DATE: Saturday, October 25, 1997            TAG: 9710250389

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A11  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ARLINGTON                         LENGTH:  101 lines

DEVELOPMENT-CRAVING AREAS LAUD GRASS-ROOTS PUSH COMMUNITY LEADERS RECOMMEND FOLLOWING COMMUNITY'S LEAD.

Engaging grass-roots citizens in solving regional problems is hard work but essential to achieving success, say the leaders of a variety of metropolitan organizations across the country.

The pitfalls of increasing citizen involvement include time and expense, ``but in the long term an organization is not going to survive unless it's really bringing something fresh to the table and really committed to the mission of listening to people,'' said Janis Purdy of Cleveland, a leader of the movement for ``Regional Civic Organizations.''

Purdy was among the pro-regionalism advocates at the annual gathering of the National Civic League, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that promotes partnership-building to improve communities. The league's roots date to the 1890s and the start of the Progressive era in governmental reform.

The league's annual conference concludes today. This year, and in recent years, the group has stepped up its emphasis on citizen involvement in solving community issues at the neighborhood, city, county and regional levels.

And it's attempting to address deeper problems that confound the nation.

``We've changed our focus from simply how the government can service its community to the process of how community is created,'' said Chris Gates, president of the National Civic League, whose headquarters are in Denver. ``We've really shifted from a conversation about government to a conversation about governance.

``We focus very much now on questions such as: How do all of the sectors serve community? How do citizens play a role? How does the nonprofit sector play a role? How does the private sector play a role? How do we find a way to make democracy work?''

The number of local leaders who advocate regional cooperation has grown each year at the conference. And as their movement has picked up, they have reflected on mistakes in not involving citizens early and often.

Christine A. Chadwick, executive director of FOCUS St. Louis, noted recent, public reaction to a regional-improvement proposal in her 12-county area. The ``typical leadership,'' she said, began to work on the plan but ``they learned that the community said `forget it.' ''

``Folks immediately were skeptical that this was a farce of the process'' and began to believe that the ``boys already knew what projects they were going to pick.''

Regional leadership ``had to do a lot of work to rebuild credibility,'' Chadwick said.

Her FOCUS organization now helps organize a variety of community forums, neighborhood meetings and roundtable discussions that include a cross-section of citizens in the 2.5-million person bi-state area.

``We need to change the culture of the region in terms of how policy decisions are made,'' Chadwick said.

Some regional advocates said that if existing organizations resist having aggressive citizen-outreach programs, then new groups may need to fill the void.

``If you want to solve a problem as opposed to just preach to a choir, you need to get all actors involved that can sustain a solution,'' said Lyle D. Wray, executive director of the Citizens League of Minneapolis-St. Paul. ``Frankly, there are not very many small power groups that can do that anymore. We need to get people cutting across (society) to solve problems rather than just people talking to feel good.''

No regional advocates from Hampton Roads attended the conference, but in a telephone interview, Syble Stone, president of the Hampton Roads Council of Civic Organizations said she believes more citizens must become involved in solving metropolitan problems.

``It gives you an entirely different perspective'' when citizens from various Hampton Roads communities meet, said Stone, who also is president of the Norfolk Federation of Civic Leagues.

Stone is the only neighborhood civic league representative in the Hampton Roads Partnership, although she said some other members also are citizen-oriented. In the two years she's participated in the partnership, Stone said, she's learned not to be ``so parochial and very territorial'' about her city of Norfolk.

Stone said she would like to see the various pro-regionalism groups in Hampton Roads work together to give the citizen voice a fair and steady hearing. She suggested that civic leagues might be able to seek such a cooperative effort with the region's Mayor and Chairs Caucus.

``I would love to have a regional citizens visioning session,'' Stone said. ``Whatever we can do to grow together, I'm willing to try.''

Other areas also are learning how to involve more citizens, including Charlotte, N.C., which often is cited as a strong rival to Hampton Roads for economic development.

Despite the Charlotte area's lead on Hampton Roads, Betty Chafin Rash, executive director of Central Carolina Choices, said: ``We've got to build a shared vision across our region.

``We have to give people ownership in both identifying the problems of our region and begin to craft solutions so they will be supportive of initiatives to address these problems.''

With 1 million people, the Jacksonville, Fla., area has an organization that involves citizens in selecting study topics on two important communitywide issues a year.

``I believe actually in a bottom-up and top-down form of leadership. I think you have to have both. But what's been neglected is the bottom-up,'' said Lois Chepenik, executive director of the Jacksonville Community Council. ``So, if you don't allow them to do that and give them a vehicle to do that, then there's frustration, there's rebellion, there's conflict.

``What's happening in Jacksonville, they (politicians) absolutely are realizing that you have to go slower to go faster. It may take longer to get to the answer that people want, but once you're there, the process flows so much smoother.''

The top-down approach, she said, ``just doesn't work anymore.''

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