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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCompass Kitchener - 2001-01-25MINUTES COMPASS KITCHENER STEERING COMMITTEE Thursday, January 25, 2001 4:30 p.m. to 6:50 p.m. nd Schmalz Rm, 2 Floor Committee Pat Doherty, Trudi Bunting, George Zador, Don Bourgeois, Wendy MacIntosh, Attendees: Mary Louise McAllister, Trudy Beaulne, Mike Sully, Mayor Carl Zehr, Councillor Berry Vrbanovic Staff Attendees: Marie Morrison, Brock Stanley, Tammy Schertzer, Grace Bermingham, Shelley Adams Guests: Emma Bowman, Kitchener Downton Community Health Centre Jackie McMillan, Volunteer Valerie Gennings, Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition Heather, Student Regrets: Councillor Christyna Weylie, Mike Follet 1. INTRODUCTIONS Members introduced themselves. Valerie Gennings, Community Animator of Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition was introduced. She explained her role and how she can serve as a resource to the Committee. She distributed a handout entitled “Inspiring Change”. 2. AGENDA was reviewed and accepted. 3.MINUTES of December meeting were reviewed and the following changes were made: Carl Zehr to be listed as a non-staff person. This will be corrected in the December minutes and will Ø be posted to the Public Folders. Handouts of the Draft Inventories for Direction #4 & Direction #5 were distributed around the table. Ø 4.SELECTION OF CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR Trudi Bunting motioned that this be moved to the March agenda. The motion was seconded by Mike Ø Sully and was approved by the group. 5.2001 MEETING DATES Meeting dates for March, April and May will be from 5:00 to 7:00 instead of 4:30 – 6:30. This was Ø satisfactory with all members. The reason for this shift in time will be to accommodate Wendy MacIntosh and Berry Vrbanovic as they have a meeting for the Waterloo Leadership Program. 6.COMMITTEE RESOURCES – Brock Stanley · Human resources for this Committee include : Marie Morrision, Project Coordinator, City of Kitchener Ø Agendas, resource material, etc. Ø Tammy Schertzer, Executive Assistant, City of Kitchener Ø Requests for copies of Minutes, material, Administrative requests Ø Brock Stanley, GM, Business & Planning, City of Kitchener Ø Link between Committee and the rest of Senior Administrative Staff Ø Shelley Adams serves as a link with Community Services Ø · Budget Issues – Discussion amongst all Committee members A sum of $1,500 has been alloted to this Committee for expenditures. This money may be used Ø for parking tokens, etc. Should we require a Committee member to attend a special event such as the Healthy Ø Communities Conference, the money will be available either through this budget or through other areas within the Corporation. Any requests for additional financial resources will go through Management Committee. Ø nd Pending approval by Council on Feb 2, Marie’s position has been budgeted until 2002. Ø Administration and supply costs are covered under Business & Planning Services budget. Ø George had a concern that we do not have enough money budgeted for this Committee. Ø Brock replied to George’s concern by saying that using other Committees this size as examples Ø and it was found that they did not require more then $1,500 to operate. Mike Sully raised the question as to the timing for additional financing requests to go through Ø Management Committee. Brock replied that there is approximately a two week turn around period. Trudi Bunting asked “should the Committee recommend more Kitchen Table Talks, and would Ø financial resources be available. The answer is yes. nd Carl Zehr mentioned that February 2 is the final budget date and that after that there is some Ø flexibility, however at this time it would be difficult to add in money into the budget. His suggestion was “Do not change the budget at this point, if need be, we may allow an overexpenditure”. When we need money, we will take it to Management Committee. Ø Berry Vrbanovic mentioned that Council will rarely decline giving money for a legitimate Ø project. Particular projects may be identified in other budgets in the Department as mentioned above. Ø Can identify what we need in additional money as we go. Ø Jackie mentioned that a lot of things will be done on a grass roots scale rather then on a lavish Ø scale. Trudy Beaulne asked the question what is our role?? She suggested it goes from philosophy to Ø relationship building. Discussion on committee’s role to be put on next meeting agenda. Ø 7.IN DEPTH INTRODUCTIONS – All Committee Members Wendy MacIntosh feels that there is lots of good stuff going on in Kitchener. Her main emphasis Ø and concern is about not being involved in the Planning Process. Her interest is in finding a way to communicate to the community other than the Record Ads, which tend to be quite costly and not exactly effective as it only provides selected information. She is very involved in her neighbourhood. The information needs to get out to the public. She listed some examples of ways to do this, which were: drop boxes, websites, and community boards, etc. nd Trudi Bunting has been involved throughout the process, including through the 2 secondary plan. Ø She has been reading a bit about what is happening around our City. She has been collecting information on what is happening to mid size cities versus larger cities. There is research going on at the University (poised). Kitchener is trying and needs to find a unique identity. A better identity will increase participation in a more symbolic way. The grass roots approach is better then the corporate approach. Trudy Beaulne has been able to help out at the Kitchen Table Talks. She would like to see the Ø community citizen participation be improved. She works for the Social Planning Council and they do a lot of broad research work. We need to define a sense of place and identity. She mentioned that one neat thing is the we recognize the really important role of government we create at a local level. We create a new vision and get closer to it. She indicated she can provide support for the process of citizen participation and creation of indicators for Compass Kitchener. Nina Bailey-Dick mentioned that Compass has been a rejuvenation of Democracy. It creates a Ø better process to get others involved. Pat Doherty referred back to his comments on question #1 that Grace had sent out to Committee Ø members prior to this meeting. He feels we need structured recreation programs. Mike Sully is interested in stuff like this. He feels that this is a “neat” community comprised of a Ø whole bunch of delicate balances. Bottom up management is better than top down. He saw this as an opportunity to help in the bottom up management process. He brings a business prospective with compassion for people approach to this Committee. He feels that the more minds, the better the solution. George Zador is interested in the long-term view on developing a community with its focus on its Ø citizens. His comment was “ what we can do, not just hope to do it”. Carl Zehr mentioned that we are a community. Whether or not we become amalgamated is not Ø valid as “people live in neighbourhoods, they don’t live in cities”. It is what happens in a neighbourhood that matters. Compass was a bit of a gamble in a sense that we were opening ourselves up without knowing where it was going to take us. We need to create a community with more involvement. Success and contentment in a neighbourhood breeds success and contentment in the whole city. Berry Vrbanovic mentioned that he has been part of the Committee from the beginning. He wanted Ø to see a process come about. We need to take the dreams, aspirations and hopes of the Community to the next step and make values and seize the visions of the Citizens. Donald Bourgeois talked about how in the 60’s and 70’s citizen involvement was minimal. He Ø wants to see the Compass Kitchener process (not directly doing) be more publicly accountable and deal with the homelessness and affordable housing issues. Trudy asked that the staff members also share their introductions. Ø Grace Bermingham ( Student Staff) is interested in this process as it includes everyone. Marie Ø came to her school and spoke, and she was immediately interested in this process. She excited about the initiative to have a Healthy Community. Shelley Adams (Staff) is geared up about this process. This is learning process for our community Ø as well as others who follow in our footsteps. There is no set example to follow for this process. Brock Stanley (Staff) has been involved from 97/98 when internally the vision got moving forward. Ø This process started through a presentation for a Healthy Communities Concept to the Downtown Advisory Committee, presented by D’Arcy Farlow. Made a commitment at that meeting that we would begin a Healthy Communities program that would be tied into and thrust to have a vision from the Corporate Action plan. He looks at this Committee as being more than his job. He would like to see the process going and work with Council and staff to drive down through. Carl added to Brock’s comments saying that he wasn’t here from the beginning however in inaugural comments in 1997 when asked what his vision was for the city, he replied “It is more important to implement the Communities’ vision than my own vision”. Heather (Student Staff) She also saw Marie’s presentation at the University and was impressed Ø and enthralled about it. She mentioned how she has been thinking about representation and how we go about it. Jackie McMillan (Guest) is very interested in sustainability. This interest started back in grade Ø school for her. She has been setting an informal study program. She wanted to see more people who were succeeding and how they were going about it. When people driven development occurs worldwide, you get a consistent sustainability across the board. Marie Morrison (Staff) has ordered books entitled “Bigger, not Better” for the Committee Ø members. She too feels that this is more than just her job. She feels the synergy around the Region. She feels that each person on this committee will bring a lot to this committee. There is “no cookie cutter” process. It is like a puzzle that we are trying to put together. She is very excited about this Committee and the process as a whole. 8.CONCERNS INDICATED FROM QUESTIONS Comments were made as follows: Ø · The mandate is very vague. · The Terms of Reference are vague. · Insufficient Resources (time, personnel, budget) · Focusing on a specific area · Getting bogged down – timely manner · Ensure information is shared with the community. ØTrudi Bunting feels that we should have a visible minority member as she doesn’t know enough about them to speak on their behalf. George Zador feels that we can compensate for that. He noted that he was not born in Canada. Ø Berry Vrbanovic mentioned that the City already has an Ethnocultural Advisory Committee to Ø rd address concerns of interest groups. Kitchener is the 3 largest intake centre for immigrants. We need to collectively see about making a minority to feel part of the community to give input. Jackie McMillan mentioned that this committee will not be making the decisions. They will take Ø input from the Community and saying this is the support we have for these issues. Trudy Beaulne mentioned that diversity is more than race, it is income, status, etc. Our challenge is Ø to understand what we mean by Diversity and our obligation to model that. When looking at differences we tend to make it more difficult than it has to be. Mike Sully raised the question of what we, as a Committee, are going to be doing? The Committee Ø members have spoken out as to what is important to them. Some things have been incorporated already. The job of this Committee is to force Municipal Machinery to put in place and always report back to the Community. We need to find out what they are doing and if they are not, what is their timetable. He feels we need to forget about outreaching for new members and looking for new initiatives and just get on with what is already on paper. Don mentioned that there seems to be a significant absence of Economic Sector representatives. It is Ø traditional for that voice to be here but it isn’t. Berry agrees with Don’s point regarding the Economic Development representation. Some directions we can’t do at this time. One that is open to us more than others is Direction #1. Ø Don feels we should focus on that direction for the first year. Wendy mentioned that we need to build on what is captured already. Ø The community has spoken. If something was missed then we go back but for now we need to move Ø forward. We can’t keep reaching out for every voice. Wendy also mentioned that we need to report what is going on in the community. Brock mentioned that the Chamber had suggested that we go to a board meeting and give a Ø presentation. Some committee members will need to go to the presentation so that the Chamber does not just see City staff there. Marie mentioned that a couple members of this committee will check with the Chamber of Ø Commerce. Nina is uncomfortable with about talking about the Economic representation missing but we are overlooking the minority presence. Nina feels we need to actively invite minorities. Marie mentioned that this is an open meeting to the Community and asked the question of how do we Ø manage the group process. Mike doesn’t see this group having more table talks. He feels that we should be doing is making it Ø happen. Trudi is more surprised about the absence of race relations etc. in the literature. Ø Berry feels that we need to change our thinking. One area that he doesn’t necessarily see eye to eye Ø is that we need to empower the people in the community to empower other community people. Trudi feels that we need to ask in a better manner. Ø This committee owes to Compass to look at the Directions in more depth as to where we are today. Ø Trudi feels we need to go into more detail. How does this Committee liaise with the Community? Ø Mike asked who “we” is referring to. Marie answered that “we” is defined as Community and The Ø City in the glossary. Trudy like the point that Trudi mentioned about Direction #1. It is a real struggle that we seem to be Ø struggling with already. We need to do more work on Direction #4. A report needs to be made. Ø Marie asked what information the Committee feels that her and Grace need in order to move forward Ø before the next meeting. Mike Sully suggested that we need to look at representation. How do you go solicite someone who represents the minority?? How do we deal with housing issues if those people aren’t telling us the issues? Should we change the terms of Reference? His proposal was that a small group go away & think / brainstorm and then come back to this committee. Wendy said we first need to decide at what level we need these people. She said we can’t go Ø backwards but perhaps we could pick these minorities as we go. How will we involve the missing minorities or do we change the Terms of Reference each time someone realizes we forgot someone?? Berry mentioned that the structure of this Committee came about to council. We need to see how Ø this Committee evolves and in the course of the year we will see where we can get more specific and who we can add, etc. Meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m. 9. ACTION LIST Date to beComplete Task to be CompletedPerson ResponsibleCompletedYes / No Copies of Direction #1 & #4 to Carl Trudy offered to have initial look at Direction #1 & #4All invited to participate Put discussion of Committee’s role on the next agendaTammy / MarieFeb 2 meetingYes Change meeting dates on calendars for March, April,All Committee membersFeb 2 meeting fromto and May 4:30 – 6:30 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Update minutes with corrections, committee member listTammy SchertzerAsapYes 10. THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD ON March 15, 2001 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.