Scripting city meetings

Before you go further, read this story in The Bristol Press. What follows are the emails and scripts mentioned in the story, along with city Councilor Ellen Zoppo's explanation this week about what she was doing and why.
Let's start with the Jan. 4 email from city Councilor Ellen Zoppo to Mayor William Stortz that opened the door to the story. Here it is:

10:42 a.m., Jan. 4, 2007
Bill,
I am designing a script for the 6 of us (minus Art) to follow for tonight. I need to know the following:
1. Does the mayor want to make an opening statement or just be poised to respond to the questions and suggestions made by the Council?
2. There needs to be a reference to the budget and costs. In one of our previous meetings this week it was stated that the taxpayers should know that at this point, existing staff and city resources, and most likely the existing project manager, will be retained to get the initiative started, at no additional expense to the taxpayers. Once a budget is submitted by the corporation, if approved, the council and Board of Finance will have the opportunity to approve, modify.
3. Mike Rimcoski needs to be brought into the loop by the mayor's office and told that there is a role for him to play and questions within the script. I have designed a land use/zoning question for him since that is his area of expertise. Please confirm that you have called him and he is aware of the game plan in advance of tonight.
4. Art will not have a script and Mike needs to be discreet since he is seated adjacent to him.
5. All scripts need to be collected at the end of the night so there are no leaks.
6. Mayor will opportunity to make brief comments prior to adjournment where it would be appropriate to praise the spirit of bipartisanship and substantive dialogue that has shaped the evening and is the first step in moving the downtown initiative forward. Start practicing in the mirror after lunch.
Please let me know your preference on these items asap. I am out of town until 2:30 p.m. and would prefer email as opposed to a call while I am at work. Once these final pieces are in place, I will forward you the script.
EAZ

Here is the script that Zoppo finished shortly before the Jan. 4 meeting:

Ellen to open the meeting:

The purpose of the Ordinance Committee is to first investigate whether an ordinance is necessary, and if so, to work in collaboration with departments and others to develop one that meets several thresholds including state enabling legislation, and other related ordinance and policies.

The purpose of the meeting is a continuation of the first public hearing that was held in November to evaluate the mayor’s proposal to form a downtown development corporation to oversee the development of the 17 acre mall parcel.

Clearly, there are many people who feel strongly about this issue. Those who are in favor are here to advocate their position. Those in opposition will also be heard, and I hope, will offer constructive solutions. One of the strengths of having public hearings is that differences of opinion sometimes produce the most powerful results, when common ground is found. We learn more from those who disagree with us, than from those who agree.

I would like to ask that a level of respect and consideration be shown by all who participate tonight. The direction needs to be one of looking forward, not back, nor playing the blame game or becoming nostalgic for the past and what we remember of downtown 40 years ago before redevelopment.

Over the last six weeks, the Council has reviewed the draft ordinance, asked questions of professional staff, and evaluated options. Tonight, we will again have the opportunity to hear from the public, and I hope we will also have a dialogue amongst ourselves concerning suggested revisions to the draft.

I am sure I speak for the Council when I say that we appreciate peoples’ time, energy and contributions. The goal is to restore downtown to a vibrant center instead of the nearly vacant and deteriorating shell that defines the parcel now.

Ellen asks Mayor Stortz to make brief opening comments.

If there is anyone who would like to speak on the ordinance as it is currently drafted, please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record. Please note that the only relevant comments tonight relate directly to the draft ordinance.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ENSUES

At the conclusion of the public participation component, EAZ states that members of the Council will now have an opportunity to react to comments from the public and/or ask questions, starting with Councilman Nicastro.

Councilman Nicastro to discuss
-the importance of downtown
- may discuss the need to gain community support and earn the confidence of elected officials is to work as a team to identify citizens who would like to serve on this panel.

Mayor Stortz has indicated that he will state that he would welcome the input and states that yes, he would encourage the members of the Council to submit names. [He noted that when this has occurred in the past such as with the Housing Appeals Board, Ethics Commission, etc, it has been extremely beneficial and resorted in a very good mix of people in these particular situations. ]

Councilman Minor wants to spend a few minutes reiterating that the 17 acre parcel is not an island and must be developed and states that there is a role for BDA to bolster the efforts of the Corporation, if approved, in terms of the work that will be needed to complete the Municipal Development Plan as required by the State, as evidenced by the BDA’s plan to continue the streetscape to Main Street.

- may discuss the BDA be designated to begin looking at various community development opportunities in the neighborhoods adjacent to the mall property.

Councilman McCauley wants to be on the record to express concern with the role of elected officials on the corporation and requests a revision to modify the language so that there are 7 members named from the private sector, and that the mayor and a councilmember are added temporarily as the eighth and ninth member only, to provide some linkage and administrative support to the corporation as it begins its work for the short-term, but not be a permanent presence.

Mayor Stortz may offer the suggestion that the terms of the mayor and council member run concurrent with their elected terms to November 2007, at which time there is a sunset provision eliminating the two elected officials members from the panel, which would revert to seven members only. If not this, further discussion may be needed on this point.

Councilman Rimcoski wants to discuss that along the same lines as the BDA having a role in conjunction with the corporation, he feels strongly that the land use boards, particularly Zoning & Planning, needs to be involved as well.

Mayor Stortz has agrees with this and will most likely respond that many departments as well as boards and commissions will be involved with the corporation. The corporation will have the opportunity to use the project manager assigned to the revitalization effort, it is also his intent to involve city staff from various departments for technical expertise at various stages within the process.

Councilman Ward will have the opportunity to review documents he has submitted to the DECD and their answers, as well as any other items that may be of interest to him….
ROUND TWO

Councilman Nicastro – additional comments if any

Councilman Minor may speak about examples of the benchmarks and the associated timelines he expects the corporation to be cognizant of as they begin to structure their work. Examples given include RFP sent out, remediation and demolition plan.

Councilman McCauley wants section 18-192 be revised to remove the reference to other special development authorities so that the reference clearly reads that upon termination or dissolution of the corporation the responsibilities will revert back to the BDA and not leave it open to the possibility of other special development groups being formed.

Councilman Rimcoski …

Councilman Ward….

Councilman Nicastro – closing comments.

Councilman Minor – closing comments.

Councilman McCauley – closing comments

Ellen asks if it is the consensus with new information that the public hearing should be continued so that suggested revisions drafted and questions answered. With that being the consensus, the motion is made to continue the public hearing to a date and time to be determined.

Closing remarks
She states that the meeting tonight was extremely beneficial in bringing together many separate issues and starting to shape them into a directon that everyone feels comfortable with, and expresses support for moving forward.

She references the work already done by the BDA to develop downtown design guidelines, the Zoning Commission’s work to review and redesign the regulations on downtown which while only half completed , have done much to actually lessen regulations and make development more attractive downtown

Leading up to this weekend, I was skeptical that the corporation was necessary, mostly because there are and were, so many irons in the fire already, so the concept, in my mind was a duplication and not necessary.

Today, I have a different view – All of the work that has been done can be, and should be, coordinated in order to jumpstart revitalization and work toward a plan that achieves community consensus.

I think now that the Corporation can be the glue that brings all these pieces together and start sewing together the fabric, literally and symbolically, of what the plan will be.


Here are Zoppo's comments this week on why she wrote up a script:

Since I was thrust into the position of chairing the matter since the Council was serving as the Ordinance Committee as the whole, I wanted the meetings to be working meetings of substance so the public would understand and see the process of how we arrived at the decision-making we did, so I thought it best to organize everyone's thoughts and ideas and create a working script that flowed and created a dialogue as well as would give the members of the Council an opportunity to react to the public comments.
When you have an issue of importance such as this, there are many layers and I had council members telling me they wanted to make sure we addressed Point A, Point B, etc, or that they still had questions on Point C, etc. I took all that, reviewed the previous minutes, and created a list, which evolved into the script, so that we could keep track of the various points, such as Craig's insistence there be benchmarks, Art's letters to the DECD, and Frank's concern about how to select panel members, etc.
It had worked well with the Housing Property and Maintenance Code in 2005, so I informed the Mayor and Corp Counsel that since I was chairing it, I would be organizing the meeting that way again in order to ensure that all points were covered, and that all council members had the opportunity to discuss their points and get the answers they needed in a public forum.