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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 08/13/2012 - City Manager’s Office 300 LaPorte Avenue PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com Minutes City of Fort Collins Futures Committee Meeting Regular Meeting 300 LaPorte Ave City Hall August 13, 2012 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. Committee Members Present: Committee Members Absent: Wade Troxell Gerry Horak Lisa Poppaw Darin Atteberry Bruce Hendee Guests: Diane Jones Rita Harris Wanda Nelson Karen Cumbo Beth Sowder Dan Weinheimer Amy Lewin Agenda Item 1: Boards and Commissions Beth Sowder gave an update regarding the Board and Commissions memo that went to Council. After meeting with all of the 26 Boards and Commissions, staff prepared a memo to Council and then reported at the Futures Committee Meeting on their findings. Feedback from the Futures Committee: Staff liaisons should always be looking at the 6-month planning calendar. It is frustrating to Council when issues are relevant and Council have not heard from the Advisory Boards. It is not helpful if the Boards bring up an item to Council after it has already been addressed. By always looking ahead, this can be avoided and the topics can be approached at the appropriate time. Memos, at the appropriate time, can be very helpful. They take less amount of time during the council work sessions and meetings. 2 Some areas of improvement are:  Communications should be quick and to the point.  Boards and Commissions should review and look ahead at the 6 month planning calendar at each meeting.  Staff should only send focused emails to Council that are pertinent. They receive so many that when one might be important, it may be overlooked. Considerations:  Do the Boards align with the City’s major 7 plan outcome areas?  Staff should have defined limits to Board support.  Boards should provide critical and important information to Council that is relevant.  Boards should be aligned with Council policies and programs. How do we ensure current Boards and Commissions are aligned with the future of the City? Boards are not likely to look the same 10-15 years from now therefore; we need to start the transition now for where we are headed in the future. The past functions of Boards were to bring in experts to present to the Boards, but now we have much of the expertise within our City staff. The function of existing Boards today is to provide expert review by volunteers on specific topics. Boards today should be aligned with appropriate City focus areas as defined in Plan Fort Collins. Next Steps: How do we implement this change? Wanda Nelson is taking the lead in developing the next steps for evaluating future direction for Boards. Agenda Item 2: Railroad Quiet Zone Amy Lewin presented to the Futures Committee on the Railroad Quiet Zone topic. Phase 1 study has been completed and now the Phase 2 study will be completed by the end of the year (December 2012). We need to have the consultants capture the pre-2005 data to see where we are in relation to the post-2005 data. The Quiet Zone waiver could be unique to Fort Collins. We need to focus on Downtown; the main area would be Laurel to Cherry. There are not many complaints South of Laurel. The support from BNSF is critical. If we do not have their support, a waiver is not likely. If we do have their support is it more likely that we can obtain a waiver. Also we heard that a Quiet Zone does not affect liability. Next Steps: Darin will consider a trip to Kansas City to meet with the FRA Director.