November 29, 2022 Council Goal-Setting Subcommittee

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Transcript

[00:00:03] Member Lucas Ramirez: Good afternoon. Uh, during this declared state of emergency, this meeting will be conducted in accordance with California government code section 54953 E as authorized by resolution of the city council. Please contact city. clerk at mountain view.gov to obtain a copy of the applicable resolution. All members of the city council goal setting subcommittee will participate in the meeting by video conference with no physical meeting location. As noted on the meeting agenda, members of the public may provide oral public comments during the public comment period for an item by joining the Zoom webinar at uh HTTP S colon slash mountain view.gov forward slash meeting or uh by phone by dialing 669-900-9128 and entering webinar ID 871-573-12365. Any emails received by 3 PM today or forwarded to the subcommittee. Now I will proceed now. sorry now I will ask the principal management analyst to proceed with roll call. Thank you, number Hicks. Here. Remember come here. Chair Ramirez. Here. You very much. We'll move on to item 3 oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the subcommittee on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for up to 3 minutes, minutes during the section. State law prohibits the subcommittee from ecking on non-agendized items. Any member of the public on the line, like to provide comment on an item that is not on the agenda. If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. The principal management analyst will display the timer on the screen. And the, uh, the member of the public, Bruce England would like to speak, so, um, let's go ahead and, um, thank you. Thank

[00:01:52] Bruce England: you, chair. Um, Bruce England, Wisman Station Drive. I've got a couple things I wanted to mention. There's something that I have been asking for in general, but I saw it in this agenda file. Is the link to the Zoom meeting does not include the meeting ID, so you have to capture it manually and enter it into the Zoom dialogue box. And then it also asks for the person's uh, email address that you have to manually type in. This is okay if you're sitting at a desktop, but if you're out and about and you're using your cell phone or something like that, it's not user friendly. So the goal, I think, should be to always include the meeting ID in the URL. and to not require somebody entering their email address. I don't know if that that part's possible, but I just want to bring that up. since I saw it in this particular agenda file. And then I'm not sure how this meeting is going to go, but I just want to bring this up might be appropriate for a different meeting. Um, but I know that the advisory bodies are going to go to in-person meetings for the public in February, that's the current plan. I'm really against that, just for the sake of inclusion and equity, um, being able to include all members of the public who want to um, attend in a hybrid mode as we've been doing during the pandemic, is just essential. And if it's a matter of gearing up the various conference rooms to have that equipment in place, there's a variety of ways to do it. Um, I would really like to see city council prioritize that for the IT department and let's let's get that done. In my view, it should have been done during the pandemic. Anyway, and let's get it done now, even if it means a delay in the February plans. And that's it for me. Thank you. Thank you very much. And

[00:03:34] Member Lucas Ramirez: that concludes public comment. Uh, we'll proceed now to item 4 minutes approval, the minutes for the December 15, 2020 meeting, have been delivered to subcommittee members, copies posted on the city, uh, city hall bulletin board. Uh, are there any members of the public would like to speak on the minutes? Being none, then, uh, if there are no corrections or additions, the motion is in order to approve these minutes, uh, committee member Hicks.

[00:04:01] Member Alison Hicks: Yes, I I moved to accept the minutes as written. Thank you Mittee member committee. Uh 2nd the motion. Great,

[00:04:13] Member Lucas Ramirez: thank you. Any questions or comments? Being none, we'll start the roll call vote. Committee member hicks.

[00:04:21] Member Alison Hicks: Yes.

[00:04:22] Member Lucas Ramirez: Committee member come A?

[00:04:24] Member Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[00:04:24] Member Lucas Ramirez: Cher Ramirez. Yes. Fantastic. Thank you very much. Fast is unanimously. We move on to item 5 discussion, action items, uh 5.one fiscal years, 2023 to 24 and 2024 to 25 org plan development process. This item provides an overview of an opportunity to provide direction regarding the proposed timeline and process for developing the fiscal years 2023 to 4 and 24 to 5 council work plan. So committee members will ask any questions they may have following the presentation. Uh, and the public comment period will follow the conclusion of subcommittee member questions related to staff's presentation. Uh, principal management analyst James will provide the presentation whenever you're ready. Thank

[00:05:09] Laurel (Staff): you, Cher Ramirez. I will share my screen. Can we all see that? Yes, I see that. Thank you. Um, so the purpose of this presentation, as you mentioned, is to provide an overview of the proposed work plan development process, as well as to seek feedback on criteria for analysis of proposed projects, a process by which council may receive input on the work plan from council advisory bodies, and an approach to categorize projects by priority. So in, 2021, the council adopted, um, based on feedback and input from council members as well as the community and city staff. A set of strategic priorities and a vision for the city of Mountain View. The strategic priorities, of which there are 7 are visible here and familiar, I believe, to all of you. They include community for all. Intentional development and housing options, mobility and connectivity, sustainability and climate resiliency, livability and quality of life. Economic vitality and organization, organizational strength and good governance. As we're wrapping up the implementation of the fiscal year 21 through 23 work plan, um, and beginning to discuss the fiscal year 2325 work plan will be revisiting these priorities to frame, um, the projects that council decides to include in those work plans. So moving on. This is the slide illustrates the proposed process for work plan development and for check-ins on the implementation of the adopted work plan. Um, It includes a series of study sessions and council business items at council meetings starting in January and culminating in adoption and beginning implementation in June 2023, um, alongside the fiscal year 202324 budget. Over the course of the work plan implementation, staff will check in and provide regular updates to council, which you can see captured on that sort of 2nd timeline, numbers 6 through 9 at the bottom. Um, and in addition to this, outline a summary of the development process and check-in timeline was included in the attachment to the memorandum for this business item. Um, we're beginning now, highly in red, with this subcommittee meeting, and the next step would be a council item. Uh, to review the work plan process and one of our questions for you that we will review later is whether that should be a new business item or a consent calendar item. Um, that will follow, be followed by 2 study sessions, uh, looking at project discussion and then prioritization. And again, culminating adoption in June. One of the items we're seeking feedback on today is analysis criteria. Um, as always, the impact of a project on achieving or advancing the council's priorities is one of the main criteria considered um, in staff's recommendations to council and analysis. Uh, we also wanted to put forth, uh, in alignment with counsel's commitment to equity that staff can identify whether communities, um, particularly historically disadvantaged or underserved communities, would be benefited by or be burdened by potential projects, similar to the review of budget proposals. Um, one of the analysis criteria we suggest is impact on future capacity in projects, um, whether or not the project frees up staff time by creating efficiencies, or if it is necessary as a foundation for further projects. One example might be a precise plan that can, um, lead to further projects or development in an area. Staff capacity is another critical component of the analysis that is being proposed. Uh, which is often included in these, um, strategic planning conversations. I'm come to understand, and will be key here, um, staff will review the potential project to determine what staff resources are available to each project, complete each project, and that can help determine the prioritization and phasing of those projects as well. And then finally, staff will estimate the cost as well as any anticipated revenues. Or any other resource needs associated with potential projects. The next item we're seeking feedback on today is the council advisory body participation process. Um, the proposed process is that CMO, staff, city managers, office staff, and council advisory, body, staff liaisons, will attend regular meetings to facilitate a structure discussion about the council work plan and proposed projects. Um, eliciting feedback on high-level input on identified potential projects, um, to ask the community advisory bodies, excuse me, council advisory bodies to identify critical issues for consideration in the work plan. And for them to share input on what they think the highest priority should be, um, for the upcoming work plan. This feedback will be summarized and provided to council for use in their project prioritization discussion. Under the proposed process. Um, and then finally, when we're talking about prioritization before we get into that topic more deeply, one of the reasons why we ask council to prioritize projects is because of capacity. The council workplan as a critical component to achieving the council's vision for the city. And it is work that happens alongside a number of core services, nondiscretionary projects, and critical planned or continuing projects from previous. Um, and staff capacity is impacted as we know by the budgeted positions, which are the resources that council thoughtfully provides to support these projects, but also Vacancies, leaves, emergencies, workload, morale, and engagement, which all contribute to how much we can get done in any given moment or in any given work plan period at the city. So with that in mind, we are proposing that council prioritize projects based on buckets, um, and thoughtfully labeled here, A, B, and C. Uh, where A would be the highest priority, um, considered 1st in the staff allocation and phasing recommendations. Um, project B would projects labeled B would be high priority and considered after category A, the staff allocation and phasing recommendations, and then projects that were in the C bucket would be considered a high priority for council that would be worked on as time and resources allow, acknowledging that there does need to be some sort of, um, hierarchy in achieving the projects laid out on the work plan. Just, again, to address the workload and capacity considerations. So for this subcommittee today, we did come with 4 questions, which is, or should the January council work plan process item via consent or new business item? Second, are there any additional analysis criteria other than the 4 here in addition to the impact on achieving the strategic priorities? Um, that the subcommittee would like to see? Third, does the subcommittee have feedback on the proposed council advisory body participation process? And fourth, does the subcommittee have feedback on the proposed project prioritization categories? This is, of course, in addition to any feedback you have on the process overall. Um, and just before we get into the discussion, I'd also like to review the next steps following this meeting, we'll be for staff to incorporate the subcommittee's input into the development process laid out here, uh, to bring to the council in January on the 24th for the adoption of the fiscal year 23 through 25 work plan development process. Um, which would be followed by a February 28th update on the fiscal year 21 through 23 counts work plan, which would be included in the year budget update, um, and also the beginning of the fiscal year 2325 workplan project discussion. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh

[00:13:12] Member Lucas Ramirez: are there any questions from the committee? before we go to public comment. Committee member. I

[00:13:21] Member Alison Hicks: do have some questions and possibly because I have not been on this committee before. Maybe I'm a little disoriented, uh, regarding things that the rest of you are oriented too. Um, 1st the, The projects labeled 21 through 22 projects. That may not be the full label. I have my notes, not the document in front of me. But so that is not the, if I get it right, that's not the full list of projects that will be considering, um, when we're, when we're going over this during the study session, I imagine, because there were things I didn't see on it. Ones that jumped out at me were not necessarily ones that I advocate for, but I just didn't notice. There was something about sustainable eating or the mocket precise plan. They're probably others. But so I just wanted to clarify what that list was and whether there are additional projects that past council people have mentioned before that are not on that particular list that was in our staff report. Um,

[00:14:27] Laurel (Staff): to clarify, uh, committee member Hicks, uh, is that the attachment to the memo and perhaps the one that was in a table format? Excellent. So that, that absolutely. Um, so that attachment is the most recent update on the current existing work plan that was provided in the budget and it was um, included in the memo to be informational as a status update. Um, Or a reminder of the most recent status update on the fiscal year 21 through 23 work time. Okay, good.

[00:14:58] Member Alison Hicks: Because I know we've named other projects that were kind of off list and they weren't there and I just wanted to make sure they hadn't gotten lost somewhere. Um, And then, uh, my 2nd question is, it may have been partially answered, but we're, the housing element projects. The projects that are generated through the housing element, are they listed? I noticed some of them listed there, but it didn't, that didn't look like a full list either. So I'm wondering about that, and how they function, those are, uh, nondiscretionary projects, I, if I get it right. That's

[00:15:36] Laurel (Staff): correct. On the nondiscretionary projects list that was included as an attachment to the memo. Uh, that includes the housing element projects that would be, that on the housing element implementation plan are scheduled for during this work plan period. So there were other projects that are scheduled for further out, um, on the timeline that were not listed under that, those nondiscretionary projects simply because they are for, for their years that are further out from this work plan. I see. That explains it to me. Thank you.

[00:16:11] Member Alison Hicks: And my last question is about advisory body participation. Um, I'd just like to know, uh, how, because I haven't been on this committee before, how that was done in the past and what worked well or didn't, so that I know how to comment on it for today. I

[00:16:33] Laurel (Staff): see the city manager might want to speak and also I defer to others on this community and her to speak to that if I was not, um, here for them. Um,

[00:16:41] Unknown Speaker: thank you, Laurel. So I wanted to actually clarify the, um, just an answer to the question also from, um, Vice Mayor Hicks regarding the, um, housing elema items. So what you all, what council will have the ability to do is you can prioritize certain housing element projects over others once you get into it. So, as you mentioned, all of those items that are going to end up being included in the housing element are nondiscretionary, meaning we do have to do them within the next 8 year housing element cycle, but obviously we won't be able to do all of them at once. So we had identified the ones, I think, that either staff identified or maybe council members had identified them as kind of some of the more top priority things to do in this next 2 year cycle. But, um, certainly there will be other things that we'll have to get to like in the, in the 4th year in the 6th year and then up, up to the 8th year. Um, but I think you all will have the opportunity to discuss that. And then staff going to also have to look at just their capacity, like which ones can they balance at the same time with the staff that they have on board. So I just wanted to clarify that that there, there will be opportunities to do all of them. We just won't be able to do them all at once. Um, and then in regards to your recent question about, um, advisory body feedback. Um, from what I remember. Um, and we did this last in 2020. So this this committee generally only meets once every 2 years. So the committee is the current mayor and vice mayor and the previous mayor. And so, um, it's like, you got to forgive me for 20, the 2020 Hayes of when, when we decided what to do in 2020, but it was a unique process. Then, because if you remember, we hired civic makers. So there was, uh, we kind of overhauled the whole process in the sense of involving the community, involving the advisory bodies, involving, of course, council members. And I think it was similar in a sense of what we're proposing now, and that advisory bodies were able to provide feedback. The challenge that we have is that, because of the timing and because there are already so many council priorities, it's hard to get to a place where advisory bodies can can tell council, here's the 50 things that we want you all to do. So it's more of a, here are the things that counsel and staff have identified. Please provide feedback and then, If there are things that we're hearing that are certain themes, of course, council, um, or staff can bring that forward to council. But I think typically it's been more of a feedback process. Um, and Audrey, I'm not sure if your recollection is is the same, um, about that. That's,

[00:19:50] Assistant City Manager Ramberg: that's correct, and, and that was both true in the um, 2021 process where we did have some other added elements, um, of community input and also in the, the prior one or 2 sessions where we, we kind of were, we're dealing with really large work plans, um, of items identified by council and items carrying forward from prior work plans, and, um, wanting to just be more realistic with the expectations of the advisory boards that it wasn't kind of a, um, a blue sky build from the ground up opportunity. So we've actually been using this process of it being a feedback process for, you know, at least the last couple of, um, council work plan processes. Okay. Thank you. You very much.

[00:20:49] Member Lucas Ramirez: Committee member commit. Great.

[00:20:51] Member Ellen Kamei: Thanks so much, Mayor. Yeah, and I just wanted to thank staff and just clarify for the vice mayor. I don't think any of us were on the prior council goal setting subcommittee. So we are all coming into this with the same knowledge and the same background. So just, um, appreciate staff reiterating that because I think whoever was Mayor, vice mayor, and immediate past mayor, was none of us. So we are we are all with the same perspective. So, um, really appreciate staff um, reiterating that. Thank you so much.

[00:21:24] Member Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Any other questions? I've got, uh, some comments, but, um, I think we'll pick around a public comment 1st. Are there any members of the public who would like to speak on this item? Uh we'll go ahead and allocate 3 minutes and the member of the public Bruce England would like to speak. Go ahead and unmute him. Thank

[00:21:47] Bruce England: you, chair. Um, yeah, I have several things I wanted to bring up here, so just do a mentor rapid fire order here. Um, going over the memo, pretty much a page by page. There is an item in there, potential projects previously raised by council members. One of them is the International Dar Sky Association Ordinance incorporating that into city policy. Um, Green Spaces of Mountain View is very interested in seeing that happen. So it'd be great to sort of pin that to the wall somehow, um, in your considerations either here or in later meetings. Um, you have other critical planned and continuing projects listed. One of them is internet design, redesign. Not sure what that means. If it's public facing at all or specifically for staff, I just can't tell from that item. In the um, table, the fiscal year 21, 22 year end council work plan updates. I notice that a lot of the updates aren't actually up to date. I don't know how critical that is, but I wanted to note that. Um, Item 34 is about the travel demand, citywide travel demand update, um, including the greenhouse gas reduction program. If that has to do with city policy, around travel to conferences and things like that, that could be very interesting. Um, Lucas, tell me if I'm running out of time because I'm looking at my notes here. Um, why are 41 and 45 separate? They have to do the community tree master plan and biodiversity requirements for landscaping. I would think that those are in the biodiversity strategy and urban forest plan work. and could be one line item. Um, the next one is 72 develop and implement an enhanced legislative program. It marks it as complete, but it's actually not complete. That's going to be an ongoing item, right? That's my understanding. And then, uh, item 73 is oversee COVID-19 recovery efforts, et cetera. That might be where this hybrid mode question for advisory body meetings could go, um, if you would consider that. And lastly, just my comment on the advisory body input process, probably no surprise from some of you, I think that's essential. I would really like to see that happen somehow. And that's it. Thank you. Thank

[00:23:59] Member Lucas Ramirez: you very much with 49 seconds to spare. Yeah, so that can... Uh, public comment and actually, uh, response to that. Um, I, I, a question that I, I think may be helpful to ask is, we're not bound to this list, right? This is a list of ideas that have come up in a number of different contexts. These don't necessarily have to be advanced to the council for consideration, right? It just, here's a reminder, some items that the council has expressed interest in.

[00:24:33] Assistant City Manager Ramberg: Are you speaking about attachment to the section that is the kind of, uh, items, um, that have been mentioned by council members since the last work plan was adopted? Yes. Yeah. That that is correct, correct. Some of these other projects, um, well, they may not be of council's interest to have be in the work plan. They wouldn't be things that we could necessarily not do. They're just intended to give this kind of broader context and picture. Okay,

[00:25:07] Member Lucas Ramirez: I think that that may be helpful. I appreciate the attachment, but I think it can be confusing to the public to see this and presume that we have a list ready to go and it's not actually formally part of the process. Um. So, uh, why don't we go through a round of comments and then once we've concluded comments, then, um, uh, all, I think only one of these will require, um, and I, I know, we're all, I think maybe seeing the questions, uh, for the 1st time, so we'll take a minute to digest those, um. Uh only question one I think really requires like a formal uh majority decision. Um but if there are ideas or deviations that we need to make for some of the other, uh, components of the process, then I'll do straw, uh, straw votes for those as well. Um so any general comments before we get each of the questions. Any member commits?

[00:26:06] Member Ellen Kamei: Sorry, question one reminds me that I, that I wanted to ask staff. So, we're deciding between a new business item and a consent, and I guess I would ask, what would be the intent of the memo? Is it just, um, explaining what the processes, or would it be actually trying to solicit feedback? Because I feel like if it's, you know, an a, a memo kind of saying we're gonna have this happen, that to me makes sense more for consent. I think if it's a new business item, people may think it's an open discussion. And I would say that we would need to clarify that this, I think that there's a nuance to it. So maybe staff can explain and then that way the committee, the subcommittee can give, um, better feedback. Thank you. Um,

[00:27:00] Principal Analyst James: I believe that the purpose is to provide an opportunity for the council to adopt the work plan development process and have some ownership of it. Um, and if the subcommittee feels that this process is satisfactory and there are no major changes, then I think a consent item would be in order, but if there is more discussion that needs to be had, then perhaps a new business item would be in order, but I defer to Kimbra on what that might look like. Um,

[00:27:27] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: thank you, Laurel. So, I think if you all are comfortable with this. And one of the things that we can also do, I really like the visuals that Laurel presented in the presentation, just the, the, that shows the time frame of how things will unfold, also the check-ins, which I know that that's been important to counsel, which essentially is a check-in every 6 months over the full 2 years. Uh, we can certainly include those sort of visual, um, aids and charts in the actual agenda staff report. And if you all are okay with it, I think consent would be fine. We just wanted to give you all the option to discuss if you felt like, you know, there might want to be an opportunity for council to discuss this more at length. But I think similar to other council subcommittees, you know, if you all give a recommendation on the process and you're comfortable with it, we can certainly just move forward on consent and just make sure that we're including those visual aids, um, which I know people are, um, tending to react well to those because they're, that's, it's just an easy way to see everything laid out. So we can certainly do that on consent. Great, thank you. Very much.

[00:28:46] Member Lucas Ramirez: Any other questions? Or, uh, general comments. Mini member hits. My

[00:28:54] Member Alison Hicks: only question is, can we see the questions? Because we didn't get them in the staff memo and it will be easier for me to answer them if I can see them? Thanks. Good idea. Can we, uh, you're

[00:29:07] Member Lucas Ramirez: probably already doing that. Thank you. A little bit harder for me since I can't see everybody, but I will make do with that. Um. No, I I do have some general comments which I'm happy to get into if um no other member of the committee has general comments so uh as a high level uh concern or consideration. I think, we're starting to see some of the limits of the goal setting process. Uh, and part of that challenge has been COVID and how disruptive that was. Um, but my, my concern I think is, we, we've now we're likely to advance projects that were prioritized in June 2019 into a 3rd goal setting. Um, and it, it feels like when, when the projects that were prioritized in 2019 are advanced for consideration in 2024. Um, then we might need to make some changes in order to, um, write size or make realistic or, you know, set expectations or something so that way we can get our work done, um, and also make space for new and and priority issues. Um, and so the, the most significant change I personally would love to see and would love to input of the committee is, I, I think we should no longer divorce council initiated projects from the rest of the, the immense workload that we've got. Um, this is something that, the, my, my employer, the city of San Jose has done just to make sure the council really understands, uh, how much staff capacity is available. It's, here's, here are the nondiscretionary things, you know, here are, priorities that are established through other contexts, so in Mountain View. We have, uh the downtown parking strategy, we may have a list of programs from the economic vitality strategy. We've talked about the housing element. We've got, you know, the general plan action items, we've got the environmental sustainability action plan. All of that contributes to staff's work, and all of that detracts from your capacity, and I feel like, We go into the next goal setting cycle, and we've got 40 great ideas, but we don't place them in appropriate context. Then we're setting ourselves up for failure, and we will have to continue to advance projects that were prioritized years ago into subsequent, subsequent goal setting cycles because we really haven't. We, we really haven't taken all of this into consideration. We haven't thought about the workload holistically. Um, so, uh, this might be a big change, and it might take a little bit of time to think about how to make this work, but, um, I, I would love to see, sort of like the totality, of comparable, uh, uh, actions or items in the work plan, so that way when the council begins to engage and provide new ideas and we get new ideas from the community, that we all come in with similar expectations about what's achievable. Um, I have a few other ideas, but let's go to council a committee member to make. Oh, a committee member you're you're still needed. Sorry

[00:32:38] Member Ellen Kamei: sorry sorry. Um, do you, um, would you mind, share, if we removed the question so we could see each other while we talk about this, since this is a general conversation first? Um, perfect. Thank you. So, you know, I think, I guess I have a couple different thoughts about what you're bringing forward and I understand the intent. I would say, perhaps my thought process has been a little bit different, which is I look at attachment to as almost like parking lot items, for future goal setting discussion. So, because this is not a counselor. These are items that, you know, I kind of agree where there are items that, We don't necessarily have control over, like the housing element should be, like, just built into the goal setting process. You know, some of these are things that have been discussed. But I don't know that the council majority. You know what I mean? I think that, I, we, I worry a little bit about what you're saying because in the city of San Jose, it's a full-time council, where people do council memos and it's, it's kind of a little bit, I would say, my understanding is kind of what they do at the county or on the federal level, a little bit more of like an earmarking process for the special projects that people would like to put forward. I think for the goal setting, my understanding has been that it's always to look at like the holistic view of the, the city, and then if a council majority votes for that, then it gets incorporated into the, the goal setting and the work plan. So I, my concern would be is if we incorporate one master list between, you know, existing and suggested major projects and then what we've prioritized with goal setting. Um, kind of what the, Like, alignment is with all of that. I don't know if this is making sense, but that that would be one of the things that I'm concerned about, is how do we distinguish items that kind of get added to the queue as future potential goal setting projects that we can talk about in the future or at the 6 month mark, as the city manager was saying, and, you know, see if we can discuss there versus, you know, kind of the regular project list.

[00:35:06] Member Lucas Ramirez: I don't actually think we're, we're disagreeing with each other. I think I'm failing to explain what I'm hoping to achieve. Um, so I, I think maybe this is where maybe staff can help me understand. We we often use that metaphor of the iceberg, right? Here's the stuff at the top, that, you know, the council sees and that we prioritize, and then there's the immense workload that, that is opaque, right, that, isn't necessarily, um, you know, brought to our attention in, uh, in a day to day, manner, um, and what I'm, what I'm hoping we can do is, is, um, make that more transparent or elevate sort of the, the submersed part of the work plan, so that way when we come in with goal setting, This happens every single cycle, we end up with a, you know, dozens and dozens of great ideas, um, that we realistically can achieve, because we've got all of this other stuff, that, you know, takes precedence because it's not discretionary, you know, other, you know, urgent items or, you know, core services, and I, I think what I, what I'd love to better understand is, to what extent does, or can staff help the council, when we're coming up with new items? Share with us what that work looks like, you know, how does the environmental sustainability action plan and the downtown parking strategy and the general plan action plan and the economic vitality strategy. How do all of those pack up in terms of priority relative to the new stuff? You know, that we're adding um to, uh to the goal setting. So maybe uh system city manager, you can help us understand how how that can inform our work. Uh,

[00:36:51] Assistant City Manager Ramberg: thank you, um, sure, um. We have, uh, Moved more in that direction in the 2021 goal setting process where a lot of that context, you know, perhaps attachment to is in an exhaustive list of all the different, um, projects that get generated through other planning, um, or prior priority setting, um, that, you know, uh, are outside of the council or plan. But we have really been moving in the direction to try to identify those things so that, um, we're mindful of the ways that they draw on staff capacity just as you say. Um, we have talked more generally about the examples of things that are of the more kind of core ongoing day-to-day, um, responsibilities, and what that generally means in terms of the percent of our total staff capacity that is available for things that are special projects, which is above the water line. And then there's the already committed to special projects with, which further limit, you know, the, the portion of that peak of the, the iceberg that is available capacity for, um, the, uh, council work plan. What I think has been challenging for staff, and I think, um, while we can continue to move in that direction, I, I don't know that we could get to something that would be as ideal as perhaps you are suggesting, is, um, being able to capture and quantify all of the, the, the ways in which those existing core duties and um, special projects do absorb staff capacity, and then having a relative priority between those and the new things that are coming up. Um, we've we've tended to use some generic averages. You know, like for someone like me, I am vast majority special project because that's the the type of role that I play in the city. Um, for someone like, um, uh, the executive assistant in our department. Um, that, that staff person is vast majority, um, day-to-day operational and, and that varies across departments and across position levels. Um, and so what, what I think we're trying to do through the criteria that, um, Miss James presented is suggest that staff will continue to try to, to capture those impacts on staff capacity, and, you know, other existing, um, priority projects or ongoing operational, um, responsibilities. Uh, in a way that we can make our recommendations to you, is this is how big, you know, these are the kinds of things that would fit in a category A, that we would feel comfortable committing to, um, with the, all of this context taken into consideration, which would be different than presenting all of it to counsel in a way that you could kind of move the pieces around. Um, and I wonder if that, you know, would satisfy what you're, um, seeking. Yeah,

[00:40:06] Member Lucas Ramirez: I don't mean to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I think what I'm getting at is I think about the community workforce agreement, for instance, which we prioritized in June 2019 and have yet to see as a council, and we're probably going to prioritize it for the next goal setting cycle. And I guess what I don't understand is, you know, where that's a council that's been a council priority for a very long time, but it doesn't feel like a priority because we've consistently done other things instead of it. Um, and I think helping us come up with a better sense of like, what's realistically achievable within 2 years, given the new normal post-pandemic normal. Um, what would help us? Be a little bit more disciplined to to do prio- priority projects that we assign ourselves. Uh committee member Hicks? Yeah,

[00:40:59] Member Alison Hicks: so I'm just, uh, so a committee member, Ramorez. I'm just kind of ask for a little clarification on what you're asking for because I'm not completely clear. Are you just asking for a longer list? of all the projects, not only the, um, projects that, uh, council has put forward, what, but also the ones that we just plan to do, because I assumed, uh, I'm, I'm unclear on what format you want this to take. And I assumed we'd get, you know, some additional attachments with additional projects that are not the ones we're putting forward. So what is the difference? I'm

[00:41:41] Member Lucas Ramirez: open to a format that works best for staff. I guess the way I think of it is, instead of getting a blank sheet of paper, you know, that we then fill with our project. We get a sheet of paper that looks, kind of like this, and it, you know, if staff can identify for us. Here's where we have capacity. Um, and that way we get the, you know, we still have room to plug in priority projects, but we go in eyes wide open that, there's a lot of other stuff that, that our staff are taking on, and, and just sharing that with us, and whatever format makes the most sense for staff, and so the council, um, to, to make sure that we have a, a successful, um, uh, priority setting or a successful work plan for the next 2 years.

[00:42:30] Member Alison Hicks: Okay, I'll load that over. Thank you. No problem. Um, uh,

[00:42:36] Member Lucas Ramirez: 2 other, oh, committee member committee. So

[00:42:42] Member Ellen Kamei: I, I, I guess I would say if, If that's what you're looking for, I would ask staff if we could create a consistent format. The, you know, so instead of attachment to being a list, an attachment 3 being a table. Would it be possible to get them? I mean, my preference and kind of, you know, what the city manager was saying visually? I think it's very helpful. So, um, I would say attachment to have a work plan at the table, and then for attachment 3, have a work plan of our goal setting. And I think maybe it's looking, rather than a megalist mayor, if we could have like 2 side by side lists. This is everything on the work plan. And this is, you know, the description, the department, the lead, the status, and the update. And then we can look up, and this is where we are with goal setting. And I think perhaps that would be where we could get a better kind of holistic view of what you're talking about. That would be my maybe suggestion. Um, in. And and maybe kind of how it came to council, correct? Because some of these are coming from item eight. Some of these are coming from council business, and maybe we can add a section in the table, that kind of clarifies how, like, the genesis of the, of the, item. I think that for me, you know, hearing your explanation would be useful and perhaps stuff could could could move to that format for, um, uh, the item in January. Thank

[00:44:22] Member Lucas Ramirez: you. And I'm comfortable with that too. Um, I, I think it's, it's just more about making sure we go in with a full understanding of what is the work plan because it's more, as, as the, as the staff presentation make clear, it's far more than just the priority items. Um, so I think, I think, so I, I, I'm, I think that's a, a good, uh, recommendation and I'm comfortable with whatever format, you know, staff can produce that would be helpful for everybody. Um, too quick, hopefully much quicker um, concerns or ideas. Um, I've watched uh the council advisory body discussions over the years, um, as they've provided input on the, uh, goal setting process. And the concern I have is, uh I feel like there's inequity in the treatment. Uh, some advisory bodies are told you can provide comment only on items within your scope, and then others are told you can provide comment on anything. Um, and so there's, there's, uh, what, however we decide to do it. It needs to be consistent. Um, because I, I feel like, you know, it, it, it really doesn't make sense to have, you know, the visual arts committee provide some on everything, and then the performing arts committee only provide comment on items that are related to the performing arts, which are almost never, uh, part of the goal setting. Um, so I, I, I'd love some, um, ideas for how to stress that inequity. Um, and also, you know, one idea that we, we may want to consider is having the advisory body. Provide comment even before the city council does so that way that their ideas come to us and we could say, thank you or, you know, that that doesn't, you know, fit in our work plan. Um, and then uh, the last item is about, um. Uh, how we submit our ideas and I, I'd love for, for staff to, to maybe come up with some creative ways where I often feel like the brainstorming sessions are extremely high level and, um, I have trouble with, um, like scoping and and realism, and it might be good to think of a way where, there's a, again, sort of a consistent relaying of ideas, so staff can evaluate each one of them. um appropriately and has the input that you need to appropriately scope an idea. Um, my, my favorite example that I always refer to, I'm talking with Kimber is, uh, former, uh, council member McAllister's idea to have some kind of comprehensive transportation master plan, which sounds like a great idea, except what the heck does that mean? Um, and I think staff did a, a phenomenal job? taking that idea over many years and then just filling it to something that was actually useful and workable? Um, but I, I feel like to, to save a lot of time and make sure we're on the same page, it might be good to, think about a way where we can provide some preliminary scoping, so we're not just giving a huge idea, and it gets majority support, and then, um, staff is kind of left figuring out Okay, what does this actually mean? Um, so those are my general comments. There are others, there are not others, then we could just go do some questions. Um, and I'll just take notes and then, uh, if there are a majority for anything, then, uh, if that would be the direct. How many member can they? Sure.

[00:47:55] Member Ellen Kamei: Do you want us to go question by question? Yes please. Okay great. Okay. Got it. Let's see. I have the questions. So, um, given, given staff's explanation, I'm comfortable with this being on consent, I think that, um, we will have opportunity at the council goal setting, you know, agenda, item, meeting, um, to get into the further discussion. And so, I'm comfortable if this is just kind of adopting the process for it to be on consent with, you know, obviously all of the attachments, um, with it. Um, for number two, um, for additional analysis criteria. You know, one of the things that I was thinking about, um, when I was reading the staff report was under the umbrella of equity. I did appreciate that there was going, that that was a topic of criteria. I think there's 2 places where I feel like there's overlap to what the city's already worked on, which is our, um, our equity lens that we've been looking at with budgeting. And so I would hope that that is part of what's under the equity umbrella. As well as we have our uh, race equity and inclusion action plan. And so when we're talking about equity, is there going to be, like, analysis or thought about how thing, how projects might fit into the puzzle piece of our REI action plan, um, that would be kind of my comment on the analysis criteria. I hope that that would be, um, possible. And then another item under analysis criteria to me that could be helpful is to include the alignment on the strategic priorities. We have 7 strategic priorities and I'd love to see. You know, this project is includes equity. It includes alignment on, you know, number 2 of our 7, you know, strategic priorities and kind of have that reinforcement. Um, kind of similar to what the mayor was commenting earlier, just kind of reiterating the, like, our council prioritization and how everything fits together, I think, would be helpful. Um, for number 3 about this, the, uh, proposed, uh, cab participation process. Um, I, I hear what the mayor is saying in terms of his concern on getting feedback from our advisory bodies, and I would say something that I've realized in being on a commission and being on council and just kind of watching a few meetings, um, recently is narrowing the scope. You know, similar to how we have 4 questions in front of us this afternoon, perhaps one or 2 questions, um, for each advisory body would be a way to to make it more equitable in terms of the feedback that we're soliciting. And it could be maybe just 2 catch-all questions. Um, you know, I, I, I don't want to like wordsmith from the, from the Zoom screen, but I, I, I look to staff on maybe just providing, you know, one to 2 broad questions that each commission answers and then being able to provide that back to council, I think is also more fruitful in terms of all of the commissions were asked, these 2 questions. And this is what each commission individually contributed back, I think, would be helpful. Um, and then I think it will also bring maybe some, make commissions feel like they're actually part of the process and they're being heard because they were directly solicited questions in which they could contribute answers. Um, and then let's see, um, For item for, um, on the project prioritization categories, the kind of only other thing and maybe this falls into like a, an et cetera bucket is, I'd love to see, uh, you know, status is helpful. But in progress, I don't see that unless I go to the update column, and I would love just a separate column that tells me. Maybe like projected date completed, Q3. And then the update. Like, I'd love to be able to understand what in progress actually means, and I would say for the, whether it be the work plan or the, the comments on the proposed projects, um, from attachment to kind of understanding of we have 30 projects in progress. 10 are already completed. 5 haven't been started. And being able to start the goal setting with that understanding, I think would be, um, a really helpful framework. You know, I had to go through the attachment and count myself, how many are in progress, how many. But I think in terms of kind of demystifying the what's under the iceberg. Um, that that would be helpful and give a little bit more context to just how great, um, staff is working on these items because I know it, it is, uh, quite a bit. Um, and then, um, I also, uh, wanted to say, in the past, there's been an opportunity for council to remove projects. That doesn't necessarily mean we have to add any back. But as we're talking about goal setting for next year, I wonder if there's any that will, We, you know, we've naturally already adopted. For example, one of the things we had looked about was like, leaf blowers, right? And trying to move away from gas leaf floors to electric, then there was state legislation that already did that, so we didn't have to keep that as a goal. So opportunities like that where maybe, um, were able to remove items because of state legislation, the county, were already working on it. one of the other JPAs um, that were a part of, um, has done it. So, those would kind of be my last catch-all comments for item four. Thanks, Cher.

[00:54:22] Member Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Committee member Hicks. Oh, actually, sorry, let's go do the assistant city manager 1st and then we'll go back. Um,

[00:54:31] Assistant City Manager Ramberg: thank you, uh, chair. Um, Council member Kamei. I just, I want to, um, circle back to see if the concept of having A, B, and C, general groupings of the projects that wind up being prioritized and in the work plan was something that felt useful to you.

[00:54:54] Member Ellen Kamei: Sorry, if I miss that. App appreciate that. Um,

[00:54:57] Assistant City Manager Ramberg: and would you like to see that slide again of those categories?

[00:55:03] Member Ellen Kamei: Yeah, I mean, I think it's. Hmm. I think for myself, I would be more inclined to use numbers. Um, just like one, two, three, right? 1st priority, 2nd priority, 3rd priority, but I understand why we went ABC. I don't know. I don't, The prioritization will come and how we vote or how, like, what's the utility?

[00:55:44] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, council member Kamei and um, Audrey, maybe, let me see if I can help shed some. I think the challenge that we have now as staff is we just have this work plan with like 50 things on it. And something that the mayor just mentioned was like the community workforce agreement, right? That that's been on a work plan the past 2 work plan cycles. And we don't have right now, a process where you will prioritize which of your top projects there are. So instead of doing like A, B, C, D, E, F, or one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, we were actually thinking it would just be like 3 buckets, basically, like category A, or whatever we end up doing, or category one, are your top priority projects, like these, you know, 10 or 15 things are your top priorities, that staff is really gonna, you know, work on and have the full like staff allocation, staff allocation of our time and resource, and just getting It done sooner basically. And then category B would follow, and then category C was really intended to address those work plan projects, and I guess something that I can equate to this might be like the broadband initiative, that you all have on the work plan right now, where it's a priority, but there's a lot of nuance around it. It's gonna take a lot more time than we thought. And the staff that are working on that are also working on, you know, 20 other things. So then this kind of 3rd category we were thinking was, You have these projects that are on your work plan. They are important, but these other 2 categories have projects that are more important to council. So we're just trying to figure out a way that we could have not only, you know, certainly discipline for council, but also staff, because we want to make sure we know what all of the, you know, top priorities are and where the allocation goes. So I think that's what we were, you know, trying to get at. And certainly we could, you know, change it to a numbering system. But we were definitely trying to avoid, you know, one through 50. And I think that will be a 20 hour meeting. Um, if we try and do that. So I think realistically, buckets are honestly probably more realistic and putting them in categories and it'll probably be more helpful to you all too. Um, so that really that's what we were trying to get out with this prioritization and maybe we can explain it better. Um, not only with just the definitions, but, um, we can think of a different like visual aid too, and maybe do some examples if that would be helpful. But that that's what we were trying to get at. So I don't, I don't know if that's more helpful, but that, that at least explains the thinking behind it.

[00:58:43] Member Lucas Ramirez: Committee member committed, you have a follow-up?

[00:58:47] Member Ellen Kamei: Yeah, I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll defer to Vice Mayor Hicks, but I, I don't know if she's gonna go through all 3 of the, the, or all 4 of the questions or if we should talk about the, the project prioritarization or hold it till last. I don't know vice mayor. What would you like to do? Or if you want to talk about this topic. Whatever you,

[00:59:04] Member Alison Hicks: well, actually, I agreed with a lot of what you said and was going to do a deeper dive on on prioritization before, you were even going to ask that question. But if you want, but it's a little, what I'm going to say is a little different than what we've just been talking about. But if you want to add what, you know, what this triggered in your mind, feel free.

[00:59:22] Member Ellen Kamei: Yeah, I mean, I think, I would say this, maybe we could go back to this question then, given what the city manager said, vice mayor, if you want to go 1st and then we can talk about this, because I do think, That, it wasn't, it wasn't clear. Um, I apologize. And so I think too, I don't, I, What we've done in the past as a council was, you know, it was all on a whiteboard and people put stickers and whatever had the most stickers was how he did the priority, right? If, if something got 6 little dots, it got prioritization, you know? So my concern is how we discussed this because we may have, um, members who want to go back to the dot system. Um, and I'm comfortable moving into this 3 bucket system, but I do think we need to talk about it a little bit more. Okay, thanks. And and

[01:00:26] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: I'm sorry, mayor, may I say something real fast too? Um, so we thought that staff would suggest the 3 buckets too, and give you all something to react to. So that way you're not starting from scratch and kind of feeling like you're scrambling. Um, because part of this process is staff doing the analysis on, so you all are going to be either suggesting projects or we know the things that staff's going to be recommending to you all. And then staff will then suggest to you all, here's category A, here's category B, here C. Then you all can react to that. And if there's like, you know, 7 of you, or 6 of you, or at least 4 of you, that want to move something from B to A, then we can. And so that way, and I think this might be what you're getting at council member Kame, that way, it's not, um, you're not starting from scratch and, you know, throwing spaghetti at the walls. We're trying to do some of the work for you all in advance and then give you the, um, the rationale, basically, for, for the 3 buckets. So maybe maybe that, um, helps a little bit further. Thumbs up. Uh,

[01:01:38] Member Lucas Ramirez: committee member Hicks, uh, would you mind going through the 4 questions and we can certainly spend more time on prioritization too?

[01:01:47] Member Alison Hicks: Yeah, so I, I agree with much of what's been said, the 1st question. Yes, I would make it a consent item. Um, 2nd um, in terms of additional criteria, well, here's where I may be intersecting with what we just talked about. I guess the one piece of criteria that I wasn't sure that I think about a lot and I wasn't sure whether it was apart. of, um, criteria. I mean, one of the criteria was timeliness. Um, or maybe I wrote that down. I don't know. But the one thing that I sort of see missing in the criteria is if there's a sense of urgency to anything, to any of the particular items. Um, and, uh, one that comes to mind for me is, uh, the Moffat precise plan, when I talk to people living there, they're afraid that housing developers are going to come and redevelop some of the shopping centers and leave them with no neighborhood surfing retail are very little of it. And I additionally fear that if that happens, we're, you know, it's a, like that should be, uh, oh, transit oriented walkable area, but if there's, if it's all housing and there's no neighborhood serving retail, then people need to keep their cars, to go to the grocery store. And, you know, so there's that whole set of things that to me has a sense of urgency because there's been a lot of building there and there are other projects. So there's some projects that you wait too long and there's kind of no reason to do them. Um, and that's the thing that I see, possibly missing from those, the, um, cork criteria, unless I misunderstood it, and that was a piece of one of them. So maybe you can clarify for me.

[01:03:42] Principal Analyst James: Thank you, committee member, Hicks, um, not specifically, no, I think that you uh, defined it specifically is helpful, although it could be considered potentially part of that project dependencies, peace where we would need to do this in order to ensure that something else happens or in this case didn't happen. But thank you for bringing it to our attention. Okay,

[01:04:06] Member Alison Hicks: then I think that would be the one thing I would add, a sense of so there's urgency, which is urgent. And then there's something maybe a little softer, like timeliness, not like urgency makes it sound like there's about to be an emergency. Um, so a sense of urgency or or timeliness that needs to be considered. So it should be an earlier project would be another piece of criteria for me. Um, and then the 3rd, um, feedback on the council advisory body participation, um, You know, I basically agree with what people have been saying, I think that I would like to see kind of a staff report on that while I'm thinking about. Uh, Counts my or council priorities. And I would also like, and I suppose maybe this happens, but I would like the council advisory bodies to the same sort of honest explanation that we get about. I mean, I don't want counsel, new people in council advisory bodies to go off and dream of, you know, spend. weekend, thinking through the 1000 new things they want us to do, and then here, and then us, cut them down because we don't have the staff. I, I want them to get this kind of reasonable expectation about, has to be that we're, that council is always told. Um, and then I, I agree with what the mayor said about, um, it should be consistent, what, um, Council advisory bodies are told should be consistent, that it's, either they all get to make all sorts of goals, or they all, or projects, or they all have to keep the projects, um, to rest within the, um, realm of their advisory body, which is what I think the way it probably should be. Um, let's say, where are we? Uh, for. Proposed project prioritization categories. Okay, the 3 buckets looks good for me to me. I like the idea that staff would help, um, arrange the buckets because whether they're a priority, in part, depends on staff capacity and so forth, things that council could learn from background, you could give us. Um, and I think that the thoughts about urgency or timeliness need to be a part of that as well. Um, and then the last sort of overall comment on how we're is just how we're doing this. I know, The, the whole dots, I think we did once, but also I think the 1st time that I was on council that we did this. Um, I think you, Lucas, and but recommended that we write ours up ahead of time. And then it wasn't done with a dots procedure. It was done with something else and, um, and then we've had interim times, maybe interim years where we've just gone through. I think this was the beginning of last year. I thought actually that format was pretty helpful, where you, um, Had a list of the projects and you kind of listed what everybody said. I'm not being very clear, but, um, yeah, so I'm going away, and I agree with what uh, council member committee said about being able to remove projects because I think most of us have been here for 4 years and some of those projects may have gone stale. Um. So, uh, yeah, so I'm left just wondering how we're doing this, like the dot thing, the write in your, your work plan items ahead of time deal or, um, you know, everything being on a grid or what people were looking forward to in terms of the format we would be using on the day off.

[01:08:07] Assistant City Manager Ramberg: Cher Ramirez, may I, um, provide a response? Um. Regarding the the process, um, building off of what uh, city manager McCarthy was saying about staff coming with recommendations, I think that there's a 2 step process, one is that in March, the, um, Council members will actually, Laurel, could you go back to the timeline for us? Thank you. Um, so in February. Um, the uh, council members will have the opportunity to look at what is the status of our current work plan. Um, taking to heart the comments from uh, member Kane around really making as clear as possible, what's completed, what's not started, what's what's carrying forward. Um, and and, and our best efforts to show the kind of entirety of the, the, um, work that's already on the plate of the city, if you will, um, with the formatting, um, done in a way that, um, would, would make that easy for the council to take into consideration. And then the council would identify projects, um, uh, that it uh, is interested in considering for the work plan. It's not prioritizing. It is, these are the kinds of things we'd be interested in considering for the work plan. And I think also there was a good suggestion of, of, can we format that in a way so that council members as they are bringing that idea forward include kind of consistent, um, uh, information about it or intentions about it so that it supports staff going back to analyze it. And then that analysis happens between that February, um, uh, milestone on the timeline and the April milestone, where staff would be coming back with recommendations. And as council member or rather city manager McCarthy was stating, we could take a 1st pass, if you will, at putting them into the ABC buckets. Um, and uh, that would be based on, um, the criteria that we've just talked about for the analysis. Um, based on, you know, capacity and these considerations of of the other items that are on the city's plate. And then the work of council left that April meeting is to decide kind of what to move up or move down. So it is majority support. For a change in the bucket. Um or a removal of something altogether. And we would certainly outline a process for the council to so that it is clear. Um, and we would help facilitate that um, so that, that, you know, council could work, work through that, those decisions. Um, The other thing now that we've got the, the, the work plan, uh, timeline, um, up that I wanted to comment on, that would be very challenging is to try to have advisory body input prior to, um, you and your colleagues, um, putting forward the kinds of projects that you might wish to. I think that there's the challenge that you already noted, which is how do you write size expectations. So it doesn't. result in people coming forward with things that they would really hope for, that there wouldn't be capacity to do. And and then getting that done, um, by February 28th. I don't think will be possible. Um, we we do want to do it a little differently this year where our office, which is namely, um, Miss James would be going to each of the advisory body meetings, which hasn't happened in the past. We've been trying to support the staff liaisons to do that on their own. And they obviously have an important role still, but we can kind of present whatever the questions for input are. and try to explain the process and provide that, that, um, that consistency, with the hopes of the feedback coming back being meaningful to counsel, but we wouldn't be able to do that in advance of your February, um, identification of projects. So I'm hoping that that is helpful on the process. And it, it, it, more of that would be written up and would be included in the uh, council report that will go with this consent item in January. City manager? Um thank you. What

[01:12:43] Unknown Speaker: I'm hearing, and just to kind of add to what Audrey just said, what I'm hearing is the question of, How do the items get brought forward? So we know that there are going to be some work plan projects that uh, were right in the middle of that may roll over. And then, as noted in that attachment to, there are other items that have been raised in various formats primarily during item 8. But some things have come up just during other agenda items and will certainly aim to specify that, how things got raised. So you can decide, no, we're not interested in moving forward with that or yes, you know, we are. Um, but I think this question of, do we do a dot exercise versus, do we write letters or memo in advance versus are we brainstorming on the spot? I think that that seems to be the the big question, right? How, how do the new ideas get brought forward to the body? Right? To the rest of you. Um, and, you know, I, I think we have received, It's interesting because over the last several work plan cycles, we've just received various feedback. You know, some people love the dot. Some people hate the dot exercise. Some people really like, write in a memo, some people didn't prefer writing a memo. And I think then we've also tried working through civic makers where things kind of came up via medians with civic makers. If you remember, they met with each person individually, and then things were identified, and different themes were identified, and then you all discussed it, and I think we had probably, uh, five, 6 meetings about it, um, back in 2020. So, you know, there's no best way of doing it. And, you know, I've talked to many other city managers about this too, because every, every city does it differently and uh, even the same cities try it different ways every couple years because things just work out some years or might not work out other years. So, I think it would be helpful if maybe you all would tell us, do you like the dot exercise? Would you rather do something different? Would you rather it have this matrix of the things that we know about? And then maybe you will come with, you know, no more than a specific number of new items? Because the other thing that we really need to avoid is getting a work plan that has 80 or 90 items on it. We just can't do it. And that was one of the big things that civic makers was able to, I think, really help staff with and counsel with, was being more realistic about the size of the work plan, which I think this was, you know, to the mayor's and, um, council member Kame's and just like there's so many other things going on. We just can't have like the work plans of the past. It's it's just not feasible because we'll end up not finishing half of the things. So getting to a work plan that has, you know, 40 items on it is probably most realistic if I'm, you know, to just kind of pull a number. Um, so if that's the case and let's say you already have, you know, 25 items that you know you're going to do, then do we, you know, limit new items to just a certain number per council member or, you know, because the dot exercise is just throwing, throwing it up there, throwing all the ideas and then you all just get your and can vote. Um, So I think this is where I'd, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what does work best for you. What, what, because you all were a part of what happened in 2020. So, and and you'll be a part of it, you know, next year as well. So I think what if there's specific feedback that can help us help you all. Um, I think that that would be really good to know because I, I just know there's just various opinions on it. Thank

[01:16:45] Member Lucas Ramirez: you, city manager. Um, I know that there is a time constraint for this meeting, um, and I, I, I, I'm going to go to my colleagues, I didn't want to take a quick turn myself to. Um, I, I also think it's probably fair to say we may need to explore, um, at some point, not today, obviously, but the, uh, the creation of a formal council policy that provides guidance on, uh, the goal setting process, so we don't have to be in, which it feels like we've been doing. Um, committee member, uh, committee member committee, if you wanna, uh, your hand was up initially. Yeah,

[01:17:24] Member Ellen Kamei: sorry, mayor. I lowered it. I wanted to make sure that you had your opportunity. Okay.

[01:17:30] Member Lucas Ramirez: Um, I'll go really quickly and then, um, Yeah, we can go back to us, yeah. Okay, um, I, so, uh, I agree with most of what my colleagues have said, where I strongly disagree is on the 1st question. I do think we need to do a business item and that's because I, I'm not confident we're going to be able to devise, um, a, a process that, um, that I think will be satisfactory to, to everybody, um, either tonight or, um, or, as a consent item. I have a suspicion it will likely be pulled. Um, I think it's fine to put it on consent and see if it gets pulled, but, but I feel like we should probably start with new business and just tee up some of these questions. Uh so that way we have an opportunity to talk about it as a council, rather than end up in a situation where we're conducting our goal setting, and we're talking about process in the goal setting, because we didn't think it through earlier. Um, but I, I, I understand. um, I think why, why there may be a preference for consent item. Um, for number 2 Um, I agree with, with all of the ideas that, um, my colleagues shared, so I, I do like the, alignment, uh, identifying, um, alignment with uh, the strategic priorities. And I think it's fair to say if something is not aligned with a strategic priority, it should be lower in in priority based on the categories in question four. Um, I think that we came up with the strategic priorities and that makes sense to adhere to them unless we choose to change the strategic priorities. Um, I do like, uh, committee member who may suggestion to, uh, try and and align this, uh, the equity, uh, criterion with the R E R R E I action plan. You know I was looking. I like the equity criterion, but I, I, I feel like it's not really robust. There there aren't obvious metrics associated with it. Um, it's very subjective and to the extent, the REI action plan can inform, um, any, any specific or objective metrics associated with the equity criterion that would be desirable. So I strongly support those recommendations. I also strongly support, um, uh, incorporating an urgency or timeliness criterion because I think committee member Hicks is right. We've often had items sit on the work plan for a long time and that the consequence they become stale. Um, and and uh, I'll get to this later, but I like the idea of a, of a removal process for when that occurs as well. Those are, those are great ideas, um, for, uh, question 3 very similarly. I like the idea of standardized questions across all of the council advisory bodies so that way we're asking the same things and getting the same input and I agree very strongly with having a consistent process. Um, I have a preference to allow all bodies to, uh, provide comment on all of the priority setting items rather than focus narrowly on the, uh, scope of the advisory body because we will probably never have, you know, performing arts committee, uh, priorities. I'm sorry to say um in the work plan process and so we're essentially denying um a body uh an opportunity to meaningfully comment and there may be good ideas that we miss the consequence. Um but I think just as a high level. Uh, uh, remark, uh, consistent process and, you know, a couple of standardized questions makes a lot of sense. Um, and and I appreciate uh, the assistant city managers, uh, comments about, uh, temporally. It's extremely challenging to have the advisory bodies comment early. So, um, as much as I think that would be desirable to get to. I understand why. It may not be achievable um this cycle. Um, and then for question 4 I support the categories as proposed, but I do agree, um, that, uh, we need, uh, some type of, uh, uh, clear priority, uh, prioritization process going in, and that's, it's, it's fine for stats to categorize for us as, as a recommendation. But I think going in with a shared understanding of what does it take to get prioritized? Is it a function of getting the highest number of votes? Right? Is it a function of timely timeliness and urgency? So that way, again, we're going an eyes wide open and we're not trying to, you know, figure out the methodology after the fact. Um, and um, I, so we talked about the removal of, of projects, having some kind of process for that, and then I also appreciate committee member to May's suggestion for, um, some type of, uh, a status transparent, transparency or, or clarity, uh, components, so that way, we all, again, have a shared understanding of where all of the projects are in the work plan, and, you know, maybe why some haven't been able to move along. Um, despite, you know, what appears to be, uh, their their relative priority. Um. So uh.

[01:22:25] Member Alison Hicks: At the end, I'll I'll do a a quick summary and

[01:22:27] Member Lucas Ramirez: and you know, and unless there are objections, we'll just use that as, as a, a sense of the direction, um, but I saw that there were 2 hands up, so I'll go to my colleagues, um, for additional comments or questions, so a committee member to me, I think your hand was up 1st before you lowered it. Great.

[01:22:45] Member Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Um, so, uh, really appreciate the discussion and staff response and just being able to talk as a, as a subcommittee about this, and, um, really appreciate that we're trying to find a way to, um, have, I would say, just like a more efficient and effective process. That's kind of what I'm hearing from our discussion and how do we implement that? So, you know, um, in going through the work plan items. I saw that there were and stacking, probably correct me if I'm wrong. There are at least 33 in progress items. And, um, trying to understand. Would you, for the categorizations in the 3 buckets? Would we also need to take those ones that are in progress and say, High medium low, or are the ones that are in progress already going to be high priority because they're already in progress and staff would theoretically want to complete them? Can we just clarify that? I

[01:23:53] Unknown Speaker: think most of the projects that are in progress should be completed. In this backland cycle. Now there will be some that will likely need to move over into the next work plan. Now, that may mean just like the 1st 6 months, though. It doesn't necessarily mean it's going to take another 2 years, but I think we can do, um, We can just make it more clear. And, you know, as I even look at this myself. I think, you know, status probably isn't very helpful. Um, that it is more, as you were saying, let's talk about when the estimated completion is and then kind of what, um, what the time frame looks like to get there. And I think that would probably be more helpful because then you'll see exactly if it is going to be done, this work plan cycle, or if it needs to move to the next one. Um, now, to your question, would we have to prioritize those projects that are already in progress? I think by virtue of the fact that they're in progress, we would want to finish them. Um, the items that are not yet started, which I think there's only like one or two. Um, that would really be the question then, if you all want to continue those, those items um, or not, or just, you know, remove them. But I think most of the items are in progress and should be complete during this cycle. Um, and we can go through that for the, um, January or February update and just be a lot more clear about that. So you all understand exactly, you know, when we expect to, um, either bring them forward to counsel or finish it. And I know you got to kind of dig in the update section about, you know, when we're going to bring it to council. So I think we'll just make it more clear. And we'll do a better job at, um, just kind of explaining where things are at. So I think, yes, we would put those items that have already been started probably in category A, just because they're already going. Yeah,

[01:25:59] Member Ellen Kamei: so then maybe, you know, because I, as I think in terms of just the clarity aspect, if it was status, you know, Q3 2022, and then another column that said priority. A. And then the update part, you know, or just even removing the update part. I think that may be the way to, um, kind of move into this new, like, prioritization system and and maybe clear up the confusion. And I think that's that would help counsel too. And I think it makes sense if something's in progress, then it's A, because we're already working on it. And then I think that would help with like the attachment to stuff, to understand, okay, we have 33 items that are in progress and prioritization A. So we need to balance the, you know, anything else with that. So, I think that to me, um, a chair would be the way that I would, you know, recommend that staff present this to council as, you know, status with like the quarter in the year and then, uh, you know, in terms of priority and then ABC, and then just being able to to share that, I think would be the clearest way. Um, and maybe staff revising the slide to say, um, you know, we are bringing even more transparency to the timeline part. Thanks. Thank

[01:27:28] Member Lucas Ramirez: you. And then committee member Hicks? Yeah,

[01:27:33] Member Alison Hicks: that generally sounds good to me. It does, though, sound like, uh, there's the potential for all continuing projects to be priority A, and then B and C become the, the new ones. So, I imagine, though, that, that with some thought, it might be, you know, some of the ones that are in process, my whole, unfold over, more quarters. So, um, Yeah, I guess I'm just hoping that all new, all new projects wouldn't end up in C. Um, Well, I guess we'll see how that unfolds. Um, you know, maybe with some creative thinking, they can be a little more intermingled. Um, and the, the thing that I was going to say is that the way I'm thinking about this, um, goal setting and work plan session, and it may be, maybe it's a fantasy, but, um, that, you know, people on council, now have been on council for a while, and we were, um, sort of interrupted in this by COVID, but I'm thinking that, um, because they're no new council members at this point. Hopefully, we won't come in fresh with, you know, each with 20 new projects, that, um, that it mostly is a process of seeing what's become stale and and eliminating or downsizing it, and what we're not as committed to, and maybe each bringing up a new thing or so, but or, or recommitting saying, I brought this up 3 years ago and it's really still a priority for me. But I'm hoping because we're the same people, that it's not, that we're not going to, um, have a bunch as many new books as the 1st time I did this. And I'm, I'm sort of looking forward to a process that fits that, hopefully where we are, you know, that it won't be so many new, uh, projects, and I'm not sure that the dots does hit this particular situation. But, um, But, uh, honestly, I'm not a very process oriented person. So staff comes up with a good process for this particular situation. Um, I'll, um, I'll endorse it for sure. Thank you. Thank you. I

[01:29:58] Member Lucas Ramirez: love process, so I could engage in this conversation for several hours, but I know folks have to, uh, go home eventually. Uh, so I, unless there are any other comments or questions. I'm gonna try and summarize what I think is majority direction. Um so we'll start with question one. Uh, I was outvoted so uh, this will be a consent item. Um, for question 2 Um, I, I believe there is majority support for committee, committee member Hicks item, our suggestion to have, at a, an urgency or timeliness criterion, and then for, uh, committee member to May's suggestions to, um, have a criterion around alignment with, uh, the strategic priorities, and then to, uh, to, uh, incorporate into the equity criterion, uh, the REI action plan and make sure there's alignment there. Uh, for uh, question 3. Um, there's majority support for uh applying a consistent process across all of the council advisory bodies. Uh, so uh, they would be asked the same questions and I'm really glad to hear uh, that uh, representative from the city manager's office will be, the same representative will be going to all of the advisory bodies. Uh just to solicit input. I think that will really help uh make sure that we're getting uh comparable and and equitable input from all advisory bodies. Um, and then for question 4 uh, support for uh, the uh, categorization buckets that are proposed by staff, and staff will produce the preliminary set of recommendations. Um, and uh, uh, and there were some additional items that are, that were thrown into for, but I think are more like miscellaneous. Uh one of them is having some type of process for the removal of projects. Um, and then, uh, committee member can may have suggested, um, uh, in court or, uh, uh, making clear, uh, or clearer, the, the status of individual projects by including, uh, the, uh, the quarter and year, uh, the estimated, uh, completion. Um, and then I think also including the, the relative priority, A B C. Um, please correct me if I'm wrong, um, and then, uh, we also, uh, this was from staff, and I think it might be good just to do a quick and quick check in with the subcommittee, but, um, there, uh, I think, uh, the city manager, Ramberg had talked about, um, some type of standardization for how, pro- projects get added to the list or how, uh, brought forward to the council for consideration. Um, and uh, I think we'll leave staff with uh, the task of figuring out what type of template or standardized form might make sense. Um, and then, uh, there were, there was a question about the prioritization process as well. I don't think we've selected a prioritization process as a subcommittee, um, but I think it, you know, having having that process, so whether it's not or whatever, um, making sure that's that's clear and defined for the consent calendar items, so that way it's made clear to the public and to uh, the committee at that time. Um, is there anything I missed or is there any objection to that summary? Is there anything else that staff needs from the subcommittee? No,

[01:33:33] Assistant City Manager Ramberg: that was very clear and thoughtful. Thank you.

[01:33:36] Member Lucas Ramirez: Thank you for helping us get there. So then that will conclude item 5. We'll move on to item 6 subcommittee. For staff, comments, questions and committee reports. Uh no action will be taken on any questions raised by the subcommittee at this time. Um are there any questions? A none? And we will move on to item 7 adjournment, this meeting is adjourned at 535 PM. It has been a pleasure to share this meeting for the 1st and last time for this committee, I should say. Thank you everybody take care. Bye.