ABILENE CITY COUNCIL RETREAT
OCTOBER 28, 2002
ABILENE, TEXAS
Councilman Norm
Archibald gave the invocation.
Mayor Barr reviewed
the expected schedule for the two-day retreat, and also noted plans are being
made to give special recognition to John Lackey, former Abilene High School
student now with the Anaheim Angels baseball team, this year’s World Series
winners.
Councilman Archibald showed
the Council a copy of the City of Odessa’s quarterly report entitled “News from
City Hall”, which he stated is distributed in their local newspaper and appears
to be a good form of communication.
City Manager Larry Gilley then
introduced the two consultants for the retreat; Dr. Gary Halter,
associate professor of political science at Texas A&M University, and
Ernest Clark, former Tyler and College Station city manager. Mr.
Gilley stated learning to work better together to continually improve our City
government is a goal that has been set for the retreat.
Mr. Clark and
Dr. Halter briefed the Council on their professional backgrounds. Council and
staff introduced themselves and shared goals, opinions, and expectations of
City government.
Mr. Clark
reviewed topics concerning expectations, character and integrity definition,
and the right and respect of opinions.
Dr. Halter
distributed and discussed with Council a list of topics which included:
§
Effective
Communications by Local Governments
§
Council Norms and
Behaviors
§
Communications
During Council Meetings
§
Public Perception
of Meetings
§
Dysfunctional
Communications
§
Successful Councils Have Good Personal Relations
§
Extra Council
Meeting Communications
§
Interactions with
the Public
§
Reactions to Public
by Council members
§
Public’s
Impressions
§
Reacting to the
Public at Meetings
§
Formal Rules of
Procedure
§
Communication between Council members
§
Code of Conduct
§
Role of the Mayor
§
Public’s
Expectations of You
§
A chart reflecting
an effective small-group decision making process
Council
recessed for a break at 2:00 p.m. and reconvened at 2:15 p.m.
Dr. Halter
continued his review and distributed a questionnaire for Council to complete on
Policy/Administration. Council’s
answers to the questionnaire were reviewed and discussed.
Dimensions of
the governmental process and elected officials & administration’s roles and
tasks were reviewed as follows:
1.
Council roles
2.
Manager Roles
3.
Mayor Role
4.
Economic
Development (4A-4B)
5.
Industrial
Development
6.
Public Relations
7.
Neighborhood Issues
8.
Organizational/Structure
Issues
9.
Code of Conduct
Discussion
concerning the role of the Mayor and methods of communicating with and to the
public included: 1) the Mayor writing an informative article on a regular
basis, 2) proactive ways to communicate to the public the city’s successes, 3)
the ACE report being a good measurement tool, 4) the possibility of developing
a City newsletter, 5) looking at ways to improve communication to include an
annual report, quarterly newsletter, and/or information through water bill
stuffers, 6) cost considerations, and 7) the possibility of a citizens survey
to determine how the City is doing.
Councilman Williams left the meeting at 3:55 p.m. and returned at 4:25 p.m.
Council and
staff discussion continued and included issues on: 1) economic development
4A/4B and legislative oversight for reporting possible misuse; 2) an overall
look at economic development; 3) competitiveness of economic development &
industrial development; 4) citizens perception that the reason schools are
closing is due to job losses; 5) other cities facing difficult issues but
Abilene’s citizens perception that those cities are doing better than Abilene;
6) how to respond to negative comments on Abilene not being able to acquire new
businesses; and 7) possibly appointing a committee to address or research Abilene’s
economic development process to determine its accuracy and effectiveness and
how it compares to other cities.
Mr. Clark noted
in response to some of the economic development concerns that when possible the
economic development staff needs to communicate why businesses were lost.
Council further
discussed: 1) expanding on public relations announcements; 2) neighborhood
issues; 3) code enforcement issues; 4) school closure issues and the impact to
the neighborhoods; 5) erosion of the north and central sections of Abilene and
what condition they will be in in five years if neighborhood issues are not
addressed.
Mr. Gilley
confirmed that Council does want staff to research preparing a report for an
ARN insert; and clarified that Pam Percival is Abilene’s Community
Information Coordinator versus Public Relations Officer.
Mayor Barr
concluded by stating the neighborhood issues will be addressed during
tomorrow’s meeting, and that Council will reconvene the retreat at 8:30 a.m.
October 29, 2002.
The Council retreat
adjourned at 5:00 p.m.
_____________________________ ______________________________
Jo Moore Grady
Barr
City Secretary Mayor