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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992 02-19 CTFMMINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE AD HOC CITY COMMUNICATIONS TASK FORCE FOR THE CITY OF BROOKLYN CENTER IN THE COUNTY OF HENNEPIN AND THE STATE OF MINNESOTA REGULAR SESSION FEBRUARY 19, 1992 CITY HALL CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Capshaw called the meeting of the communications task force to order at 7:07 p.m. ROLL CALL Chairperson Capshaw, Members Warner, Andrewjeski, Benjamin, and Brandvold. Also present were Mayor Todd Paulson; Personnel Coordinator Geralyn Barone, staff assistant and recording secretary; and guest Dan Reiva. Members Keehr, and Pfann were absent from this evening's meeting. Member Miller arrived at 7:20 p.m. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - JANUARY 29, 1992 There was a motion by Member Warner and seconded by Member Andrewjeski to approve the minutes of the January 29, 1992, communications task force meeting. The motion passed. OTHER BUSINESS Chairperson Capshaw recognized Mr. Reiva, who said he recently forwarded to Mayor Paulson some proposals regarding use of cable television. Mayor Paulson noted Mr. Reiva appeared before the city council at its public hearing on cable casting city council meetings. Mayor Paulson distributed to the task force members a copy of the letter to him from Mr. Reiva dated February 18, 1992. Mr. Reiva said there are four basic ideas in his letter that require some fleshing out before being finalized; however, the letter provides some parameters for discussion. Mr. Reiva said it would be good for the City to clarify the type of programming it wants, have a consultant assist in determining programming objectives, and then determine the equipment needed to support these objectives. He noted the town meetings could be covered for about $1,500 per meeting. Chairperson Capshaw asked what the purpose of the documentary item would be, and Mr. Reiva said the end result would be a production rather than live taping. The town meetings would be edited, and post-production would result in a more watchable program that could be replayed over and over again. Mayor Paulson said if the communications coordinator could help set up the town meetings, people could watch and expect the meetings to be on the air and the process could be refined as time passes. Member Brandvold said the 02-19-92 -1- town meetings would be valuable if edited. She asked if city council meetings are replayed on cable television in an unedited version, and Barone said they are. Member Brandvold asked Mr. Reiva if he is suggesting editing city council meetings, and Mr. Reiva said he is not. He noted these are best left unedited because it becomes a political issue of what gets edited and what does not. Mr. Reiva said a summary program with the highlights of the council meetings could be produced, but this would be in addition to the full unedited version of the council meetings running on cable television. He noted the town meetings with public hearings could be edited. Mayor Paulson suggested a lot of good input on these issues can be obtained at a public hearing. Member Miller arrived at 7:20 p.m. Chairperson Capshaw asked Mr. Reiva what costs are included in his third proposal to install closed circuit television cameras in the council chambers for cable casting meetings at a cost of around $28,000. Mr. Reiva said these are purchase price startup costs with a system that is geared to only one operator. Chairperson Capshaw asked Mr. Reiva to further describe the video disk system described in his fourth proposal. Mr. Reiva said this state-of-the-art proposal, now part of a pilot project in Bloomington, puts all of the City's video programs and character generated pages on an interactive medium called a video disk. Viewers can call up on the telephone and select a topic they wish to watch. He noted everyone sees the selections over the entire cable system, but there is a four to five minute limit per person and information is presented in ninety second infomercials. There is a $30,000 pricetag for equipment and production costs. Mr. Reiva noted topics could be handled by rolling video, still pictures like a slide show, or videographics. He added not everything is a video production. Chairperson Capshaw asked if the City defined the information it wants to communicate, how long would it take to get the video disk up and running. Mr. Reiva said it would take approximately three months. Member Brandvold asked how much it would cost to add additional programs. Mr. Reiva said if you want to add programs, a new disk costs $500; therefore, it is essential to have upfront planning. He added an auxiliary could be used for unexpected updates by using a VCR hooked into the system which could be programmed for the VCR to play when special updates are selected. He added this technology does have some inflexibility by making it expensive to add items. Member Brandvold gave an example of work being done by the Earle Brown Neighborhood committee and asked Mr. Reiva if all of the housing information could be placed on one disk. Chairperson Capshaw said housing would be part of the total disk, with other 02-19-92 -2- information on the same disk. Mr. Reiva said the disk is an encyclopedia of all the information you think people want to know. Member Benjamin asked what channel this would be played on, and Mr. Reiva said Bloomington has two channels, one for city council meetings and the other for video disk programming. Chairperson Capshaw thanked Mr. Reiva for coming to this evening's meeting and said the task force appreciates the opportunity to hear about this information. COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR POSITION Chairperson Capshaw said the task force has discussed the communications position in the context of recommendations in the Coleman & Christison communications audit, and Mayor Paulson has prepared information regarding the communication position. Chairperson Capshaw said at the last meeting, the task force decided to use the position descriptions for communications positions from the cities of Brooklyn Park and Minnetonka as a basis to establish Brooklyn Center's description. He suggested the task force needs to think of this position in terms of the goals it has developed with the three components of information, involvement, and identity. He added the task force should also consider the way in which the position will include marketing, promotion responsibilities, and volunteer coordination responsibilities. Chairperson Capshaw noted one of the goals is for this position to assist in drawing people into participating in City activities. Member Brandvold asked if both Brooklyn Park and Minnetonka's positions are full-time, and Barone responded affirmatively. Member Benjamin noted this is a major position in any company or business. Chairperson Capshaw said the task force should look at ideally what should the position look like and how it will be paid for. He suggested walking through the combined description and making suggestions to amend it. Member Benjamin noted the money question is still an issue, because not only will money be spent on the position, but money will be spent on things this person will be doing. Chairperson Capshaw noted that Councilmember Cohen has suggested the position might be set up as part-time. The task force proceeded to review the position description, first discussing the primary objective of the position. Mayor Paulson noted his interest in this position and said it is important how this person relates to the city council, staff, and the public. He said this person needs to be a free floating agent. He noted one of the problems he sees in the city is that everything has to go through the city manager's office, and he would like to free up the city manager to look at the big picture of things going on in the city rather than funneling everything through the city manager. He suggested this staff person should be able to be free floating, acting as an ombudsman. He added this position would need to be 02-19-92 -3- accountable to the city manager, but he would like to go directly to this person. Barone briefly reviewed for the task force the city's charter that establishes a council-manager form of government. The task force made some amendments to the position objective used in the Brooklyn Park position description. The task force proceeded to review the responsibilities of the position, using the combined description generated from the Brooklyn Park and Minnetonka descriptions and made changes to fit the needs of Brooklyn Center. Mayor Paulson said he would like someone to assist in keeping the advisory commissions memberships up-to-date. Barone explained how the staff liaisons to the various advisory commissions keep track of any vacancies, inform the council of these vacancies, and assist in notifying prospective residents to participate on the commissions. Chairperson Capshaw asked how people have become involved with the Earle Brown neighborhood group. Member Brandvold said neighborhood groups were formed years ago, and the group for her neighborhood was formed from this group. Barone explained the neighborhood advisory groups are established throughout the city, and have been primarily used for issues relating to planning and zoning. She added the neighborhood advisory groups were also used to solicit input during the 1980 park bond project. Member Brandvold said the Earle Brown neighborhood group has found its newsletter to be well received. Mayor Paulson said if the City enters into a new dynamic of getting people involved, it would be nice to have a person to coordinate this involvement. He gave an example of a reforestation plan, where the City has put an ordinance in place. He suggested an urban forest league could be created to get volunteers involved and develop a newsletter. He said the communications person could make sure all these types of groups are coordinated. There was discussion regarding the volunteer coordination component of the position description. Mayor Paulson suggested the position description be established as very inclusive, and then the strengths of the person hired could be matched with the needs of the City to further refine the job duties. Chairperson Capshaw expressed concerns about diffusing the description too much to detract from the main position objective. There was discussion regarding "How are We Doing" forms that the City has used in its various departments to solicit input from residents. Barone said the recreation department is an example of one area where the City has received input from the public using this format. Mayor Paulson said if a resident calls the City with a concern, he would like to see a system where a form can be used to describe the problem and record all the pertinent information related to the concern. A copy of the form could be kept for further reference. 02-19-92 -4- Member Miller suggested the communications person could design this form. Barone proceeded to describe the City's pilot project of a customer response system, which is a database system established by the City to track the types of concerns Mayor Paulson has noted. She added this is a very new program for the City and is being used on a limited basis at the outset. Member Warner suggested the desktop publishing duties described in the responsibilities should be included in the qualifications section instead. Member Brandvold said with regard to qualifications, she feels the Minnetonka language is best with regard to education and experience. Chairperson Capshaw suggested adding a separate section describing marketing responsibilities which could identify what the City has to offer, spell it out, capture it, and put it out to the public in a positive sense. After some discussion, the task force agreed this person could act as a marketing liaison with the Tourism Bureau, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Earle Brown Heritage Center. Chairperson Capshaw suggested updating to the City logo could be part of the marketing responsibilities. Member Brandvold suggested the City could capitalize on Earle Brown Days and the Earle Brown Heritage Center to assist in presenting a positive identity for Brooklyn Center. Member Benjamin pointed out there is a minimal advertising budget for Earle Brown Days. Member Warner suggested the section regarding assisting departments in the development of internal communication training need not be included in this description, and the task force members agreed. The task force discussed the general administrative support section of the responsibilities and noted the mayor should be included in the section where the communications coordinator would assist the city manager, council members, and department heads in research and preparation of reports. Mayor Paulson said this would be very helpful for him to have assistance in researching and preparing written or oral reports. He added he would also like someone to assist in coordinating his schedule. Member Warner suggested this would be another part-time position that the mayor should think about, because she feels the responsibility for coordinating the mayor's schedule could be very time consuming. Member Miller suggested this person could look at ways to improve scheduling done in the City. Mayor Paulson suggested it would be helpful for him to have someone assist in his scheduling, particularly when groups come into the City, such as to the Earle Brown Heritage Center, and he could make a presentation on behalf of the City. He noted he enjoys doing this, but it would be helpful to have someone assist him in his scheduling. Chairperson Capshaw asked how this has been handled, and Barone noted the former mayor handled all of his own scheduling. She added Mayor Paulson is not always at city hall during his scheduled office hours, and it would be helpful for 02-19-92 -5- staff to know his schedule so employees could better respond to inquiries on when the mayor is available. Barone suggested the position description can be put in the format of other City position descriptions. She will separate out a knowledge, skills, and abilities section from the qualifications. Member Benjamin asked Mayor Paulson what his timetable on this is, and Mayor Paulson said if the task force is comfortable with the changes it has made to the description this evening, he would suggest passing it to the city council as soon as possible for the council to review it and make any changes to it. Mayor Paulson said he would like to see this person be equal to a department head so the city council could be brought in on the recruitment and hiring of this person as provided for in the city charter. Mayor Paulson urged the task force to forward the position description to the city council for its review on February 24, 1992. After some discussion on how best to handle the draft version of the position description and get input from the task force, it was agreed that Barone would work with Chairperson Capshaw to make the changes and include a rough draft of the position description with the city council's agenda packet for February 24. NEXT TASK FORCE MEETING The next meeting of the ad hoc city communications task force is i scheduled for March 18, 1992, at 7 p.m. Chairperson Capshaw suggested the task force could work on planning for a public hearing at this time. ADJOURNMENT The Brooklyn Center ad hoc city communications task force adjourned at 9 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Geralyn R. Barone Recording Secretary 0 02-19-92 -6-