Town of Cary

Council/Staff Retreat

January 18-20, 2008

Mid Pines Resort

Council Members Present: Mayor Harold Weinbrecht, Mayor Pro Tem Julie Robison, Council Members Gale Adcock, Don Frantz, Erv Portman and Jennifer Robinson

Council Member Absent: Council Member Jack Smith (Mr. Smith participated by phone in portions of the retreat, and the minutes reflect this participation)

Staff Present: Bill Coleman, Town Manager; Ben Shivar, Assistant Town Manager; Mary Henderson, Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Director; Jeff Ulma, Planning Director; Ricky Barker, Associate Planning Director; Chris Simpson, Town Attorney; Pat Bazemore, Police Chief; Karen Mills, Finance Director; Vee Willis, Human Resources Director; Rob Bonne, Utilities Director; Leila Goodwin, Water Resources Manager; Scott Fogleman, Budget Director; Susan Moran, Public Information Officer; Steve Brown, Public Works and Utilities Director; Tim Bailey, Engineering Director; Lana Hygh; Assistant to the Manager; Bill Stice, Technology Services Director; and Sue Rowland, Town Clerk; the arrival times of Public Works Director Mike Bajorek, Fire Chief Allan Cain and Inspections and Permits Director Bob Strowbridge are noted in the minutes

Facilitator: Phil Boyle

The agenda follows:

Friday, February 18, 2008

The retreat began at 2 p.m. The mayor welcomed everyone. Phil Boyle led everyone in an ice breaker activity.

Mr. Boyle shared the following retreat goals. Council member Smith participated in this session and the remainder of the Friday afternoon discussions.

1.Engage council and staff members in identifying and discussing issues and challenges facing Cary today and create a shared sense of direction and goals about tomorrow.

2. Clarify mutual expectations and obligations – identify what council members expect of each other, what the council expects of the town manager and the staff, what the town manager and staff expect of the council, and ways in which council and staff members can best meet these expectations.

3. Craft a water policy direction – engage council and staff members in crafting the town’s water policy goals, identifying key issues and choices, identifying strategies and actions for achieving these goals, and developing a consensus on how best to navigate this policy.

Policy values, choices and decisions

Mr. Boyle’s powerpoint presentation on values, choices and decisions is attached to and incorporated herein as Exhibit.

Mr. Bajorek arrived at 3:55 p.m.; Mr. Strowbridge arrived at 4:37 p.m.

The following issues were raised:

Council Member Robinson thinks the staff provides sufficient information in staff reports, but with council-initiated items, the council should not provide solutions at the beginning of the process.

Council Member Portman suggested that the council members agree to move on after a vote has been taken, even if they disagree with the outcome.

Council Member Smith stated council has in the past established ground rules; he asked for some discussion why this has failed. Mr. Boyle stated all members must feel heard for this to successfully occur.

The council met as a group and the staff met as two groups to come up with the following information.

Council expectations: What they want from their experience as council members:

• be listened to
• be respected
• get things done and leave Cary a better place
• be deliberative with decisions
• respect different perspectives
• strive for excellence
• make decisions that balance citizen interests
• be seen as fair by everyone
• be innovative
• find common ground as much as possible
• make Cary better
• give everyone a chance to talk
• be committed to success as group
• do not blindside each other or staff
• feel freedom to express views but support decisions of council
• create a “we” experience in addition to “I”
• recognize and respect the need to take different positions on different issues
• coordinate district and at-large constituent communications
• respect each other’s time and obligations
• be mutually responsible
• we look good or bad together
• we steward, nurture and promote the democratic process
• nurture citizenship

What staff needs from council:

• work as a group
• healthy intra-council relationships
• clear direction from council as a group
• support staff in public; criticize in private
• communicate values behind decisions
• identify problems instead of solutions (focus on policy outcomes vs. solutions/methods of addressing
• discuss new issues with staff before discussing them with the public
• stay on topic
• communicate effectively with one another
• provide relevant background information
• raise concerns in advance
• communicate town policy decisions to citizens
• verify facts before stating them in public
• open 2-way reciprocal communications

• explain context of requests
• set priorities (not everything is urgent)
• trust, recognition, respect
• willingness to consider multiple alternatives
• understanding of resource impacts (time, money)

Council Member Portman wants staff to tell council when they are wrong by giving professional advice.

The Friday session ended at 6:14 p.m.

The council, staff and facilitator had dinner as a group.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Fire Chief Allan Cain was present.

Council’s individual issues/priorities:

Harold Weinbrecht:

• citizen involvement (keep plugged in)
• open up dialog
• citizen questions and concerns must be addressed
• open up what we do as a council
• Growth – what types (density, multi-family vs. office – wants more office)
• Building out – how to handle, population/density
• Rate of growth – match with infrastructure to maintain quality of life
• How to link growth and infrastructure
• Roads – improvements and widening (budget)
• Road maintenance – address potholes, etc.
• C-Tran (underutilized) – integrate bus systems regionally/expand C-Tran
• Think about light rail after bus systems in place to support this
• Agreed with other council members on school issues; wants to focus on good relationships with school board members

Don Frantz:

schools

• fix existing or create new system
• school board members elected at large
• Board of Education taxing authority
• clustering (strengthen districts and keep children within district)
• wants to see what’s involved in a Cary school system (legislative authority)
• tax/revenue implications

downtown:

• downtown and old Cary (inside Maynard Loop)
• crime in downtown area
• downtown reinvestment/revitalization – what else can we do to inspire people to do this?
• What can the town do to help with infrastructure downtown?
• Downtown park – how can we acquire property faster
• Cary Elementary – cultural arts center – how can we do it faster?
• Job recruitment/economic development/corporate headquarters downtown (i.e., culinary schools)
• How do we compete with other municipalities

environment:

• water/wastewater
• wants town to be greener/hopes issue advisory council can help
• litter
• wants Cary to be known as a leader with green initiatives (green, clean and cool)
• work with and incent developers
• efficient design and development
• top citizen priorities
• engage citizens in ideas/initiatives

Erv Portman:

Constrain everything with budget collar – understand tax rate/revenue and understand tradeoffs (general comment)

environment:

• preserve natural environment
• Restrict mass grading
• Ensure LDO is restrictive to ensure we work with the land to the extent possible
• Chatham Co. land use plan issue – plan should be analyzed from standpoint of environmental impact to the lake
• Cool/green – need a work session to understand what it is, how to incorporate in building code and how to do it

police/safety:

• Improve response times – private and public (expand ambulance service)
• Expanded liability coverage for police officers
• Make sure building codes are state of the art regarding multi-family to protect fire spread (high density developments)

land development:

• Walnut St corridor (we’ve over-restricted land use and infringed upon people’s rights) Jack Smith strongly disagrees with this statement
• Concurrency in infrastructure
• Road specifications – challenge whether they are right (narrower vs. wider roads – it’s harder to speed on narrow roads), look at all factors to reduce speeding in neighborhoods
• Mixed use overlay – thinks it should be repealed and put the good elements from it into PDDs
• Consider shrinking LDO – too big and too detailed

citizen involvement:

• Board/Commission improvements – treating everyone who applies as well if not better than employees

schools:

• Capacity concurrency with growth (council can’t do this, but it needs to be done county-wide)
• Cary approves new growth and has a responsibility regarding capacity involvement – this should be Cary’s only responsibility
• Support taxing authority for school board
• Ok with changing to at large representation
• Alignment of responsibility and authority
• Advocate that school board look at policies regarding growth makeup of neighborhood regarding school assignments (protect mature neighborhoods from reassignment)
• Use trailers in high growth areas because new schools will be built here (reassignment comes from these overcrowded schools) -- minimize domino effect
• Discussion of funding source linked to growth (concurrency with growth); taxpayers will not continue to vote for bonds with reassignment issues.
• Impact fees (county wide)
• Be a leader in county representing citizens to seek long term solutions to school issues

Gale Adcock:

operational issues:

• Need a few rules that are consistently and fairly applied
• Show that the town cares about people’s concerns
• Be a great place to everyone

development:

• Infrastructure well considered to support development and redevelopment
• Connect development/redevelopment decisions with infrastructure (Consider re-urbanizing areas in old Cary
• Infill development consistent with existing development

citizen involvement:

• Wants to see new people be part of the process
• Give more people an opportunity to serve

schools:

• Neighborhood schools
• Relationship building with school board with honest dialog
• Stronger relationships with Wake County delegation (taxing authority, etc.)
• Change in how school board is elected (broader constituency)

environment:

• Be adamant about environmental protection (i.e., violating stream buffers)
• Convey importance of stream buffers to real estate/development community (share Cary’s goals/priorities)

Jennifer Robinson:

planning:

• Landbanking initiative (essential to meet school capacities needs in future)
• Plan for next office park; use existing economic development program to lead that endeavor
• Support for mass grading initiatives (through task force)

engineering:

• Commit to grade separated crossings (any road that is 4 lane median divided or larger will have grade separation at some point – at least one route east/west and north/south without crossing a road to promote use of greenways)
• Explore intelligent alternatives to wider roads (roundabouts, through lanes, free flow right lanes, etc.)
• Standard of 20’ landscaped medians for all new roads for safety
• Specific study for Cary Parkway/High House Road intersection (alternatives to widening to move traffic) – geographic center of Town of Cary

mass transit:

• Take lead role with CSX corridor from Apex to Durham – shared use of facility for mass transportation or purchase entire rail line in conjunction with the county and Apex
• Pursue equity formula for transportation dollars

stormwater

• Higher standards for stormwater management especially during construction (do more)
• Wants BMPs to be more attractive
• Wants staff to go the extra mile to learn how to manage stormwater in an urban area that will be an asset

downtown:

• Wants to establish themes for downtown (courtyards, fountains, etc.) so we have repeating theme executed through downtown
• Wants economic development program to execute marketing of downtown
• Promote green construction for downtown (create incentives to do this)
• Wants council to address head on the center for arts issue (no one will initiate private fundraising until commitment is given) – have work session with council decision

parks, recreation and cultural resources:

• Strive to connect all greenways
• Buy land for greenway hub
• Grade separated passages
• Don’t miss out on the opportunity to acquire farming resources/advice for agriculture park; move forward with design of park and use community resources
• Build aquatic center
• Build community centers in north and west
• Ensure timely and adequate ambulance service for the community

schools:

• Supports school initiatives but not on her focus list

Julie Robison:

environment:

• Green community – be a leader
• Tap into citizen base and universities for environmental expertise
• Develop long term values
• Task force (going green) – future looking with short term plan
• cool city designation
• connect roads/transportation/infrastructure

citizen involvement:

• citizen involvement in planning process (how we build out and the role of the public)
• eliminate disconnect between citizens and government
• systemized way for citizens to be at table (connected and involved in shared process)

council as a group:

• effectiveness of council as a team (how to operationalize and best principles/operating practices); work sessions – casual, no agenda – no decision making; communication tool/information sharing; focus on follow up; continual team-building with commitment; monthly opportunities; identify and create policy leadership opportunities

Jack Smith:

Constrain everything with budget collar – understand tax rate/rev and understand tradeoffs (general comment)

schools:

• fix existing or create new system
• Board of Education taxing authority
• clustering (strengthen districts and keep children within district)

• Advocate that school board look at policies regarding growth makeup of neighborhood regarding school assignments (protect mature neighborhoods from reassignment)
• Impact fees (county wide)
• Be a leader in county representing citizens to seek long term solutions to school issues

• Neighborhood schools

downtown:

• downtown reinvestment/revitalization – what else can we do to inspire people to do this?
• Cary Elementary – cultural arts center – how can we do it faster?

• work with and incent developers
• Wants economic development program to execute marketing of downtown
• Wants council to address head on the center for arts issue (no one will initiate private fundraising until commitment is given) – have work session with council decision

citizens:

• Show that town cares about people’s concerns
• Citizen involvement needs to be based on sound judgment and good communication – both ways
  • Develop feedback and communication techniques which help the process to sort out ‘squeaky wheel /isolated disenfranchisement’ versus legitimate issues.  Aggressively address perception issues as they must be treated as ‘real’.
  • Council has to have the courage to make decisions – that’s why we have a representative government – and do our homework to ensure we are addressing the greater good and not just the self interests of a few.

growth and development:

• Growth – what types (density, multi-family vs. office – wants more office)
• Building out – how to handle, population/density
• Support for mass grading initiatives (through task force)
• Strive to keep Cary with a neighborhood/suburban ‘feel’
  • Cap on density e.g.: In 1989 we had no multi family with a density of greater than 8 – Stratford Apartments was our first exception – going to 9 units per acre – the dam was now breached…….
  • Infill should blend with the existing adjacent ‘DNA’ & be held to a higher standard 

stormwater:

• Higher standards for stormwater management especially during construction (do more)
• Wants staff to go the extra mile to learn how to manage stormwater in an urban area that will be an asset

regional cooperation:

• Become more aggressive as a leader in the Region on initiatives that affect us all e.g.:
  • Regional planning
  • Impact Fees
  • School Board taxing authority – now!

Economic development:

• Through EDC (?) establish mechanism/process for engaging private sector on fund raising/investment in Cary – e.g.:
  • We can’t fund it all (our priorities must be in addressing needs, then wants.
  • Ironically, our QOL is predicated mostly on our wants – so how do we maintain all we value and still keep taxes within reason?
  • Private sector needs to step up in funding historical, green, amenities & similar stuff

Council agreed on the following core themes:

1. Downtown
2. Environment
3. Planning and development
4. Citizen participation
5. Transportation and transit
6. Safety
7. Recreation
8. Schools
9. Council effectiveness (tangible process to help communicate and to execute meetings more effectively)

Council’s proposal for next steps:

• Using the above categories as a matrix, list the council individual topics on a spreadsheet and determine where overlap occurs with categories
• Rank the items as high, medium or low priority
• Look at different categories and priorities and choose five or six areas in which to proceed
• Develop a work plan
• When an issue is clear, bring forth another issue from the list
• Agree that other issues with a lower priority will not be handled until the higher priority work is concluded

Mr. Coleman’s presentation on the Town’s focus areas and goals to show how the council’s earlier stated goals might fit into these existing focus areas. This powerpoint presentation is attached to and incorporated herein as Exhibit. 1He stated there are two ways to organize and communicate financial impacts of council’s vision: (1) staff report process and (2) budget process (particularly capital).

Everyone agreed with the following method of tying financial impact to the council goals.

Staff Integration in working with council goals/priorities:

• Capture financial/budget implications/obligations
• Link capital improvement plan to council goals
• Help council look at capital investments/decisions earlier in the process
• Expand fiscal impact information on staff reports to address impact on reserves/tradeoffs
• Clarify impact on debt service

At 1:40 p.m. Council Member Smith joined the group via phone.

The council worked on putting their goals into the spreadsheet.

Follow up on the council visioning/goal setting exercise: In the next 30 days staff will create a gap analysis on the council policy work plan to determine if what we’re doing matches council’s expectations and if not, then an identification of what needs to occur to achieve council’s vision. The portions that have budget implications will be done in conjunction with the budget process. Staff will determine timeline goals for the non-budget related items. Staff will identify those items that are legislative/political in nature.

Community Visioning

Planning Director Jeff Ulma next delivered a powerpoint presentation on the future vision for Cary; see Exhibit, which is attached to and incorporated herein, for the presentation.

Community Visioning: Town Council Issues/Concerns/Questions:

• Open space
• Schools
• Single vs. multi-family units vs. non-residential
• Infrastructure
• Water
• Transit
• Safety
• Downtown
• Leisure/recreation/greenway system
• Redevelopment
• Charge
• Scope
• Who/how to engage
• Length
• Leadership/decision making
• Representation
• Vision – plan

Mr. Coleman asked if it is sufficient to proceed in pursuing a vision for the community in a similar manner as we’ve used in the recent past or should the Town consider a long term community visioning process using the entire community, including getting the public input on how redevelopment fits with the existing vision.

The council asked the projected time frame until build-out occurs. Staff estimated about 20 years.

The council stated four major issues of concern regarding growth: schools, roads/traffic, water and open space.

Community Visioning follow up: The town clerk will schedule council volunteers Jennifer, Robinson Julie Robison and Erv Portman to meet with staff the first part of February 2008 to discuss next steps in more detail. The council expressed an interest in seeing options without making a commitment.

The Saturday session ended at 5:23 p.m. The group had dinner together.

Sunday:

Council finished the worksheet

Sunday, January 20, 2008

The council met early to complete the spreadsheet outlining their goals. The final spreadsheet is attached to and incorporated herein as Exhibit.

Leila Goodwin’s powerpoint presentation on water supply is attached to and incorporated herein as Exhibit.

Water policy parameters stated by Town Council:

• Impact of consumption on reservoir
• Reduce consumption conservation
• Use – irrigation
• Continue to lead
• Staff monitor tools and techniques
• Impact fees should fully reflect use, consumptions, peak demands
• Supply irrigation through reclaimed water as much as possible
• Eliminate residential irrigation watering
• Reduce household water consumption in new construction
• More education and incentives for current households to reduce consumption/conserve
• Sanctions/penalties
• Xeriscaping (including turf buy-back program)
• Water allotments
• Educate – require education/certification
• Usage feedback information for consumers
• Strategies for managing peak
• Identify and reduce leakage
• Well water/ground water use for irrigation
• Help/education citizens to be more self-managing
• Reward “good” usage
• Restrict irrigation of non-municipal sources

Water discussion follow-up: Staff will review the above list and compare it to what we’re currently doing and the scope of what we’re not currently doing (identify the convergence), and come up with a suggested priority list and implementation timeline. Council will conduct a work session on this issue, and staff will provide all information to council at least a week prior to the work session.

Council Member Robison asked Finance Director Karen Mills to determine how much time it will take to look closely at the issue of water rates.

Overall retreat actions, commitments, decisions and next steps:

• The clerk will schedule Mrs. Robison, Mr. Portman and Mrs. Robinson to meet with staff the fist part of February to discuss next steps regarding community visioning.
• The staff will bring back the staff proposals on the water discussion to council via a work session.
• In the next 30 days staff will create a gap analysis on the council policy work plan to determine if what we’re doing matches council’s expectations and if not, then an identification of what needs to occur to achieve council’s vision. The portions that have budget implications will be done in conjunction with the budget process. Staff will determine timeline goals for the non-budget related items. Staff will identify those items that are legislative/political in nature.
• Council will meet in an informal setting (i.e., breakfast) in February to develop shared ground rules to follow up on the council effectiveness discussion. Mrs. Robison will compile framing documents prior to this meeting for the group to discuss. The agreed upon ground rules will be included in the council’s rules of procedures policy amendment, which is scheduled to go to the March operations committee meeting.

The council expressed their gratitude for the hard work that went into planning the retreat.

The retreat ended at 12:01 p.m.