Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutStaff Report 9174 City of Palo Alto (ID # 9174) Policy and Services Committee Staff Report Report Type: Action Items Meeting Date: 5/8/2018 City of Palo Alto Page 1 Summary Title: Palo Alto Town Hall Meetings Title: Planning for Palo Alto Town Hall Meetings From: City Manager Lead Department: City Manager Recommendation Staff recommends that the Policy and Services Committee review and discuss the future structure of town hall meetings as part of the City’s ongoing efforts to strengthen public engagement with neighborhoods. Background Previous Palo Alto Town Hall Structure: In 2015, the City Council took up a Colleagues’ Memo regarding Strengthening City Engagement with Neighborhoods (Attachment A). The Council referred the memo to the Policy and Services Committee. The memo sought to build on existing engagement platforms and add more face-to- face contact with neighborhood organizations. One of the seven (7) actions recommended in the memo was to create town hall meetings with existing neighborhood organizations. Specific relevant excerpts of the colleague’s memo were: 1. Goal [of Colleagues’ Memo]: Palo Alto residents are engaged and care deeply about proposals that enhance or may harm our quality of life. To further support strong neighborhood participation in civic affairs, we propose initiating several actions to better integrate the understanding, consideration, and actions of our City government with neighborhoods’ interests and concerns. 2. Excerpt about Town Hall Meetings: Hold annual town hall-style meetings with City Council representatives and appropriate City staff focused on different regions of Palo Alto. The meetings shall encourage both individual and neighborhood association participation. City of Palo Alto Page 2 After deliberation about how to achieve the seven recommendations in the Colleagues’ Memo, the City Council directed staff to conduct at least three (3) town hall meetings per year using the existing neighborhood associations as established by the Palo Alto Neighborhood Association (PAN). The map of PAN-recognized neighborhoods is shown in Attachment B. With this Council direction, staff conducted town hall meetings in 2015 and 2016 and learned some practices that worked well and some that worked less well. Given the attendance at the 2015 and 2016 meetings, staff recommends reframing the structure of the town hall meetings to widen community participation. Links to past reports on town hall meetings: 1. Aug. 2016: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/53459 2. Mar. 2016: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/51506 3. Sept. 2015: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/48833 4. Aug. 2015: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/48550 5. Jun. 2015: https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civicax/filebank/documents/47545 Structure of previous Palo Alto Town Hall Meetings: The previous town hall meetings held in Palo Alto featured a verbal update from staff on initiatives and projects and had a staff moderator for questions and answers. Attendance varied widely at the meetings, with one meeting having approximately 100 people in attendance, but the other meetings having 25 or less people in attendance. The staff present at the meeting included staff from the City Manager’s Office as well as Planning and Community Environment staff primarily. While the meetings provided an opportunity for staff and the City Council to connect with the community, it was clear that only a small subset of community members attended and participated. Discussion In determining next steps for revamping the town hall design for Palo Alto, staff looked at a neighboring community with a more robust town hall structure: the City of Mountain View. In meeting with Mountain View staff as well as visiting one of their town hall meetings, staff learned that the City of Mountain View conducts three to four town hall meetings each year, referred to as Community Neighborhood Council (CNC) Meetings. These meetings take place in one of six predesignated neighborhoods throughout Mountain View and have the following characteristics: The Committee and Process to Set Meeting Dates: The City of Mountain View has a subcommittee of the City Council called the City of Palo Alto Page 3 Council Neighborhoods Committee (CNC). That subcommittee of the full City Council coordinates these town hall meetings with a City staff liaison and sets the calendar of town hall meetings for the year at the beginning of each year. The City views the meetings as an opportunity for residents to ask questions and voice their concerns to City staff and Councilmembers at a meeting in their neighborhood. Neighborhood Structure: Meetings are held in six different areas of the City, as shown on the neighborhood meeting areas map, plus a special community meeting is held every other year for mobile home park residents. The meeting areas are larger clusters of existing neighborhoods. Meeting Notifications: Notices for neighborhood meetings are sent to every resident in the area, ground signs are posted, and ads are placed in the Mountain View Voice. The CNC calendar online is also a way to find out about the meetings. The meetings have been taking place for about six (6) years thus far. Reports Before and After CNC Meetings: City staff work together to create a comprehensive, yet digestible, overview Neighborhood Update report of major citywide projects and projects impacting the meeting area. These reports are provided to CNC meeting participants at the start of each CNC meeting. Staff also compiles an additional post-meeting report to share information in response to questions that were not fully answered at the CNC meeting. Attachment C contains the most recent Mountain View CNC Neighborhood Update report for the April 19th CNC meeting. CNC Meeting Structure: The CNC Meeting is an informal structure and organized in a question and answer format. The community arrives at the meeting and receives a neighborhood update report (Attachment C), a set of comment cards (Attachment D), a staff contact sheet (Attachment E), and a list of important City phone numbers. The comment cards are intended for the public to write questions or comments to submit to City staff. Instead of the community participants standing up and asking their questions aloud, they submit the cards to a city staffer who provides the card to the appropriate staff person to answer the question. Staff members receiving the cards will one-by-one stand up and answer many questions at the microphone when they have received a few City of Palo Alto Page 4 question cards. Follow up questions take place after the meeting ends. Staffing Utilized: The CNC structure has one staff person who, as part of her role, organizes these meetings. She is in the Community Development Department, Housing and Neighborhood Services Division. Many other staff members help to provide information for the Neighborhood Update report that is provided to CNC Meeting participants. At the CNC meetings, there could be up to 25 city staffers present. The staff represent most departments of the City organization. Attachment E is a list of the City staff that were present at the April 19, 2018 CNC meeting. The staff are present either to assist with running the meeting or to answer questions as they come up from the community. In addition to the Mountain View model, City staff is also researching other best practices around the country for effective public engagement. For example, at a recent Alliance for Innovation “Transforming Local Government” Conference, Goodyear, Arizona presented on a community engagement model that included a City Hall mobile van (similar to a bookmobile) that is intended to bring City Hall to the neighborhood and to allow for convenient conversations between city hall and the public as a way to receive feedback on community issues (Attachment F). Proposal for Restructured Palo Alto Meetings: As staff thought about this topic for discussion, evaluated best practices and reflected on past experience, staff would like the committee to consider taking the topic of town hall meetings and public engagement more generally to the public for input. Instead of replicating previous Palo Alto meetings or simply applying the Mountain View, California, Goodyear, Arizona, or any other city model to Palo Alto, City staff would like to revamp the town hall structure in Palo Alto with the community central in the discussion of what to implement in order to make the meetings most effective and useful to both the community and the City. Staff proposes to conduct a town hall meeting to determine format options (that include technology) for future town hall meetings that maintain the spirit of the 2015 Colleagues’ Memo to strengthen City engagement with neighborhoods. Next steps:  Discuss town halls with the Policy and Services Committee and refine the strategy and approach for effective of town hall meetings.  In FY 2018, organize a community meeting on public engagement and the efficacy of different town hall meeting structures. City of Palo Alto Page 5 Resource Impact This public engagement, through town hall meetings, is just one of the City’s engagement tools. Staff constantly refines other engagement tools to be most responsive to the community at large. City Council approved an annual budget of $8,000 specifically for town hall community meetings. Attachments:  ATT A - ID# 5725 Colleagues Memo Neighborhoods  ATT B - PAN-Recognized Neighborhood Map  ATT C-Mountain View Neighborhood Update for April CNC Meeting  ATT D-Mountain View CNC Meeting Comment Card  ATT E-Mountain View Staff List  ATT F - GoodyearAZ_KEEP CALM_Engage On..._TLG2018casestudy  City of Goodyear launches mobile meeting place _ City News CITY OF PALO ALTO OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK April 20, 2015 The Honorable City Council Palo Alto, California Colleagues' Memo From Mayor Holman, Council Members Burt, Schmid, and Wolbach Regarding Strengthening City Engagement with Neighborhoods (Continued from March 16, 2015) GOAL Palo Alto residents are engaged and care deeply about proposals that enhance or may harm our quality of life. To further support strong neighborhood participation in civic affairs, we propose initiating several actions to better integrate the understanding, consideration, and actions of our City government with neighborhoods’ interests and concerns. BACKGROUND The City has made great strides in making information available including the very informative Development Services Construction Updates and the Open Data Portal. Use of various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Next Door have enhanced City outreach and communication with citizens and neighborhoods. This memo seeks to build on those accomplishments with additional focus on communication with neighborhoods, adding much more face-to-face contact. Palo Alto is comprised of 37 neighborhoods, each impacted by decisions that are considered or made by City government. Whether the event is led or supported by City planners, Public Works, Utilities, the City Manager’s Office, outside agencies such as VTA, Caltrans, or even developments in another community, it is incumbent on the City to make best efforts to inform its citizens. Further, the neighborhoods often have very different characteristics and interests from one another as acknowledged in our Comprehensive Plan Goal L-3: "Safe, attractive residential neighborhoods, each with its own distinct character and within walking distance of shopping, services, schools and/or other gathering places". The current “Know Your Neighbors” Grant Program provides grants for promoting neighbors getting to know one other. While this program has been very popular, frequent comments about the program include that the grant money is spent on permits for use of public facilities or street closure permits for block parties, leaving little funding for the event itself. The proposed programs below would be the City’s first comprehensive neighborhood engagement initiative. RECOMMENDATION Based on research of other cities’ programs and community members’ comments, we recommend that the following proposed City actions be referred to the Policy and Services Page 2 Committee: 1. Recognize neighborhood associations and provide placement on the City Community Partners webpage, http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/partners with links to a map of the general neighborhood area and to the association website or other contact information. The City should review the process for recognition in consultation with neighborhoods and explore agreement on some basic standards and requirements regarding governance and association responsibilities for outreach and inclusion, as a recognized neighborhood association. 2. For recognized neighborhood associations, the City should explore guidelines and costs for providing periodic free use of available public facilities for public meetings and events as well as insurance coverage under the City’s policy. 3. Provide small, one-time start-up grants for neighborhood associations to be used to attend the United Neighborhoods of Santa Clara County’s Annual Conference and toward neighborhood association initiation activities. 4. Support neighborhood associations in distributing relevant City information to members, including information about upcoming community meetings or events, notification about proposed projects in their neighborhoods, City initiatives, emergency preparation events, County proposals, Public Works or Utilities projects, Caltrain, VTA or neighboring communities’ plans. 5. Each neighborhood association will be encouraged to identify a designated “Communications Officer” as information liaison with the City. 6. Hold annual town hall-style meetings with City Council representatives and appropriate City staff and focused on different regions of Palo Alto. The meetings shall encourage both individual and neighborhood association participation. 7. Evaluate creation of an Ombudsperson program with the neighborhoods to follow up on neighborhood or resident issues and facilitate conflict resolution when needed. DISCUSSION: Certain of these proposals may be adopted and implemented ahead of others. It is our intention that the town hall-style meetings would commence early this year, and the Ombudsman program would likely take more time and possibly need to be considered in the budget cycle. STAFF IMPACT: Staff impact and resources necessary to support this program may be significant, depending on the scope of the program components ultimately adopted. Research and discussion regarding impacts of the program will be necessary, including legal and risk implications along with staffing and funding aspects. These need not be deterrents to proceeding, just Page 3 acknowledgment that a more formal and interlinked relationship will also require some more explicit standards and monitoring and reporting. The most effective city neighborhood programs are formalized in this regard. Staff acknowledges that this discussion can first take place during the Policy and Services referral and discussion. Department Head: Beth Minor, Acting City Clerk Page 4 4/24/2018 https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_photo.php?main_id=15124&type=p&media_id=47539&section_id=1 https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/show_photo.php?main_id=15124&type=p&media_id=47539&section_id=1 1/1 Palo Alto neighborhoods The Palo Alto neighborhoods map shows the locations of 36 different neighborhoods in Palo Alto. © 2018 Palo Alto Online. All rights reserved. 2018 Transforming Local Government Conference Case Study Application Due: September 1, 2017 Email to Ryan Spillers at learning@transformgov.org Application Information Case Study Title Jurisdiction Name Jurisdiction Population Theme (select one) _____ Thinking Like a Futurist _____ Reinventing Local Government _____ Culture Club _____ Community Networking _____ What about all this data? Rapid Fire Session? Would you like the application to be considered for our Rapid Fire Session? (Rapid Fire presentations are fast- paced, entertaining, interactive presentations. Each jurisdiction will have five minutes to make their presentations using 15 PPT slides set on auto-forward primarily containing photos/graphics. Participants will be seated at round tables to facilitate an energetic idea exchange. A cash bar will be available.) ___ YES ___ NO Project Leader (primary contact for application correspondence) Name Title Department Phone Email Full mailing address, including zip code Twitter account 1.Presentation title and description of the innovation. 100 word maximum 2.When and how was the program, policy or initiative originally conceived in yourjurisdiction? 100 word maximum List additional presenters’ contact information below: 4. What individuals or groups are considered the primary initiators of your program? How does the innovation engage stakeholders or demonstrate high performance teaming? Were strategic partnerships and/or community networks developed as a result of the innovation? 200 word maximum 3.How exactly is the program or policy innovative? How has your innovation changedprevious processes, products, or services? Explain how the program or initiative substantially stretched or improved the boundaries of ordinary governmental operations. 200 word maximum 5. If a private consultant was used please describe their involvement, identify the consultant and/or firm and provide contact information. 100 word maximum 6. To what extent do you believe your program or policy initiative is potentially replicable within other jurisdictions and why? To your knowledge, have any other jurisdictions or organizations established programs or implemented policies modeled specifically on this project? Please provide verification of the replication. 200 word maximum 7.What were the costs? What were the savings? 100 word maximum 8. Please describe the most significant obstacle(s) encountered thus far by your program. How have they been dealt with? Which ones remain? 200 word maximum 9. What outcomes did this program or policy have? What baseline data did you collect? How did you measure the change based on the intervention, and why do you believe in the credibility of this assessment? 200 word maximum 10. Has the program received any press or other media coverage to date? If yes, please list the sources and briefly describe relevant coverage. 100 word maximum 11. Please provide any key references and their contact information who can be interviewed/called to discuss the innovation and its impact. 100 word maximum 12.You’ve been to a lot of conferences. TLG should be a unique experience for everyone.Describe how your case study presentation will be different than other conferencepresentations. 200 word maximum •How will you make the session creative and unique? •How do you plan to be both entertaining and educational? •Include a description of how your session will facilitate group activities and/or interaction. 13.Anything else you would like to add? 200 word maximum 5/2/2018 City launches mobile meeting place | City News | City of Goodyear http://www.goodyearaz.gov/Home/Components/News/News/5452/81?backlist=%2F 1/2 City News City launches mobile meeting place Post Date:02/02/2017 For Immediate Release Contact: Amy Bolton, Public Information Officer Office: 623-882-7053 amy.bolton@goodyearaz.gov City launches mobile meeting place Topics on the Move (TOM) van aims to engage residents, start conversations Goodyear, Ariz. (Feb. 2, 2017) –Making its debut at the Tale of Two Cities Parade and Festival on Saturday, Feb. 4. at Estrella Mountain Community College, 3000 N. Dysart Road, Goodyear’s Topics on the Move (TOM) van aims to engage residents, gather feedback and ignite conversations by bringing city representatives out to locations and times that are convenient to the community. Residents will have the opportunity to weigh in on how they prefer to receive city information. After the Tale of Two Cities parade, the TOM van will be parked near the food court at the festival. Wrapped in a vibrant, eye-catching vinyl material, the TOM van is designed to be written on with special wet-erase markers to capture comments on the van’s doors, windows and panels. The public can expect to see the TOM van at upcoming events throughout Goodyear, such as: concerts at Goodyear Community Park, 3151 N. Litchfield Road; Ballet Under the Stars; Fall Festival; Home Plate for the Holidays; the Star Spangled Fourth; as well as Goodyear swim meets and sports leagues. For more information, visit http://www.goodyearaz.gov/residents/neighborhood-services or call 623-882-7801. 5/2/2018 City launches mobile meeting place | City News | City of Goodyear http://www.goodyearaz.gov/Home/Components/News/News/5452/81?backlist=%2F 2/2 ### About Goodyear As one of the fastest growing cities in the United States, the city of Goodyear is poised to rapidly add to the current population of 78,189. Set in the West Valley of metropolitan Phoenix, the city encompasses 191 square miles that is only 10 percent built out. Home to a strong, educated and skilled workforce, Goodyear is well-positioned for growth. Featuring an ideal location, major transportation corridors – Interstate 10 and State Route 303 – reliable infrastructure, abundant land and a low cost of living, Goodyear has already attracted many major employers including Amazon, REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Macy’s, Subzero and the Michael Lewis Company. As the spring training home of Major League Baseball’s Cincinnati Reds and the Cleveland Indians, fans from across the country flock to catch the exciting action at Goodyear Ballpark. A thriving healthcare corridor, anchored by Abrazo West Campus and Cancer Treatment Centers of America, serves not only the community but the entire region. Supported by a strong median household income of $69,078 and a median age of 36.7 years, the diverse retail, dining and recreation options offer residents choices to enjoy and support the local community. According to the most recent satisfaction survey, 93 percent of residents rate Goodyear as a good/excellent place to live.