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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-03-20 Work Session MinutesDUBLIN CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION (Virtual meeting streamed on the website) Monday, August 3, 2020 6:00 p.m. Minutes of Meeting Mayor Amorose Groomes called the meeting to order. She reiterated that this work session is being held virtually as permitted by passage of Am. Sub. H.B. 197, which includes temporary changes to the Ohio Open Meetings Law. The meeting is being livestreamed on the City’s website for the public to view. There will be opportunity for public comment on the agenda items when they are scheduled for a Regular Council meeting in the future. Pledge of Allegiance Mr. Rogers led the Pledge of Allegiance. Council members present were: Mayor Amorose Groomes, Vice Mayor De Rosa, Ms. Alutto, Ms. Fox, Mr. Keeler, Mr. Peterson and Mr. Reiner. Staff present were: Mr. McDaniel, Mr. Rogers, Ms. Readler, Chief Paez, Mr. Stiffler, Ms. O’Callaghan, Mr. McCollough, Ms. Burness, Ms. Rauch, Mr. Clark and Ms. Gilger. Guests present: Kenny McDonald, OneColumbus Mayor Amorose Groomes stated that Mr. McDonald will review his presentation and then a Q&A will follow. She thanked him for his willingness to provide this update to the City. Economic Update Kenny McDonald, CEO, OneColumbus thanked Council and City leadership for this opportunity to address them. He has shared a presentation focusing on regional economic monitor and insights to Council in their packet. This was a wrap-up of quarter two that was shared with their partners in the region.  He thanked the City of Dublin for their leadership on a daily basis. They interact daily with Dublin staff on various matters.  These times require a steady hand and also provide an opportunity to step back and consider some really bold actions. He will comment on their view of the economy, the status of the regional coalition and the focus of that, and the emerging industries driven by technology. He reiterated that we have a clear plan, the principles of which he feels confident about, recognizing that the day-to-day tactics may change. In looking at the breakdown of the economy, for him there are few surprises in what is happening. We spent the last 18 months leading up to the end of the decade by studying the industries, the situation we are in, and where the trends were taking us. COVID has accelerated everything. There are many retail downsizings occurring, such as LBrands, DSW, etc. This was all very predictable. Some of the companies were strong going into this pandemic. For the automotive sector, there is tremendous change underway in terms of engineering and mobility. That is all being accelerated as well, with the announcement today of Lordstown and the new public company and the electric vehicles to be pushed out of that facility. Another example is with finance, insurance and healthcare services where the automation in the industries is rapidly changing. Working from home will only accelerate this automation. Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 2 Their work is still very focused on the economic base and how we bring new money into our economy in Central Ohio and its communities. If we ever needed a stark reminder of where the money is generated from, we’ve received that over the last five months -- how our tax systems work and what really fuels everything. The best thing we can do over the next year is to build a solid base. That is why OneColumbus and Columbus 2020 began 10 years ago to make sure the base is strong in order that small businesses could thrive. That exploded and the results have been phenomenal. He would still say the region’s base is stronger than most, but the small businesses and the retail sector at a street level is now being greatly impacted and damaged – in some ways, permanently. If we did not have a regional organization going into this pandemic, we would be creating one now. The work that was done over the last five months – sharing of best practices and networking among communities about their creative endeavors has really been key. They are proud that they have about 260 private sector investors that take the funding that cities like Dublin provide and leverage them 13-14 times. As far as their daily work, their tactics look a lot different now with many virtual meetings. They have not stopped aggressive marketing. Outreach to local companies is a way to market our region and to make sure we are in the boardroom as companies are making decisions for the future – whether consolidating, adding jobs, doing projects – and we are also very aggressively marketing nationally. Their “marching industries” are automotive, with Honda as a primary base for that industry. It is one of the strongest companies in terms of total strength and flexibility. Having their engineering and their tech headquarters here as well is incredibly powerful for us. All of the work they are doing in Artificial Intelligence feeds into things that might reside in Dublin. Increasingly, it is about electric cars and will be more about mobility. Honda will need to be a partner in the solution provider for those. Advanced computing and small and large projects are tied to those companies. As Council is aware, part of Amazon – AWS is located in Dublin. It is making companies like Cardinal even more competitive because of the proximity with those centers. Financing/insurance future is about what they will do with automation and then where fin-tech and insure-tech is located. We are a friendly place for that. We just initiated a major study to look at our overall competiveness for the insure-tech industry. They are looking at Ohio versus 6-7 other states and the right regulatory market to attract many of these insure-tech companies. We have one of the largest in the industry or country with Root Insurance. We are on the radar screen because of people like that and the venture capital they have raised and thousands of jobs created across the country – 800 in our region. For healthcare, the lens is changing rapidly. We have just completed an analysis of competitiveness for a therapeutics company. They have had several “wins” come out of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and The Ohio State University. We have some of the most famous researchers in the world in those institutions and those researchers are a “goldmine” – putting us on the map and attracting other businesses to Ohio. For retail and e-commerce, e-commerce is driving it all – food deliveries, retail deliveries, goods. There is an entire vertical industry that enables it and delivers what is ordered. Our region is already an enormous player in this with huge logistics centers, but also a fairly significant retail player in food and apparel with Wendy’s, White Castle, etc. The region has core competencies in this. Making a transition to e-commerce will be challenging for businesses and for our communities. Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 3 For the Strategic Plan, the first tenet was to serve existing businesses. The purpose of that objective is to make sure that we have the most competitive companies in the world. Thinking of Dublin, Ohio and the companies in Dublin, we want to know how we can make them more competitive and what is over the horizon. They have talked to about 200 companies during the height of the initial COVID phase in March and April, and another 200 across the region since then. There will be more location decisions in every type of business in the next two years than there have been in the last eight. We want to be in front of our businesses and ask for the order and how we can be the most competitive place for their offices so they can dominate their industry. The second tenet is attracting industry and it will be more competitive and more important than ever. If all of the functioning businesses in Dublin came back online in a similar fashion to where they were – which they will not – we will not be where we want to be in the next 3-5 years or next decade. We are going to have to attract new businesses to Central Ohio and to Dublin, Ohio if we are to have a sustainable tax base. There are 104 projects as of today, although we lost about 25 percent of our pipeline through the initial 60 days of COVID. Some have come back on line, and some have been replaced by new companies sending RFPs. Attracting industries and filling that bucket in different ways with diverse companies is going to be critical. He made a note regarding attracting industries and serving existing industries – it is a common question now to ask how we are addressing economic equity and social equity in our communities. Companies want to determine if ours will be the location to recruit the best people and the most diverse talent. We need to get better at addressing that. Accelerate high growth industries. Also critically important are the investments Dublin has made over 20 years or more in technology and accelerating high growth businesses, and attracting entrepreneurs to the community. These favor Dublin – Dublin has made the investments, is in it for the long term, building infrastructure to support these companies. It is critical that we start and then grow those companies here. He is less worried about some of the retail industries, because we have far less control over that. We have some control over whether we will win tech businesses. These involve infrastructure and talent – two things we can impact. We can’t impact the rules about people going into restaurants, bars, etc. The retail businesses will go to where the jobs are being created when conditions improve. The three final strategies are: prepare – be one of the most prepared community in the country. This involves physical space, the variety of spaces industries demand, and over time likely Class A office space that Dublin has been building for decades. There are some companies that may go totally virtual and maybe never return, but he believes the majority will go back to normal space. In fact, they may need more space for less people. Investing in real estate and development projects with your partners in the community is critical. Second, continue to prepare mentally for some of the new issues around equity and how people will operate and function going forward. He encourages sessions such as this one to talk through them and to talk to businesses and corporate real estate planners. We are in the middle of this situation and not nearly through it, and there are many months ahead of this. Finally, be prepared financially. There will be some communities who will have to step back from what they’ve done in the past and they will not be able to be as aggressive with some of their incentives in order to achieve goals around equity and in order to come to agreement with School Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 4 Districts on incentives. At a state level, we are in a better position than almost any state he is aware of because of JobsOhio’s existence. We have a private model, a big capacity to do gap financing, and we can be very aggressive with deals because of the set-up with JobsOhio. He believes this will become a bigger advantage going forward. They have been incredible through this process, helping to fund some companies in Dublin through innovation loans and some debt forgiveness and a number of programs they have launched in the last 120 days. That is just the beginning of where they plan to go with some of their programming. We will be in a good position at the state level and now all of our communities are going to be able to be where they were six months ago. Dublin is in a great position. Finally, they are staying engaged globally. They think there will be opportunities driven from foreign countries to come to the U.S. He would not use the term “reshoring” as that connotes them moving an operation back and leaving something behind. It is more that all of our weaknesses as communities was exposed for this as well as our global supply chains and weaknesses in our backyard – operations and service operations in finance, insurance and health care. You may see government-driven reshoring in that the U.S. government may back the pharmaceutical supply chain, some of the data held in servers internationally will be held in the U.S. now, things like that for security reasons, given the world tensions. This is also a conversation in Europe and in Asia, and they are doing the same thing. We are seeing a few opportunities that are good. The U.S. government will end up being a huge customer and driver of some of this. Finally, marketing and telling your story. It is more important than ever that we do that. It is obviously a difficult time to do so, given the public health and social disruption. But we have a phenomenal story to tell. If we do the work, we will have an even better story to tell than most on how open and smart our region and our communities are. He concluded by saying that operating regionally maybe has never been as important as it is right now. We have a lot to learn from each other. Our part of the country needs to hang together and get through this because our region has been hit differently than the southeast or the southwest. In looking at the data for the Midwestern states and communities, our solution is around mobility and around talent, driven through public/private partnerships that go well beyond the borders of any one community. He offered to respond to any questions. Vice Mayor De Rosa stated that this is very helpful. She appreciates all of the information he sent to Council. As people think about where their workforce is at this point – going back six months we were concerned with having enough of the right workforce in Dublin and the need to do talent attraction to keep up with the pace. Companies are now saying employees can live anywhere – they don’t have to be in the same location. How is OneColumbus managing through that, what are you hearing from companies, and what is your advice to us? Mr. McDonald stated that he saw that Redfin, a real estate analytics firm out of Seattle published today that 18 percent of the home sales were done sight unseen in the last few months. That indicates that markets may have some people moving from them fairly quickly. Secondly, all of the labor shortages that existed going into COVID did not go away. The skills gap in technology and multi-skilled manufacturing remain. Investing in education and investing in workforce training and working directly with companies in your community will be as important as it was six months ago. Dublin is already building an awesome community, has broadband capacity to offer throughout the community, and has lifestyle options and community assets expanded over the last 10 years. Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 5 Working from home will continue at least for a few years. The tax stress will be a critical one. Dublin is fortunate in that many live and work in Dublin. Ms. Fox stated that COVID is changing the way businesses look and how they will function. As we strategized on economic development, we looked at targeting specific industries where we had strengths. Is that enough? When you talk to businesses around the country who are considering moving, they will now move for other reasons. Are they looking for urban offices or places where they can be flexible if circumstances change? Has this changed from three years ago? Mr. McDonald responded that the principles don’t change. This will be an opportunity for corporate America and small businesses who were in compromised locations for various reasons to have conversations. We are in a good spot as we are large enough to have scale, amenities and infrastructure around us, including technology. And we have a Midwestern very competitive lifestyle in terms of costs. We have a big state and a lot of people are from this region. There is a big trend of people moving back to be near their families. We are not sure how that will play out and need to talk to individual companies. Ms. Fox asked if you had $100 and could spend it in a community to attract a business, would your first $20 be on technology infrastructure, mobility, lifestyle or office space. Would it be to attract like businesses that feed off of each other? To her, it seems technology infrastructure and like businesses attract each other. Mr. McDonald stated that communities that can have balance are really critical now. If you only have technology infrastructure and not much of a lifestyle – that is problematic. In some ways, location may not matter for some of the office attraction. In other ways, you are close to most of the supply chain. He would not want to be anywhere else, acknowledging he is biased. Very rural or major cities have issues related to economic development right now. We have the best of both worlds, especially in some of the suburbs in the area to strike that work/life balance easily. The lifestyle built in Dublin over decades is turning out to be an even bigger advantage right now. The one caveat is that if we want to be truly the most prosperous, we must very intentionally close the gaps in education and in health disparities in our community. In particular, there is need to close that gap with the African American community. The communities that can find ways to close those gaps and do all the things they are doing well already are really going to win. Ms. Alutto stated that in the past, having the availability to educate an untrained workforce has been an advantage for Dublin. With remote working, how does that affect workforce development and access to an educated workforce? Mr. McDonald responded that the power of a long view is important right now. Looking out a decade, he would assume that things will normalize toward the mean. At some point, when there is a different side to this, Cardinal will say they are going back to the office. While it does work for some, it is incredibly difficult to run a team virtually, and to tap into the creativity of team interaction. The reason business excites people is because you are with people. It is energizing to work as a team. Over time, physical space will be as important as it has been in recent times. Secondly, the ability to deliver online workforce education in a creative way is critical. That will change things forever and will stay a little more permanent. There are some things that can easily be learned online as well as in school, but clearly not everything. Ms. Alutto asked if remote working will change the target clusters Dublin has identified based on the advantage and the interests of Dublin. Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 6 Mr. McDonald responded he believes everything Dublin is currently doing should continue. He does believe it is worth pausing and asking the questions as you undertake development projects – is this a product one we will invest in and foster in the short term. That is a logical way to approach it short-term. Over the long term, you will still have Class A office buildings and a mobility driven society that wants to congregate in big spaces. Ms. Alutto asked if there is opportunity to fill the gap in the disparity in terms of structural racism when you are able to reach more workforce that are not physically located near you – reaching members of the workforce not in Dublin, but that Dublin companies could access now given remote working. Mr. McDonald responded affirmatively and cited an example of the Atlanta beltline that drives development around it. Their entire executive team is African American. When they look at the policies and vendors they were choosing to do some of their work, they found the results were not better than the typical experience. What he took away from that is that policies and procedures matter, but the pause is needed to consider if we will be the kind of community where minority contractors are attracted. Dublin is very progressive in many ways and continually revisits those items, but small tweaks and challenging ourselves to look at things differently can be impactful. Challenging things that are the standard operating procedures can be done. Mayor Amorose Groomes stated that he talks with 30 companies a month and asks them how we can be more competitive. What answers are companies giving? Mr. McDonald stated that some are being transformed rapidly and they may not even know it. The delivery model of e-commerce has had impacts. On the other hand, it goes back to getting the people and reviewing the regulatory market. Can Ohio be a more competitive state? Is there something that could be changed? Changing tax policies now will be very difficult, but how we are regulating businesses and industries is also a key matter. They have heard companies say that Ohio should be more like some other states and cited them. OneColumbus is trying to aggregate some of that data. Things are changing rapidly. Mayor Amorose Groomes stated that at some point, it would be nice to hear the answers in whatever format they can be assembled. In terms of housing and buying homes sight unseen, in 2019 a Council goal was set to be the most connected community in America – mobility, broadband, fiber. How much does he see that being a role in housing trends in the future in terms of attracting the kind of entrepreneur or folks that enhance our economy? Mr. McDonald stated that the broadband conversations he has been part of in the last five months have been fascinating. Dublin is in one of the better positions when it comes to that. There are still people who – due to cost or environmental factors – cannot participate in school or business. We have to increasingly think of this participation as a right, like water -- that is expected. That is the most critical thing. In moving to Dublin, he would want to know how Dublin is approaching that for the entire community. Mayor Amorose Groomes asked if he could envision a legitimate movement to have that type of connectivity treated as a utility. Mr. McDonald responded that as a business owner or company, he knows that Dublin can provide that connectivity and they will pay for it. But the next question of a business owner he might ask beyond that -- what is being done for the entire community and what about all neighborhoods in our city? These are areas where regional collaboration is needed as the workforce comes from all over. Being a connected community means knowing your neighbors better than before, given the Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 7 amount of time people now spend at home, working from home, walking in their neighborhood. Being a connected community means understanding and having empathy for all that is occurring in others’ lives. If there are ways to continue to bring the community together, that kind of culture that can be built, it goes beyond the infrastructure. Mayor Amorose Groomes thanked Mr. McDonald for this update, noting Council appreciates all that they do. Dublin 2035 Framework Discussion Vice Mayor De Rosa introduced the topic. Behind the scenes, Ms. Rauch, Mr. Rogers and the team have been assembling materials to help kick-start this. The goal tonight is to get this off the starting block, given the delays that have occurred with the pandemic. We also want to challenge ourselves to think about how we do this differently. If there are other ways to move forward, we can identify that tonight. Ms. Rauch stated that staff is seeking Council’s input to make sure they are on the right path. A memo was provided to Council in June and they want to hear feedback from Council tonight. An audit was done in November of 2019 of the current Community Plan and the updates that have been made over the past six years since its adoption. Staff also outlined what would be necessary to move forward to update it, and Council provided feedback at that point and affirmed that initial process for the next year or two to undertake this. In hindsight, this was perfectly timed with the Council retreat discussion about how to move forward with mobility, housing, aging in place, connectivity. All of this culminated in a new goal of the Dublin 2035 Framework. As the Vice Mayor alluded to, after that meeting internal discussions with staff were held to look at how to tackle these and bring it forward to Council in a cohesive manner. Looking at the Community Plan and the 2035 Framework are one and the same in terms of tackling them. Staff’s conclusion was this would be the best way to tackle this, as each of these pieces look at that long-term comprehensive vision of the City and how we are guiding, developing and focusing our energies on this Council goal. We then looked at dissecting this in a way that is manageable, as there are lots of pieces and parts and it involves every division in the City as well as Council and the community. As part of that, staff suggests dissecting these into four major themes.  The center is the Dublin 2035 Framework, which is the vision, goals, principles that guide everything. It could include history of Dublin, its foundation, community character, diversity, equity and inclusion, and demographics. These are all building blocks within the existing Community Plan and we would build upon those and include it within that overall vision.  From there, they are dissected into four major themes. The goal is to take the existing Community Plan and the chapters and information included in each of those and put these into the appropriate major themes. Staff liaisons would be assigned to them and there is potential for the standing Council committees to be engaged in each of those. This would ensure including everyone and doing this in a manageable way.  The four themes are: o Quality of life, which includes safety, engagement, leisure, land and facilities, culture and resiliency and sustainability. Each theme would have its own vision statement, objective for implementation and measurements to ensure the expectations are met. Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 8 o Land use, which includes housing, aesthetics, development, special area plans and growth. o Infrastructure, which includes transportation, utilities, Smart cities, mobility, parking, Connected Dublin. o Economics, which includes the overall fiscal health of the City, and how those strategies align with economic development, the future of work, and education. In order to dissect this into manageable pieces, a process map was developed for Council’s consideration. (Slides shared) The next step after tonight would be to look at scheduling a speaker series. The next bigger section is education, inclusion and feedback through surveys and facilitated sessions with the community and PZC, ARB. Following that would be project planning, including the scope, budget and execution. She asked for Council feedback on this proposed structure. Vice Mayor De Rosa stated the chart shown includes a number of staff names that the City Manager has assigned to the areas of focus. Council wanted this to be interactive where Council participates at the strategy level with the groups. She reached out to Council members about their various areas of interest, and they align well with the current Council committees. The thinking is that the Quality of Life would be handled with the Administrative Committee; Land Use would be Community Development; Economics would be Finance Committee; and Infrastructure would be Public Services Committee. That is the proposal for dividing the work among Council members. Mr. Keeler asked about the speaker series and in what format would those occur. Would it be a Council meeting or a work session? Ms. Rauch responded that the speaker series is intended for community engagement as well, so it would be open to the public. Given the current conditions, she anticipates a number of these would be held in a virtual format. Some of the topics dovetail with the Community Task Force that has been established and perhaps those pieces could be tied together. There is a need for creativity in executing this, due to the pandemic situation and the restrictions on gathering. Mr. Keeler asked which comes first – the public input or input from the experts, or does Council and staff move forward with what we envision as this Dublin 2035 Framework? He agrees with the way this is proposed, as it makes sense to begin with the experts and seek public input versus delaying feedback until too far into the process. Mr. Rauch stated the intent was to lay out best practices or things to consider and then have meetings with Council, boards and commissions and the community. She anticipates that several venues and topics for discussion will be part of this. The technical, staff-based piece includes demographic updates and the census information will help with that. This helps inform us as we move forward. The next project planning scope piece will take place after the education and input stage. The process is intended to be iterative. Ms. Fox stated that the American Planning Association suggests how to go about reviewing and updating community plans. In reviewing this proposed process, she envisions much more work for staff to do this. She sent a link about Plano, Texas where they had an advisory task force that handled this. It might be interesting to think about lifting some of this off of staff and Council and utilizing a task force to determine how we go about beginning this work. Plano reached out to the community via postcards, surveys, utility statements, Rec Center postings, library postings – about Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 9 these very topics. The advisory committee brought that back, then began the speaker series, facilitated sessions, and brought the community together to then begin the conversation. With the timing of all of this, it is an approach to consider. The staff workload at this time is very heavy and the advantage of having an advisory task force is that you could pick a diverse group of people – business, youth, education, natural resources and sustainability – to start the process. Mr. McDaniel thanked Ms. Fox for the offer of a task force, but he emphasized that it would in no way lighten the staff workload. The significant effort of this undertaking, similar to the many Community Plans done previously in the City, is all about engagement with the public. The City has lightened the load on staff in the past by use of consultants. When we talked of updating the Community Plan, we identified it would be just pieces and parts in order to avoid a complete Community Plan update. That last update process required several years and $2 million to complete. At this point, we are working to be as strategic as possible with the Dublin 2035 Framework. He appreciates the idea of a comprehensive survey of the community. Perhaps a task force could be used in the future if some early-on engagement is done via survey. If Council wants to invest funds to do a heavy survey lift, he agrees that between now and the first of the year is a good time to get that piece done and cover as many topics as possible. Ms. Fox appreciates his input. She encouraged everyone to take a look at the Plano, Texas plan. It is unusual and won an APA award for all of the elements included. She is not suggesting copying it, but pulling some good ideas from it – especially the way they surveyed the citizenry without having to bring them together. It was easy and they used social media, mail in and at the source responses. Mr. Keeler stated that the DCVB survey last fall would be a valuable piece to use, as it shows the strengths and weaknesses of the community. He is not certain if it included what the public wants improvement on. Mr. Reiner stated he likes the Plano project as it is concise and broken down into built environment, social environment, natural environment, economic environment and regionalism. He also likes the subchapters to each of those. Maybe a survey would be a good way to get this out in a concise way and it would help people be more focused on any comments they might have that are beneficial. Ms. Fox stated that not only did they get the survey out early and received a lot of responses, but on their site a citizen can continue to give opinions on the Community Plan in real time. A citizen can watch in real time how a Planning Commission or ARB utilizes the plan and comment on it. This feeds a future Community Plan update. Ms. Rauch stated she liked the ability to provide comments to Council about what to prioritize from a community perspective and the fact that it is an ongoing piece – utilizing the Plan on a daily basis. Ms. Rauch stated she would like some input on the previous slide shown of the framework structure, process and next steps. Mr. Peterson stated it is amazing that this community, as successful as it already is, is trying to lean forward on all of these issues and continue to update. He urged caution in not taking on more than Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 10 we can handle, and to focus in on the areas where improvement is needed as opposed to revisiting what has already been done. He wonders what place in the education box would include vocational training and alternatives to the traditional college education. This training also plays into that diversified community and reaching out to other segments. While we as a city don’t have direct decision-making ability with Tolles and other similar entities, many believe this is a huge missing piece of our community and should be kept in mind when this topic of education comes up. Ms. Rauch agreed, noting that was part of the discussion at the retreat – the future of education and what that looks like. She agrees with not reinventing the wheel of things we already know about. That was part of the initial audit done in November about what has already been updated. The intent would not be to review every area plan and redoing those, but targeting the ones that are partially complete such as the Historic Dublin area and the Southwest area. Vice Mayor De Rosa noted that on the diagram of each of the four sections, it is important to focus on the principle, vision and metrics, i.e. this is what we are trying to accomplish and this is how we will know if we have done so. We can spend a lot of time and only move the needle slightly. But spending time on the metrics and articulation will help with focus. This is a very important point. Ms. Fox commented regarding the central grey cloud box on the slide – the four guiding vision and goals. She believes they are very general and over reaching. She would like to think about this piece a bit more. She does agree with Mr. Peterson that the education piece is very important, and it should also be included in the quality of life box. Lifelong learning improves your quality of life. Under land use, she wants to see the piece titled “responsible growth management,” which is controlled, monitored and enhances the community’s life. Under infrastructure, she wants to add communication. She would like to see a better communication infrastructure in terms of technology. There are other ways to reach out and communicate, not only with citizens, but with businesses, with the region, and with the state. She would like to consider unique and innovative ways to be connected in the way of communicating that makes us exemplary. Under quality of life, the use of design is important – the way you design your greenways, your streets, your buildings or placemaking opportunities. This needs to be included in quality of life to make sure it is the focus of every board and commission’s review. Under quality of life, she wants to see natural resources and historic and cultural resources. They play a very large part in creating a foundational sense of loyalty and belonging in a community. Ms. Alutto asked for clarification about how is communication and engagement different? Why would communication go under infrastructure – is that the physical ability to communicate? How is that a completely separate square from Connected Dublin? Perhaps this is a matter of semantics. Ms. Fox responded that we currently survey through NextDoor – we are not using our own communication infrastructure to communicate with citizens. We are using ZenCity to gauge the mood of our citizens. While this is not wrong, there is no other infrastructure available. It would be nice to communicate with the citizens through our own municipal technology so we could get real time opinions. Ms. Alutto understands this – it is a matter of semantics. She does view communication as a physical infrastructure piece as well as an engagement piece. She agrees with her suggestion for history and culture, and those could be together versus separate. Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 11 Ms. Fox suggested it be historical and cultural resources. Not only the buildings are important, but the topography, the stone walls and the riverfront are important. Ms. Alutto commented that she supports the idea of folding these in with the Council committees. It is always interesting for committees to do things aside from the routine items referred to them each year. Mayor Amorose Groomes agreed with Mr. Peterson and wondered if there is a status report for many of these topics. We could then establish the priorities. Having experience in a Community Plan update, it is an all-consuming event. In this current market, it is not appropriate to be all consumed by something like this. There are other things that deserve much of our time and attention. Before we begin a broad speaker series, she would like Council to hone in on what is in critical need of attention. She would be supportive of staff reviewing these items and evaluating them as least and most problematic versus dividing them up by committees and then dealing with things that may or may not be pressing. Ms. Alutto supported this approach. Mr. Peterson agreed that a prioritization is needed, given limited resources and time. Mr. Reiner stated he believes staff has a good handle on this. He has served on previous Community Plan updates and the workload involved was substantial. Staff can help point us to the priorities going forward. Vice Mayor De Rosa asked if it would make sense for the Council committees to do that work with staff of setting the priorities of items. This is one way to accomplish that work and then begin to direct the speaker series around that. Ms. Fox stated that is a good way to start. But she would like to have some kind of survey put out to get feedback, maybe using the Plano survey as a model. Doing that hand-in-hand with our committee work would be good. She likes the idea of utilizing the survey done by the DCVB. This would get Council to a starting point on some of the priorities. Ms. Rauch stated that, coupled with the initial audit done by staff, the public comments, Council’s direction and previous survey results, and taking that to the committees would get us in the right direction. Mr. Keeler stated he is interested in hearing Council’s thoughts. There is the public input concept and the timing of that; the notion of prioritizing the various items; the guiding vision and goals, which should be worked on first; and then establishing the vision for each category. Do we use the public’s feedback to create the guiding vision and goals and the vision for each section or does Council do that? Ms. Rauch responded we would use the current status report plus the input from the public to help guide and create those. It is a community plan. The education and feedback section may need to be moved up to help guide and create the vision and goals. Dublin City Council Work Session August 3, 2020 Page 12 Mr. Keeler stated that he is trying to determine where to start. He can easily identify some of the areas the City is lacking in, but should that be the first step? Or should defining vision for each section be the first step? Or could you make the argument of focusing on what needs to be fixed? Ms. Rauch stated that to her, the central grey cloud on the slide that ties it all together is the most important item for community buy-in. That does define how we are focusing and defining the vision for each of these various things. That would be her recommendation of where to begin – seeking Council’s guidance and recommendations, taking that out to the public to get their input, then bringing that back with our recommendations and prioritized list, and then defining that at each committee. Mr. Peterson stated he values the idea of community input and the communication effort to do that is extremely important and very valuable. But there is a point where it has its limitations – not everyone responds to surveys, so it cannot be known if all of the community is represented in the feedback. Secondly, Council has an obligation to consider all of the different demands of the community. For example, surveying a particular segment about their individual interest, such as soccer or swim team families. It is Council’s job to take all of the competing interests in view of the limited resources and try to focus on the bigger picture. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, as the City already does a good job as reflected in the citizen surveys. Feedback is important and surveys have a role, but at some point they do have limitations. Council needs to balance the competing interests for the resources our community has. Vice Mayor De Rosa stated that in view of the time, she suggests the conversation be wrapped up. The goal is to step into the great unknown! Once we get moving, it will crystallize and will change – that is for certain. She asked for any other comments related to the first steps in this process. Ms. Fox emphasized that the grey cloud on the slide is the most important and it is worthwhile looking at the other boxes to make sure they capture what we want. She has some hesitancy about the titles as she has already indicated. Mr. Reiner stated that this is a huge undertaking. Dublin has always prided itself on planning ahead. But to be effective with this scope of project, it is important that Council and staff zoom in on what is really important and can be improved. The real estate market in Dublin is brisk and people realize what a good job the City has done in planning this community. He views this more as a tweaking and long-term planning exercise. He agrees with focusing on the critical items that need improvement. He agrees with Ms. Fox’s comments about design. This is a really important aspect of the City. Ms. Fox stated that, based on her experience in serving on PZC and ARB, if nothing else, this plan needs to be utilized and used by all of our commissions and Council members. It should not be put on the shelf or the website and never looked at again. The plan needs to have real life energy to it and drive everything we do all the time. Absent that, we should not do this. Everyone needs to implement the plan every day at the Council and board-commission level. Vice Mayor De Rosa noted there is time to redefine and prioritize as discussed tonight. Ms. Rauch thanked Council for this discussion.