HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-10-30-2020-min
Town of Lexington
Lexington 20/20 Vision Committee
Minutes of Meeting of October 30, 2015
Parker Room, Town Office Building, 1625 Massachusetts Avenue - 7:45 a.m.
Members Present:
Fernando Quezada, Peter Lee, Dan Krupka, Margaret Coppe, Andrew Dixon, Carroll Ann Bottino,
Bhumip Khasnabish, Ginna Johnson
Visitors:
Marian Cohen, Elaine Ashton
Staff:
Candy McLaughlin
Members Absent:
Peter Enrich, Joe Pato, Alan Wrigley
Action Items:
In Town Report narrative, change words describing diversity from “age and income” to “social”. (Claire)
The meeting was called to order at 7:50 a.m. and acted on the following items:
Approved minutes from September meeting, with the request to list Action Items at the top of future minutes.
David Tabeling took the Committee’s photo for the Town Report.
Discussed proposed 20/20 Vision focus areas.
Issues of Social Diversity:
In the absence of Carroll Ann (at the beginning of the meeting) and Peter E, Marian talked about some of the data
being gathered as well as thoughts for the Committee’s planned 2017 survey. Both Marian and Dan commented that
Census data is not as easily available as it used to be. There was general discussion about the intangible aspects of
social/cultural change which can be both positive (receptivity to new people and ideas) and negative (more transitory
segments of community).
Future of e-government:
Bhumip referred to the topic as “e-gov” which includes both e-government and e-governance. He has gathered
information from news media about “smart cities” and said there are a range of items - smart pay, smart park, smart
education, etc. These approaches use technology to make things more convenient and efficient by integrating across
organizational silos. Projects can be undertaken over time within a coherent framework. Committee members seemed
interested in some of these areas.
Fernando asked Candy, a Project Manager in the Town’s Information Services Department, for ways the 20/20 Vision
Committee could help the Town as it moves forward with technology. Candy listed some of the projects currently
underway, and noted the need to balance new ideas with available resources and restrictions on government action.
She said researching developing technologies, particularly around citizen engagement, would be helpful. Fernando
and Andrew commented that 20/20’s efforts should focus on concepts and future trends, not operational issues. Ginna
suggested that since the media don’t cover local government issues as much as they used to, the Town could step in to
provide information, including documents and plans, about major projects on the Town’s website.
Heard update on Subcommittee on Asian Communities.
Dan said the overall plan is to discover ways to increase inclusion of Asian residents in the Lexington community. The
Subcommittee is filtering an initial list of 85 communities down to about ten that have some comparability to Lexington,
and then wants to talk to a dozen or so people in each of these communities. He said that $10,000 of the appropriation for
this study will be given as a grant to Framingham State University to pay students to develop, administer, and analyze
results from an online survey. The Subcommittee might then enlist people in Lexington to contact their counterparts in
other communities to get more detailed information.
Meeting adjourned:
9:10 a.m.
Respectfully Submitted: Candy McLaughlin, Scribe
Next meeting:
Friday, November 20, 2015 at 7:45 am in the Parker Room