California Air Resources Board

On November 28, 2023, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) hosted an online virtual meeting via Zoom to seek recommendations from members of the public on ways that CARB can better engage with communities when developing programs, policies, and regulations. The event started off with a brief presentation that discussed who the staff working on this effort are, the purpose of the draft Community Engagement Model (Model) being developed, and what the draft Model currently includes. After the presentation, folks transitioned into three smaller breakout groups to participate in discussions regarding key questions relating to outreach, engagement, and follow-through. At the end of the meeting, each breakout group gave a report out of key ideas that were discussed. Key ideas and themes included: partnering with community groups, using a wide array of outreach methods with a focus on targeted outreach, increased transparency from CARB, and ways for CARB to build relationships with communities.

Link to Jamboard: Community Dialogue - Virtual 1 - Google Jamboard

Background: There were approximately over 30 participants from the public. Three breakout groups were created for smaller group discussions.

Outreach Topic

1. How can CARB best inform you that something is going on? (For example, regulatory updates, grants, enforcement issues using email, social media, etc.)
   • Door to door outreach
   • Television and local radio
   • Newsletter
   • Use alerts for outreach - Twitter
   • Have an app for alerts
   • Whatsapp or text
   • Door knocking
   • Social media
   • Use email and social media, and text message to those subscribed with less technology literacy/accessibility
   • Emails, blogs, newsletters
   • Flyers – mail and digital
   • Community events such as block parties, job fairs, etc.
   • Depending on the audience you are trying to reach, you should consider using media sources (print, etc.) that targets that audience (Latinos, Blacks, Asians)
   • Advertise in a big way. Reach the different communities in their language
   • Short videos can be effective. Residents speaking about their experiences, about their understanding about CARB actions and initiatives.
   • Hybrid meetings that provide folks with both in person and virtual meeting settings.
   • Have CARB representatives at events to interact in person
   • CARB staff at community events
2. How should we communicate information so it is relatable and understandable? (For example: enough background, clear language, more visual components like charts, maps, infographics, etc)
   • One page fact sheets
   • One pager Infographic
   • Infographics - focus on info most important to people’s everyday lives
   • Infographics that are accessible and not too technical - community needs to know what they're looking a
   • I find infographic/fact sheet style useful
   • Info is heaving on explaining carb reg etc. but can you flip the most relevant information up front. what is most critical for community to know
   • Flyers - keep it simple, 1-pager
   • simple language and strong visuals
   • Give us a template to follow and we can upload attachments etc
   • Continuous newsletters rather than one-time outreach
   • I want the solicitation, charts, define language used or spell out acronyms
   • Newsletter; to provide ongoing edu information on the programs/ projects so that people are being informed of the background info in different sittings vs.1 long technical doc
   • You should have an app so we can get alerts
   • Do outreach at health and community fairs
   • one-on-ones
3. What types of meetings are most useful? (For Example, webinar, phone call, in-person meetings, virtual meetings?)
   • In person meetings as outreach tool.
   • Virtual meetings are easier to attend for more number of people, but I am not sure how impactful they are.
   • Having a mix types of meetings is important to meet different types of groups and their availabilities. I do think virtual is the most convenient to get more people to attend.
   • Virtual to convey. If you are worthy of getting a contract then those people are invited in person
   • When you've defined and narrowed down then those people should be in person.
   • Phone or in person conversations that are more story sharing and less survey focused.
   • In-person needs to come back. it is hard to get people to zoom in.
   • In person. BUT it needs to be a friendly type of environment. not us vs them. we have in person meetings to hear all points of views. not "my view is better than yours"
   • In-person gets more dialogue. Virtual seems to be more accessible.
   • Outside, in nature
   • Casual and fun setting
   • Focus group discussions in small groups
   • Food and childcare
   • If CARB can have local organizations put it in their newsletters it might help so it isn't just from CARB but trusted people
   • Not creating new events, tacking on to standing meetings with orgs that have an established reputation, especially direct service and cultural arts orgs.
   • Please stop using acroynms
   • In eligibility things - you can't use acronyms etc and need to meet in person.
   • Places where there are opportunities to build relationships
   • Think about connecting with established organizations and groups already doing community work
   • Joining existing events, not creating new events
   • All channels are appropriate in social media. but need to define audience. how many resources will be dedicated to social media vs print vs etc. and who uses which and who is a priority
   • Print media - might be for a different age group
   • If people have social media alerts or following then social media is useful
   • It isn't clear how to get on the list serve
   • Local media may be important for different groups. for example, asian american may have different local media.

Engagement

1. Please talk about a government engagement process that went well. What did you like about that process?  
   • I got San Francisco supplied Child Care. They had a caring intake person, then explained to us a clear process but we always had access to that person.
   • There have been some grants that have established unrealistic timelines for submitting a proposal.
   • Invite universities to community events - helps with the leraning process
   • Build tools and capacity so staff can follow through and accomplish their goals in partnership with communities
   • Creating design forums and including community members to create the plan of how they want to see community engagement created
   • CARB calls include list of people who attend and be clear about who can and cannot participate and bring people together
   • Working with Strategic Growth Council programs is frequently a much better experience than other state programs
   • Using third party facilitator, using plain language, providing ownership and leadership to each and every resident participating
   • Lay out details in a partnership agreement so it is very clear who is responsible for what
   • Gradients of agreement to come to collective decisions
   • MAPS - getting perspective of all different people to allow for understanding of others
2. Please talk about a government engagement process that did not go well. What could have been done better?
   • A tool that we've been referring to recently from the org, Facilitating Power: https://www.communitycommons.org/entities/3aec405c-6908-4bae-9230-f33bef
   • Better coordination across agencies.
   • How to leverage what is existing instead of creating new materials. Weave into existing fabric. building relationships with local groups and build from there
   • Presentation oriented - lots of jargon was used -- and being defensive when audience brought up critical questions.
   • Join existing meetings with trusted community partners
   • Just talking at the people in the meetings and informing - no two-way engagement
   • Not doing research about the community - language needs, when folks get off work, early relationship building
   • Defensiveness based out of lack of understanding history of community they are talking to
   • Not being honest about past harms. Need to be open to hearing difficult truths
   • Decide- announce- defend
   • When CARB staff ask for feedback when they can't change anything
   • Not allowing time in the beginning to build relationships
   • “othering” of people
   • need to be culturally sensitive to the communities they are interacting with
   • People’s definition of robust engagement can really define the levels of engagement.
   • talking at people
   • long, boring, technical presentations
   • Having a decision already made before go to community- and then not listening
   • When feedback is requested, but no one tells us how our feedback impacted the process
3. How should CARB balance engagement versus communities being asked to do too much?
   • outreach, education, expectation need to be aligned. ab617 asked a lot of air quality and needed an education component. so the outreach created a slow start.
   • need a deeper understanding of where community is at and what they need / constraints.
   • air monitors - not solar expected electricity to work and wifi to work. outreach to get them to the community, but didn't meet community needs/situation
   • everyones problems are important. but this is where CARB needs to prioritize part of the job. we all go through it. sometimes honesty with the community helps.
   • Compensate people with gift cards, or pay when you are asking for too much of peoples time. CARB should reserve funding for community participation.
   • Compensating community for their time
   • Only ask when it’s important to people’s lives and CARB is going to do something with what they hear. No check the box engagement

Follow Through

1. When you provide feedback, what is the best way we can show that your feedback was heard and considered?
   • Emails should have a response in 2-3 days instead of 2-3 weeks.
   • If we send an email we need to receive an email confirming you received and when you will respond.  I had someone call me 2.5 years ago I asked a question they now had an answer.
   • 2 weeks response for comments?
   • State that "these were the biggest and most things that we heard". State "Here's how we're addressing it."
   • Develop a plan of action based on each recommendation
   • by ACTUALLY implementing it.
   • If staff don't know something about a topic, bring in an expert
   • Having visual elements in summary documents. SF's transit authority has a dashboard with accountability metrics. interactive and timely
   • Allowing participants to share their experiences - do they feel heard.
   • Active listening
   • Don’t wait until the end of the process before checking in. Do a reality check throughout and adjust as needed
   • Reframe and check to ensure that what you think you’re hearing is what the person is meaning to say
2. How would you like CARB to share what feedback was received and how it was addressed
   • REQUIRE that staff follow through with communities based on their recommendations. Requirement is a necessary word to be used in the model.
   • Make sure comments are easy to find on a webpage and provide summary of actions taken based on comments
   • Group comments so they're high level and make it easier for folks to read
   • Be fully transparent on what people are commenting about by integrating a section at the end within documents, or a separate doc but including peoples comments and CARBS response action, in a way that is easy to access by all.
   • Share the outcomes and how feedback was considered in different  ways- emails, meeting recap, in-person meetings, summary video and participant testimonials
3. How can CARB be a better long-term partner for your community?
   • CARB doesn't don't about limitations and WHY they can't do something on rule making, enforcement, regs, etc. There isn't a clear WHY you can't
   • be honest about limitations
   • CARB needs to be more transparent about their limitations - why can't they do various things? Be honest - that will help with trust.
   • Better internal communication at CARB - it's not there right now. Hard to have relationships externally if they're not known internally.
   • Provide funding to support impacted communities to have their own technical teams (+1)
   • Share success stories on how emissions programs are working and reducing emissions in our community.
   • Have specific CARB point of contact in each community
   • Press releases
   • Tracking over time the impacts in community - x reductions over y years and impact
   • Protect communities from harmful emissions - more direct action, accountability from industry
   • By making businesses actually responsible for their emissions, and creating more protections from their pollution
   • Pollution levels should be decreasing, yet we have seen much reduction since the Clean Air Act, because their is not enough accountability.
   • CARB sides too much with industry instead of the people and our health
   • Make stationary polluters create a pollution mitigating fund for front-line communities to deal with the repercussions. It should NOT fall back on the tax-payer $$
   • continuous dialogue
   • Address community needs in addition to what CARB needs. Be a partner not just extractive
   • CARB staff should get out into communities more - build a deeper understanding of local conditions
   • Have CARB executive staff and Board members specific to each region have regular meetings/listening sessions across the State (quarterly, biannual)

CARB Staff

1. What are the biggest community engagement areas you would like help on?
   1. More outreach and awareness about air quality conditions in the central valley, how to protect ones health, and what the plan is to bring down pollution in the future

Group Report Back

Outreach

• Outreach - door to door is effective, health promatoras, using TV and Radio, using applications (air districts use apps)
• Outreach - focusing on mobile options - whatsapp or texting
• important information on fliers
• Partner with trusted known partners
• Use apps
• be mindful of how CARB presents information - video, interactive, visuals, be straightforward with language
• tailoring information to what is most important to communities

Engagement

• Engagement - making sure there is accessibility and transparency
• Engagement - make things easy to find, especially comments. put on website.
• Engagement - maybe group feedback by counties since different regions
• Engagement - mix of different meeting types and how that can help for different audiences
• Engagement  - social media alerts, apps
• Engagement - targeting population specific media outlets. Local news sources
• Engagement - avoiding acronyms
• Cultural competency - on how to engage and partnership
• CARB needs to provide resources to make this happen
• Casual and fun setting for meetings
• Food and childcare at in person
• Having a game plan to building long-term collaborations with local community groups
• Gradients of agreement to come to collective decisions
• Using MAPS method to get a better understanding of others
• Give space for people to share their experience and having staff be active listeners
• Talking WITH people instead of AT people
• Importance of compensating communities for their time
• Design activities with kids in mind so they can participate instead of sitting in the corner

Follow-Through

• Follow-up - CARB being transparent about WHY carb can't do something
• FOR FEEDBACK = consider a meeting of record and have it by region
• Dashboard - real time with accountability measures - https://www.sfmta.com/strategic-planning-metrics-accountability
• Meeting notes - will there be an oversight committee and complaint process?

Relationship Building

• A way to have a better relationship is to make sure that stationary pollutants are being regulated and there is funding for frontline communities for mitigation
• Be an actual partner instead of extractive, bi-directional relationship
• How to have executive staff and board members in listening sessions not just staff. Quarterly or bi-annual meetings with board member from that area

General

• Clarity is not just about materials but also about the actual regulations. Important for small businesses. Clear and carefully worded regulations.