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MEETING MINUTES :. I I MINUTES COMMUNITY CONSENSUS STEERING COMMITTEE Thursday, October 7, 1993 The first meeting of the Community Consensus Steering Committee was held on October 7, 1993 at 1:30 PM at the Clearwater Community Sailing Center on Sand Key. PRESENT: Commissioner Art Deegan Bill Schwob, Chairperson Stephen Bils Janice Case Elizabeth Mannion Vito Nigrelli Tony Salmon Naomi Williams ALSO PRESENT: Dr. Peter Graves Ruth Ann Bramson Rie Takizawa, Administration Section, Nagano Municipal Government Jeff Harper, Director of Administrative Services Kathy Rice, Deputy City Manager Melissa Ellis, Staff Assistant Alisa Dobbins, USF graduate student Two committee members were unable to attend - James McCurtain, manager of Sears Countryside and Bob Bickerstaffe. Jiffy Johnson had been interested in being on the committee, but has declined due to an illness in her family. Mr. Schwob opened the meeting by suggesting that each person present introduce themselves to the group: 1) Mr. Schwob spent 35 years in the U.S. Coast Guard and retired in 1980; since that time he has worked as a volunteer for the city government, spending 6 years in the Planning & Zoning office and 3 years on the budget advisory committee. 2) Ruth Ann Bramson will aid in implementing this program. She owns her own company, Local Strategies, which assists cities and counties in dealing with the pressures of change. Over the past 2.5 years Ruth Ann has worked with over 84 local governments. Ruth Ann currently lives in Boston and has an office in Tampa. 3) Elizabeth Mannion has lived in Clearwater for 27 years. She is a lawyer and has 1 ~ J I been active in both the League of Women Voters and the Clearwater Bar Association; this will be her first experience working with a city committee. 4) Janice Case was born and raised in Clearwater, and now resides in Island Estates. She is the Vice President Suncoast Divisions for Florida Power Corporation and moved her offices from St. Petersburg to downtown Clearwater last June. 5) Tony Salmon has lived in Clearwater for the past 13 years; he is a retired management consultant. Tony is currently active with local home-owners group and the Coalition of Homeowners in Clearwater, he has also been involved with various political campaigns. 6) Stephen Bils moved to Clearwater in 1972 and graduated from Clearwater High in 1975. He taught college in Texas for 10 years and returned to the area 2 years ago to pastor at Faith Bible College. Stephen recently finished the 'Leadership Pinellas Training' program. 7) Naomi Williams is the Director of Admissions and Registration for St. Petersburg Junior College. Naomi is originally from Daytona Beach and has a Doctorate degree in Education. Her late husband, Dr. Williams was a respected leader in the community. Naomi's son is the coordinator of the county's High Risk Students program. 8) Kathy Rice is the city's Deputy City Manager and will aid in facilitating the needs of the Steering Committee. 9) Rie Takizawa is visiting from Clearwater's sister city, Nagano where she works in the administrative section of the municipal government. 10) Jeff Harper, Director of Administrative Services, has worked for the city for 24 yeats. Jeff explained that the community consensus program ties into a new Community Outreach program which is just getting started this year. 11) Melissa Ellis moved to Clearwater in 1969 and will be working as Staff Assistant with Jeff. 12) Vito Nigrelli has been a resident here for almost 13 years. Vito has worked with the Jack Eckerd Corporation with his background in marketing and finance. He currently teaches at local colleges in the evenings and works as a sales rep during the day. Vito has been active in community affairs and served on several city committees. 13) Alisa Dobbins is a graduate student at USF and is majoring in Industrial Organizational Psychology. 2 I I The meeting was turned over to Dr. Peter Graves who had led a similar meeting that morning with the city commissioners. Dr. Graves described the details and logistics of the Community Consensus Project. He talked about how this program was implemented in the state of Oregon and in Fontana, California. The first task of the Steering Committee was to define the possible demographic categories of the community for the survey. The Committee identified the following possible demographics: _ Neighborhoods: Countryside, Island Estates & Clearwater Beach, Sand Key, Greenwood, Skycrest, Del Oro, Harbor Oaks & N. Ft. Harrison, Top of The World, Condon Gardens. - Ethnic groups ., Retirees vs those employed full or part-time, unemployed, or students - Year-round vs seasonal residents - Income - Age - Gender - Commuters - Marital status - Voting participation: registered vs non-registered voters - Children in the home - City employees - Length of residence - Type of housing unit - Physically disabled - Multi-Generational household - Use of city services The issue of how to work the Scientologists into the survey was brought up. Dr. Graves said that if we do not work them in as a separate demographic category, the social scientist approach is to go through the process as best you can and trust the results of the survey as a fair representation of the community. Ms. Case asked about the actual writing of the issues for the survey, and how would they be written without bias. Dr. Graves stated that the Steering Committee would be needed to do the "wordsmithing'" which he described as finding the right arrangement of words to fit into the condensed space on the survey. He believes the best people to do this are those who participate in the in-put meetings, and he encouraged all the Steering Committee members to attend and participate in more than one of the in-put meetings both as a participant and observer. He went on to explain that the committee members will not be responsible for deciding which issues will be compared on the survey, the computer will do 3 '- I I that step. Mr. Bils asked how much the program will cost and where the money is coming from. Commissioner Deegan responded that $89,000 has been budgeted (as a not- to- exceed cost); it is a city-funded program and will be paid for out of the general fund.The budget includes $40,750 for cost of professional resources and the balance of the whole $89,000 is for clerical support, marketing, printing costs, meeting-room expenses, etc. The program was unanimously voted in favor of by the City Commissioners. At Kathy Rice's request, Commissioner Deegan explained that one of the major objectives was to hopefully hear from the silent majority, and then use the priorities resulting from the consensus as a tool for planning and budgeting for both next year and long-range plan. Mr. Salmon asked about the time frames involved. Dr. Graves suggests that the community in-put meetings and the completion of the surveys be complete as soon as possible, ideally by mid-December. If there is any 'splash' in the local political arena it would disrupt timing of the consensus. He hopes to be crunching data over the Christmas holidays and get back with the results by early January. At 3:00 PM there was a 20 minute break. The roles of the Steering Committee were decided as follows: 1) Chairman: Bill Schwob 2) Media Liaisons: All the Committee members should consider themselves as media liaisons. 3) Public official: Art Deegan 4) Organizer/Facilitator: Ruth Ann Bramson (when available) and all other Committee members who will facilitate neighborhood meetings. 5) Technical Advisors: Janice Case, Vito Nigrelli, and Alisa Dobbins 6) Historian: Tony Salmon Ruth Ann Bramson stated that she will be conducting a training session for the Steering Committee and others interested in how to facilitate the community meetings. There may be some constituents of Janice Case at Florida Power interested in this role. It was decided that Commissioner Deegan be the "official spokesperson" to the media. Kathy 4 ..---~.- , 1 I. Rice announced that Ned Seeton from the Times had just joined the meeting. The meeting places within the various neighborhoods were discussed. Ruth Ann pointed out that the different neighborhoods will have different priorities. Dr. Graves said that the first round of community-in-put meetings usually last at the most 4 hours, but the committee agreed that 2 hours would be a more realistic amount of time to expect people to stay. Ms. Case asked if we were going to pay people to partIcIpate. The idea to offer an incentive to the participants was discussed. There were various suggestions made including using a lottery, or drawing. Dr. Graves suggested that child-care activities be offered during the neighborhood meetings. He also suggested including high-school senior participation. The committee also decided to target the Junior College students and possibly use their facilities as a meeting place to draw both the high school seniors and junior college students, as well as adjacent neighborhood residents. Ms. Case suggested that the "business community" be a group targeted for a public in-put meeting, she volunteered to present the idea at the next Chamber of Commerce Board meeting. The next meeting of the Community Consensus Steering Committee will be October 13 at 9:30 A.M. at City Hall, Commission Chambers. 5