COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING

STEERING COMMITTEE

August 1, 2005

Present:  Jenna Smith, Rick Smith, Christy Schrader, Steve Caine, Dave Adams Marv Schorr, Dave Wood, Dean Durst, Gary Vanderhorst, Dot Mitchell, Midge Dube, Dawn Szurek, Maria McCulloch, Sally Ellms, Deborah Herrin.

The first order of business was to approve the minutes of July 5, 2005.  There were no additions or corrections and were approved as written.

Steve Caine told the committee that 17 out of 21 active members have started the voting process on the website and 15 have finished completely.  Steve recommended setting the deadline for voting by the close of the day on Sunday, August 7, 2005.  John Kelly, the website administrator, can immediately email to everyone a printable report that lists the strategies with the number and percentage of who agree, disagree and the number who abstained.  He will also email the report to Nan who will put in on Excel and group them into percentages.  Steve explained the scope of the project to the committee.  He said he counted the number of pages generated from the raw report from John Kelly and it was 76 pages.  He said there is also a pie diagram that shows just absolute numbers (no percentages) for those who agree, those who disagree and those who abstained.  He said that the committee will receive the results and will easily identify the ones that are in the 75% rule.  Nan told Steve she will be able to put the information into a different format and condense it into approximately 20 pages.  Steve said he counted 286 strategies.  Once Nan gives the committee the first draft of the report, the next step will be to get information to the public through an informational meeting.  After the informational meeting, the next step will be to hold a public hearing before the Town Board receives the plan.  After the informational meeting and the public hearing, the committee will have to review the information received at those meetings as well as all the data previously collected, make changes if necessary and then give the plan to the Town Board.  Steve also thinks there should be an educational presentation for the Town Board.  Dave Adams said it will be up to the Town Board to accept a presentation or not, and that we can’t force it on them.  Steve agreed but said we should encourage the Board to accept it, but that it’s their call.  We have seen that education makes a difference in understanding these concepts.  The Town Board will have a public hearing of their own before they make their final judgments.  Steve said he got very rough numbers and believes there will be approximately 100 statements that will be less than 75% which will mean additional discussion.  Out of those 100, some will be very close to the 75%.  He suggested everyone could possibly have one shot at discussing the items that were less than 75% and then the committee would vote on them.  Dave Adams said he didn’t agree with that.  He said sometimes there needs to be clarification on what someone has said with a follow up discussion.  Steve said that with 100 statements, (some with 73.6%, some with 66.6% and some that will be 50%-50%), if 20 people are allowed to talk for just one minute, that’s 20 minutes times 100.  Steve said he understood what Dave was saying but was wondering if there was a middle ground somewhere.  Dave said that it’s possible that not everyone will have something to say, but that it’s more important that the decision making is done right as opposed to rushing through the process.  He doesn’t want to feel that discussion will be shut off arbitrarily.  He suggested that if a situation arises that… (inaudible)…  Steve said the committee had agreed to do the electronic voting and those that were 75% in agreement would be put into a different category.   They would be put off the table but that if anyone felt strongly about their disagreement with one of those topics, they could bring up their concern with the committee with their logic for doing so and the committee through voting would then decide whether to allow the discussion back on the table or not.  Everything less than 75% would be discussed and then a majority vote would be used to establish the committee’s position.  Dave Adams said he believes that what the committee has heard so far is the opinion of one person, Nan.  There hasn’t been time to have any interactive discussions about any topics before voting.  He believes there needs to be more input and discussion with committee members once the results of the voting are tabulated.  Dean Durst agreed with Dave.  He said people can have different interpretations on the same subject and he believes everything should be discussed and written so that in 10 or 15 years, different people on the Board don’t interpret the Comprehensive Plan differently than it is intended.  Marv Schorr agreed and said that the committee has only discussed questions that came up but haven’t discussed the strategies as they are now.  He also stated that the verbiage for some of the strategies could be reworded and that he found he abstained from voting on a few strategies because of the way it was worded.  Those he would like to discuss.  Steve agreed.  He said Nan’s perspective isn’t necessarily that of Charlton, but after hearing what the people of Charlton want she was able to develop goals and strategies for those goals.  Dave Adams said that some of the information from Nan regarding Charlton was not entirely correct and those issues should be brought up and discussed.  Steve said, Nan is not as familiar with Charlton zoning as some on the committee but she is a proven expert on planning tools that have been developed in the last 10 to 15 years.  Marv said he has a concern as to how we are going to handle comments from a hearing.  He understands there has to be an informational meeting to familiarize the public, but how is the committee going to handle comments?  Steve said he thinks a public hearing would be a brief overview of the comprehensive plan.  We would carefully measure and shape the information to give everyone the big picture but not go so deeply into small details that we overload everyone.  Any comments from the public would be received but not necessarily mean a change to the plan.  The committee would have to review all the comments later and decide, based on surveys and other information, those suggestions that best represented the views of the majority of Charlton’s citizens.  The comprehensive plan is being taken from the surveys and all the raw data already collected and this committee’s job is to figure out how to put that information into a plan that is what the townspeople want and that the town can adopt and follow years down the road.  Dawn Szurek said that any comments the public has can be addressed by the committee at an informational meeting prior to the public hearing. There was more discussion on the public hearing and how much information to give the public. 

Steve and others voiced concerns about voting on strategies without the whole group present.  After the voting is tabulated and Nan gives the data to the committee, there is a lot of work to be done with the strategies that are less that 75%.  Steve asked if it’s fair to vote without all 21 people, or should the vote be with just those who are present that particular evening?  A concern was expressed that if we voted without some present, some of those not present could possibly not support the vote of those present.  He feels it’s important to figure out a way to move ahead in a reasonable fashion.  Maria McCulloch suggested doing another electronic vote.  Marv Schorr suggested emailing all the members imploring them to attend the meetings.  After lengthy discussion, it was decided to email all the committee members and urge them to attend the meetings so they can be part of the final decision making, and letting them know that votes will be taken without all present but that it is necessary for the entire committee to support the vote of those present.  The committee sees no other way to have the work on the plan move forward.  Steve said he would send out the email.

Christy Schrader had a suggestion on the voting just completed, and said that any strategies that are 25% or less be rejected.  Dave Adams questioned the 25% number.  He said we heard Nan’s rationale on everything and believes now the committee should discuss things on their own, without any more input from Nan.  Dave also said that Nan often talks too much.  Steve said he took umbrage with that statement and it was totally unfair.  She has only provided us input when we’ve asked her to.  Dave explained that he meant that Nan often goes beyond the point where she has convinced the committee people of her rationale, but continues to discuss the reasons for her position.  Steve said that there are some areas where the committee hasn’t heard Nan’s rationale.  The entire group has not heard her rationale in cases where a subcommittee agreed to Nan’s proposals and had no questions.  This was the case with the strategically important strategies that deal with changing the size and density of the R, R/A and A areas.  After more discussion it was decided to have the next meeting without Nan so the committee can go over and discuss the results of the voting.  Steve suggested getting together on a Saturday, before the regular Monday meeting next month, to work through things.  After discussion, a Saturday meeting was scratched because the farmers wouldn’t be able to be there as well as some other people.  It was decided to have another meeting at night, before the September 6^th meeting, and the group decided to meet again on August 29^th. 

Steve recapped and explained the next series of events.  The printable results of the voting that will be completed by August 7^th will be forwarded by John Kelly to the entire group and Nan.  Nan will consolidate the information in a spreadsheet format and forward it to the committee.  At that point, the group will get together to discuss those items that are not in the 75% bracket.  The 75% group will only be discussed if someone feels strongly about a topic and can show just cause to the rest of the group why it should be discussed again.  The group will decide whether to discuss it again after hearing the persons rationale.   Once the group has reached agreement on the strategies, Nan will write the first draft of the plan. 

Steve told the committee that the Town Board is working on their budget for 2006 and needed submissions from the various committees by August 31^st.   He stated that there is $1800.04 left in the comprehensive plan budget for this year.  He is proposing another six months worth of secretarial help from Chris at a cost of $660, and $1500 for printing material, mailings and public outreach.  He told the group he would submit this number to the Town Board unless someone on the committee had a better figure.  He also complimented the Town Board for it’s efforts to better coordinate the budget and for having the Town Board’s liaison also sign the budget submission.  He also told the group that Nan has reached her cap and is working at this point without getting paid, but has agreed to complete the work.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:35 P.M.