Thursday, January 03, 2008

Council Planning Sessions

The 2008-09 city council will hold planning sessions from Jan. 6-8. The sessions will give the new council an opportunity to set goals and priorities for the new term. Obviously, we will need to build off of what has been accomplished and focus on some key issues (i.e. increasing jobs, reducing crime, holding the line on taxes and spending, building better neighborhoods, and so forth). I am looking for your thoughts and priorities, also any new ideas you might have that are worthy of discussing. Feel free to post them here (or call/email). Thanks, Ian

(Side note, Nathan Brown has a new blog, I posted a link from this site)

6 Comments:

At 11:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope when you set new goals that you keep the Davenport Promise in mind. This is the best economic development plan to be offered up in a long time.
In the past councils haven't looked past 2 years at a time. It is time to look at how to move this city forward for the long term rather than what will get aldermen elected in the next 2 years.
Although the sewer tunnel is needed before anymore development can happen in the west end, we don't need more development until we have a plan to increase our population.
We aren't increasing our tax base in a way that keeps up with the extra expense for public services when we sprawl without increasing the number of people who live in the city. All we are doing is causing more abandoned houses in the central city.
I hope you can work with new young aldermen to share your ability to work with people from all social structures. You have done a great job representing all the people of Davenport, your influence can be a great learning experience for new aldermen.
The worst case scenerio would be if the remaining againsters get hold of the new aldermen first.

 
At 8:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ian - did you actually support the plan to cut public input? Why didn't you bring this vote to the attention of the people of Davenport? Shame on you.

 
At 9:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

8:14 -

No plan to cut public input. All agenda items remain fair game and the public comment is still an agenda item. This holds true for the committee meeting structure and the council meetings as we move forward. Best of all, we now have a full week between committee of the whole and the council meetings (compared to 48 hours).

Overall the plan makes sense - all 10 council members sit in on the committee meetings, less repetition for staff, and a full week between committee/committee of the whole and council meetings. We should see better information presented, more informed council members before votes, and less tabling.

This new plan took the feedback received from the community during the last time re-structuring was presented and incorporated many of those ideas.

Ian

 
At 9:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Okay Ian - but how do you explain the lack of public input this time. No one knew about this - it reeks of secretiveness. Why so secret? Why so rushed? You true polician colors are showing after the election. They look bad on you. The public was shut out of this decision. I recall last time that the public was opposed to this structure. You have not listened to us. It is too bad that yourself and the others has so soon forgotten who elected you. It makes on lose faith in this new council so soon.

 
At 9:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

9:25 -

The idea is to set the cycles from the beginning. So, the idea was brought forward for our planning sessions. I know some opposed this last time, but 2/3 were supportive of the concept. Again, the ideas brought forward by the public are incorporated. The new process will make the operation more efficient. This is the process most all cities follow.

If it doesn't turn out to be a positive step, I'll lead a push to go back to the traditional format.

Ian

 
At 8:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Once again, a common sense decision. I believe the changes were long overdue.

 

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