Massachusetts State Reorganization

Marking Reorganization Work

By CRWA Parklands Advocate Kate Bowditch

The reorganization of the state's environmental agencies has begun, and CRWA, like everyone else, is still feeling our way along, clear about our goals, but not quite sure how we will get there. At a recent meeting here at CRWA, the reality of reorganization hit home. We were trying to solve a problem, and we needed the state to help. We began our planning: who would contact which sympathetic state legislator, local official, or other community group to lobby to have the money earmarked in the budget.

Suddenly we all realized what we were doing: business as usual, based on the old system of getting things done with the MDC. Environmental advocates are all used to this old way of operating: make a lot of noise, attract the attention of your state representative and senator, hopefully get your mayor or Board of Selectmen to make a couple of calls; get your project funded in a line item in the state budget.

That is a crazy way to manage the environment. Special interest decision-making, lack of process, uneven planning: these are the very problems that plagued the old MDC, and the very problems we fought hard to be fixed through agency reorganization. If government reorganization is to succeed, we have to change as well. We have to give up our old methods and try to do things as they really should be done.

The reorganization that was passed by the legislature and signed into law by the Governor has just begun to be implemented. The transition team at the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) worked all summer and into the fall to put together a strategy, evaluate budgets and set priorities. Commissioner Abbott, hired in October, has just begun her search for senior management staff. Over this winter, the Stewardship Council will be appointed to work with DCR on issues including capital and operating budgets, management plans for parks, and the decision-making process itself.

A summary of the new environmental agency structure can be found on CRWA's website (www.charlesriver.org), or at the EOEA's homepage (www.state.ma.us/envir). More important than organizational charts and new agency names, however, are the goals behind reorganization, goals we all embrace. We want a professionally managed park system, accountable to the public that funds it, with clear, open, and fair decision-making processes. We want the "world class park system" that Governor Romney dedicated himself and his staff to building.

In an ideal system, the process might go like this. A good project might be suggested to the DCR staff, who would then evaluate it and bring a recommendation to their senior management, and to the Stewardship Council. The project would be evaluated based on a variety of criteria, and a decision about the project's importance and value would be made. Issues to consider might include how the project fits with regional plans and priorities, whether the public supports the project, whether it meets the requirements of best current practices, whether it is fair from an environmental justice perspective, and how much it costs relative to other needed projects. If a group feels their project has not received fair consideration, they can go directly to the Stewardship Council.

The new DCR system will probably not be perfect. Among other glaring problems in the short term, the state simply does not have enough money to bring our parks and recreational resources up to where they need to be. Institutional inertia is hard to overcome, and the enormous volume of work from management plan development to staffing to retraining will be impossible to complete quickly. Next summer we will probably not see as much change as we all wish for in park maintenance and capital improvement.
But the system should work better. Decisions about which projects to fund should be more rational. Lines of accountability, from an individual park up to a whole region, should be clear. Capital improvement projects should be tied to improved maintenance. Volunteers should be able to have their efforts welcomed and supported. Private supporters should be able to contribute to projects with confidence that work will be done and commitments honored.

Commissioner Abbott and her staff need our help to make the system work as it should. Rather than call our legislators right away, rather than pull strings and use our personal connections to bump ourselves up on the list of important projects to get funded for next year, we should put together a rationale for why our project should be supported, and bring everyone together to gain DCR support. We need to keep the legislature in the loop, of course: they vote on DCR's budget. And ultimately, if the new park managers don't make sound management decisions, we will continue to demand better stewardship of the parklands and the river.

But the new DCR deserves a chance to do it right.