08/08/1994 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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0 CITY COUNCIL MEETING AUGUST 8, 1994 time to begin the "visionary" process. He noted that Lino Lakes has experienced the community mix of residents in a short period of time. The "new comers" now out number the "old timers". He explained that to his knowledge there is nobody in a policy making position with the City that feels that one group should have an advantage over the other. The expectations of what Lino Lakes should be has produced many different opinions. Many people who have recently moved into Lino Lakes do not know what the community is because of the type of government that is in place. They do not know the true status regarding the City budget, the constraints of the Charter, where dollars come from to operate the many departments of the City government and what the planning process has been in the past. Mayor Reinert said that Lino Lakes is a well planned community and new residents do not know what Lino Lakes was, is or may be in the future. Many members of the current City Council and staff have experienced peaks and valleys in growth and understand how this type of growth relates to staffing, budgeting and changes of philosophy by the different council's. Mayor Reinert said that the City Council has a responsibility to do a better job in projecting future development. He proposed that now is the time -to address the future with the help of the citizens in an "envisioning" project. Mayor Reinert asked the City Council to support his proposal for the "20/20 Vision, A Guide to Lino Lakes' Future" program. He noted that year 2020 is far away and explained that he is looking at developing five (5) year or even three (3) year plans. Mission statements need to be developed with the help of the citizens. The Mission Statements will guide the current City Council as well as all future City Council's. He proposed that this process begin in September, 1994 and be completed in early spring, 1995. In addition he proposed to hire an outside neutral facilitator who will guide the process. The City Council will be removed from the process. Mayor Reinert suggested that the program be started with a forum similar to what started this evening to identify issues currently facing the City and issues that the City will face in the future. This process will take time and enlist the help of as many as 60 citizens. This process has been done by other communities and staff and the facilitator will use examples from other cities to guide them. We have a lot of differences of opinion in this community and these differences must be addressed. The goal of the citizen participation process is to facilitate effective, informed and representative participation of citizens, government officials and citizen initiatives and to provide a channel for communication among citizens, elected officials, staff and other relevant agency representatives and bring about a sense of community. Because of the geographics of the City, the separation due to the line of lakes and the regional park, this PAGE 10 1 1 r