Current Projects

Environmental Protection Agency
Environmental Protection Services

Client/Funder:
Environmental Protection Agency (posted 1/11/05)

Purpose and Scope:

The Environmental Protection Agency’s(EPA)Fiscal Year 2004 budget includes funding for an independent third party (the Academy) to conduct a study of the United States’ environmental protection services. The study will examine how federal, state, and local governments can improve the ways they work together to protect public health and the environment. EPA’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations will assist in designing the study, which they hope will help advance the numerous and complex federalism issues facing EPA, states and local governments.

In 2000, the Academy published environment.gov which analyzed the recent trends and efforts to improve environmental protection. That study provided EPA with advice, strategies, and insights for the future. Over the intervening years, some of the efforts identified, such as the National Environmental Performance Partnership System (NEPPS), have not only continued but expanded. For example, EPA has been engaged with the states in a joint evaluation of NEPPS that focuses on using Performance Partnership Agreements as a single defining document for EPA’s relationships with individual states. EPA’s study request now will expand on these efforts by examining how local environmental service delivery is, or is not, integrated with federal and state efforts.

The Academy’s study will analyze the respective federal, state, and local government roles, responsibilities, and activities for protecting public health and the environment. It will identify overlaps and/or gaps in protection, as well as barriers to more efficient and effective collaboration and cooperation in delivering environmental protection services.

Center:

Academy Studies

Project Director:

Bruce McDowell

Project Status:

Ongoing

Panel:

Jonathan Howes(Panel Chair)*— Special Assistant to the Chancellor and Professor of Planning and Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Former Secretary, Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, State of North Carolina; Research Professor and Director, Center for Urban and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina; Mayor, Town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Director, Urban Policy Center, Urban America, Inc.; Director, State and Local Planning Assistance, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Randy Johnson*—Chair and Member, Hennepin County (Minnesota) Commissioners. Former Assistant General Counsel, Federal Election Commission; Associate, Faegre and Benson; Legal Assistant, National Coal Board, ( London); Legislative Assistant, Minnesota Commissioner of Human Rights.

David Mora*—City Manager, City of Salinas, California. Former City Manager, City of Oxnard, California; Manager, Los Gatos, California. Increasingly responsible positions with the City of Santa Barbara, California: Director, Community Relations; Assistant to City Administrator; Deputy City Administrator.

Statement of Disclosure by David Mora: David Mora states:

As a local government manager, there may be a potential conflict as local government might potentially benefit from the recommendations ultimately made by NAPA.

With that in mind, I am listing the local governments for which I have worked for purpose of disclosing that current and past employment:

City Manager, Salinas, CA 1990-Present
City Manger, Oxnard, CA, 1985-1990
Town Manager, Los Gatos, CA, 1981-1985
Deputy City Administrator and Assistant to the City Administrator Santa Barbara, CA, 1977-1981
Director, Community Relations, Santa Barbara, CA, 1973-1977

I am not aware of any other potential conflicts.

David Mora City Manager City of Salinas, CA

Robert O'Neill*—Executive Director, International City/County Management Association. Former President, National Academy of Public Administration; County Executive, Fairfax County, Virginia. Former positions with the City of Hampton, Virginia: City Manager; Assistant City Manager for Administrative Services; Management Systems Coordinator; Management Intern; Director, Public Employment Program.

Statement of Disclosure by Robert O'Neill: Robert O'Neill states:

While ICMA [International County/City Management Organization] is the professional association for city managers and county administrators, and is an Environmental Protection Agency partner on several cooperative agreements, my participation on a panel that examines "how local environmental service delivery is, or is not, integrated with federal and state efforts," is not a conflict of interest for the following reasons:

ICMA has no established policy on how local environmental service delivery should be integrated with federal and state efforts, and would not benefit from any particular set of study results or recommendations.

ICMA typically develops proposals in response to competitive EPA solicitations for cooperative agreements, grants and contracts, and does not define the scope of parameters on such solicitations.

ICMA is anon-lobby management association dedicated to performance based local government management and service delivery.

Robert J. O'Neill Jr. Executive Director, ICMA

Sallyanne Payton*—William W. Cook Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School. Former Associate Professor, University of Michigan School of Law; Chief Counsel, Urban Mass Transportation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation; Staff Assistant to the President of the United States, Domestic Council, The White House; Attorney, Covington & Burling.

Paul Posner*—Managing Director, Federal Budget Issues, U.S. General Accounting Office. Former positions with the U.S. General Accounting Office: Assistant Director, Intergovernmental Relations Group; Associate Director for Tax Policy and Administration; Director, Federal Program Review, New York City Budget Bureau.

Lester Salamon*—Director, Center for Civil Society Studies, and Director, Institute for Policy Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Former Director, Center for Governance and Management Research, The Urban Institute; Deputy Associate Director, U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

* Academy Fellow