Research for this report is part of a project on evaluating the quality of planning and governance under the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA). This is the first of two complementary reports aiming to develop and test a methodology for evaluating the LGA community outcomes processes and the related monitoring and reporting frameworks and apply it to selected councils. This report focuses on interrogation of community outcome processes facilitated by local authorities as a forum for community governance. Out of this study we have developed a generic framework for deliberative engagement.