CC Minutes - 09/10/03 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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2. Treat each other and staff with respect and dignity. Speaking to the item, Mr. Meisner asked that it be revised as the issue went both ways and there were times when he did not feel respected by staff. Ms. Bettman concurred. 3. Practice and use active listening and communication skills, especially in conflict. Mayor Torrey said that people often accused the council of not listening to them because they did not do what they wanted. Mr. Meisner recommended that the council do some common training in active listening. Mr. Kelly suggested that people would feel listened to if the council referred to their remarks and commented on them. Ms. Solomon did not think that the council's meeting format lent itself to that, as time was limited and councilors had to pick and choose issues to which they would respond. However, she was not recommending a change to the meeting format. Ms. Bettman concurred with Ms. Solomon's remarks, saying that the council did not have dialogues. She suggested that if councilors could bank their time, that might help. The current process only allowed enough time for sound bites. Ms. Taylor agreed with Ms. Bettman, and said that frequently councilors misinterpret each other and then the councilor involved could not respond immediately. Mr. Meisner concurred with the remarks of other councilors. He said that he frequently took notes during the discussion and had to go through a filtering process to determine what he would say in the comment time allotted. He was not suggesting changing the meeting format. Mr. Pap6 felt that the council did not discipline itself when it came to talking. Mayor Torrey noted that many bodies do considerable work in subcommittees, but acknowledged that many councilors do not like that approach, which had been attempted in the past. He noted that the TSMF's origin was in a council subcommittee that worked on finance issues. Mayor Torrey suggested that the council could have meetings where it just asked questions on particular issues. Ms. Bettman was not supportive of council committees. Her experience, such as on the Council Committee on Homelessness and Youth, was that the work did not get done because some members did not want to meet. She noted that the Police Commission used a similar format and it worked well, but that it was a group with a different dynamic. 4. Debate ideas and policies, do not make personal attacks. Ms. Utecht noted the similarity of this item to Item 1. MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 10, 2003 Page 4 Process Session