Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - City Council - Meeting Date: 9/5/2017 City of Glendale 5850 West Glendale Avenue Glendale, AZ 85301 ihi LA" :zi-E Meeting Minutes Tuesday, September 5, 2017 1:30 P.M. Workshop Meeting Council Chambers City Council Mayor Jerry Weiers Vice Mayor Ian Hugh Councilmember Jamie Aldama Councilmember Joyce Clark Councilmember Ray Malnar Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff Councilmember Bart Turner CALL TO ORDER Mayor Weiers called the meeting to order at 1:31 p.m. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Jerry Weiers; Vice Mayor Ian Hugh; Councilmember Jamie Aldama; Councilmember Joyce Clark; Councilmember Ray Malnar; Councilmember Bart Turner Absent: Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff Also Kevin Phelps, City Manager; Michael Bailey, City Attorney; Julie K. Bower, City Present: Clerk; Tom Duensing,Assistant City Manager WORKSHOP SESSION 1. STRATEGIC PLANNING & BALANCED SCORECARD INITIATIVE UPDATE Presented by: Jean Moreno, Executive Officer Strategic Initiatives and Special Projects Presented by: Jay O'Neill, Police Lieutenant Presented by: Megan Sheldon, Environmental Program Manager Water Services Ms. Bower read the item by title. Ms. Moreno was seeking feedback and a consensus direction on the final strategy map to be brought forward to a future City Council voting meeting to consider adoption via resolution. Ms. Moreno was suggesting some minor changes to the value statements. To include them in the branding, the values needed to be one word and the statements needed to be one sentence. The values were important because values drove behavior, behavior drove culture and culture drove performance. Ms. Moreno displayed a graphic of the proposed changes to the value statements: Community-We exist to improve the community experience. Integrity-We provide open and honest governance. Excellence-We make excellence a habit, not a goal. Innovation -We deliver better service through creativity and ingenuity. Learning -We view learning as essential to improvement. Ms. Moreno hoped that the wording was aligned with Council's original vision. Before continuing with the presentation, she asked for Council feedback on the proposed wording. Councilmember Clark asked what community experience was being referred to in the first value. Ms. Moreno said it would be the services delivered to residents; the services provided to business owners; and any time staff engaged with the community. It tied in with the work the Theme Teams had done. The community experience encompassed everything and covered residents and visitors. It was the entire community experience. Councilmember Clark said it was nebulous and generic. She had trouble grasping the concept Ms. Moreno was trying to deliver. She suggested, "We exist to improve our community." Experience referred to relationships and was very touchy, feely but didn't relate to the physical structure of the community. Councilmember Clark also questioned the wording for Excellence. She hoped that the concept City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 2 of 11 of accountability could be included. It wasn't just about excellence being a goal, it was about developing some sort of accountability to make sure excellence was achieved. Mr. Phelps said experience was the right word. So much of what initiatives would be designed around was what was experienced by residents when they interacted with the City. Community wasn't just about aesthetics or the amenities offered. It was about providing a positive experience no matter if it was interacting with the Police or paying a water bill. The experience should be one that made them proud to be a citizen of Glendale. • Councilmember Clark said there needed to be a modifier because experience related to relationships and didn't deal with the aesthetics of the City but she wasn't-wedded one way or another to the word "experience." However, the concept of accountability was very important to her. Ms. Moreno wanted to remind everyone that it was about values and they set the foundation. The purpose was to describe the behaviors that should be demonstrated to the community. Accountability would be part of the next phase of the plan. The focus was on creating and building relationships to make the community better. Councilmember Clark noted that all of the current teams were internal and made up of employees. She asked if any members of the community would be included on the teams. Ms. Moreno envisioned including community members in additional opportunities to study issues or come up with ideas on how to solve problems. Staff would make sure Council was comfortable with the level of community engagement. Councilmember Aldama said what he didn't see was that the City was the trendsetter and not the follower in the region. He asked where that could be put in writing. Ms. Moreno said innovation was one of the values set by Council. Glendale was the community of choice and that related to being a trendsetter. Each department would have an innovation team. Councilmember Aldama said that the City led the way in everything it did but he didn't really see that in the document. Ms. Moreno said in the full description, it specifically said, "We are an organization that constantly examines how we can get better and welcomes creative ideas and new thinking. We value efficiency, technology, and agility; and, we have the courage to try new approaches." That wording really set the foundation. Councilmember Aldama offered the following wording: "We deliver better services through creativity and ingenuity. We are innovative. We are an organization that constantly examines how we can better welcome creativity and ideas and new thinking. We value efficiency, technology and agility and we have the courage to lead to be the region innovators, set the trend and model the way. We do this to create a culture of leaders within the organization and we are a flexible organization that can respond quickly to change." He felt the wording was necessary if the City was going to be the change agent and model the way for other municipalities. Ms. Moreno was open to making changes if there was consensus among Council. Councilmember Aldama asked Council to consider his wording so that the City could show the state that it was a leader in all that it did. City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 3 of 11 Councilmember Turner thanked the Theme Team for all of its hard work. He realized it wasn't easy to reduce paragraphs into one sentence. The one thing that did occur to him was the bullet point of Community. Why didn't it say, "We exist to improve the experience of community." It could relate to every aspect that Mr. Phelps had spoken about previously. He also thought internal leadership from each individual was important but didn't feel external leadership and being the region leader was as important. Councilmember Turner felt being a partner was more important than being the leader in the valley. Councilmember Malnar wanted to transmit the message that the City was there to serve the public. He would like to see the term "customer service" incorporated in the document or an explanation of whether or not it was explained in depth somewhere else. Ms. Moreno said the term "customer"created a transactional type of relationship. The Theme Team had said it didn't want just a transactional relationship with the people it served but wanted greater engagement with the community. She said it was addressed in the excellence component, whether it be excellence in the service provided or in communication with the community. Ms. Moreno said there was a lot of detail in the strategy map. Councilmember Clark understood about the transactional relationship and there was a place for experiences. However, there were employees who didn't interact directly with the residents. She wanted to know why customer service didn't relate to those employees. It seemed to her that they were of equal value. The organization was diversified and varied. Not everyone could be put into one box. Customer service was a critical part of what the City did and shouldn't be ignored in favor of removing transactional relationships. Ms. Moreno wasn't saying that there wouldn't be a focus on customer service and, in fact, it was quite the opposite. No matter the job, there was an opportunity to provide a higher level of service to demonstrate excellence. All of the values tied to better customer service. She would be able to provide more detail when the strategy map was discussed. Mayor Weiers said every City employee, no matter what they were doing, had an experience with the people in front of them and behind them. Everyone had a huge part in it. He asked how many people were involved on the teams and how much time was spent. Ms. Moreno said there were over 50 people involved who spent approximately 53 hours, not including small group meetings. Mayor Weiers said there was no way to make everyone happy especially with nine words. He thanked everyone who participated because he knew those types of committees weren't always easy. Mr. Phelps appreciated the feedback from Council. He said customer service and leadership were not values. Values drove behavior. If the City focused on the community, had integrity, excellence, used innovation and was always learning, the City would organically be the leader in the valley. Councilmember Aldama asked that the verbiage about being regional leaders and creating a culture of leaders within the organization be included. He was okay with removing the wording about regional leadership but wanted to include "create a culture of leaders within the organization," in the detail of innovation. Ms. Moreno said, in terms of the leadership, it was addressed in workforce culture objective. She thought there was a consensus to add "trendsetters and modeling the way." Mayor Weiers said there was a consensus for that. He asked about Councilmember Turner's City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 4 of 11 additions. Ms. Moreno had noted, "we exist to improve the experience of community." Mayor Weiers said there was a consensus for that. He asked about Councilmember Clark's additions. Ms. Moreno said it referenced accountability as part of excellence. She suggested adding accountability to integrity, "throughout our organization there is an unquestionable level of integrity, ethics, transparency, accountability and honesty guiding our communications." Mayor Weiers liked what Councilmember Clark was doing with accountability but suggested, "we expect accountability in all we do." Ms. Moreno said that wording was in the integrity paragraph. Mayor Weiers said there was a consensus for the suggested wording. Ms. Moreno said there was huge diversity on the theme teams. The objective was to identify specific continuous improvement actions that the organization needed to focus on to make the mission, vision and values actionable and to create alignment between the organizational perspectives. The strategic priorities had already been identified and approved by Council - stakeholder engagement, community livability,financial stewardship and superior service delivery. Ms. Moreno said the teams collectively identified and defined an initial set of 35 objectives as the baseline. A group of 12 captains refined the objectives into 10 high-level objectives. Ms. Sheldon said there were three strategic objectives for the organization. 1) Improve tools and technology which could lead to improvement in service delivery and communication. 2) Strengthen workforce development because training was essential for delivering high quality services and achieving operational excellence. 3) Strengthen workforce culture because all objectives relied on a strong organizational culture. Lt. O'Neill said there were four objectives for optimizing City processes. 1) Increase innovation solutions. 2) Optimize processes and services. 3) Improve stakeholder engagement because the organization must have better engagement with stakeholders to understand their needs; but, also to use that engagement to encourage civic responsibility and cultivate stakeholders that view Glendale as a part of their own identity. 4) Improve purposeful communication by doing a better job of communicating both internally and externally with a focus on communicating with purpose. Councilmember Clark said improved tools and technology would require a commitment to more financial resources. The process would require Council to make a purposeful decision to expend scarce resources as a priority for acquisition of the technology and tools the workforce needed to improve. She wasn't sure she wanted to go there right now and she wasn't prepared to make that decision. Ms. Moreno said moving into the budgeting process, the expectation would be that it would guide resource allocations. There might be other priorities and the investment could be in any of the objectives. City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 5 of 11 2. DISCUSSION REGARDING POSSIBLE SUPPORT FOR EXPECT MORE ARIZONA'S STATEWIDE EDUCATION EFFORTS Presented by: Jenna Goad, Intergovernmental & Council Services Manager, Public Affairs Ms. Bower read the item by title. • Ms. Goad said the item was a discussion regarding possible support for Expect More Arizona's efforts to promote education as a top priority in the community. By registering as a "World Class Education Partner," it would ensure a strong economic future and a higher quality of life for everyone. It included support of Governor Ducey's Achieve 60 AZ initiative to increase the statewide attainment of post-high school certificates and degrees by 60% by the year 2030. Ms. Goad said a number of Arizona municipalities across the state had already registered as partners, as well as numerous civic groups and educational institutions including the Glendale Union High School District, Glendale Chamber of Commerce and West-MEC. There was no cost to participate. The City would receive acknowledgement on Expect More Arizona's. website and would be allowed the use of the logo. Support could include a proclamation by the Mayor or the adoption of a resolution. Councilmember Malnar asked who backed the effort and where would the funding come from. Ms. Goad said Expect More Arizona was a statewide nonpartisan organization. Councilmember Malnar said City governments did not have an impact on school funding and asked what the purpose was of getting a resolution in support. Ms. Goad said the organization was looking for diverse support realizing it took the broader community to achieve the educational goals. Councilmember Malnar said the proposed resolution asked for increased funding for the schools but he did not see an accountability aspect. Ms. Goad was not familiar with the teacher-level accountability. Expect More Arizona had outlined an Arizona progress meter where it would measure progress in the achievement areas. Councilmember Aldama asked Donna Davis, the Senior Community Engagement Manager for Expect More Arizona, to address Council. Councilmember Aldama asked what the organization did and stood for and was it geared towards public, private, charter school education or all three. Ms. Davis said it was all three and the organization believed in quality education for every student in Arizona. It was formed as an economic development initiative because development was suffering due to the state's education statistics. The progress meter measured eight statistics and had the ability to drill down to very specific statistics. The organization was nonprofit and primarily funded by Helios Education Foundation as well as private and public sector businesses. The progress meter was also a means of accountability regarding funding. Councilmember Aldama said the organization was asking Council to adopt the resolution to show that education was a priority. Ms. Davis said the City provided a lot of educational services to its citizens. Adoption of the resolution showed that the City supported and was committed to education. Councilmember Aldama said it was the perfect opportunity for Glendale to demonstrate City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 6 of 11 education was a priority. Vice Mayor Hugh agreed that Council supported education but was concerned about the cost to taxpayers, property owners and businesses, if all of the policies were adopted. He said Ms. Davis had said there were'businesses who did not want to locate in Arizona because of the school districts. He asked if there were certain school districts where people did not want to locate in that district. Ms. Davis said, when she visited Lake Havasu City, she was told they had trouble recruiting physicians because the education in Arizona was not as vibrant as in other states. Sierra Vista hada defense contractor who wanted to locate there but did not because of the school system. Academically, the state was improving because the standards had become more rigorous. There was also difficulty in recruiting teachers because of the low pay in Arizona. Polls indicated that the public supported an increase in education funding as long as it went to school funding and teacher pay. Vice Mayor Hugh said the group wanted the median pay for teachers to be the same as nationwide teachers but the per student spending in New York was much higher than in Arizona. Ms. Davis said that was correct and the taxes in New York were much higher. The group was not proposing getting to that place but was saying, in order to get quality teachers in the classroom, something had to be done about teacher pay. She said Prop 301 was passed statewide in 2001 and was due to expire in 2021. All of the funding went to education and if that was lost, there would be negative consequences. Vice Mayor Hugh asked if Lake Havasu City had a failing school system. Ms. Davis said it did not and comparatively in the state, it had a good system. But, if it was compared to other schools in the nation, it was not the same. Vice Mayor Hugh said Glendale Union was ranked number one in the nation in AP placement. Ms. Davis said that was correct but there were a lot of districts in the state who were not able to get AP teachers. Councilmember Aldama, a school board member also, said one of the goals was to increase attainment by 2030. He asked her to define that. Ms. Davis said that on average, 60% of the adults between the ages of 25 and 64, had a 2-year degree, a 4-year degree or industry certification. Right now, the state was at 42% and the workforce demanded 68%. Councilmember Aldama said that was an attainable goal to some degree but what happened if it was not reached. What were the repercussions to the City. Ms. Davis said the goal was set and the intention was for the state to achieve the goal. Councilmember Aldama asked if funding was also being requested. Ms. Davis said no funding was being sought,just support. Vice Mayor Hugh said no funding was being sought from the City but it would take funding to reach the goals, such as providing preschool for ages 3 and up. City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 7 of 11 Ms. Davis said the state had cut education funding for several years. Providing education at an earlier age increased the likelihood of academic success and would reduce the cost of special education. Vice Mayor Hugh said it was a question of accountability. Glendale Union received the same funding and was an A-rated school. He asked where Arizona fell in achievement levels. Ms. Davis said that was not the case for all schools in the state. Most could not hire math teachers. She said Arizona used to be ranked 47th but had made some progress. Councilmember Malnar asked what other initiatives the organization had been involved with. Ms. Davis said the group had a Vote for Education initiative to help the public understand the impact voting had on education but did not tell people how to vote. Councilmember Malnar was uncomfortable with putting his name on a document when he was not sure what the outcome would be and.that he had no control over it. He could not support moving it forward. Councilmember Aldama said Vice Mayor Hugh had also served on a school board. Glendale Union was an A+ school but it had a broad, more affluent demographic compared to Glendale Elementary, which did not have the same demographic. The relevancy was preparing students for careers and higher education. Ms. Davis said it was meant to be a benefit for the City and recognized that cities had a lot to do with education. Councilmember Clark was also uncomfortable putting her name on the resolution. Everyone supported schools but there were instances of where the increased funding got absorbed without it impacting teacher pay. She believed it was a state issue and she would not support it. Mayor Weiers asked for a guess on the state's rank. Ms. Davis estimated that it ranked 43rd. Mayor Weiers said, when he was a legislator, he was told the state was ranked 50th so it was a 14% increase in four years. He was concerned that if school funding was increased, something else would be negatively impacted. He could not support the resolution but with different wording, he might support a proclamation. • Councilmember Aldama asked if there had been any losses suffered by the entities that had signed on to support the initiative. Ms. Davis understood the Mayor's concerns about taking money from someplace else to fund education. Councilmember Turner wanted to go on record to say he supported the proposed resolution and had no objection to it. It was a broad way in which the City could say it felt education was important. There was not a consensus to move forward with the resolution. Councilmember Aldama asked if it could,be redrafted and brought back, would Council support it. • City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 8 of 11 Mayor Weiers said there was no consensus for that either. Councilmember Turner asked if Mayor Weiers was willing to draft a proclamation. Mayor.Weiers said he might be willing to do something as long as it did not put the City in a bad position. If he was able to do that, he would provide Council with a draft of the proclamation. 3. COUNCIL ITEM OF SPECIAL INTEREST—REQUEST TO DISCUSS THE JAZZ AND BLUES FESTIVAL Presented By: Erik Strunk, Director, Public Facilities, Recreation and Special Events Ms. Bower read the item by title. Mr. Strunk said the item was follow-up to a Council Item of Special Interest raised by Councilmember Aldama at the March 7, 2017 City Council Workshop meeting. Councilmember Aldama requested information regarding the potential of re-establishing a Glendale"Jazz and Blues Festival". He said, if there was Council consensus, staff would create a scope, develop a business plan and return in January or February, for further consideration. Mr. Strunk said there were three phases to the process. The first phase was to get Council consensus to proceed. In Phase II, the scope would be developed. A budget and options would be developed in Phase III. Councilmember Clark asked if the topic had been discussed in the past four years. Mr. Strunk believed there had been a discussion a couple of years ago. Councilmember Clark asked what was the consensus of Council at that time. Mr. Strunk said there was support for moving forward but it had not been followed up with in a timely manner and the issue was brought up again as a Council Item of Special Interest. Mayor Weiers said he and one or two.other Councilmember had brought up the issue previously but it had never gone any further andCouncilmember Aldama had raised the issue again. He said it was something that he could support if someone other than the City was sponsoring and running it. Councilmember Aldama said the original,festival was a pretty large event. He suggested starting off with a small, community event that could feature local high school jazz bands and grow it from there. It ended in 2012 with a $158,000 price tag. He was asking for staff to research it and find potential sponsorships to maintain the event. Councilmember Malnar agreed that it should be sponsored by outside organizations. He had spoken with the Chamber president, who had run a successful jazz festival. Perhaps it was an opportunity for the Chamber. Councilmember Turner favored moving forward. It was one of the most requested events. He suggested dividing it in to two different events,jazz and blues. There would be more bang for the buck if the events occurred over two weekends. Vice Mayor Hugh supported moving forward and favored sponsorship. Councilmember Clark remembered the previous events that were very successful and drew large crowds. She said the City could not be everything to everybody and it was time it got out City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 9 of:11 of the business of promoting everything. Councilmember Clark supported Mayor Weiers' suggestion of partnerships. Councilmember Aldama said it had always been his intent that the costs would be paid by sponsors. There was Council consensus to proceed. Councilmember Turner clarified his previous comments. He had not been advocating that the City pay for the festival. He favored bringing in outside expertise and cost-sharing. CITY MANAGER'S REPORT Mr. Phelps had no report. CITY ATTORNEY'S REPORT Mr. Bailey had no report. COUNCIL ITEMS OF SPECIAL INTEREST Mayor Wieirs asked that staff explore the possibility of consolidating Council workshops and Council voting meetings. The workshop would take place during the day and the voting meeting would take place in the evening of the same day. It was challenging to have a meeting every Tuesday. MOTION AND CALL TO ENTER INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION A motion was made by Councilmember Jamie Aldama, seconded by Councilmember Ray Malnar to hold an executive session. AYE: Mayor Jerry Weiers, Vice Mayor Ian Hugh, Councilmember Jamie Aldama, Councilmember Joyce Clark,.Councilmember Ray Malnar, Councilmember Bart Turner Other: Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff(ABSENT) Passed EXECUTIVE SESSION The Council entered into executive session at 4:07 p.m. A motion was made by Councilmember Jamie Aldama, seconded by Councilmember Ray Malnar to adjourn the executive session. AYE: Mayor Jerry Weiers, Vice Mayor Ian Hugh, Councilmember Jamie Aldama, Councilmember Joyce Clark, Councilmember Ray Malnar, Councilmember Bart Turner Other: Councilmember.Lauren Tolmachoff(ABSENT) Passed The meeting reconvened at 4:13 p.m. • ADJOURNMENT City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 10 of 11 A motion was made by Councilmember Jamie Aldama, seconded by Councilmember Ray Malnar to adjourn the meeting. AYE: Mayor Jerry Weiers, Vice Mayor Ian Hugh, Councilmember Jamie Aldama, Councilmember Joyce Clark, Councilmember Ray Malnar, Councilmember Bart Turner Other: Councilmember Lauren Tolmachoff(ABSENT) Passed Mayor Weiers adjourned the meeting at 4:14 p.m. I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the meeting of the Glendale City Council of Glendale, Arizona, held on the 5th day of September, 2017. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this 10th day of October, 2017. • - J K. Bower, MMC, City Clerk • City Council Meeting Minutes-September 5,2017 Page 11 of 11