstone program participants through the University of Michigan, School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS). Between 2019 and 2020, graduate students researched how Michigan Public Advisory Councils (PACs) can maximize their effectiveness and stewardship impact within the Michigan Areas of Concern (AOC) program, a regulatory program established to restore polluted water systems within Michigan. Each capstone participant provided several recommendations to achieve these goals, but converting these recommendations into solutions for decision-makers and practitioners is challenging. To address this “implementation gap,” we collaborated with ten Michigan PACs and EGLE to translate these recommendations into implementation plans. We synthesized the 24 cumulative recommendations from the previous capstone participants into a shortlist of eight, which we used throughout an interview process. We divided this process into Phase I interviews with individual PAC members and Phase II community conversations with multiple PAC members to identify each PAC's priority objectives and workshop their implementation. We analyzed interviews both as individual PACs and as a state-wide program using three main codes: progress, interest, and readiness, as well as an auto-coding process to check our work. These analyses showed that PAC members felt they had made the most progress toward recommendations related to PAC structure, community education, and partner organizations. While PAC members varied in their interview responses, most expressed interest in implementing recommendations where there was the greatest opportunity for progress: community education, life after delisting, and PAC recruitment.