City of Alexandria, Virginia
________________
MEMORANDUM
DATE: JANUARY 17, 2014
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: RASHAD M. YOUNG, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Public Hearing and Adoption of a Resolution to Establish the Civic Engagement Principles and Handbook as City Policy. [ROLL-CALL VOTE]
BODY
ISSUE: Public Hearing and Adoption of a Resolution to establish the Civic Engagement Principles and Handbook as City policy.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council hold a public hearing and adopt the attached Resolution establishing as city policy the Civic Engagement Principles and the concepts contained in the Handbook, and direct the City Manager to implement these civic engagement policies.
BACKGROUND: Immediately preceding and subsequent to the January 14, 2014 City Council Legislative meeting to set the Draft Civic Engagement Handbook (Handbook), draft Implementation Plan, and draft Resolution for public hearing and adoption, staff received additional public comment. This memo summarizes the comments received and Staff recommended revisions. In no case do the recommended revisions substantively change the intent of the documents, rather they enhance or clarify the original intent.
This memo supplements the January 14, 2014 City Council Docket Memo, which can be found as Attachment I, and which provides a detailed discussion of the 2012-13 What's Next Alexandria community process, Civic Engagement Principles and framework, public comment, applicability, and implementation recommendations.
DISCUSSION: All comments received subsequent to the December 2013 posting of the Handbook, Implementation Plan and Resolution are provided verbatim in Attachment II. The changes that Staff recommends to the Handbook are listed below. The changes that Staff recommends to the Implementation Plan and Resolution are summarized below and reflected in Attachments II and III respectively.
Recommended revisions:
1. Handbook
The following changes are recommended to the Handbook. These changes are not yet reflected in the draft, but will be made subsequent to City Council approval.
a) All non-substantive changes (i.e., punctuation, grammar, hyperlinks etc.) resulting from public comments and staff review will be incorporated into the final document.
b) Add the following "action" to the Transparency principle: "Share City responses to community comments with the individuals who submitted them."
c) Acknowledgements section: remove members of boards and commissions from the Community participants list and add them to a new Boards and Commission members section; remove City staff to the City Staff section; remove name as requested.
d) Add DRAFT to all evaluation forms, with note that the Office of Performance Accountability (OPA) will work with staff to refine forms and include performance ratings vis a vis the Civic Engagement Principles.
2. Draft Resolution and Implementation Plan
Comments on the draft Resolution and draft Implementation Plan originated from one community member, as shown in Attachment I. This individual emphasized that the Principles for Civic Engagement are the foundation for civic engagement in Alexandria, and that the resulting processes shall be built upon them; therefore, their importance should be made more clear through her suggested edits to the Resolution and Implementation Plan, posting the Principles in key City rooms and buildings, and ensuring that the Principles are a central part of all communications and branding. In addition, this person suggested clarifications to the implementation plan with regard to funding and structural organization for implementation.
Those changes recommended by staff are reflected in the revised Implementation Plan (Attachment II) and Resolution (Attachment III).
ATTACHMENTS:
I. January 14 City Council Docket Memo
II. Community comments on December 2013 revised draft Handbook, Implementation Plan, and Resolution (received in December and January)
III. Recommended revisions to Civic Engagement Implementation Plan
IV. Recommended revisions to Resolution
V. December 2013 revised draft Civic Engagement Handbook
VI. Community comments on December 2013 revised draft Handbook (received during September/October comment period)
STAFF:
Tom Gates, Deputy City Manager
Mark Jinks, Deputy City Manager
Richard Baier, Director, Department of Transportation and Environmental Services
Emily Baker, Director, Department of Project Implementation
Faroll Hamer, Director, Department of Planning and Zoning
Carrie Beach, Division Chief, Department of Planning and Zoning
Katherine Carraway, Department of Planning and Zoning
Tony Castrilli, Director, Office of Communications and Public Information
Laura Durham, Department of Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Activities
Craig Fifer, Office of Communications and Public Information
Jerome Fletcher, Special Assistant to the City Manager