Provo City Council Redevelopment Retreat - March 22, 2016

Agenda

Summary of the March 15 Meetings

In the Work Session

Pocket Neighborhoods
Community Development presented a project inspired by the Zoning Summit held in December. The project involves creating a "pocket neighborhood" in southwest Provo and would involve transferring property from Provo City to the Redevelopment Agency. Once created, the pocket neighborhood would be promoted to developers as an example of land use projects that would be welcome in Provo. Ross Chapin, who spoke at the summit and is an authority on pocket neighborhoods, has been advising the City on this project. The hope is to have it ready for the June 2017 Parade of Homes event. Council Members gave City administrators a thumbs up on moving forward.

Provo City Council Meeting - March 15, 2016

Agenda  (Times have been added to the ends of the individual agenda items to help you find them in the video.)

Provo City Council Work Meeting, March 15, 2016

Agenda  (Times have been added to the ends of the individual agenda items to help you find them in the video.)

2015 by the Numbers

We are happy to report that our efforts to connect to Provo residents continue to be successful. With so many choices for how people receive information, our office works hard to deliver information in a variety of ways. Not everything we do is online. The budget outreach events held last summer allowed us to speak one-on-one to people at several locations around Provo.

Our commitment to broadcasting Council meetings so more Provo residents could view from home or work, either live, or when the time is convenient for them, led to upgrades of equipment in the Council Chambers. Recent upgrades of sound equipment in the conference room where Council work meetings are held should keep us from missing the softer voices around the table. Fine tuning to eliminate background conversations and the noisy heating and cooling system has taken longer than expected so we appreciate your patience.

If you haven't done so already, please sign up to receive email updates and newsletters from your neighborhood, your Council Member, and the Council office. Choose which ones to receive by using this online form.


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Provology 101 - City Council

Provology 101, a series of classes that give a behind-the-scenes look at how Provo City runs, has given City departments the chance to show and tell about what they do for Provo. One of the participants, Anona Sobczak, has been sharing her experiences on Facebook and gave us permission to share them with you.

October 28, 2015

2016 Provo City Council

Our last night we learned a little more about the City Council from Karen Tapahe. This year there will be some big changes with new members being elected. We have a staggered election cycle so there is not a total turnover of Council members every 4 years.

What do they do? A big part of their job is city budget oversight. One thing I've learned from this class is that the smaller government gets, the more concerned they are about money. This city is very careful with their budget. Each department gets to plead their case to the Council and talk about their budgetary needs. The Council also deals with city policy.

Summary of the March 1 Meetings

In the Work Session

Council Priorities:
Council Members continued their discussion on priorities and made assignments to further them. The Policy Governance Committee will look at "structured policy" and come back with recommendations. For the priority on Provo's west side, Council Members will be asking constituents for input. "Civic engagement" has been changed to "public engagement" and Dave Harding, Dave Knecht, and Dave Sewell will each be gathering information on the three outcomes listed for this priority. The discussion on priorities will continue at the March 15 Work Meeting.

Community Development Fees:
Council Members is working with the Budget Committee to review 25 user fees each quarter, comparing actual costs to the fees being charged. Community Development presented the fees in their department to the Budget Committee at their previous meeting and did the same at the Council's Work Meeting. The department regularly compares their fees to those charged by other cities in order to stay "in the middle." They also don't aim for full cost recovery on these user fees because of the overall benefit to the community. After a healthy discussion, Council Members decided to continue this item to the March 15 Work Meeting to allow time for the Community Development department to gather some additional information.

Provology 101 - Mayor's Office

Provology 101, a series of classes that give a behind-the-scenes look at how Provo City runs, has given City departments the chance to show and tell about what they do for Provo. One of the participants, Anona Sobczak, has been sharing her experiences on Facebook and gave us permission to share them with you.

October 28, 2015

The words "happy" and "office" don't often go together, but our class facilitator, Karen Ellingson, called the mayor's office "The happiest office I have ever spent time in." I believe her: the mayor's optimism is contagious and has spread throughout the city and led to a better working relationship between the mayor's office and the city council.

Provo City Council Meeting - March 1, 2016

Agenda  (Times have been added to the ends of the individual agenda items to help you find them in the video.)

Provo City Council Work Meeting, March 1, 2016

Agenda  (Times have been added to the ends of the individual agenda items to help you find them in the video.)