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MEETING MINUTES (4) ~. ... I , MINUTES COMMUNITY CONSENSUS STEERING COMMITTEE Friday, November 12, 1993 The fourth meeting of the Community Consensus Steering Committee was held on Friday, November 12, 1993 at 9:00 AM in the Fire Education Building. PRESENT: Bill Schwob, Committee Chairperson Dr. Naomi Williams James McCurtain Tony Salmon Stephen Bils Commissioner Art Deegan Bob Bickerstaffe ALSO PRESENT: Kathy Rice, Deputy City Manager Jeff Harper, Director of Administrative Services Dr. Peter Graves Ruth Ann Bramson Melissa Ellis, Staff Assistant Members from the Steering Committee unable to attend were Janice Case, Vito Nigrelli, and Elizabeth Mannion. The primary purpose of this meeting was for the group to 'wordsmith' the ideas expressed by the citizens at the public in-put meetings of Phase I. The process of 'wordsmithing 'involved sorting, combining, capturing and clarifying the many inputs into three lists of survey items. Bill Schwob opened the meeting by asking for feedback from the group on Phase I of the Consensus Project. He noted that the meeting held at Countryside Library was the largest group meeting ever held at that location with 52 people attending. Tony Salmon mentioned that he thought the 'Who Cares' marketing approach should have portayed the citizens of the community as those who care, not the City Commissioners. Naomi Williams stated that the turnout at the St. Petersburg Junior College was low because that day was pay day. Jim McCurtain noted that the turnout was also low at the Board of Realtors location for the business community. He suggested that the low turnout at some locations could have been due to the marketing being "too cute" and the planning period being much too short to effectively get the word out. Bill Schwob noted that the invitations received a good response, especially at the Countryside and Mt. Carmel locations. Tony Salmon mentioned that the attendance was higher during the evening than the daytime meetings (with the exception of the Memorial Civic Center location where 49 people attended) . Commissioner Deegan stated that several citizens who participated in Phase I expressed to him '!.'. I I that they thought more people would have come to the in-put meetings if they would have understood what to expect. Dr. Graves asked how the ads could have been worded so as to prepare the citizens for these first rounds of meetings. Melissa Ellis recommended that the 'brainstorming' term be used in the ads to help give people an idea what is involved. Bill Schwob suggested that the wording emphasis that the citizens will be doing the talking in small group discussion, rather than listening to an elected offical's presentation. Bill Schwob and Commissioner Deegan both mentioned that it was important to convey in the wording that no one is expected to speak in front of a large group. Tony Salmon re-emphasized that the planning period for this project needed to be longer for more successful results. Jim McCurtain recommended a 3-month planning period. Commissioner Deegan suggested that for the next phase of meetings we should take advantage of other group meetings that are previously scheduled and link up with them, such as the Sand Key Civic Association meeting. Melissa Ellis suggested including a phone number in the next round of advertisements and for the future - the idea of having a hot-line number for working people to call in their ideas. Kathy Rice complemented the Steering Committee on doing a wonderful job facilitating the in- put meetings. Dr. Graves stated that there was no problem with having too much data from the pubic in-put meetings. He and Ruth Ann passed out 3 packets - Quality of Life, Services, and Revenue, which contained all the ideas (minus the exact duplicates) generated in the in-put meetings. There were approximately 2,300 separate ideas generated from these meetings. Melissa Ellis and Johnnie Crawford had prepared the data by organizing the ideas within each of the three categories into general topics (Le. beaches, crime control, homeless, etc.). Dr. Graves reviewed the 'wordsmithing' process with the group. The Steering Committee members and city staff paired off to review each topic group and hone the ideas down as much as possible. Then these condensed ideas were presented to and re-examined by the rest of the group. This process lasted until 5:00 pm.