DATE: August 27, 2008
Committee Members Present: Blakeslee, Carlson, Dalhoff, Gerdman, Godfriaux-Leystra, Green, Iausly, Jones, Knight, Kriegl, Lanter, Ladas, Murray, Olson, Robkin, Wenzel, and White.
Others Present: Steward, Tremble, Simmert, Erickson and Vondra, and Mary Krueger, Sauk County Board Chair.
The meeting convened at 6:35 p.m. Mark Steward, Planning and Zoning Director, asked members to review the agenda. Members approved the revised agenda by consensus.
Steward asked members to review the minutes from the July meeting. Members identified misspellings of members’ names, and pointed out that some information from the staff report had been duplicated in the following section. Members approved the minutes as modified, by consensus.
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Tom Kriegl commented on the critical role of the Planning and Zoning Department in protecting public health and safety, and that since the role of the department is being scrutinized during the current budget deliberations, the department needs the support of the public.
Steward and Simmert reported that the Comprehensive Plan website has Exec. & Leg. Committee approval, and is ready to go up on the web pending final legal opinions from Corporation Counsel, and a decision on the URL domain name. Simmert said he’d requested the URL to be www.saukplan.org. Staff reviewed the possibility of placing announcements on large roadside billboards, which if not being used are available from the sign companies fat no cost. Simmert also asked members to identify citizens who could be invited to post early comments on the website’s blog and forum, to “seed” the discussion on the website. Members were again reminded that they are not allowed to post blog or discussion forum comments, but that they are welcome to observe and learn from the discussion.
Members reminded staff that they had requested displaying the Committee’s Ground rules at each meeting.
Tremble distributed updated versions of the Inventory of Relevant Plans to those who had not received copies in July. He also distributed copies of a Table of Contents, which he went over briefly, describing the various plan summaries included in the Inventory. Tremble told members the revised version would be posted on the County website. He suggested that the Inventory could be useful for members attempting to identify issues and future strategies when the subject under consideration has been addressed through some prior planning processes.
Simmert then initiated a discussion of the revised Value Statements, which had been reworked by members since July. Staff presented the reworked versions, and also a version as edited by staff. Members suggested changes, which Vondra edited on-screen. Preliminary consensus was achieved on all final statements. Members asked what the purpose of developing the Value statements is. Tremble responded that the Value statements themselves would serve as an important set of guidelines on which the Committee could base future decisions, but that the process of negotiating their language is a good test of their consensus building skills, and helps build a sense of shared understanding.
Erickson reviewed the status of the Issues Survey, which she said was ready to distribute. A link to the survey will be placed on the County website. Responses received from the general public (as distinct from the community leaders that will be contacted) will be saved in a separate database. The Steering Committee will review responses at the September meeting.
Karen Lanter and Ken Carlson inquired about the possibility of having steering committee members conduct interviews with the public as another way of reaching out, and of more directly involving committee members in the process of identifying issues. These interviews would follow review of the survey results. Interview topics would be derived from survey results. Erickson responded that it would be possible, and worthy of further discussion.
Erickson followed the report on the survey with a discussion of possible educational topics that the Steering Committee might be interested in. These could include family farming, and the farm economy, “7th generation” planning, Sustainability, and field visits to various locations around Sauk County. Members expressed a desire to move the process along and to get at the actual substance of the plan. They feel confident in their ability to understand the issues, based on the diversity of representation on the Committee, but they also agreed that if topics emerge in the future that the Committee is not well informed on, further education might be needed.
Steward asked members for their input regarding the planning process. Members responded with a request for more specific detail about the upcoming steps. They want to know what they have to look forward to. Members asked for a review of other communities’ plans that may have attempted to do something unique, or something similar to Sauk County’s approach. Members asked how the County Plan would be used. Tremble explained that since the local plans have all addressed the nine required comprehensive plan elements; their most commonly expressed goals could be incorporated into the County Plan, reinforcing the value of their work. But the County Plan is also intended to look more carefully at the larger issues facing the County, and to identify solutions that impact the community at a regional scale.
Members discussed locations for future meetings, and suggested asking Karna Hanna to identify good meeting locations around the County. Members also asked to identify a standard “end time” for each meeting, so they could know what to expect.
The primary focus of the September meeting will be the review of Issue Survey responses.
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The next meeting is set for September 24th. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m., in at the Kraemer Public Library in Plain.
The meeting adjourned at 9:18 p.m.
Respectfully submitted: Mark Steward