Minutes of Long Range Strategic Planning Committee – Monday, April 14, 2008
Call to order at 7:30pm
Attendance: Peter Marshall, Geoff Dent, Kathy Fetchick, Anna Wiedemann, Julia Wasserman,
Gerry Robilotti, Michael Floros
Public: None
Public Comments: None
Acceptance of Minutes: Motion to accept minutes made by Geoff, 2nd by Julia, motion carries.
Guest Speaker: Mike Taylor
Mike Taylor worked with Mike Floros and Herb Rosenthal on the adhoc committee for FFH. He helped move them with environmental issues, what they proposed to do with the property, community involvement meetings, had a plan with dates of completion to move project along. When he helped with the ad hoc FFH committee he ran 3 meetings. Suggested we begin with a selected group, key stakeholders and boards and commissions. Helpful to form an agenda to keep the meeting on track and help to set boundaries at meetings.
Mike lives in Newtown but works with a firm that helps towns create long-term plans. He designs workshops that all architects and planners use to do community planning. Work on sustainable development and physical aspects of planning. Senior people on his staff can help facilitate and he can help with the physical planning.
· Trends and market analysis
· Identify issues
· Prioritize
· Design process
Make the plan less complex and more adaptive. Getting some input on what the key themes are. Outreach to identify themes.
Concerns the committee had:
· What happens after we make our recommendation to the BOS
· Determine who comes after us
· Outside experts
· Implementation
· Include steps regarding a pilot program (committee felt it best to perhaps pilot this with one department for a year)
We need buy in from BOS, LC as well as the other boards and commissions. Need to hire a planner to create a position that would implement plan. Someone needs to make sure this ties into the budget, review to make sure action items are moving forward. We need this to sustain the volunteers, as we are not experts.
How do we get the process up and running?
How do we test the process?
How do we review process?
How do we develop a plan?
What kind of resources are needed to fulfill this?
We all feel it is an important time to do this as there are tough issues facing Newtown, such as what to do with remaining land.
Cost to hire a consultant would range in somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000. They would write a report, provide us with data, collect information, provide schematic plans, hold 3 public meetings, meet with LRSP committee 3-4 times, public input sessions.
Julia said the hottest thing in Hartford is RBA – Result Based Accountability. Every agency is required to have a plan with evaluations done at preset intervals.
Do some background data gathering before you create vision to figure out where we are going.
We will present draft of our written plan to BOS and tell them we now need their help and input. We will do a cover letter detailing original charge to ad hoc committee, include report and ask to set up a meeting with BOS and our committee stating we’d like to meet at the BOS earliest convenience. After we meet with BOS we can present draft to LC and other boards.
· Do they agree with our conclusions?
· Do they agree with the process?
· Another charge to perhaps another committee
1. Document this is how we define the process
2. Next step
3. Decide number of people who will sit on new committee (we advise no more than 12-15)
4. Budget funds for process – approximately $50,000 a year
5. Pilot program choosing one department
6. 2011 we should have a full-fledged process for implementation.
7. Every 5 years review to see if we are still on track
Ad hoc committee can continue to meet to clarify items.
Meeting adjourned at 9pm.
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