Council Subcommittee

MINUTES OF THE GILBERT TOWN COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNCATIONS, IN SPECIAL MEETING OF MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2022 AT 9:00 A.M., GILBERT MUNICIPAL CENTER II, ROOM 100, 90 E CIVIC CENTER DRIVE, GILBERT, ARIZONA COUNCIL PRESENT: Subcommittee Chair/Councilmember Kathy Tilque, Councilmember Yung Koprowski and Councilmember-elect Chuck Bongiovanni COUNCIL ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Town Manager Patrick Banger and Town Clerk Specialist Amy Beyleryan AGENDA ITEM CALL TO ORDER Subcommittee Chair Tilque called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. ADMINISTRATIVE ITEMS 1. Review of Goals set by the Town Council with a report due at the Council Retreat of December 1, 2022: a) Define scope of work b) Identify key communications areas to enhance/improve c) Outline community engagement efforts 1  d) Identify deadline for final recommendations to Town Council for approval Subcommittee Chair Tilque discussed the purpose of the Subcommittee and reviewed the goals set by the Town Council. She said the tasks of this meeting were to define the scope of work, identify key communication areas to improve, outline community engagement efforts, and to identify a deadline for final recommendations to Town Council for approval. Councilmember-elect Bongiovanni asked what the thought was behind beginning this Subcommittee. Subcommittee Chair Tilque answered that over the past two years one of her focus areas had been communications, and while the Town was proactive, the landscape had changed and that gave opportunity to reach out to the community about items they found important and to understand different avenues to provide information and for the community to provide feedback. She said they had received a lot of civil discourse and the Council felt it would be important to create the environment for people to be heard on both sides and have meaningful dialogues and two-way conversations. 2. Discussion and possible motion on Scope of Work to explore policies, best practices, and other resources to help promote civil discourse and to design public meetings and outreach efforts that balance the Town of Gilbert’s ability to conduct effective meetings; while also ensuring the public’s right to participate and desire to be heard through communication strategies, governance policies; and navigating difficult discussions. Subcommittee Chair Tilque read the above scope of work and asked if anyone suggested any changes. Councilmember-elect Bongiovanni questioned the wording “to promote civil discourse.” 2 Councilmember Koprowski suggested to change it to “promote civility.” She also suggested changing the wording from “balance the Town of Gilbert’s ability to conduct effective meetings; while also ensuring the public’s right,” she said she did not want it to be too limiting or too focused specifically on just our meetings. She said engagement meant two-way conversation and could be a lot of different ways. She suggested changing the wording from “ensuring the public’s right” to something that reflected more public participation. George Dottl, Gilbert resident, asked if the public was allowed to speak at these meetings. Town Manager Banger said Subcommittee meetings were generally ran more casually than formal meetings and it was up to the Chair and the participants to allow dialogue. George Dottl said when it came to communications, the Town had been remiss and did not get out a newsletter telling the public about the low water rates and disposal services. He said the newsletter would help the general public understand what a great Town they had. He said it would not solve the issue of civil unrest but would go a long way to enhance the Town’s leadership. Subcommittee Chair Tilque said that topic would be addressed later in the agenda and they would discuss methods of communication. Subcommittee Chair Tilque, Councilmember Koprowski, Councilmember-elect Bongiovanni, and Town Manager Banger further discussed and collaborated to define the scope of work and rephrased the statement to read as follows: “To explore policies, best practices, and other resources to help promote civility and the navigation of challenging issues by designing public meetings and outreach efforts that balance community objectives while enhancing public participation through two- way communication strategies and governance policies.” 3 A MOTION was made by Councilmember Koprowski, seconded by Councilmember- elect Bongiovanni, to define the scope of work as revised. Motion carried 3-0. 3. Discussion and possible motion of Communication Focus Areas Councilmember Koprowski suggested listing Town meetings, public hearing items and two-way communication. Subcommittee Chair Tilque suggested to add “Telling our Story” to the list to show how the Town was proactively talking about what was going on in the community. She suggested to add consistent format and training to Town meetings in regard to the Council and boards and commissions to have consistency and same training on how meetings were ran. She also said to identify the attorney’s role to help evaluate commissioners and Councilmembers when things got awkward. She suggested community forums for Town Hall two-way communication. She also suggested to include something in regard to meeting with homeowner associations (HOA). She shared an idea where the Council could be out and about and people could join to share feedback in an informal way. She spoke of another community that had a couch they would move throughout the community and the public could go and speak to a Councilmember. She said Councilmembers could rotate and be in different areas of the community to hear feedback. Town Manager Banger said to add review of all current practices. He said some practices were statutorily required and some were just practice and could maybe be discontinued. Councilmember Koprowski added communications from citizens post-meetings and follow up. She also spoke about having a consistent process for calls and emails from the public and the options for responding. 4 Town Manager Banger said other agencies played a recorded audio message on loop of the communications from citizens procedures and he said that might help from a consistency standpoint and a possible option for the Town. Subcommittee Chair Tilque said those were some areas that they would be evaluating. Councilmember-elect Bongiovanni suggested Councilmembers “on-call” and “Council chats” in regard to two-way communication. Councilmember Koprowski added reviewing the radius, timelines, and design of notifications and residents being able to find the information. She also added communication outside of social media and keeping social media a safe space for important topics. Subcommittee Chair Tilque said she would like to do a marketing campaign for Opt-in, and a big piece of what they would be doing when talking to people would be to identify topics that they were most interested in. She said she felt Opt-in was not really promoted to the public and people did not know they could get notified. She said that was an opportunity for them to do a better job. She said right now they were looking at the top focus areas to address, then once they got direction from the Council they would then reach out and further define the topic. A MOTION was made by Councilmember Koprowski, seconded by Councilmember- elect Bongiovanni, to define the communication focus areas as follows: Communication Focus Areas  Town Meetings o Consistent format and training (Council, boards and commissions) o Identifying attorney’s role o Communication from citizens (procedures, rules, staff follow-up) o Calls, emails to Councilmembers on agenda items (streamline, consistency) 5   Items Requiring Public Notification o Radius, timeframe ,and look for notifications o Signs o Ease of finding notifications (consistency of webpages, signs, postcards, opt-in)  Two-way Communication o Inventory of current practices (statutory, codified and informal) o Pop-ups o Town Halls o HOA’s o Councilmember office hours, Council Chats  Tell Our Story o Communications outside of social media, keeping social media a safe space o Opt-in type of system for notifications o Connecting the dots of our services and what it means for you Motion carried 3-0. 4. Discussion and possible motion of Community Outreach and Engagement Efforts Subcommittee Chair Tilque lead the discussion on community outreach and engagement efforts stating that piece was about ideas to reach out to the community directly. She said it could be done by surveys, mini newsletters, and Town Halls, with the topic being how to better communicate with the public. She asked if there was any interest in conducting “Council chats” for these efforts. Councilmember Koprowski responded that this outreach should be on a broader level and not on one-on-one communication and that it should be done by Town Hall and public meetings in two or more areas of the community. 6 Subcommittee Chair Tilque asked if there were any other ways of communicating for community outreach and engagement efforts. Councilmember Koprowski said on the Town’s water bill there was good information about how to connect with Gilbert and find information and suggested that maybe that could be publicized more in advertisements and local newspapers and the QR code for the survey would also be included. Subcommittee Chair Tilque said it would be important to let the media know all the avenues of what they were trying to do with the communication phase. Councilmember-elect Bongiovanni suggested putting road signs. Councilmember Koprowski said there may be certain periods between elections that signs would not be allowed. Town Manager Banger said he would defer that to Town Attorney Chris Payne, but said he believed the Town could put up signs for governmental purposes. Councilmember Koprowski said it could possibly also be done through fliers with the libraries, parks and recreation, and school districts. Subcommittee Chair Tilque asked if there were any other initial outreach efforts they would like to share with the Council. Councilmember Koprowski said the Councilmembers had large followings through different networks and said they could ask the Councilmembers to come back with feedback. Subcommittee Chair Tilque said the best way would probably be surveys because they could sort the data, adding bringing back the stories the Councilmembers hear would be important as well. 7 Town Manager Banger said a review of best practices with communications would be effective across all areas. He said people were on information overload between social media channels and said the shorter and more concise something was the more memorable it would be. Subcommittee Chair Tilque spoke of needing to understand best practices and the current ability of different formats that were in place. She suggested that Dana in Digital Government could provide data about how the Town was communicating currently and how well it would fit in with that and what may need to be done differently. Town Manager Banger said the Town had tremendous data available that showed when someone stopped viewing a video or stopped reading a message and said the longer a message was the less people watched them. He said Dana could give a presentation on that data. Subcommittee Chair Tilque said they would need help from the Digital Team with the survey. Councilmember Koprowski said it was important to note that the objective of the survey was not only to respond with complaints or negative topics, but to also garner positive stories or case studies of things that were going right. A MOTION was made by Councilmember Koprowski, seconded by Councilmember- elect Bongiovanni, to define the community outreach and engagement efforts as follows:  Understanding best practices for communication/messaging  Engagement surveys  Weekly email newsletter  Town Halls 8   Water/Sewer/Solid Waste Bill  Media  Signs w/ QR codes (check with Chris Payne on statutes if they can be placed in the right-of-way)  Digital flyers Motion carried 3-0. 5. Discussion and possible motion of deadline for final recommendation to Town Council. Subcommittee Chair Tilque discussed that there would be at least two months of community outreach and engagement and a deadline for final recommendation to Town Council was set to May 2023. A MOTION was made by Councilmember Koprowski, seconded by Councilmember- elect Bongiovanni, to set the deadline for recommendation to the Town Council in May 2023. Motion carried 3-0. 6. Review of next steps: a) Report out to Town Council on Council Retreat of December 1, 2022 b) Set next Subcommittee meeting based on direction from Town Council c) Begin community outreach d) Compile and prioritize recommendations e) Present to Town Council for approval Subcommittee Chair Tilque discussed the next steps and said staff would have a presentation to the Council on December 1st or 2nd 2023, and depending on direction from the Council would then set the next subcommittee meeting, begin community 9  outreach, and compile and prioritize recommendations to present to Council in May 2023. ADJOURN Subcommittee Chair Tilque adjourned the meeting to order at 10:13 a.m. ATTEST: ___________________________ ___________________________________ Kathy Tilque, Chair Amy Beyleryan, Town Clerk Specialist CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the special meeting of the Subcommittee on Communications of the Town of Gilbert held on the 21st day of November 2022. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this ____ day of ____________________2022. ___________________________________ Amy Beyleryan, Town Clerk Specialist 10