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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCompass Kitchener - 2014-01-14 COMPASS KITCHENER MINUTES January 15, 2014 – 4:00-6:00 Schmalz Room, KITCHENER CITY HALL Present: Theron Kramer Holly Duff Tristan Wilkin Sarah Marsh Mark Paul Scott Harris Sharon Hartigan Bojana Savic Staff: Laurie Majcher Jenn Grein Renee Sambrook Janice Ouellette Mark Hildebrand Regrets: Moni Lagonia Krishna Khetani Chris Hyde Guests: CouncillorB.Vrbanovic CouncillorS.Davies Dan Chapman Michael May Laura Johnston Rebecca Sloan Darren Karasiuk Theron welcomed all to the meeting. He introduced guests in attendance, Councillor Berry Vrbanovic, Laura Johnston, and Rebecca Sloan from Communications and Marketing, and several additional as the meeting progressed, Councillor Scott Davies, Dan Chapman DCAO Finance and Corporate Services, Michael May DCAO Community Services. Unfortunately Karim is no longer able to participate with Compass Kitchener due to work commitments. 1. Review and Approval of Minutes The minutes from December 4, 2013 were approved by Compass Kitchener. Moved by Tristan, Second by Sarah. Carried. 2. Follow-up to minutes  None at this time. 3. Subcommittee Reports Civics101 – An invitation has been circulate to advisory committees for the next Youth Forum scheduled for  th February 13. All Compass Kitchener members are welcome to participate. Voter Turn-out – This subcommittee met with the City Clerk and staff on December 19th to raise several concerns  regarding the upcoming election. Staff indicated the city is able to include basic information on candidates on the website. Logistics for the election such as locations were discussed. Subcommittee members also highlighted what other municipalities have been able to offer for elections. Summary of meeting to be shared. Theron indicated some of the subcommittees could use additional members, and encouraged anyone who was not  already participating in a subcommittee to select one and join. Additionally, a new subcommittee for the engagement process which follows the Environics Survey is being formed. Thus far Bojana has indicated interest, Tristan also offered to participate. Anyone interested please connect with Theron. 4. Draft results of the Environics Survey Theron welcomed Darren Karasiuk from Environics to the meeting. Laurie provided information on the survey and its  use in planning for the city for the new members on the committee. She explained the importance of statistically significant data and how the survey acts as the first step in connection with the community, and ultimately results in development of the Strategic Plan. This is an opportunity for the results to be received by the committee, as well as time for committee members to ask any questions of Darren prior to information being shared formally with Council. Council members in attendance were thanked for their early interest in the results of the survey. Darren provided an overview of the survey results. Generally, things are looking pretty good for the city, and  residents provided fairly clear direction on how they would like to city to move forward. Darren noted, it is important to keep the current state of the city at the time of this survey in mind when considering the feedback received. Accountability, Economic Development and Environment are the top three priorities, followed by Transportation,  Growth Management & Development, Community Engagement, Developing Downtown, Recreation and Leisure Services, Diversity, Arts and Culture. Road maintenance and paving, improving road safety and improving public transit were the top priorities within  transportation initiatives. Preserving Kitchener’s natural areas, promoting sustainable development and building parks and green spaces  were the top priorities within Environmental initiatives. Building sufficient infrastructure to support growth, providing opportunities for residents to participate in the planning  process and ensuring new development integration were the top priorities within Growth Management Initiatives. Improving safety, ensuring adequate parking, ensuring a variety of restaurants, shopping and events were the top  three initiatives for downtown. Providing opportunities to attend arts and culture events, providing financial support for arts and culture and  providing opportunities to volunteer at arts and culture events were the top three arts and culture initiatives. January 15, 2014 CITY OF KITCHENER - 2 - Providing more programs for children, improving maintenance and upkeep of facilities and providing more programs  for seniors were the top three recreation and leisure activities. Residents indicated they are more or less happy with the level they are being engaged in decision making.  Designing new ways for residents to ask questions/tell the government what they think was the top priority for  transparency. Followed by providing more info about how government works and operates, then publicly sharing non-personal data the government collects. Top three ways residents would like to get in contact are complete survey online, email a comment, attend an in-  person town hall. Digital seems to be the way to go overall, and particularly for the younger cohort. Kitchenerites rank quality of life 87% excellent/good!  Most appealing things residents ranked about the city are amount of parks and open spaces, location/close to  amenities, close-knit/high community spirit, educational facilities, clean, safe, multicultural/tolerant, access to arts and culture. This was fairly consistent across cohorts so speaks well to Kitchener overall! Pleasant friendly neighbours/residents, community centres/activities, parks/playgrounds/greenspace were the top  three items residents indicated contribute most to the vitality of a neighbourhood. Residents see the strength of the Kitchener economy as about the same as in previous years, leaning towards a  little weaker. Most important local issue seems to be inadequate public transit/transportation, followed by unemployment/poor job  market, then development – urban sprawl/loss of green space. Residents feel municipal government is on the right track.  Residents believe we have fairly good value for tax dollars, and indicated an increase in taxes at the rate of inflation  to maintain services when asked for balance delivering services with taxation. When asked who should pay for services and programs, there was a fairly large split with 48% said city services &  programs should be paid for by everyone through general tax revenues, 40% said those who use City programs & services should pay for them through user fees. Residents somewhat to strongly support revenue generation through corporate sponsorship.  Information on cell phone inclusion with survey to be added to the methodology section of the presentation.  Darren will also be suggesting areas that we may want to follow up on throughout the presentation.  Please provide feedback to Laurie by end of week. This will be presented to Council on Feb 3.  5. Strategic/Business Planning process Laurie provided a hand out of the 2015-2018 Strategic Plan components. She reviewed the document providing  further explanation, and focusing on the community engagement intervention points in which Compass Kitchener Advisory Committee will be involved. She’s hoping for feedback from the committee on this specific piece today. She reviewed each of these points highlighting who would be involved, the method used, timing for engagement as well as objective of engagement with the residents – to inform, to consult & to collaborate at various and specific times throughout the process. This appears to be a significant amount of work, however Laurie assured the group, the work is spread out over time  and various members/subcommittees are responsible. The updated business plan now includes 45 core services, this is very helpful information and will allow for a better  understanding of what staff do on a day to day basis, and how we are using the Strategic Plan to influence and guide the work and direction of the organization. Feedback and suggestions are welcome! This is a big step, but Laurie also acknowledged there are more places for  it to grow and continue to develop. Theron suggested that it would be best if the business plans starts with the strategic direction rather than have the priorities listed and form the business plan from these. The Corporate Leadership team also feels this would be best, and Laurie will endeavour to make this happen in future iterations. 6. Other Business Next regular meeting: Wednesday, February 5, 2014 Location: TBD Attendance: Compass Kitchener Attendance 13-14.xls