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ENFIELD TOWN COUNCIL
MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING
DECEMBER 9, 2002
A Special Meeting of the Enfield Town Council was called to order by Chairman Vayda in the Enfield Room of the Enfield Town Hall, 820 Enfield Street, Enfield, Connecticut on Monday, December 9, 2002 at 7:12 p.m.
ROLL-CALL - Present were Councilmen Jones, Mangini, Strom, Tallarita, and Vayda. Councilman Kaupin entered the meeting at 7:30 p.m. Councilmen Edgar, Egan, Fiore, Hall and Tait were absent. Also present were Town Manager, Scott A. Shanley; Town Clerk, Suzanne F. Olechnicki
DISCUSSION RE: CIVIC PARTICIPATION
Representing the Civic Participation Committee were Karen LaPlante, Julie Lai, Eileen Hargreaves, Lee Hawthorne, Michael Littlejohn, Marie Pyznar and Michael Egan.
Mr. Shanley explained the National Civic League had a grant program that CRCOG picked up on in a program to submit proposals of a process that might be employed to get information on why people are becoming less and less engaged in civic activities. He noted as a result of this grant, Enfield, Manchester, Wethersfield, Windsor and Hartford each put together a process and there was a lot of analysis and the end result has been a published handbook. He pointed out the document before the Council represents the result of Enfield's process.
Referring to the document before the Council, Michael Egan reviewed the page entitled "Civic Participation - Government". He highlighted a couple paragraphs as follows:
When boards and commissions were discussed, some of the comments included the following:
" The positions should be well defined. Inform prospective applicants what will be expected of them, including but not limited to the time required for the position, the term of the appointment, any educational requirements, and the goals of the position.
Mr. Egan stated it seems as though there's some ambiguity between what positions are available and what the requirements might be. He noted some capable candidates were lost because of this, or perhaps it was due to a time delay in trying to communicate information back and forth.
" The application process should be more like applying for a job so the best possible applicant can be chosen. An application requesting qualifications, experience and references should be required. There should be an interview process and the person should then be accepted or rejected for the position "pool".
" If the position is made by appointment by the Town Council, then the Council should choose applicants that have already passed this application process and have been accepted into the "pool".
Councilman Tallarita questioned whether the five participating towns met together. Ms. LaPlante responded yes and noted it was helpful to work together in the beginning, and once the individual towns had their own stakeholders, the towns worked on their own.
Councilman Tallarita questioned once the towns go forward with their action plan, is there anyway that's communicated with the other towns to learn of the different approaches for the same problems. Ms. LaPlante indicated that's a possibility.
Councilman Tallarita questioned if the goal is to endorse the action plan, and Ms. LaPlante responded yes, so that they can move forward with items. Mr. Shanley added some of these recommendations are really culture changes, and he feels the committee is in the best position to present those and discuss them.
Chairman Vayda questioned if there's grant funding that would allow for the implementation of recommendations, and Ms. LaPlante responded no.
Councilman Strom referred to the action plan and noted there are things that the Council would need to do and agree upon, i.e., funding for a citizens' academy or doing any kind of quarterly newsletter.
Ms. Lai stated her belief in order to make things happen, the civic participation group has to be officially recognized.
Ms. LaPlante stated her belief there's a perception by the public that the Town doesn't really care. She noted some people said they applied for positions but never had a response.
Councilman Jones raised the question as to what might be implemented now at no cost. He added his belief there should be some type of committee which would provide oversight to be sure this does move forward.
Mr. Egan referred to a page in the document entitled "The Civic Participation Project - Enfield's Action Plan". He highlighted the following areas:
" How to improve the outreach and recruitment process of boards and commissions?
" Develop an "It's your town" campaign
" Create neighborhood coffee hoursOffer a tax break for participation on boards and commissions. (Chairman Vayda pointed out this could be very difficult to manage. Councilman Strom pointed out this would also take the "volunteer" out of volunteerism)
" Utilize mass media to spread the word - flyers, weekly news, reports, letters to the editor, public access, events and activities signs. (Mr. Shanley stated the Town has a website, public access television calendar, and they do have articles in the newspapers when there are vacancies. He stated the letter to the editor is an interesting approach that hasn't been used in the past).
Councilman Strom referred to an earlier comment about people not getting a response after submitting an application and stated her belief this is a broken process on the Council's part. She noted Councilmen Kaupin and Fiore are very good about responding to applicants. Chairman Vayda agreed with Councilman Strom and stated his belief the problem with today's process is that they don't have anyone in charge of this.
Ms. LaPlante suggested making this similar to a job application where the Town Manager's office or someone within the Town would interview a candidate to learn how qualified they are before they pass this on. Mr. Shanley stated in the past this was done through the political parties. Chairman Vayda pointed out the Town Manager works for the Council, and the Council is made up of individuals from various political parties, and the process is political by its nature, therefore, the Town Manager cannot step up and do this because if he does, he will be in the middle of a political contest at some point in time.
Ms. LaPlante suggested the application be changed so that more information is provided.
Mr. Shanley noted in the past there was discussion about creating a system whereby they'd have one interview panel that included Democrats and Republicans. He noted that change would also have to be accepted by both the Democrat and Republican Town Committees.
Ms. Pyznar stated community pride seems to be lacking.
Mr. Egan stated his belief there's a big pool of people in town that aren't being tapped into.
Discussion followed regarding the idea of a "Welcome Wagon".
Ms. Hargreaves stated her belief the biggest challenge is attracting volunteers and keeping them.
Councilman Tallarita referred to "Enfield's Action Plan", Strategy 2 - "Work within the schools to take the information about civic participation to youth". He stated his belief this is an important strategy because this is a generational change. He noted the State has mandated civics classes, and perhaps there's some way they can work with the Board of Education to help build awareness with the students regarding civic participation. Mr. Shanley stated he contacted both civic teachers at the high schools and the curriculum coordinator and volunteered to talk about anything having to do with local government.
Mr. Hawthorne stated his belief people need to know exactly what their responsibilities will be for a committee.
Councilman Strom stated her belief the citizens' academy is a good thing to happen.
Councilman Jones stated he would like to push forward with some items.
Chairman Vayda agreed there needs to be a committee to champion this whole process and keep it moving. He added there is a need to have some funding available for things such as advertising. He noted this committee could then identify a way to begin the citizens' academy and do something regarding education at the school level. He stated the first step is that the Council needs to decide they want a committee to oversee this, and they need to get that process going. He noted they would then turn this over to the committee who can work with Town staff. He pointed out this would all have to fit into the other priorities that the Town staff is working on as well.
Mr. Shanley stated there are many boards and commissions in Enfield, and they have many people volunteering. He pointed out providing Town staff for existing boards and commissions is a challenge at this time.
Ms. LaPlante questioned whether the action items all have to be Council decisions. Chairman Vayda stated by getting the funding and priority issues through the Council, the Council could understand the implications of one more program. He stated the Council needs to understand the big picture, but they don't have to get involved with the individual details.
Councilman Kaupin stated his belief a culture change needs to come from volunteers. He stated he would like to see a committee with a budget so that they can draw on the resources of the town staff and all the other boards and commissions.
It was agreed that the application process needs further discussion.
Chairman Vayda stated the next Regular Meeting agenda should include an item regarding the establishment of a committee. He noted once the committee is established, they can address items that would be quickly visible.
Ms. Hargreaves questioned whether this committee would have to have an equal number of members from each political party, and Chairman Vayda responded no.
There was no Executive Session this evening.
The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m.
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Last Updated: Tuesday, Dec 24, 2002
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