Laserfiche WebLink
City Council Meeting Retreat <br /> Tuesday, February 18, 2015 <br /> Page 2 <br /> dressed the governance concept, allowing the freedom to relate civic engagement in all <br /> those areas and providing a greater opportunity to elevate certain things to their own sta- <br /> tus versus including them under one umbrella. <br /> Councilmember McGehee responded that she didn't consider those things were preclud- <br /> ed, but she personally thought civic engagement had to be a piece of that and if the vari- <br /> ous targets (e.g. tax base, work with Metropolitan Council, etc.) included an obligation to <br /> educate the public and work with them to make sure they also understood the targets and <br /> were on board with those targets. Councilmember McGehee opined that this would cre- <br /> ate a much better process than the current one, which often got the City into trouble, with <br /> the City sometimes inviting public participation and educational efforts, and other times <br /> simply cramming things down their throats. <br /> Mayor Roe opined that he found the list provided by Mr. Rapp to capture yesterday's dis- <br /> cussion by not making one thing more important than another or combining them and los- <br /> ing emphasis in each area. <br /> Councilmember Laliberte concurred that while "civic engagement" would certainly play <br /> into everything the City did, it wouldn't necessarily be addressed unless separated out. <br /> Under"organizational evolution," Councilmember Etten stated that he struggled with that <br /> term, as the City struggles with upcoming Department Head turnover due to retirement, <br /> and the City's need to look at its service delivery progress in relationship to what it was <br /> great at. Councilmember Etten questioned if that was "evolution" or "refocus," since to <br /> him evolution meant something different than finding what the City was great at. <br /> In focusing on the current control model and desire to move toward a customer intimacy <br /> approach, Mayor Roe stated that was key in his mind. Mayor Roe opined that it made <br /> sense that the organization had to evolve to deal with that concept, and other suggested <br /> other questions would and should get answered as part of that changed approach. <br /> Mr. Rapp opined that, if the terminology changed from "organizational evolution," a <br /> member of the public may not immediately understand it, while theoretically they could <br /> understand the remainder of items listed. As an example, if determined that service level <br /> was a priority and concepts were defined on how to deliver those service, Mr. Rapp noted <br /> that the operational excellence would be impacted by the role of innovation and other <br /> tools. <br /> Councilmember Laliberte opined that she found that whole category difficult based on <br /> categorizing them from yesterday's perspective of value propositions and culture and <br /> where those two categories differed. As an example, Councilmember Laliberte opined <br /> that there was a huge interest in being customer intimate, but questioned how anyone <br /> would want to accomplish that at the expense of the organization's excellence. <br />