SUMMARY MINUTES FROM THE TOWN COUNCIL

AND BUDGET TASK FORCE JOINT MEETING

LIBRARY MEETING ROOM, OCTOBER 25, 2006, 5 P.M.

Council Members present: Mayor Kevin Foy, Mayor pro tem Bill Strom, Cam Hill, Mark Kleinschmidt, Sally Greene, Ed Harrison, Jim Ward, Bill Thorpe. Council Member Laurin Easthom was absent, excused.

Others present included: Town Manager Roger Stancil, Deputy Town Manager Florentine Miller, Assistant Town Manager Bruce Heflin, Police Chief Gregg Jarvies, Planning Director J.B. Culpepper, Finance Director Kay Johnson, Public Works Director Bill Letteri, Assistant Parks and Recreation Director Bill Webster, Transportation Director Steve Spade, and Facilitator Tim Dempsey.

Mayor pro tem Strom convened the meeting at 5:08 and announced that Mayor Foy would be late and that Council Member Easthom had a work-related emergency and could not attend.

Mayor pro tem Strom said there had been a terrific outcome to hiring the new Manager. He said that along with Mr. Stancil’s hiring came a desire for an improvement in the budget process, including different approaches.

Mayor pro tem Strom said the meeting was being recorded for the record.

Council Member Thorpe requested that there be a question and answer period before meetings. Mayor pro tem Strom obliged.

Mr. Dempsey said he would facilitate the meeting and hoped that it would be a successful experiment and the first of many to come. He said Council and staff agreed that there should be more informal meetings. Mr. Dempsey said there would be a dialogue, which was best with nine or less participants, but he was going to try it with more participants. He said this was a cycle and process discussion, and everybody was equal at this meeting. Mr. Dempsey said the purpose of the meeting was to achieve a common objective. He said Ms. Johnson would present her information first and quickly, and the remainder of the meeting would be spent in dialogue.

Ms. Johnson thanked the Council and staff and task force. She noted that Assistant Human Resources Director Anissa Graham-Davis and Fire Chief Dan Jones were the only members of the task force who were absent due to job-related duties.

Ms. Johnson said she would record and report where there was agreement on the process and a public forum would be held on the process on November 6. Subsequently, she said, changes would be made to the document and it would be presented at the Council’s November 23 meeting.

Ms. Johnson said meetings with the task force had resulted in areas of agreement. She said the focus had been on development and land use. She added that there was agreement that other goals, services and facilities needed focus. Ms. Johnson said that there was also a desire to reengineer Council retreats in some fashion for easier focus on vision and goals. She said the task force had also requested more discussion of the operations budget, and the need for a forum for expressing successes.

Ms. Johnson said task force members had said that some areas of the budget process were too long, and others were too short. She said extending the budget discussion throughout the year had also been discussed.

Ms. Johnson said in the longer term, the task force had expressed a desire to discuss the mission statement and goals. She said there was also interest in benchmarking and evaluations.

Ms. Johnson said an area of discussion for the short term was the involvement of advisory boards in the budget process. She said there was no clear consensus, and there were different ideas about why they were part of the budget process. She said the vision and desire were not clear. She asked for direction from the Council, and also inquired what departments without advocates were to do. She said clear directives were needed. Ms. Johnson also asked if the timelines for the operating budget represented what the Council needed.

Ms. Johnson said that the task force had also discussed reengineering the Council’s annual planning retreat. She said the team suggested addressing clarification of the organization’s vision, and focusing on goals by identifying capital and operating costs. She also noted that members wanted staff input on the goals and a two-prong approach to capital projects involving maintenance, preservation of existing assets and project accountability.

Ms. Johnson said that primary areas of discussion included the intent of the retreat, the role of advisory boards, oversight decision, level of formality and identification of short-term goals.

Council Member Harrison noted the importance of staff input. Ms. Johnson added that it had been a wonderful experience to hold these discussions.

Mr. Spade asked how staff could be more responsive to the Council in terms of goals. Mayor pro tem Strom responded, by the form in which they present information to the Council. He noted that the Council was provided very formal reports for a fat budget. He said a short-hand budget with key ledgers needed to be developed. Council Member Ward added that they wanted the Town’s successes more broadly and effectively broadcast to the public than had been done in the past.

Mr. Stancil noted that a separate process was underway on connecting the Council goals with the Comprehensive Plan. Also included in that process, he said, would be conversations that ask why the Town’s doing what it is doing.

Ms. Johnson said that the Comprehensive Plan was a major communication document, but that the Council’s annual goals did not truly express all of the Council’s goals or how they were all interconnected.

Mr. Dempsey said no one was satisfied with the annual retreat. Mr. Letteri said that the retreat could perhaps be improved with information flowing both ways. With that exchange he said, Public Works could get some direction from Council regarding solid waste and sustainability.

Mayor pro tem Strom said it seemed illogical that they could lay plans when they were not receiving feedback. He said that Council trying to rank priorities was counter productive, and wacky. He suggested revisiting the style of the retreat. Mayor pro tem Strom said retreats needed to have interpersonal features, with communication skill building. He said the Council needed more face to face time with department heads to spark ideas and have strategic discussions. He said the Council also needed team building at a time other than the retreat and also time to develop policies prior to the budget process to help them make better budget decisions.

Council Member Ward said he believed the Council could benefit from greater input from staff. He said there may be issues out there that he was totally unaware of. He said they needed to develop a process where awareness was increased. He said the ranking of goals did get to be too much of a numbers game. Council Member Ward said they needed to spend less time on final organization of those goals and spend more time on getting a fuller picture of the issues and goals. He said he believed they could be more effective if they could do more homework beforehand instead of getting information cold.

Mayor Foy entered the meeting at 5:44 p.m.

Council Member Hill said the retreat had become a meeting in the basement of the library to review high hopes. He said it didn’t really reflect what was going on. He said he believed they spent too much time categorizing things they never get done. He said the goals reflect new ideas and ambitions. Council Member Hill said he wanted to see operational goals from departments. He said he would like to see more “nuts and bolts” stuff, noting that the good stuff the Council accomplishes does not get talked about at the retreat. He said looking at the time spent as Council members and then time spent at the retreat, you would think 85 percent was land planning. He said they needed to pay more attention to other issues.

Ms. Johnson noted that the Council used to go farther away to hold their retreats. She said it cost more, and was fancier, and then it ended up with the Council spending half a day in the library. She asked for the Council’s direction.

Mayor pro tem Strom said they didn’t need to go away. He said they needed more planning. Council Member Kleinschmidt said breaking the retreat into two meetings would help. He said one could be the “nuts and bolts” meeting and the other could be the “what kind of community do we want” meeting. He said Council could define what the goals are from that. Council Member Kleinschmidt added that he believed the ranking was helpful, and that the problems with it were cured by staff. He said it was also useful in their interactions with other units.

Mayor pro tem Strom suggested groupings or different tiers of meetings. Mr. Dempsey said the first part of the process could involve only Council, then more involvement of the staff could take place in budget review.

Council Member Hill said Council needed to get straight on its priorities so as not to bore staff. Then, he said, the staff could become more involved.

Council Member Ward said he would like to meet with staff first, and that would shape his opinion.

Mayor Foy said staff was always there, and that he believed that it was the format of the meeting. He said they needed to break down the formality. He said staff sits there and Council talks. How participatory is that, he asked.

Mayor pro tem Strom said that having conversations with staff would be helpful, not for the entire retreat, but some conversation would be very informative.

Mr. Stancil said there were alternative ways to meet both expectations, not necessarily verbal, but provided ahead of time as homework. He said long range concerns and issues could be in writing. He said the process would boil down to time and time management.

Mr. Dempsey summarized by saying that the consensus of the Council was to evolve the retreat into something new with more informality, including dialogue with staff ahead of time, more interpersonal interaction, and the consideration of importance of ranking the goals.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said staff had an important role. He said his concern was with the mechanics of the retreat, and that it be free of operational concerns.

Council Member Greene suggested three retreats – presentation of the budget, tax rate, and variables, such as where the budget is coming from and going to. Then she said evolve that information into rankings on the wall, and focus in the afternoon on those two. She added that goals and policy should drive the budget, not the other way around.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he was not locked in, Council Member Greene agreed. Mayor pro tem Strom said they could wind up having the capital projects drive the planning process.

Mr. Dempsey asked Council members if they wanted to delegate the design of the retreat to the Manager. Council Member Ward said he wanted to go in that direction, to get a draft that Council could react to.

Mayor Foy said the basic outline was that they do the budget then the goals. What we are doing, he said, is reengineering the process.

Council Member Hill said the Council had had more conversation on the retreat in the past hour than ever before. He asked if a plan could come out of the conversation.

Mayor pro tem Strom said it was highly desirable for Mr. Dempsey to be involved in the process, and to not just put this on Mr. Stancil, and to have Council members involved.

Mr. Stancil said the task force could draft a couple of options, and Council could review and finalize the recommendation. Mr. Dempsey said he was curious if there were a couple of Council members who would be interested in collaborating with task force members. Council Member Hill, Mayor pro tem Strom, Mr. Dempsey, Ms. Johnson, Mr. Letteri, Ms. Culpepper and Mr. Stancil agreed to draft a plan.

Mr. Dempsey added that if anyone had ideas to contact one of the team members.

Mr. Dempsey said the next area of discussion was the role of advisory boards in the budget process.

Ms. Culpepper said that the Land Use Management Ordinance mentions an annual meeting with the Council, and that had begun happening at budget time. She said perhaps the original intent was to allow for dialogue with advisory boards. She said the charge of each advisory board included that they meet with the Council.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said the dialogue with advisory boards had to be preserved. He said the Council owed it to the volunteers to have time to speak with the Council. Council Member Ward said that time was minimal and the Council needed to look at ways to improve that.

Mr. Webster said the advisory boards viewed it as an opportunity to tell the Council what they’ve been working on, including its successes and failures. He said that the time spent with advisory boards had in past years gotten to be less and less.

Council Member Greene said having served on the Planning Board, it was her assumption that those conversations happened during budget season. She said they would figure out the things they wanted and then talk to Council about it. Council Member Greene said the Council should meet with the boards at least once a year, but if it is at budget time they naturally make recommendations on budget matters. She said perhaps they should meet with boards throughout the year.

Council Member Hill said two different issues were going on: specific items and budget advice, and sensitive policy advice.

Mayor pro tem Strom said Council Member Greene’s point was well made, and he agreed that the Council should meet with advisory boards at some other time than at budget time.

Mr. Dempsey, acknowledging that he was stepping out of his position as facilitator, commented that as a former member of the Planning Board, he never felt as if they contributed very much to the budget process. He said that perhaps the intent of the Land Use Management Ordinance was for boards to spend time with the Council, but not necessarily at budget time.

Council Member Hill said input from the boards would add a lot of value to the budget, but it sounded like adding them to the retreat process would benefit all of them.

Ms. Johnson said the different boards served different purposes, and she believed there was advocacy involved.

Council Member Harrison said he would really like to have a process with the Transportation Board in conjunction with the budget, noting that this board was quite frustrated.

Council Member Ward said that two retreats made sense, one in which boards had general conversations with the Council, and one where issues were budget-driven. He said he would like to see Council talk about this in the January/February time-frame.

Mr. Spade said the Transportation Board did have a goal in shaping budget recommendations, and they also would value the opportunity to generally share their goals with the Council. Council Member Kleinschmidt said the board could provide a report or send a representative. Mr. Dempsey said Mr. Spade could take the board chair to the budget meeting. He also asked if the Council supported a separate block of time to spend with each board. Mayor Foy said he was fine with the process being open and inclusive, however, he said the number of boards had to be taken into consideration and that another retreat would demand more time of the staff and the Council. He asked how much more process they wanted to layer on top of this.

Council Member Greene said the point about time was well-taken. She said that within the past few months a member of one of the advisory boards had told her they were not clear about what the Council wants. She said she knew of a board that needed direction. Mayor Foy said the Council may need to rearrange its time. He said that would help take the burden off both the Council and the staff. How much can Council members read and how many meetings can they go to, he asked. Mayor Foy added that the Council had changed the process because it was exhaustive.

Mayor pro tem Strom said Council members do not do a good job of bringing information back from boards to Council. He said there needed to be some kind of information passing role, or reports from board liaisons. He said that would inform the Council on what issues are facing the boards and commissions. Council Member Kleinschmidt said as a board liaison he did not see it as his role to attend every one of the board meetings. He said he saw himself as an advocate.

Council Member Greene said she was not going to stand up to a board and tell them they were on the wrong track because she was only one Council member. She said she should have a conversation with the Council.

Council Member Ward said liaisons had helped boards communicate effectively, noting that staff as well as boards sometimes did not know what the Council’s goals were. He suggested setting a 15-minute time limit.

Mr. Dempsey said the annual requirement to spend time with each board should be divided. He said for the budget process, those who needed to be involved should be involved. He said that he and Mr. Stancil could discuss how that could be resolved. Council Member Ward said it should be made explicit that the Council is going to communicate this process to them.

Council Member Thorpe said they needed to have an appreciation day to get to know the volunteers. He said it looked like the Council was afraid to spend money to show their appreciation.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said they needed to have something to show that boards and commissions were functioning members of government. He said members should be engaged at the first moment of service, if the Council was going to eliminate this from the budget process.

Council Member Ward said he did not want to send the message that they were excluding them.

On another note, Mr. Dempsey asked if the levels and mechanics of informality in the budget review process were acceptable. The Council agreed that they were.

Mr. Dempsey said there had been a lot of discussion around the capital budget including its structure, operational goals, and the oversight committee. He said the Council would be moving from a concentrated budget process to a continuous financial budget process. Mr. Dempsey said he needed to know if there would be a standing budget committee, a committee of the entire Council, or if budget discussions would be added to the Council agendas.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he believed he would be doing a better job if it were a financial management process. He said he preferred a standing committee meeting every other meeting.

Council Member Hill said the Council needed to look at how it spends its time. He said he would like to become more familiar with the operational aspects of the budget, by containing costs, and improving services. Council Member Hill said that could be done by spending less time on other issues. He said he was supportive of dedicating one meeting a month to budget discussion. He said it should be one of their primary priorities.

Mayor Foy said the Council had plenty of time for budget discussion but packed it all into one season. He said it should be dispersed throughout the year, with a dedicated block of time each quarter. He said he didn’t like the idea of tacking it on a business meeting. Mayor Foy said they all could better serve the community if they had a better understanding of operations, and were aware of the issues confronting each department. He said the Town had only four or five large departments. Mayor Foy said if the Council better understood those it would be very helpful. He said that next year they could diversify to small departments.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he could see a two-hour meeting of the entire Council every quarter. Council Member Ward said he was supportive of spreading the discussion throughout the year. He said he was not ready to delegate it to a committee at this time.

Mr. Dempsey asked the Council if five meetings per year as Council Member Hill had suggested was acceptable. It was the consensus of the Council that it was.

Council Member Hill said there is a clear differentiation when you understand the process. He said with the CIP, where it becomes important is when the Town is not doing any capital improvements or operations and maintenance.

Ms. Johnson said it would be clearer if the capital improvements and new projects were separated.

Mr. Dempsey said they would begin the process in the next cycle as Ms. Johnson had suggested, then look at it again. Mayor pro tem Strom said this was a big step in the right direction. Council members agreed.

The meeting was adjourned at 6:56 p.m.