The following is an edited excerpt from an article by Eric Damian Kelly, "Selecting and Retaining a Planning Consultant: RFPs, RFQs, Contracts, and Project Management," published by the American Planning Association, February 1993.

 Why hire a consultant? There are many reasons.

1. To supplement staff time.
Hiring a consultant is particularly appropriate when the project is a nonrecurring one (e.g., a new comp plan or zoning ordinance). If the project will carry over many years or is a continuous one, expanding staff is a better option.

2. To supplement staff expertise.
Some tasks, because they occur so infrequently, call for special skills that cannot be learned quickly or easily by staff (e.g., rewriting a zoning ordinance, preparing site studies for waste disposal sites).

 3. To ensure objectivity.
Projects like department reorganizations or complex redevelopment plans that will displace residents can be very controversial, emotional, and political. A consultant may be able to find a "win-win" solution and can often be accepted by various parties as an objective mediator in any local disputes.

4. To ensure credibility.
The local planning director or staff may know the solution to a local problem but selling that solution to the public, council, or planning commission may be difficult without the blessing of an "expert" to verify that solution.

5. To obtain a variety of skills.
A small community with limited budget and planning staff (or, for that matter, no planning staff) can hire a consulting firm with access to a number of people with different skills. It would be difficult or impossible to hire enough part-time staff to find that variety of skills or find one individual who was that multitalented.

6. To deal with legal requirements.
If a local government puts a freeze on hiring or is unwilling to commit to any long-term employment, an agency may only be able to hire a consultant to deal with an impossible work load or project.

If, after reviewing this list, the agency or government decides to hire a consultant, it must answer some key questions:

• - What do we want the consultant to do?

• - What skills, expertise, and experience must the consultant have to carry out the project?
  

• - How will we relate to the consultant? That is, will we simply given the problem to the consultant and expect a completed report? Or will we provide staff support, citizen participation, review, or other input to the project?
  

• - What working style, organizational, and locational considerations will affect the ability of the consultant to facilitate the relationship with us?