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City Council Meeting Retreat Tuesday, February 17, 2015 Page 12 On behalf of their group, Community Development Director responded that it was meant as looking backwards versus forward through dwelling on issues that involved personal attacks and tended to delay decision-making. Councilmember Etten questioned how that played into ineffective decision-making ver- sus public engagement and if that delayed decision making came from ineffective, mis- construed public engagement. Participants concurred that those were connected, but Mr. Rapp opined that to him they seemed to come from two distinct realms: ineffective decision-making in the governance realm (decision-making), and ineffective public engagement based on on-the-ground pub- lic deployment(community outreach). Councilmember Etten admitted his struggle to connect communities and engagement and the difference in community engagement held upfront, paused, or completely destroyed and that ramification on decision-making, with a decision needed on how to do decision- making while still generally engaging the public. Mr. Rapp suggested defining one of the challenges as: "ineffective/effective decision- making." Mr. Rapp noted this could be broadened into the category of governance by making decisions as a governing body that determined the needs of stakeholders and ex- pectations of citizens, since the group concurred that they seemed to be tied together. Councilmember McGehee opined that from her perspective it was less politics than pro- cess. Councilmember Laliberte opined that public safety also went into the engage- ment/collaboration category, since recent community survey information indicated that public safety mattered to citizens, and while there was no indication that the current sta- tus was wrong or bad, it was an important issue for the community. Councilmember Willmus opined that it was an overarching concept, and he saw it as broader than just crime but incorporating all areas of public safety. Community Development Director Bilotta opined that public safety needed to be a con- sideration in all decisions, since it was not done in a vacuum, and should enter into the discussion earlier in the process. Councilmember Laliberte applauded the group for including that item, as she found it ty- ing to many other things, including housing values that could be affected if not addressed. Councilmember Willmus concurred, opining that was a good observation.