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promising emergence from doing Community Conversations. Amplify LAP and it serves as the

intentional by-product of public engagement and civic deliberation processes that allow ordinary

citizens ways to impact local governance and policy development through shared participation.

We can look at Community Conversations as a means of potentially doing the business of

the public interest and delving within this paradigm shift can find that opportunity represents an

evolving viewpoint whose approach and potential is new, yet strongly has historical roots, yet

strangely is not widely used in the context of government policy development and administration.

Public Hearings

Although various methods for obtaining public comment exist, arguably the most widely

used method of including stakeholders and constituent groups in the formation of policy

development is the public hearing. Throughout the US all levels of government hold hearings.

While government leaders and administrators have historically used the public hearing

method as the primary vehicle for gathering input from the public and affected groups, recent

scholarly literature acknowledged its weakness as an approach for meaningful citizen participation

(Baker et al., 2005; Innes & Booher, 2004; Lando, 2003; Wang, 2001). The primary intention for

holding public hearings is the purposeful designed inclusion of citizens in governance, the review

of alternatives and policy formation to include identifying public preferences; incorporating

citizens’ knowledge of local conditions; advancing fairness and justice; legitimizing the public

input process; and satisfying a legal requirement (Innes & Booher, 2004). Similarly, Burby (2003)

outlined a set of reasons for citizen inclusivity in decision-making processes, citing the “principle

of fairness and equality; the right of citizens to be informed and express their views; the need to

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