Community Engagement Commission

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT COMMISSION MEETING AGENDA WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20, 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 Dec. 20, 2023. 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ROLL CALL 3. APPROVALS a. Agenda b. Minutes of Nov. 15, 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 b. 2024-28 Strategic Plan baseline survey outreach update (Cynthia & Aaron; Mark McAvoy & David G.) c. Chair and vice chair nominations and elections for calendar year 2024 d. 2024 Work Plan (Robin) e. Geographic locations of CEC members (Mark Saba) f. Other upcoming community engagement opportunities 7. NEXT MEETING: a. Requested items for agenda? b. Jan. 17, 2024, 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 12‐18‐2023 1. Community Engagement Commission terms:  The mayor will be making recommenda ons for city commission reappointments and appointments during the Jan. 2 City Council mee ng for those whose background checks have been completed. Addi onal recommenda ons may be confirmed at the Jan. 16 City Council mee ng for those whose background checks are not completed by Jan. 2. All CEC appointments and reappointments at this point are for 3‐year terms.  The CEC may at some point want to consider proposing new language for Ordinance 277 to revise the last sentence of Sec on 2C in order 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. City Council Highlights:  City Council on Dec. 5 approved a dona on from the Liberty Lake Lions Club for 3 picnic tables/benches (plus cash to finance surfaces to place them on) for the Arboretum walkway area east of the City Hall site later in 2024. The council has added a picnic gazebo for that area as a new item on the unfunded projects list.  The Spokesman‐Review’s coverage of the spontaneous singing of Christmas songs to drown out Zoom bombers during the Dec. 5 City Council mee ng got picked up by The Sea le Times.  Following the approval of the city’s 2024 budget, a series of daily 2024 budget highlight posts will appear on the city’s Facebook site star ng at the end of December. 3. 2024‐2028 Strategic Plan:  The city’s new 5‐year Strategic Plan document was posted last week and is available under the City Council’s web pages on the city’s website at: www.libertylakewa.gov/496/Strategic‐Plan . And … most of you are pictured in it. 4. City Academy – 2nd offering:  The program’s 2nd 8‐week series concluded on Dec. 14 with a regular group of around 7‐9 a endees. Adver sing was also done on Facebook and the city’s website to invite the public to a end specific individual sessions, but the series drew no people beyond its regular a endees. 5. City Podcast:  Overview of Winter Glow (with Mark Saba) was posted in mid‐November, and has had con nued promo on as part of ongoing posts of Winter Glow photos on the city’s  Facebook site. The Winter Glow episode has risen to the 2nd‐most listened to installment of podcast’s 20 episodes.  20th episode, released on Monday, features finance director Kyle Dixon, Police Chief Damon Simmons, and Opera ons & Maintenance director Jen Camp) detailing some of the new resources and features coming to the city as part of the new 2024 budget. And a “Part 2” on this topic (with Mark McAvoy, Library director Jandy Humble, and Planning & Engineering director Lisa Key) will follow in January.  Episode 21 on staff board game picks will be posted later this week for the holiday season. Also upcoming: “The Unfunded Projects List” and “City Employees Who Are Beatles Fans.” Trailhead Golf Simula on Bays video promo:  A video promo that showcases the features of the Full Sing Simulators at Trailhead Golf Course was created during the past few weeks then posted on YouTube and Facebook on Dec. 14. The video is designed to inform the public about the sim bays on the local indoor recrea on resource opportuni es it offers for local residents. 6. Winter Glow survey:  A ZenCity survey invi ng people to select their favorite Winter Glow displays from 5 categories went up Nov. 30 and will con nue through the first of January. Updates on the ongoing results are being posted about each week on the city’s Facebook site. 7. Facebook numbers on Winter Glow:  I’m pleased when I see one of our Facebook posts hit a “Post Impressions” count of 1,000. Up un l November, I had seen around 5 posts on the city’s Facebook site ever creep beyond a count of 10,000. December’s first “Winter Glow Wednesday” photo post (with the pair of fish) has so far amassed 38,691 post impressions, 36 shares, and 208 combined “likes” or “loves.” The second “Winter Glow Wednesday” photo of the “Happy Holidays” entrance has 19,606 post impressions, 32 shares, and 133 “likes” or “loves.” The photo through the tree light strings of the splash pad snowmen as part of post that also contains current results of the favorite displays survey has about 12,000 post impressions currently. ‐‐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. ****DRAFT**** COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT COMMISSION GUIDELINE FOR COMMUNITY 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 starts 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 at 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 processViewing the Liberty Lake community discreetly by age group will allow the CEC to be more precise in targeting and evaluating surveys. Consequently, our survey samples will be more appropriate to the issue or project in question. The result will be a clearer understanding of who is responding and what population segment they represent, and this, in turn, will assure that we have a better picture from which to make decisions and shape action plans. This approach will provide and more sure footing for 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 decisions 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.