TCD3 had a final recommendation no participant saw coming. Now it’s the council’s turn to ask some questions about Neighborhood Community Networks like: Huh?
That seemed to be the big question last night when council came to accepting the TCD3 documents. When the consultants Houseal & Lavigne announced at the conclusion of TCD3 that the main outcome that was needed is Neighborhood Community Networks to facilitate better communications between village and village government, a lot of participants were left scratching their heads.
Apparently so were council members. The motion last night was to accept the report and pass it on the Human Services Commission. Council seemed ready to accept the report, but no council member seemed sure about the rest.
Staff proposals and council member reactions after the break.
Staff proposed four steps to evaluate information in the report and appendix:
- First is that the report be accepted by council. This allows the report to be designated as an official village document without requiring action on anything in the report — just acceptance and inclusion in the files.
- Second is to refer the document, more specifically the “Neighborhood Community Network” (formerly “Neighborhood Group” or “Neighborhood Organization”) concept to the Human Services Commission as a way to investigate/evaluate in a public setting this proposal (see pages 5-7 of the Summary Report). A report and recommendation from the HSC would come back to council, who would then talk over how HSC thinks it could be implemented.
- Third would be further consideration of certain topics as part of the Comprehensive Plan update. TCD3 was intended in part to feed the Comp Plan effort, especially in the areas of zoning and economic development. There’s plenty of meat in TCD3 for that.
- Last would be identifying “other opportunities for consideration by the Village Council as part of the 2011 Strategic Plan process or by other Board and Commissions – Items in the report or appendix that are deemed worthy of further consideration, but are not being addressed in steps 2 or 3 (that) can be brought forward and discussed either by the Village Council or a designated Board/Commission.“
Council viewed the TCD3 documents, the HSC’s involvement with the TCD3 documents and the Comp Plan update effort with more questions, indicating a council unready to simply plow ahead when they were still scratching their heads about NCNs, about what they would be and why they would be.
Commissioner Marilyn Schnell wanted to see a larger discussion from the HSC about group types that would become Neighborhood Community Networks, and look at the broader picture of communication and engagement with the community, based wider than just, say, elementary school areas with one group representing a physical area.
Commissioner Bruce Beckman opened up the discussion with the observation that resident groups tend to dissolve and drift away, and wondered if the NCN groups would do that too. Groups tend to dissolve after a goal has been met or dealt with (successfully or unsuccessfully), so he would like to see the HSC look into how to make the NCNs a long term device. His concerns were repeated with additional perspective by the most of council.
Commissioner Bill Waldack wanted to see NCNs as a possible subset of already existing community organizations that had continuous existence. He also raised the prospect of farming out TCD3 items to more than one committee or commission, to spread the work load among more resident volunteers and make better use of existing boards and commissions.
One of Commissioner Geoff Neustadt’s concerns was staff time for the HSC meeting prep. NCN were interesting but he zeroed in on the conclusion being brought to DG by the facilitators rather than the participants themselves coming up with a big hitter physical need like a hospital or sidewalks, as previous TCDs had done. He felt the HSC should be given free reign to work with the report, and that groups that spoke at the meeting could serve as examples of NCNs that could be made up of existing community groups.
Commissioner Bob Barnett (lean into the mic a little more, Bob) suggested he might be a contrarian, but underlined Neustadt’s concern that the recommendation for NCNs came from the consultants and not the TCD3 participants themselves, and that trying to create new groups of residents might not be the best action to take with the limited time and staff assets. He felt the groups that wanted to be heard were heard, and that any new groups created by the village might simply fade away in a couple years.
Mayor Ron Sandack reminded council the first step is to simply accept the report and that ought to be done given all the work the entire village put into it. What comes next is the tripping point because of the lack of that singular new need. We’re pretty set, mature, good schools, the whole nine yards, and what comes next is a big deal. The Comp Plan is an implementation item to follow from TCD3, but when it came to handing off the report to the HSC, Sandack agreed with the consensus; he couldn’t come up with a hard, nail-it-down charge for them on what to do with it.
Sandack asked council to vote to accept the report and to discuss next week on what the charge should be. So there’s a first meeting benefit of the new format; instead of waiting two weeks to re-workshop, it’ll get discussed next week, maybe.
Staff time is a big concern. None on council wants staff burning up a lot of unnecessary time on this; they have enough on their plates. So next week Village Manager Fieldman will bring the acceptance of the TCD3 report forward and take a bit more time before coming back to council with a plan on what the Human Services Commission will be asked to do with it.
Thanks for the summary–I don’t have time to read the report right now, but I will later. From this description, the NCN concept sounds like a total waste of time to me. I think improving communication is always a good thing, but there has to be a way to do it with a better chance of success.
(And, yes, Elaine, this is a legit e-mail address.)
While there may have been no “A-HA! We need that!” specific recommendation that came out of TCD3, I applaud the consultant for seeing the bigger picture here.
We as a village now have lots of smaller issues that are more neighborhood specific. The NCN concept is more of a way to get some actual action on concerns that are neighborhood specific.
Lets face it, trees and tear-downs are not the big issue in all of DG, but for some it is huge.
Some of the current organizations in town have taken on those very issues. There are also those organizations with few members and other agendas that show up and push their special interest items on everyone.
Every neighborhood has it’s own issues, some larger, some smaller. Maybe the condition of a street, or the need for a stop sign or a problem with wildlife. These are the kind of things that could be addressed on a neighborhood level and possibly resolved more quickly. Give the local people in the neighborhoods a chance to speak about their neighborhood. After all, who knows it better?
This could really be great for our community if it is done right. Think less of a “committee” format and more of a localized “town hall meeting” format.
Not HUH, but BWOTAM!
Trains, trains and more trains At the ground breaking for the Belmont Underpass local elected officials spoke of the many years of planning, almost countless hours of meetings, and the good willed cooperation between many government agencies to reach the point for an official ground breaking. It was an honor to be handed a shovel and asked to take part in the ceremony. It had been about 10 years since Mayor Krajewski first formed the underpass task force and like the little locomotive that could we kept moving along.
Now, let us move forward to today. Train traffic is expected to increase dramatically, about 30%, over the next 30 years. Do the math. Currently there are about 200 trains a day moving through our community. Now, traffic near a crossing is at gridlock throughout most of the day. What was once a wait for one train to pass, is now often a wait for two to three to pass.
About 60 years ago, the County Board developed a plan to raise the track bed at Forest, Main, and Washington without changing the grade of the streets at those locations. This plan is as viable now as it was 60 years ago. With that little locomotive attitude, additional grade separation at crossings in Downers Grove is possible.
Call me old school, but what is “BWOTAM”? Thanks.
Matt-
Big Waste Of Time And Money
Wow, and I thought I was advanced with “woot,” I have never heard of BWOTAM before….
How about wards and let it go at that? Then every part of town would have that voice.
Wards is an interesting idea but implementation?…..now the Village can hire another consultant to figure the ward borders and then another to draw the map and another to create the wards and aldermanic offices…..another to create a communication system between wards…….open the flood gates it’s the Chicago City Council! BWOTAM
I suspect it will end up being a Village sponsored rehash of DGTalk
Wards are the way to go. better representation and our streets would be fixed in a timley manner.
I’m sad because I know KellyDGM is right. Even though I think it’s a great idea in theory.
I agree that KellyDGM is right……..how would you divide up all of the area north of Maple? Majority of the Council live north of Maple except Durkin and Waldack. We need wards. Simple.
Interesting that you chose Maple versus the train tracks like everyother DGer does??? Is it so you could throw Barnett (who basically lives on Maple) into the “majority”. We don’t need wards. If you feel like you are not being represented, then attend a meeting and voice your concern. This has been a VERY accessible council. Just look at all of the budget meetings that were offered this year as an example.
Maple is the cut off for D99 for the most part…hence North and South divides there.
So, shall we place a ward in Woodridge, since Woodridge also is in D99?? I could be wrong, but Google maps places the geographical center at Ogden and Main. Let’s compromise and call people living south of 55 Southsiders and North of Warren Northsiders, and the ones in the middle mid-towners.
Anyway, I think its foolish to have wards.. If the best 7 people for the council happen to live in the same ward, are you saying we would have to dumb down ourselves for the simple perceived need of geographical representation?
You know that is not the point TC. The point is the town sees itself as north or south based on where your kids go to high school. I dont see kids on my block with DGN summer camp hats dude! They all have Mustang summer camp hats and gear. That is what I meant. I dont care about the ward deal.