City Council Work Session

CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION Cedar Falls Council Chambers September 21, 2020 The City Council held a special work session at City Hall at 5:15 p.m. on September 21, 2020, with the following persons in attendance: Mayor Robert M. Green, Frank Darrah, Susan deBuhr, Simon Harding, Daryl Kruse, Mark Miller, and Dave Sires. Absent: Kelly Dunn. Staff members attended from all City Departments. Members of the community were in attendance and teleconferenced in. Mayor Green introduced the only item on the agenda, City Council Goal Setting Format. Mayor Green opened the meeting for initial comments regarding the FY22 Council Goal Setting-Proposed Process Improvements for Consideration. Councilmembers had no opening comments. Mayor Green discussed an after interview survey to determine council interest in various initiatives. Survey will determine what councilmembers priorities are for discussion. Councilmember Darrah agreed this would prioritize the goal setting process. Councilmember Darrah asked if we will still be working with a consultant and Mayor Green confirmed. Councilmember Kruse proposed including a description. Mayor Green confirmed that a detailed description can be included. Mayor Green read item - 4. b., Provide Detailed Agendas for Four Distinct Work Sessions. Councilmember deBuhr is concerned with a time restriction. Councilmember Kruse discussed justifying having a work session prior to goal setting. Councilmember Darrah stated a timeline of each goal might be easier when surveys are returned from councilmembers. Councilmember Harding suggested doing an agenda for each day, similar to how we currently do it. Councilmember deBuhr agrees with one agenda per day. Councilmember Kruse asked about the timeline of the budget. Director Rodenbeck stated that the state requires the city to have two hearings by February or early March and the budget needs to be done by the end of January for the two hearing to be complete. Goal setting needs to be done by November since those numbers drive the CIP/budget. Councilmember Kruse asked when goal setting will be this year. City Administrator Gaines stated the schedule for goal setting would be around November 10th and 12th, but depends on facilitator’s availability. Mayor Green suggested an in person goal setting session, but via Zoom option for the public. Mayor Green confirmed the goal setting will be scheduled for two days and have an agenda for each day. Mayor Green discussed using the draft city council goals document as the discussion framework. Mayor discussed how facilitator uses an informal worksheet as the “agenda” and some items are not considered. Mayor suggested using the actual draft council goals document as discussion framework. Councilmember Harding stated this might simplify goal setting. Councilmember deBuhr stated this might complicate the process and the facilitator might have a set format. City Administrator Gaines stated the format could be changed. Councilmember deBuhr is concerned we are not giving the facilitator enough time to build/reconstruct a new format. Mayor Green agreed to keep same format this year, but will talk to facilitator about changes for next year. Mayor Green discussed reducing the number of goals from 7 to 5. Councilmembers had no objections. Mayor Green discussed moving the short term financial plan to a separate annex to reduce the number of pages and make it more readable. Director Rodenbeck has no concerns, but it needs to be included for a guide to develop the CIP and budget. City Administrator Gaines reaffirms these goals need to be done annually since this drives our financial decisions. Mayor Green will establish a draft for councilmembers. Mayor Green discussed converting appropriate lists and data to tables for readability. Mayor Green will send examples to councilmembers. Mayor Green discussed new councilmembers and the public who want to be engaged and understand what’s going on in the goal setting document. Mayor Green recommends a cite (footnotes) along with web links for downloading/viewing reports. Councilmember Kruse agreed with more information and quick access. Mayor Green discussed eliminating jargon and acronyms whenever possible to appeal to a resident audience. Councilmember Harding recommended doing a reference key at the beginning of the document. Mayor Green opened discussion up to councilmembers for further thoughts. Mayor Green asked for opinions on 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. for goal setting and dates for councilmembers. Councilmember Kruse suggested November 4th, 5th, 17th or 19th. Councilmember Harding would prefer November 10th and 12th. Councilmember Kruse stated he can Zoom. Mayor Green stated the location is still being decided. Mayor Green suggested the location of the Community Center or Hearst Center. Councilmember Darrah suggested the council chambers for the location. There being no further discussion, Mayor Green adjourned the meeting at 5:50 p.m. Minutes by Kim Kerr, Administrative Supervisor