2025-03-11 info provided by Kevin Hill at 3-11-2025 GP mtg

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Understanding Sustainable Development — Agenda 21 Understanding Sustainable Development — Agenda 21 Stakeholder council meetings are typically arranged under the auspices of soliciting input from community members on a project. This project may be initiated by local public officials, local, regional or national non-profit organizations, NGOs, and/or public private partners.15 Anyone from your next -door neighbor to someone from another town initially promotes the "visioning" plan or process. Realize that these smiling faces are not working in your best interest. They are typically connected politically or through their careers to a group working with an agenda. A typical stakeholder council meeting is run by a trained facilitator.16 It is not the facilitator's job to make sure that all views are entered into the record. His job instead, is to guide the group to arrive at a consensus on the project. The consensus process uses the Delphi Technique and has no mechanism for recording minority views. Since he is being paid by the organization responsible for the project, it is in his interest to arrive at a consensus sympathetic to the desired outcome of the project. Tactics vary between the facilitators, but consensus generally is reached by using subtle means to marginalize opposition, such as recording only the "good" ideas, and allowing criticism only for the "bad" ideas." A Sustainable Development stakeholder meeting in Greenville, South Carolina, was adjourned with a frank admission by the paid facilitator that they had not reached the consensus that he needed to support the predetermined plans.18 15. Recall that civil society actors and many Non -Governmental Organizations are accredited by the U.N., making them international, or multinational in their political purpose. In this sense, they might be more appropriately called "Global Governance Organizations." 16. Professional facilitators are frequently paid thousands of dollars for only a few hours of work. 17. Eakman, B.K. How to Counter Group Manipulation Tactics: The Techniques of Unethical Consensus -Building Unmasked. Midnight Whistler Publishers, Raleigh, N.C., 2011. 18. Dill, Bob, Land Use Leaders Declare Defeat; Wrong Consensus Reached, Meetings Cancelled, Times -Examiner, Greenville, South Carolina. Steven Lipe, the meeting organizer, announced that "the consensus is that we don't have enough people to make change. As far as I am concerned, our meeting is done" OF SMART GROWTH; 1GEND41i $..tUSTAINAeLE DFIELOPMXT OUR OBJECTIVE IS TO GET THE ANSWERS WE WANT AND MAKE THE CITIZENS THINK THEY'RE PARTICIPATING IN THE PUBLIC PROCESS WHILE ALL THE DECISIONS HAVE ALREADY BEEN MADE BEFOREHANDIII Why all the effort to gain support for programs few citizens want? The answer to this question lies in the origin of each specific project. Sustainable Development projects are often initiated at the directive of NGOs or non-profit organizations that have — or create — fear over problems that are portrayed as a crisis: development near a riparian corridor, poor water management infrastructure, or too many cars on the freeway are common examples. ICLEI Once a problem has been identified, every NGO, non-profit, and local government body has a vast stock of Sustainable Development solutions at hand, provided by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI). Indeed, ICLEI has a veritable treasure trove of boilerplate solutions for change agents, enabling them to "identify" problems with the goal of implementing predetermined outcomes that advance Sustainable Development policies." 19. cf. Taylor, Jerry, op cit. — 12 — — 13 —