Community Engagement Commission

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT COMMISSION MEETING AGENDA WEDNESDAY, NOV. 15, 2023 – 6:00 P.M. 22710 E. COUNTRY VISTA DRIVE The purpose of the Community Engagement Commission is to serve in an advisory capacity to the mayor and City Council. The Commission’s role is to gather ideas, input, and feedback from community members, and to advise and guide city leadership. • Sign up to provide public comment at the meeting via calling in. • Submit written public comment prior to 4:00 p.m. on Nov. 15, 2023. 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ROLL CALL 3. APPROVALS a. Agenda b. Minutes of Oct. 18, 2023 4. PUBLIC COMMENTS 5. CITY HALL UPDATES a. See handout 6. DISCUSSIONS & BUSINESS a. Continued discussion on framework and process for projects that need CEC support (25 minutes) b. 2024-28 Strategic Plan baseline survey outreach update (Aaron and Cynthia) (10 minutes) c. Chair and vice chair terms: Current terms expire after Dec. 2023 i. Length of subsequent terms ii. Decision on election of chair and vice chair d. Farmers Market: 2023 wrap-up comments e. Date of December 2023 meeting (currently scheduled for Dec. 20): Change? f. Other upcoming community engagement opportunities 7. NEXT MEETING: a. Requested items for agenda? b. Scheduled for Dec. 20, 2023, at 6:00 p.m.  8. ADJOURNMENT JOIN ZOOM MEETING To view the meeting live via Zoom, join the Zoom web meeting at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81440267233?pwd=SkxldUZobnhvbEcyZ1U4YndLcnRJZz09 Meeting ID: 814 4026 7233 PUBLIC COMMENT If you wish to provide oral public comments during the Community Engagement Commission meeting, you may do so in-person at City Hall or virtually via zoom. You may speak in-person at City Hall, or if you wish to speak via zoom, please join the zoom meeting using the meeting information above. Public comments will be invited during the appropriate section of the agenda, at which time you can send a request to speak to our meeting host using the chat function within the zoom meeting. WRITTEN PUBLIC COMMENTS If you wish to provide written public comments for the Community Engagement Commission meeting, please email your comments to tgarcia@libertylakewa.gov by 4:00 p.m. the day of the commission meeting and include all the following information with your comments: 1. The meeting date 2. Your first and last name 3. If you are a Liberty Lake resident 4. The agenda item(s) you are speaking about If providing written comments, the comments received will be acknowledged during the public meeting, but not read. All written comments received by 4:00 p.m. will be provided to commission members in advance of the meeting.  City Hall Updates for Community Engagement Commission 11-15-2023 1. Community Engagement Commission terms: • In Ordinance 277, Sec�on 2C says: “The terms for the ini�al members in odd numbered posi�ons shall be 2-year terms and terms for the ini�al members in even numbered posi�ons shall be 3-year terms; provided that an ini�al member’s term may be less than 2 or 3 years depending on appointment to allow for expiring terms at the end of a calendar year. … All subsequent terms shall be for a 3-year period with terms expiring on December 31. No member of the Community Engagement Commission shall be appointed to more than two terms.” (The intended defini�on of “ini�al members” seems to “ini�al terms from the founding of the commission,” due to the references to “less than 2 or 3 years” combined with the procedure for staggering the start of the members’ second terms.) • Odd-numbered terms that expire at the end of this December are posi�ons 1 (Robin), 3 (Jennifer), 5 (Cynthia) and 9 (Mark). • To reapply, simply fill out the same City Advisory Board & Commission Applica�on form as before, which is linked near the top of the CEC’s webpage (www.libertylakewa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1457/City-Advisory-Boards-Applica�on- 2023). Reappointments would involve mayor and then City Council approvals. (There may or may not be an interview involved again for reappointments.) For all city commissions, open public no�ce is given that applica�ons are being accepted for any posi�on in which a term is ending. An item appeared in the November “Splash” on the city’s commissions that have terms expiring. • The CEC may at some point want to consider proposing language to revise the last sentence of Sec�on 2C to allow for appointments of interested members beyond just 2 terms, par�cularly in cases where a posi�on may have no new applicant to follow in that seat. 2. Community Engagement Commission chair and vice chair posi�ons: • At the CEC mee�ng of June 15, 2022, the CEC voted to have the terms of the CEC’s ini�al chair and vice chair run through December 2023. No ac�on was ever taken on what the length of the chair and vice chair terms should be subsequent to December of 2023. Before the end of 2023, the CEC needs to vote on the length of the terms for those two posi�ons. Op�ons could include having commissioners serve in these roles on a one-year basis, on a two-year basis, or for the length of the commissioner’s CEC term. It would make sense to define these lengths and to have chair and vice chair elec�ons occur during the October or November mee�ng, in case a December mee�ng does not occur due to weather or lack of a quorum. 3. City Council Highlights: • City’s 2024-2028 Strategic Plan was approved by City Council on Nov. 8. • Student member (Allison Pegram) was appointed and confirmed to the Parks & Arts Commission also on Nov. 8. 4. Results of City Council races from Nov. 7 elec�on: • City Council had 6 of 7 seats open for elec�on. Incumbents or previous incumbents appear to have won 5 of the 6 elec�ons, retaining Dan Dunne, Wendy Van Orman, and Annie Kurtz. Previous Council member Mike Kennedy was elected to his previous seat (replacing Tom Sahlberg, who didn’t run). As of 11/13/2023, previously appointed incumbent Jed Spencer is leading Travis Scot by slightly more than 200 votes, 52.4% to 46.7%. Linda Ball defeated incumbent Phil Folyer. Elec�on will be cer�fied on Nov. 28, at which point Kennedy would be able to be sworn in for the Posi�on 6 seat. Ball will be sworn in during January. 5. City Academy – 2nd offering: • Update! This fall’s sessions of the City Academy are now open on a per-topic basis for any area residents who may want to atend for just specific nights. Remaining installments at the Rotary Room of the Trailhead Golf Course clubhouse will be on Thursday nights from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 16, Nov. 30, Dec. 7 and Dec. 14. Topics are posted on the city’s homepage. 6. Upcoming event: • Winter Glow Spectacular’s opening ceremony is this Saturday star�ng at 6 p.m. at Orchard Park. Ridgeline Band will be performing prior to 6 p.m. 7. City Podcast: • Upcoming episode: Overview of Winter Glow (with Mark Saba) being posted during mid- November. Some lighter “fun stuff” topics are in the works for December. --David Goehner ****DRAFT**** COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT C OMMISSION GUIDELINE FOR C OMMUNITY SURVEYING AND DATA GATHERING The Community Engagement Commission (CEC) is a key mechanism to support the City (Council/Staff/Residents) in the ability to gather meaningful information to assist in decision making for the City Council and City Leadership. If used appropriately the CEC can reduce the burden on City Council and City Staff by serving as a conduit capturing data, ideas and information from the community which the City Staff and Council can use to make informed decisions upon based on the overall feedback of the residents of the community. The draft process below is to help guide the CEC, in conjunction with the City Council and City Staff, to take an idea from initial thought through the result of producing meaningful data and information for analysis and consideration. PROCESS FOR VETTING IDEAS/AREAS FOR FEEDBACK In flow of community ideas/areas of concern which could lead to a community engagement project start with an initial summary/proposal for consideration provided to the community engagement commission (CEC). The summary/proposal should contain the following: - Brief description of the project - Intended goal - Prospective target audience - Suggested timeline for execution Initial proposals/summaries are reviewed by the CEC at regularly schedule meetings. During the process of evaluation CEC will review the information provided to determine appropriate next steps forward for consideration. Criteria used to evaluate each summary/proposal will be based, in part, on the following areas: - Alignment with current City Management or City Council priorities - Volume of citizen/community responses supporting the summary/proposal - Area of need to improve community engagement - Alignment with other City Commission’s priorities/projects These areas are not intended to be all encompassing, but to help guide the decision-making process. Proposals which don’t fit into the criteria above may still be moved forward if the CEC deems it a priority. POST-ACCEPTANCE PROCESS Once the CEC has approved a proposal to move forward in the process a small subcommittee will be determined to lead the process forward with the proposal. Next steps to include: 1) Create a detailed project plan based on the proposal/summary provided to CEC a. Should include process for surveying the community b. Overall goals c. Timelines for execution d. Identification of key stakeholders e. Plan for gathering responses and engaging with the community f. Process for evaluation and analysis of results 2) Review proposed project plan with CEC 3) As appropriate, engage with City Council and/or City Staff to review project plan and gather feedback 4) If the project plan is part of a City Council or City Staff priority, they will be included in the initial framework of the project plan a. Goals of the project plan will be agreed upon to ensure the information gathered is valuable and actionable b. To maintain impartiality, final survey questions are to be determined by the CEC subcommittee and overall CEC as to reduce any bias in the framing of the questions. DETERMINING STATISTICALLY RELEVANT SAMPLE SIZE AND POPULATIONS Liberty Lake’s population is estimated to be approximately 12,001 people as of 2020 with approximately 4,200 households. To create a statistically relevant sample size for a survey, the developing entity (CEC/City/Council/etc.) needs to determine if they want to survey households or residents. If surveying residents, determine the age threshold which the survey is relevant. Within Liberty Lake approximately 68% of residents are over the age of 18. This equates to approximately 8,160 voting age residents within the city. As seen in the population estimates from the recent census, 12.9% of residents are 65+ (1,548). By splitting out the age of the residents the community can be more accurate in targeting and evaluating surveys to ensure appropriate representation of the community. Creating an accurate picture from which to make decision from, having a clear understanding of who is responding and from which population they represent is important to guide the broader decision-making process. Once the target population is determined, a target sample size should be identified based on an acceptable margin of error. The margin of error table below can be used as a guide to help ensure statistically relevant information is provided to the different groups making decision and analyzing the data. Generally, a target goal of approximately 10% of the overall target population/households should be a goal for any community survey. To use the table, select the acceptable margin of error and move across the table to find the ideal sample size for the respective survey. DATA ANALYSIS AND REVIEW Upon conclusion of the survey timeline the CEC Subcommittee will review the data and information gathered from the survey and present the results to the entire CEC, City Staff and/or Council. After appropriate presentations, the survey results and information will be published as appropriate for the residents to review. WHAT TO DO WITH PROPOSALS THAT ARE NOT PART OF THE CITY’S CURRENT STRATEGIC PRIORITIES/PLANS? While, in most cases, the process above is designed for ideas which are likely part of the City’s long and/or short-term priorities, there are cases which will fall outside of the stated priorities of the City. In this case, the CEC is to still evaluate each summary/proposal based on the merits described above. In addition, the CEC should place consideration for moving forward based on the number of citizens who have expressed support for the summary/proposal. After careful consideration, if the CEC determines an appropriate next step includes the process of community engagement around the proposal, the determined CEC subcommittee is to engage with City Staff and/or City Council as appropriate, to review the proposal and the next steps the CEC is moving forward with. It is important to note, in these cases, the data and information gathered is intended to be able to help guide the Council and Staff for the future.