HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-11-04-2020-min (Implementation Committee)
2020 Vision Implementation Committee
November 4, 2004 – Meeting Minutes
7:45 a.m. Selectmen’s Meeting Room
Members Present
: Fernando Quezada, Ann Redmon, Peter Enrich, Marian Cohen, Tom Harden, Elaine
Sterzin
Others:
Candy McLaughlin, Wendy Rundle, Kerry Evans
Minutes:
The minutes from the September 9th, 2004, Implementation Committee meeting were
approved.
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Report on Convention:
Wendy and Candy reported on the October 2 Convention and that they felt it
accomplished what the committee hoped it would accomplish. The consensus from the group was that
the keynote speaker, Robert Putnam, was great, and that the convention set the task forces moving in the
right direction. There were approximately 50 people, including representatives from all the elected
boards. The quality of the video apparently is not great. Candy will check with Jesse Steigerwald on
whether it has been given to the cable company for broadcast. Fernando inquired about formal thank
yous and it was determined that one had been given to Robert Putnam but not yet to Jesse. It was decided
that a brief report (one page) should be given to the Boards regarding the convention and update on the
task forces.
Task Force Progress:
A work plan for the Forging Constructive Community Discourse group was
distributed and it was decided that this would be given to the other two groups as a model/template.
Forging Constructive Community Discourse – So far, this group has had a good turnout, with some
consistency of membership. There have been 8-12 people at each meeting, with the whole group totaling
approximately 15 people. The group meets once a week. There are different people from the scoping
groups and many of them came from the convention.
The group has identified a number of areas they want to discuss and will take them one at a time. There
was a discussion about how this topic is difficult to focus due to its very nature, but one area the group
will focus on will be improving communication. There was also discussion about the group not “doing”
anything and who is actually going to “do” what the task forces recommend. It was suggested, that while
these task forces won’t actually be implementing the recommendations, it is important to keep up the
energy of the “doers” because they might be the ones to take the ideas and run with them. It is also
important for people to not think that these ideas are just going to go into another report to the Boards.
This brought up the idea that the groups should look at the historical documents pertaining to issues they
might be discussing, in order to determine what ideas have already surfaced and begin to figure out why
they have not been implemented. Candy mentioned that this has started to happen in the Forging
Constructive Community Discourse in regards to the Town’s website.
Strengthening Lexington’s Budget Process – Peter Enrich reported that this group has decided to meet
monthly, and have their meetings on Saturdays for 3 hours at a time. The group has approximately 13
members and most were present at the first meeting. Due to scheduling conflicts, no members of any
boards nor the Appropriations and Capital Expenditures committees were able to attend. While the group
has lost some of its more conservative members, there is still variety on the task force with some
members being completely new to the Lexington budget process and others with history with the process.
The “leaders” of the task force shared many documents with the members before their first meeting. The
task force has split into three sub groups to focus on particular issues. The group also identified 8-10
other communities to interview on a variety of topics. The leadership of the group is currently a loose
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structure. Bob Lew volunteered to be the moderator for the task force. He will provide Candy with a
work plan.
Fostering Economic Development – Fernando reported that this task force is meeting tonight for the
second time. It is a small group but traditionally groups around this topic tend to not draw that many
people. The group is taking some time to get together; Wendy will attend tonight’s meeting to help
facilitate to get them started.
The homework for the group for tonight’s meeting was to read the economic development portion of the
Comprehensive Plan. This group also feels the tension between planning and action. Some of the issues
highlighted for discussion are: does the Town need a plan for recruiting businesses? Is there a pay off to
the town to shift taxes to the commercial base? How does the Town deal with problems of new
businesses? What is the criteria for retaining businesses?
Key dates:
Internal draft of task force reports: January 14
Final draft: January 26
Report back to boards: early February
Future meeting schedule
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2020 Vision Committee meeting: Thursday, December 2
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Thursday, January 6
Thursday, February 3rd
Meeting adjourned
at 8:45am.
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