HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-04-24-2020-min
Town of Lexington
Lexington 20/20 Vision Committee
Minutes of Meeting of April 24, 2014
20/20 Vision Committee
A meeting of the was held on Thursday, April 24 at 7:45 a.m. in the Selectmen Meeting Room
in the Town Office Building at 1625 Massachusetts Avenue.
Members Present: Fernando Quezada, Dan Krupka, Marian Cohen, Margaret Coppe, Peter Enrich, Alan Wrigley, Joe
Pato, Matthew Pronchik, Saatvik Ahluwalia
Staff: Candy McLaughlin, Melissa Jones
Members Absent: Peter Lee, Greg Zurlo, Bhumip Khasnabish, Andrew Dixon
Others Present: Carroll Ann Bottino
Action Items:
Re-circulate survey data and analysis for the Committee to review (Candy)
Review survey data and analysis and send all questions to Marian (all)
Draft a one-page write-up of the community survey results (Matthew)
Forward the recommendations of the subcommittee on demographic change to the Selectmen for
consideration at their goal-setting meeting (Candy)
Future agenda item: discuss scoping for studying community models of multicultural integration (Dan)
The meeting was called to order at 7:50 a.m. and acted on the following items:
Membership changes:
New membersSaatvik and Matthew introduced themselves to the rest of the Committee. Saatvik
has lived in Lexington since second grade, and he attended Boston University. He has served on Town Meeting, and ran
for the Board of Selectmen in 2014. He said that he learned a lot about the Town from campaigning, and that people
encouraged him to stay involved. He has read the demographic change sub-committee report, and he is interested in the
gap between the demographic reality of the Town and the lack of involvement by certain populations. Matthew received
his Bachelors in Sociology from Queens University. After college, he volunteered on organic farms across the country for
four or five months. This experience gave him a great deal of perspective on how different people live. Fernando
welcomed the new members and congratulated them on their appointment to the Committee. Jane Warren has resigned
from the committee and is now serving on the Conservation Commission.
Approved the minutes from March 28, 2014.
Decide follow-up actions for community survey:
Marian reviewed the graphs that show the breakdown, by category, of
the importance of each issue area and the overall performance rating. She noted that there are many ways to analyze and
present the data. Matthew said that it is easy to tell from the graphs what matters to the respondents. The graphs that are
most right-heavy (such as education and environment) indicate that those categories are very important. Fernando asked
which categories the Committee views as a high priority based on the data. Marian said that the data on the graph
depicting population diversity is more spread out, and that this might speak to the work of the sub-committee. Peter said
that Town decision-makers first need to know that the data is available, and then they need to understand which areas are
most in need of improvement. Matthew suggested that the Committee put together a one-page write-up of the survey
results to communicate the basic findings. He said that he is willing to draft this. Marian asked for the members to read
the original survey questions, review the results and analysis that has been produced so far, and send all questions to her
for follow-up. Candy mentioned that Carl is interested in doing this survey on a consistent basis (every two to three
years); the Committee is open to exploring this further. Fernando noted that we would need a budget for this.
Conclude discussion on revised Committee charge:
Joe said that he feels comfortable with the language, and he is
happy to bring this to the Board of Selectmen. He does not foresee any of the other Selectmen having any issues with this
revised charge.
Discuss multicultural integration – learning from other communities:
Dan said that we can study and learn from other
communities with large Asian populations that have made a concerted effort to integrate. He said that the sub-committee
on demographic change recommends looking outside of Massachusetts for examples, and that we need to spend some
time thinking through which communities to study. Dan will give some thought on how to proceed with this.
Ideas for Senior Management Team and Board of Selectmen goal setting:
Peter said that he would like to remind the
Board that the Committee is their resource for anything that requires long-term planning. Dan said that he feels
passionate that the recommendations from the report on demographic change be accepted by the Board. Joe said that
prioritizing this for the goal-setting session would allow the Board to discuss the recommendations further and assign one
or two members to carry them forward. Saatvik raised the issue of “taxation without representation,” and the fact that
many residents are not allowed to vote on local issues because they are not citizens. The Committee talked about past
attempts at addressing this, and discussed how the Committee might work on this issue moving forward.
Meeting Adjourned:
9:00 a.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Melissa Jones, Scribe
Next meeting:
Friday, May 23 in the Selectmen Meeting Room