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Regular City Council Meeting <br />Monday, October 10, 2016 <br />Page 26 <br />Councilmember Etten expressed his appreciation to Councilmember Laliberte for <br />her thorough thoughts on this item; and supported a lot of what she addressed in <br />her comments. <br />Councilmember Etten spoke specifically to the Cohansey neighborhood group <br />with which he was involved, and recognized Mr. Yunke having spoken to their <br />group; and expressed his interest in seeing that communication continue and im- <br />prove. Councilmember Etten suggested other city staff could support those ef- <br />forts so Mr. Yunke wasn't doing it alone, and resulting in more formalized and/or <br />frequent communication (e.g. list serves and other existing communication tools) <br />to make more direct connections to neighborhoods. <br />Councilmember Etten opined that he loved the training for block captains and fu- <br />ture captains and encouraging positive interaction. <br />Councilmember Etten spoke in support of a tool kit to help organize and guide <br />neighborhoods; but agreed with Councilmember Willmus that before more city <br />resources and tax dollars are spent on mailings, copies, or city website space, <br />acknowledgement of how an association ar group of neighbors organized them- <br />selves for voting purposes was necessary, not necessarily indicating the need for a <br />formal neighborhood association, but making sure the group was serving its <br />neighborhood equitably. <br />Councilmember Etten noted his family was personally interlaced with two sepa- <br />rate neighborhood associations, and they found it to wark fine, and opined that it <br />actually served to encourage communication among neighborhoods to avoid <br />competition and provide interaction at different levels. <br />Ma or Roe <br />Mayor Roe thanked Councilmember Laliberte for setting up a framework for to- <br />night's discussion and for moving forward. <br />Mayor Roe noted that one nice thing about the outline was getting experience to <br />find out what was working, what was lacking, and provide an opportunity for <br />neighborhood feedback. <br />The recommendations provided by the Neighbarhood Association Task Force and <br />CEC, Mayor Roe opined were helpful; but agreed that before taking twenty steps <br />to put an infrastructure and/or policies in place, it made sense to get some smaller <br />things in place now and grow from that. Mayor Roe opined this may indicate a lot <br />of unmet needs were in the community, but agreed it was a good thing to find out <br />first that would allow the city to be in a better position to meet that need if that <br />was the only result coming out of these broader recommendations. <br />