Briefly Discuss as a Council, the Logistics, Goals, and Vision Surrounding the March 16, 2019 Priority Setting Workshop. (Councilmember Oddie)
Briefly discuss as a council the logistics, goals and vision surrounding the March 16, 2019 priority setting workshop. And this item was placed on the agenda through Custom Councilmember Odie. Councilman Brody. Thank you. First, Joe, it's good to see you up and around and back in public, so it's good to see you. I just put this in because I really was not informed a lot about how this workshop is going to play out. The logistics. I think I had heard that staff was not going to be there, which, you know, that was a little concerning because I think it's important for staff to hear our thought processes and our priorities and then that this was not going to be videotaped. So if somebody wasn't there, they couldn't watch a video, they'd have to listen to an audio. So I just thought since it's a council priority setting workshop, the council should have a little input in the organization and planning of it. And to date, you know, I really haven't been asked to do that. So I thought maybe all of us could kind of brainstorm and figure out how we want this to to play out. Because I remember last time, you know, four of us wanted to do something regarding, you know, team building and and working together and, you know, that kind of got nixed. So I just want to make sure that we know what we're expecting. And, you know, all of us have some input in how it how it flows so we can have the most productive priority setting workshop that we have that we could have. Thank you, Mr. District. Clarification. I hope you received an email today that was sent to us by Sarah Henry for reading the email from Management Partners and specifically I think Cynthia KURTZ and of Management Partners in it does note that it talks about what will what will happen and also says in preparation for the workshop, Cynthia KURTZ of Management Partners met with each of you to hear what you believe is an important priority for the city. And this survey, which we're asked to complete online before March the eighth, I think the end of this week, seeks to identify broad areas of shared interest by asking you to rank the topics for discussion. The results of the short survey will inform the preparation of the workshop agenda, but I know a number of us have had the opportunity to meet with someone from management partners. Yeah, I've met with her too, and shared my priorities. But you know, we haven't discussed whether it's appropriate for staff to be there. I know our new city manager is going to be there, but technically he's not on the payroll yet. So, I mean, are we going to rely on him to relay everything? I mean, and the fact that we're having this not here in the council chambers, you know, I don't know who made that decision. We didn't have any input in that decision. I don't know if any of my colleagues had any input in the decision. You know, setting the agenda. We haven't had any. And I think last time, you know, we kind of were pretty clear and we had some input. So I just want to have the council discuss it. And, you know, if. It's. Because I. Only I'm happy to discuss it, I think we have a lot of input as to what we want to have discussed and how we want to run. But let's let's hear from others. Councilmember Desai. Well, I think the idea of a priority setting meeting is absolutely fantastic. Not that I ever want to use this phrase, but I'm going to use it right now. You know, I've been on council previously going on 14 years and we've never had a priority setting type of powwow. I mean, I know that there was one when I was not on council, but, um, so, so I look forward to it. If council member Odie has some suggestions that he would like us to consider, because I think the issue isn't so much what we're going to discuss, but how we're going to go about, you know, interacting with each other. You know, I'm hoping so. And I'll just chime in about the staff part. So bear in mind, we ask a lot of our staff. This is their Saturday. We will definitely have them there for our budget workshops. But the way this was envisioned was, is from my meeting with Miss KURTZ was to, to give this council a chance to talk among themselves and really flesh out what our concerns are and and our desires moving forward. And so we certainly would factor staff into the equation when we're, say, talking about the budgets, but we also need to be sensitive about asking them to come in on their Saturdays. And right now, as we all know, a number of our staff are our department heads are stretching themselves to cover more than one position. So I and, you know, I've said this more than once, I am really pleased to be working with this council. I think we've accomplished a lot already in our two and a half months on the job together, but by all means, it will be a better workshop if you put your input, you know, to the to the facilitators because they're, you know, they're the ones who just want to do what we want. And they've done a lot of these sorts of things before. Yeah, I know that. And I mean, just the fact that you brought up that it was envisioned, you know, I was given that same report back from the from the facilitator. And I thought that the envisioning process is something that the council as a whole should, should be part of. And I don't feel like we were a part of it. I mean, I don't know who did it. You know, I don't know who chose the facilitator. I don't know who decided that staff shouldn't be attending. I don't know who decided it should be at the library where it's not going to be on video for the public to be able to review in a transparent manner like all of our other meetings. I know I was not involved in that decision making process. I don't know if any of my colleagues were. I don't know. It was a subcommittee. And I think for all of us to be working together, we have to actually work together and collaborate and, you know, not just be told this is how it's going to happen. Well, I think that that's the opportunity we have this Saturday. And I did have a meeting with one of the members from management partners because because they asked me to to sit and give some overview. And I said, I really don't have much experience. Certainly not with a successfully run a priority setting workshop, because we didn't have complete buying last time and and last time. I think my feeling was I was open to just working with the facilitator. I feel like it's always you should be open to new ideas that people who have done these things before, you know, just help us communicate with each other and bring out what we want our priorities to be for the year going forward. I mean, ideally, you would probably do this in the very beginning of the year, but I think we can all reflect back over the last couple of months and realize we were pretty busy. And yes, our new city manager will not be our new city manager yet, but he does want to attend and just sit in the audience to hear us and hear, you know, get to know our concerns and ideas better. And I think that's great. Other council members, Councilmember Vela. I think. You know, I think. I think that there's a lot of things that this council, this current council is doing different from certain. I've only been on two councils, but that's doing very different from my years of experience. I do have two. So I can see years at this point. I do think, though, that. You know, I think that in for transparency sake, I think that there is it is helpful for us to kind of talk through why we're doing the priority session workshop, what we're hoping to get out of it. And I appreciate that the individual interviews with management partners and kind of them getting our feedback was interesting. Just to look through the survey today to see what other people had suggested and also how she processed what she thought. I said my priorities were because one of my priorities was not listed. So it was it was kind of interesting, too. I mean, I think we all think that we're communicating. But what people hear and what we think we said could sometimes be different. And I think also it's Councilmember Otis point. I think even to just have a brief conversation right now about how do we think the meeting's going to run? You know, I got the sense I mean, I kind of reading into the survey of what was there, what was, you know, what the day might look like. But I also think that, you know, this is one of the detriments of not having and not being a full time council and being the part time council that we are is that we don't really get to spend a lot of time together as a body and we don't get to have these really kind of. Esoteric conversations about what our priorities are. And I'm really looking forward to hearing from all of you not necessarily about the referral list or the budget process. I think we'll have those discussions, but what are your actual priorities? And I think that there's a lot of things that we get asked on the campaign trail. But at the end of the day, a lot of the kind of key topics of discussion sometimes politically are not the key issues facing the city that people don't necessarily want to talk about, people take for granted. And so so I think, you know, at least from my perspective, I think we we owe it to each other to have that conversation. But I also kind of I get that and I don't want it to be a staff dominated conversation in that I don't want to get I personally don't want to have staff presentations on on everything. But I do feel like it might be helpful to have staff present or available to provide some context and background information. Since when we have this conversation, like let's say we discuss this specific issue and say this is this is a priority and this is why to kind of understand how we've gotten there and, you know, or to for them to at least know that that's what we. So I guess my my question is, if we're not going to have staff there to kind of take notes and get that feedback, is is this the first of a couple workshops where we get to have these conversations or and it since it's not going to be taped, how are we going to relay it to staff if they're not going to be there? Can we can we discuss that a little bit right now? Yeah. So my understanding is that there will be a product, a final product put together by the management partners who are doing this. And one of the other reasons not to have staff there was to have just that conversation among the council without, you know, referring out. And also, we should be able to put out what our priorities, our hopes, our aspirations are without even worrying about the cost of it. We'll get you know, we have our priorities and then we'll go to the budget hearing. And with our priorities in mind, we'll figure out what we can afford. But it's not a matter of, okay, we'd like to do this, but we can't afford it. It's, it's that'll help us fashion. So the. Framework can you. Kind of give me an example of that? Like I, I get how maybe if we say, okay, the swimming pool is our priority, but if we say something like housing is our priority, I guess my question is, how does that factor into like the budget conversation or in your mind, how does that affect the budget conversation? So staying with the topic of the council referral, I guess I could go I mean, and again, remember, this is our workshop and you can speak up and say, you know, I think we need to spend more time doing this when we're there. But for instance, on the housing. One of the things that I and interim city attorney just cut me off if you think I'm going too far off script. But one of the things that I think we need to consider is possibly doing an affordable housing bond like some of our neighboring cities have done. So that, you know, might be something to get out in the conversation. And then we'll back that around with, well, what other possible measures might we be bringing to voters? There's there's lots of possibilities we have. So so what I'm hearing this is the first time I've had this conversation. So I'm just for the members of the public. This is the first time I've had this conversation with any of you. And I think that so I do think Councilmember O.T. for for bringing the referral in, that I think it's given us an opportunity to actually have this conversation with each other, because I don't get to spend that much time with all of you chatting. But so so it will be a little freeform then in your mind that everyone will kind of get it'll be a conversation. And then when management partners comes back with like this final work product, if there's something that, let's say Councilmember Ody or Councilmember Desai or any of us feel doesn't quite capture the essence of the conversation or what they intended, is there an opportunity for us to review it and comment back? Is there an opportunity for us. To repress a panic button? I'm so sorry. We're good. We are. So sorry. Okay. We keep on. Is it where. In. Everybody's need. We have? Yeah. So anybody who's working so sorry to our two wonderful offices. Nice to see you. And I'll say hi. Thank you for. Responding. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Do we need to, officer? Do we need to somehow? I just told you about this, right, Jane? I am not really cleared. Is will you clear? Okay. And then what? What? I will release for the false alarm. Now stop. She's talking. Let's hear what she's saying. Okay. If this happens, then we'll just come and kind of poker head. Okay. All right. Thank you. Okay. And then I think what we probably need all of us up here is a little. Thank you. A little tutorial on how to avoid doing that. Because I have to say, when Mary Gilmore was mayor, there was a time when we had a speaker and he was a little scary. And I was sitting next to her there and I'm whispering, Press your panic button, press your panic button. And she's hissing. I can't find it. But then about a day or two later, I was giving a group of second and third graders a tour of accounts, and I was letting them do a mock council meeting. And I was there. And pretty soon this big officer showed the doorway. And I said, You just said, now you're in. One of my second or third graders managed to find it, but. I don't know what that says about me. But when I was on the transportation chair during do time, they installed new buttons after that incident. Oh. So we'll assume it. Was a John has the. Record. Oh, okay. All right. Yeah, there used to be only one. So. So. So if there is there an opportunity for feedback, correction and. And will, that will be so. And could I just throw in a suggestion? Did you all get Ms.. KURTZ a business card after you email her now? I mean, well, not now, but, you know, your first opportunity and it raises questions because, again, I have only sort of a vague understanding, but it's very much there will be some facilitation because that's how you get the conversation and the structure going. But. This is our workshop. And. And then will the will there be an audio recording of it? Correct. That's all we have over there as audio. So there'll be an audio recording and then. You go where. It is. Meeting, meeting minutes. Yeah. So there is a re there's a recording meeting. Yeah. It's a process. But for workshops we typically don't do extensive white capture. We just get the highlights and the report out from that. Okay. And then if there's, if there's a topic where we all go, okay, yes, I'm I'm interested in this or I'm interested in having a follow up workshop on, say, funding measures or whatever. Um, we could, the process would be what do we have to vote on that as a council? Do we give direction to come back? How, how would this work? Well, that's the sort of thing I would think we can just arrange to have agenda is to approve another another process. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And again, bear in mind, I am speaking about this having never attended one that, uh, that I felt was really, you know, you were there. I mean. Yeah. And, you know, I think we missed an opportunity with the team building and communication portion, and I'd like to make sure we do that, because I do think there are this referral, you know, kind of an example. I think there are ways we can improve that and I would like to have that. And as far as Melissa's comment about, you know, I don't want staff talking, but I would like somebody, you know, if possible, voluntary, you know, not banning them. But if they want to come, they could come in and hear what they what they say. Hear what? Somebody from your office be president. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But so so to Councilmember Cody's point, could we invite staff? We could say option having this if you would like. I mean. The public is invited. Public. They can certainly come, but. Oh. Okay. Mr. Rudy, did you want to say something? I was going to say we had them standing by, but after direction, I excused him for the weekend. You could ask them, but I told them. You don't have to hold that day open. Weeks ago. Yeah. And my understanding is that a council retreat is a council retreat. And it is, of course, open to the public. But it's not a check in with staff, and I'm not sure which staff we would choose, but what what are our thoughts? Vice Mayor, you haven't said too much or anything yet. Okay. So, so even so. If there is so if there is follow up, then the way I guess to to my earlier question, we would get it to the impacted staff and say, here's the portion of the meeting. We discussed it at around the 35 minute mark or the 60 minute mark, if you want to hear council conversation. And there's a way for them to hear our our discussion. And well, there are 30 minutes or how is that worth? Yeah, I. Mean, I can capture the basic overviews. Typically we make a workshop like less detailed minutes, but if you guys want to request it for that. Meeting, I will. So you said there's also an audio recording. Right. So if they wanted to hear the discussion, we could point them to and say around this, Marcus, when we discussed it. And the facilitator is going to do a report as well. Is that. Okay? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, those are those are good things. And I'm glad we I feel better. Yeah. And then and then I also I think my other concern is just the public, because last time we had a lot of members of the public show up and and I would assume that there's going to be members of the public showing up. So can we. I think part of this conversation is also for their benefit about what they could expect. 15 minutes of public comment in the beginning. And then we launch into the workshop and it's a council workshop after that. And there isn't going to be specifically agendas talking points. We're just going to it's going to be a free form dialog about priorities in general. I'm sure that the facilitators will have some way to tease that out of this. Not that this is a terribly reticent group, but, you know, it's because early on honest that I. Think I think the way that it went before for for the benefit of the new council members was essentially we went through our referral list and it was a very kind of stunted conversation at times. And then we had members of the public who wanted to comment on specific priorities because they thought we were referrals, because they thought we were making specific decisions that day. So what I'm hearing is, is that we're not making any specific decisions, really. We're just kind of directing where we might find broader conversation points, either to agendas on as a regular agenda item or to create another work session or something like that. And there were two that sometimes get kind of conflated. We did do this council well before it. Council member D.C. and vice mayor joined it. We did do a budget workshop and certainly we had all the staff and we had members of the public and kind of lobbying for their their projects. This one. No, it's that's not the way it's intended to go. And I will also say that I think one major difference is, presumably we have five people just willing to give it a try. And I you know, you don't always have a script going in and know everything that's going to happen. But I think that it's worth doing. And just think of we're at the beginning of a new term. We're about to embark with a new city manager. And I think it's it's a good time to do something like this. And again, without really knowing exactly what it is, I think it's going to be a positive experience. But vice mayor. So a few things I was going to ask about the recordings. I'm glad. I'm glad it'll be recorded. I think this referral and our conversation earlier about subcommittees and it came up at our last meeting. I'm hoping that a good chunk, a quarter to a third of the beginning of our workshop, can be to us talking about how we want to work together. The last council, you know, had issues and there were lots of referrals, some of which were put forward and not not adopted because people didn't want to change the change rules. And, you know, but it didn't work. Right. I think we all know that. I mean, I'm sorry. I shouldn't say that. I know some of us here. You should take it. I want to be careful. I would really like to spend some time talking about how we want to work as a body, how we want to work with staff, and how we want to work with our boards and commissions. Because I think that we have a lot of tradition and history in the way that we work. That is just things just were done that way and they have been done that way for 15 years and it doesn't work like an example. I think it's odd that I have no idea what the Transportation Commission is doing unless I choose to listen to the meeting. Right. Just. Just, you know. Right. So. So I think we could talk about that a little bit. And I think we could talk about, you know, standing committees and ad hoc committees and that kind of stuff. So I would like to throw that out there. I haven't looked at the surveys, so maybe that's there. Yeah, I would also like to. Say, yeah. I talked I did talk a little bit to the, to the, the, uh, consultants who I thought were fabulous about the agenda. And I, I think the referrals point to the more that we can just basically say whatever agenda you think is the right agenda after listening to the five of us is probably the best way to set the agenda at this point in time. I just just that that would be my recommendation. And then I think we should also to to council member fellow's point about the public, because I have met with a number of them, whether it be the swim community or etc., asking who should come to this and what should we be focusing on? Right. Not telling us what to say, but should we be coming in asking for the five things we want in know? Or is it, you know, don't forget to be renters. We never forget about renters. Just to be clear, I think I think making sure that our agenda is really clear about what level of detail are we going to talk about a housing bond and get into a discussion about housing bonds? Are we going to say, hey, we think, you know, finding funding for housing is good ideas. Our housing bond tax, you know, let's let's tell staff, you know, figure out how to pay for housing. Right. Or figure out, you know, come up with an affordable housing plan that has a funding mechanism, that kind of that kind of stuff. But I think. Really making sure that our agenda transmits to the people who are going to read it from act, right? There are going to be lots of people who are interested. We've already said we're going to talk about the Sunshine Ordinance and give some direction on that. But but so that people know what to expect, I think will be really important. And I'm worried a little bit that if we we're going to want it to be nice and vague so we can talk broadly, but we also want to kind of, you know, set a tone of like this and and then kind of hold each other to that level a little bit as well. So those are my things. I agree. I want this to be a team building. I want this to be all of us just talking and comfortably and freely about what we would like to see. Finding common ground. Also finding places where we might disagree, but we can support moving forward in a conversation, even if it's not the one we. So that. Yeah, those are my comments. Okay. Okay. Councilmember Vela. I'm also a little concerned because I think, again, we really haven't spent that much time chatting about these things. And even when we do spend time together, it's very limited to what the agenda is and before us. And we don't get to have these bigger conversations that there's a lot that we're packing in to one day. And so, you know, is there an opportunity and one thing, we don't have to decide it now, but at the meeting, perhaps. Is there going to be some sort of follow up to this where we can kind of have another workshop or that sort of thing? And what's that process going to look like? So what I will say is that these two women come very highly recommended and they've done this with another number of other cities and organizations. So I have faith in them leading this process. I would say that if you're right, it's a lot to pack into a day, but this is our opportunity to have that time with each other. And I think they know how to get bodies talking and focus. I mean, again, it's a you know, it is the unknown out there. And we can you know, we can be cynical going into it or we can just be open and say, let's, you know, give it our best shot. If we feel that we need more time and to continue the process, we can do that. We're the city council. We can we can do that. So I would say let's take it the first step at a time, see how it goes. The I'm thinking back, I probably shouldn't even bring this up. But I think the first time ever that we did one of these, I almost feel like the facilitator maybe didn't quite run screaming from the room, but said, Don't ever call me again or something. This is not what it's not going to be this experience. First of all, I'm just really impressed with these facilities when I've seen them. They have experience working with other with other cities. The one of them is the former both public works director and city manager of I want to say, Pasadena, California. And so let's see what we see. Let's get our surveys filled out and email them if you have even more you want to say. And then by the end of the session Saturday, I'm sure there must be a next steps. And you know what? But but we'll you know, we'll make sure that it's not just leaving us hanging. I guess that I mean, I'm actually excited about it. I mean, not cynical. I think it's going to be a great, great time for us to talk and get to know each other better and find out ways we could work together and collaborate. And, you know, collaboration is a two way street. I mean, it's not just, you know, one way. So I hope we can explore those things. And I do think this is something we should do every year. I mean, it just doesn't make sense that we don't do this because it needs staff, needs that guidance. I think the council needs to, you know, set our priorities. Some cities, you know, when they have agendas, they say, well, what a priority of the council that's been pre-approved this support. So we're all kind of rowing the same boat in the same direction and working towards the same goals that we ourselves had set. So I'm excited about it. I think it's going to be really good. The last one was not so valuable, but I mean, I hope this one is a lot better. And, you know, I'd just like to see us be able to find ways to work together and, you know, have those those conversations that, you know, we can't really have on a Tuesday night at 11. Okay. Anyone else can follow. So I just want to and you know, what kind of intrigues me about this process is it's an opportunity to talk about higher level qualitative concerns about the direction of our city, as well as higher level quantitative concerns, and to somehow to convey that, but then also to kind of encourage operationalizing those concerns and in ways that perhaps our policies or programs. But but usually as a council we usually just get nitty gritty right into the subject matter, you know, because that's what that's what matters at the end of the day, you know, does the police car have enough gas to to to go out and do their job or, you know, to the library have enough books in the library? I mean, that's what matters the most. But a lot of the actual services that we delivered come from a perspective of philosophy about how we organize, you know, what is important and, and i.e., prioritize. So, so for me, I see this. That March 16th as an opportunity to talk about these higher level concerns and how I might operationalize those higher level concerns. So like, for example, I'm the one who had raised the issue of, you know, strengthening what I call public trust. What does that mean? Well, this is an opportunity to talk about why I think it's important and ways in which I think we as a city might might operationalize that or not. But at least it's an opportunity to talk about that at a higher level first and then move on or not. Right. Vice Mayor I just wanted to Councilmember Phyllis Point, I just want to make sure I think at the end of the I had actually had the idea. I think we should probably consider having a half day workshop, whether it's quarterly or every every six months or something like that. And you know why? Because I don't think we're going to be able to get halfway through all that stuff we want to get through. But I'd just like to make sure that the agenda at the end of it, somewhere in the in the things we're talking about, just has a next steps. And what do we want to do based on how do we feel things got? So. And I would second that because I also think full for weekend days. Well efficient can also be inefficient and that we they can be very draining and perhaps at our next one, there'll be a baby at it. Will take care of holding babies. Okay. All right. So one thing I want to thank everyone for this conversation. This is how I envision this going. So I appreciate the the discussion. And I will commit to sending you all. Feel free to contact Ms.. KURTZ directly, but I will do my best to summarize this discussion that I've been taking notes in and make sure that your thoughts are incorporated. So thank you all. Okay. Moving on. Our next item is Council Communications. And I have one that I hope you will indulge me. This is actually because it came to me a little bit late. But it's important for the RAC, the rent review advisory committee, to feel they've got a couple of vacancies.