Can A.I. Analyze Public Comments Better Than You? Creating and Making Sense of Equitable Engagement

Session 6C | Thursday | 2:45 PM – 4:00 PM (PT)

About the Session

What does operationalizing equity look like? With increased grant opportunities for community engagement, many jurisdictions will be doing more engagement and receiving more public input than ever before. During the development of the 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update, King County went from receiving about 400 comments to over 10,000 comments on draft proposals. This dramatic increase in participation was an important success, yet it created challenges in understanding and incorporating public input into the plan development process. To manage this increase and ensure that community interests were centered in the plan update, staff worked with consultants, community groups, and new collaboration and analysis tools. Presenters will share lessons learned and innovative techniques for engagement and managing increased levels of public input through case studies and an interactive workshop.

About the Moderator

None.

About the Speakers

Janet Lee, AICP

King County

Janet is a senior planner with King County's Regional Planning team and led the public engagement efforts for the 2024 Comprehensive Plan update. Prior to that, she worked in regional affordable housing policy with King County and long-range planning and parks planning with the City of Redmond where she had an opportunity to write plans and operationalize programs to serve the changing racial and socioeconomic demographics of the city. Janet earned her master's degree in landscape architecture and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Rebeccah Maskin, AICP

Demographic Planner, King County

Rebeccah Maskin is Demographic Planner for the King County Office of Performance, Strategy, and Budget. Since 2018, she has worked on the County's Regional Planning team focusing on countywide planning, long range planning, and serving as the county demographer. Before coming to King County, Rebeccah worked for a decade at the Puget Sound Regional Council, focusing on land use forecasting and regional growth management planning. Rebeccah earned her master's degree in urban and regional planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed her undergraduate degree in geography at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. She loves maps, spotting trends in all facets of life, and being among big trees.

Andrew Larson

Grants and Contracts Manager

Andrew Larson is a grants and contracts manager with the King County Office of Performance, Strategy, and Budget. His team administered King County's allocation of federal ARPA Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery funds in response to COVID-19 pandemic, and supports executive department teams with ongoing full-life cycle grants management activates. He holds a Master of Public Policy and professional certifications in Project Management (PMP) and Economic Development (CEcD) and for the last year, has been part of a cross-division team exploring A.I. integration policies and projects.

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