Bloggers on Local Government Environmental Policies

For bloggers who follow their local governments environmental policies and actions, I would like to know:

• How do you work with local government, staff, commissions as well as local non-profits, newspapers, etc?  How do you get information?
  
• What do you find the right distance to be, so neither too cozy nor too abrasive?
• How do you view your mission?   Are you reporter, critic, activist, publicist,watchdog?
• Who is your primary audience?  Local government, local population, environments?

Is there such a thing as "strike team", an informal, national/international, multi-disciplinary team who can take a quick look at given proposed local strategies or initatives and just compare these to successes/failures in similar communities elswhere?   We don't want to keep re-inventing the wheel.   The "team" might be biologists, renewable energy engineers, industrial ecologists, environmentals, etc.