08/17/1992 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e Mr. Boles reminded the council that it had relied on a variety of information sources, including the Trends and Issues Report, which provided the council with a broad context for its deliberations, and many adopted plans. He said that there were three principles driving the process: 1) representative democracy; 2) the need to solve more than one problem at a time; and 3) crisis prevention, or the need to be proactive to community needs. Mr. Boles believed that the principles he cited were the reasons for the council support for a new library: the new library not only responds to the public, but reinforces the council's goal for downtown revitalization. In response to criticism that the council had not listened to community feedback, Mr. Boles pointed to the mix of cost savings and revenues. He said that the draft strategy brought the mix to a 29:71 ratio, which was very close to the public feedback. Additionally, Mr. Boles maintained that the council had been told by the community it did not want Strategy C. Mr. Boles said there was no way to provide for revenues that would not make someone angry. If the community responded to those individuals as though they represented the entire community, it would never have a quality discussion with the entire community about revenue issues. Mr. Boles said that while the council does not have to implement every enhancement now, it needed to be clear about its intent with each item. Mr. Miller expressed appreciation to the council for its time, commitment, and energy, as well as for its strong feeling for the community. He said every issue the council has discussed concerns human lives, and that message does e not come across to the public in reporting. Mr. Miller said the difficulty of making the reductions decisions was not described. Those reductions will affect many people. Mr. Miller said that the process is ongoing and not complete. He regretted what he termed the irresponsibility of the personal attacks launched on the council in the newspaper. Mr. Miller said that government in general is at a crucial period in history. He said that the focus of the process is on service delivery systems, asking the community, "what is it that you want your government to accomplish? How do you want to pay for it?" The council agreed to review the core services and cost savings identified thus far in the process. Mr. Boles pointed out that the major messages of the input process were that people supported 30 percent reductions in services and 70 percent new revenue. He said that if the council funded the core as it stood, it would have funded 5/8 of the problem with cost savings and 3/8 with new revenues, which did not reflect the community's desires. Ms. Bascom acknowledged the survey results, but suggested that the council consider the responses made by the community regarding revenues. She believed the message was imprecise, and said the council needed to work more on revenues and be sensitive to the community feedback. e MINUTES--City Council Work Session August 17, 1992 Page 4 5:30 p.m.