Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

and we're going to be leading you through today's agenda. But first, I wanted to start off with why are we here? What are our objectives for our meeting? These are really important because it sort of sets the stage for what we're going to be doing together. So, the first one, as the the mayor alluded to, is really about strengthening connections and building a team, right? We're going to be talking about a highly functioning public serviceoriented team. Um, which is really important as you all are facing some really difficult and pressing challenges in your community. How can you build relationships and build up that teamwork to be able to work together effectively? The second um objective is going to be talking about what are the systems and structures that will help support that teamwork. Right? So it's part of it is what you all do as individuals, but there are things like your policies and procedures, your rules of procedure, your code of ethics, your core values that can help butress and support that work as you get into it. So we're going to briefly talk about that today. It's not going to be a main focus. Um, but I think it is important since we asked some questions in the premeating survey on that. And lastly, after lunch, we're going to spend the afternoon kind of getting into the heart of the matter. your staff will join, your department leaders will join for that portion of the conversation and it will really be about creating some shared understanding and awareness around what's the future of this amazing community. Um what's the vision that you all have together that you're working towards? Um we are not going to be co-creating a vision statement today. We're going to be brainstorming, right? We're going to be getting a lot of ideas out um with the eventual hope that you all as a board will arrive at a conclusion related to that. But today is really about getting ideas and generating. And the last thing that we're going to be doing um as part of our afternoon agenda is really getting into a prioritization and an understanding of some of the key issues that you're facing. Um so we'll be doing some interactive work. Uh the staff will be engaged because they've got some great expertise to bring to the table,

but ultimately everything will come back to this group for final direction and decision. In terms of how we're going to spend our time, uh the majority of our morning is going to be spent on this team an individual awareness building. Um then we're going to have some lunch and then we're going to get into the vision and um some of the prioritization. Uh you have a very general agenda in front of you. We have a very detailed agenda in front of us. Um so we'll be keeping time. We'll be making sure all voices are heard. Um so kind of just try to trust the process a little bit as you go through. Um but we are very flexible. So if you know if we need to adjust we will and make sure we're you all are getting out of this what you need to. So the benefits of having us facilitate is neutrality. At the end of the day we don't really care which direction you go on an issue. That is up to your direction and leadership. We're here to get you through a good process and make sure that you get to the outcomes that you're looking for. Um, part of that is managing the process and using some of our, you know, facilitation tools and tricks to make sure that all voices are heard. Um, and it also allows your staff to participate. You know, they don't have to worry about managing the meeting. They can be here. They can listen. Uh, they can observe. Um, and that really helps them uh on their work. And with that, I'm going to turn over to Kasha.

Thank you. Can you click me off?

All right. Thank you all very much. Uh, as Geraldine mentioned, we have a system in place to keep the conversation moving. So, to set up that system and make sure we're all on the same page, we have a few meeting methods we want to share. Uh, the content presentation will help the discussion move along through some very uh, targeted points that we want to emphasize and uh, introduce you to. There's also going to be a pause for individual reflection. We want you to bring your whole self to this process and your experiences. It's what got you here and it's what's going to help the town develop. There's going to be small group work that's going to let you learn from each other and reflect on how your colleagues view situations. And then of course we'll have large group discussion where we're able to talk through larger issues and prioritize things as a group. Uh to make this happen, of course, we'd like for you to pay attention and withhold judgment. really take time to reflect, clarify, which is one of my favorite things. A lot of times we assume we know acronyms first of all, and other processes. Um, so please don't hesitate to slow down the process and ask for clarification along the way. I'm sure um anyone here would be uh open to providing that information. We're going to summarize things you heard to make sure we heard it correctly. You'll see us taking notes on various issues. Again, we want to make sure that what we write down, what we take back with us is what you truly feel and express. So, if you see something's coming down uh and not the way that you intended, just let us know and and we'll adjust that. And then, of course, we want to share this is an open process. Uh we are recording this for posterity, but uh this is a space to um you all will have control over that. So, uh it is your decision on what is done with that. So, some ground rules, uh, to speak up and show up, to be present and engage, share your voice. If caffeine is needed,

please just let us know and we can, uh, make some things happen. Uh, respect in the room, of course, leading with respect, and listening like it matters because it really does. Staying curious, assuming that there's something to learn. I think curiosity is um, probably what moves conversations forward the easiest, right? If we can just stay curious about things uh and and respect the fact that there are no bad questions. Uh clarity is kindness. Ask for what you need and check for understanding as we just mentioned and support a smooth session. Silent device silence devices and keep comments concise. And then one of my favorite things we do is the parking lot. I don't know if you do it in your own meetings, but it has changed my world. So, it is a spot for us to write down issues that might not be uh part of the specific conversation we're having, but we need to make note of and circle back to uh before we leave. So, this is a spot for us to write those down or to hand off to staff.

You're good. You were silencing. I appreciate it. Yeah. No, you're good. I am here for it.

Yeah. Okay, now we're gonna we have clarification at at least. Um, so highly effective public serviceoriented teams. Thank you. There are three parts to this agenda with the purpose of increasing your awareness of each other as leaders, your preferences, and your styles as individuals. And then we're going to reflect on those and learn how we can build on your uniqueness to create highly effective commission and team. So again, this is about bringing your whole self to the process, bringing your thoughts and views and opinions uh of those you represent and then including them in the conversation and using it to move the conversations forward as a group because that's why you're all here to to learn how to move things together. And we're gonna start with a ice breaker. This is my actual crane crayon box from when I was a child. So, please I was surprised they're all still intact. Um, so if you want to take

you can use pens or a couple crayons if you'd like to pass it on down. I think Crayola was okay in the 90s.

There's some ro Yeah, you can pass on the Rose Art. I won't take any offense. So, this exercise is going to let you again reflect on your own experiences and then share with each other. You're going to use words, drawings, and symbols to respond to the prompts in the worksheet and complete each quadrant. You will not be graded on presentation. Um, again, you can use a pen if you feel better doing that. You can use crayons. You can create your own emojis. Uh you'll just have to explain what they are to us. So look at each quadrant and answer the prompts. The first prompt is a person or event who shaped who I am today. That shaped who I am today. A person or event that shaped who I am today. Your second quadrant, my motivation for public service andor serving in elected office. Your third prompt is a fun fact, something that no one in the room knows about you. And your fourth prompt is to write a newspaper headline about Waxaw in five years. So, we'll give you a few minutes to work on that. Let us know if you have questions.

be thinking about how you want to introduce your partner with that fun fact. We'll give you another minute or two and then we'll go around the table. All right, let's um let's do a little sharing from the group. Um, mayor's making eye contact with me, so you guys are going to go first.

Surprise. So, um, introduce your partner. Just take turns and we'll go down the row. All righty. I'm going to go ahead and embarrass I mean introduce my partner here. Uh, this is the incomparable Susanna Wedra. Uh, she is a first generation American. Uh, so English is her second language. So when the words don't come to her, just realize she's still still trying to pick it up. If I'm quiet, I might be thinking Exactly. Good.

Um, because as we all learn at a young age with our parents, it's not always the right language. Um, so that was the fun fact. Um, she has always been a person who enjoys serving, serving the community, serving her family, um, and just helping those around her, which is why she got into this. And then, um, yeah, and she her her uh headline was a little more upbeat than mine and just about uh, people enjoying the small town feel of

Waxaw. uh Mayor Robert Murray and um great guy, great on his feet. I mean the speeches he gives on his feet are amazing and you know the oneliners are great. Uh so his greatest influence were his parents. Um fun fact he shot a bow in uh college at the state level indoor and outdoor which is good information to know. um also wants to serve. Uh house is quiet now that all the kids have grown up, so it's a good opportunity to continue serving. And um you know, his headline was more about a traffic jam in the future. So, not as optimistic as mine, but maybe re realistic

reflecting the weather outside. Very good. Great job. Can you share the mic? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, it's on. Okay. So, Richard, Commissioner Daunt, he uh said the person that shaped who he is today and mostly centered around his public life is Stony Rushing and Stony for former county commissioner. and he uh kind of put it in Richard's brain to uh look at running for office in Wacksaw because Richard back at um around COVID was more focused on county matters and um he developed a friendship with Stony and Stony asked him to take a look at serving in Wackaw and um his motivation for public service is uh he's always focused on um the honesty and transparency of government and um he feels like he can lend his um his ear in listening as a one of the skills that that he can offer which he's pretty soft-spoken and and doesn't talk a lot but uh then that's why you can tell he's a good listener and he does listen. Um, uh, and then the newspaper headline, which is not all different than mine, uh, Waxaw's government an example for all. And then he can read mine, but mine's not all that different than his.

Yeah. And I, unfortunately, I couldn't think of something that no one in the room knows about me. Just because I've gotten to know everyone so well, I feel like there aren't really any secrets. Oh, yeah. That's it. Yeah. Uh well, that I used to drive city buses in New Zealand. That's You didn't even know that. I I used to have uh really long hair. I was a bit like Otto from the Simpsons, you know.

I I don't know. I've never heard you use the word dude. So, as a skater, hey, dude. Come on. I would I would drive with the earphones in and everything. Yeah.

Um, so, uh, John said that his, uh, economics 501 professor and 911 were the people and events that shaped who he is today. Um and uh his motivation for public service and serving in elected office was his daughters giving a voice to frustrated voters. Um just understanding that uh people felt like they weren't being listened to. And so John is also a good listener and and uh wants to listen to the public. Um something that no one in the room knows about him was that uh he was hypnotized on live TV. Um Yeah, I didn't hear about that, but uh

sounds like uh an interesting story. It kind of is interesting. It's not YouTube. It's a long time ago. Exactly. Does the keyword still work?

The hypnotism word doesn't work anymore. We'll see. uh his newspaper headline about Waxaw in five years. Uh Waxaw, a charming and growing community, a shining example of governance. So yeah, pretty similar uh sentiment there. Uh we can not only do a good job for the town, but if we do a good enough job, we could be an example to others and and inspiration to others. State kind of still needs it. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Great job.

So Dan in going through ours, there's a lot of similarities. Um person or event that shaped who Dan is today is Craig Ferris's dad as a business leader. Taught him self- responsibility. Um didn't get to throw the paper out, but you did a recycling job. We went around the neighborhood and he taught you how to make some money. He went and gathered the neighborhood's newspapers and recycled them and bought his first television in doing so. Uh what motivation for public service uh serving in elected office want to better understand the community and volunteer and we share that same sentiment different verbiage but we both share that something in the room something that you don't know about Dan. I know it because we shared this. Uh I was a high school pitcher in first and first baseman and he played in a very competitive uh school district, Breinda in Orange County, California. Very competitive. So if you make a baseball team in that in that county, you're a very good you're a very good player. Write a newspaper headline about Wax on five years. Waxaw thriving, historic, more than a bedroom community, which I thought was based on our last meeting we had. there's there's some latitude that we can continue to have that same vision that we want and and bring um Waxaw into the future, but keep that bedroom feeling that we've all kind of yearned for. That's Dan.

Thank you. I appreciate it. It was great to essentially get to catch up with Mike. It's been a minute since I've gotten to see him, but um start with his headline is Wax a town that values its citizens. And I'm I mean I got to spend a lot of time with Mike out there at the Waxaw Farmers Market and just talking to folks and I think that was one of the most important parts and that's what I'm one of the things that I'm very grateful to be able to join this roundt setting here uh with everybody. it was a completely different essentially um flow of conversation and this is a great essentially step forward in my opinion and so I'm very grateful for this um for Mike it was also his father that helped essentially guide and put those cornerstones into his life and and essentially and then uh himself now as a dad with a son that's all the way through college now graduating if I remember correct

one more year

one more here. Okay. Uno mas. But uh but yeah, he to be able to take those experiences and essentially laying those foundational pieces in his life. Uh he wanted to take that service and it was his motivation to essentially volunteer and essentially not just be on the sidelines, but Mike is a former coach uh is essentially wants to be active in his community and shaping it. And so I I totally agree with him and concur that, you know, I didn't want to also be on the sidelines when I moved here. I wanted to better understand the community that I was calling home that I wanted to raise a family in. Um and uh grateful for this just the opportunity to have started as a volunteer and then now be here amongst you all as a board of commissioner. Uh, lastly, so not to leave it out, uh, Mike was a lead singer, '8s band. I believe there is a recording, so we'll have to find the way to get a copy of that somehow.

On the phone, but that's Mike in a nutshell. Oh, yeah. 80s hair. Was it 80s 80s big hair? There we go. My hair looked like Darth Vader. It wasn't a good look. I heard pterodactyl club. If you know, you know. I know. We'll talk later. No, that was out in California. Oh,

well, thank you all for participating in that. Part of what we're going to be doing this morning is building on the awareness that you all have of each other as individuals, as leaders, as elected officials. And so kind of breaking the ice and getting started with some some fun elements of this um is our first step into this process. So we're going to switch now to kind of unpacking this idea of a highly effective public serviceoriented team. And um I rode crew in college and if there's did you really? So, you know that there's probably no better example of how important individual and teamwork is in a crew boat. You literally cannot move in the water if you're not working together as a team. And your how effective you are depends on your communication and your awareness and how much you're moving together and and listening to each other uh and finding that flow. And so part of your work here is that you are a team of teams. You are a team as a commission, right? And you work with a team that's led by your manager. And so this little graphic here from ICMA starts to talk about how you are mutually dependent upon each other as an highly effective team, but you're also dependent on your manager to be that bridge to your staff and for him to lead that team effectively so that you all can do the work together as a community. So what is a highly effective board? So there's a lot of words on the slide. I'm happy to send you the original article. Um, but what you see here is a basically a summary of an article that was written probably about 15 years ago by the Institute for Local Government that talks about in our age of complexity

with local governments, how do we understand when we're acting effectively as leaders and working together? So, a couple things you you see here on the screen, you know, the sense of team, clear roles and responsibilities within that team, having an honoring a relationship with each other, having an effective process, deliberative process to make decisions, holding yourselves accountable, and then having continuous learning as an elected body. So, those were six principles from this organization. Another fantastic source is um our international city and county managers association. This was their uh 10 habits of a highly effective council which at this point is also about a decade old. But you can see those here um think and act strategically. Um make uh have clear roles and relationships which was uh similar from the previous one. having a great a a council staff partnership, using your time and energy appropriately, right? Good meeting management, good process, um and again practicing uh continuous personal learning. So, we've kind of synthesized these two professional sources into what we like to talk about in the region as common elements of a highly effective board. So when we go out and do these retreats in other communities, we really emphasize these six principles um as a good starting point for how to think about being effective and making good deliberative decisions together. So understand, develop and demonstrate respect and teamwork. If you are if there's no respect in the room, then you can't listen to each other and make good decisions. Um establish that effective relationship with your staff. um understand and adhere to clear roles and

responsibilities. Execute a disciplined and deliberative decision-making process. So, is it clear and legible to your community how you arrived at certain decisions? Um uh conducting effective meetings and using your time appropriately and again going back to continuous learning that we'll talk about this later today, but the the issues that we face as a region and as a community are highly interdependent and complex. These are things that you know are wicked problems in in many certain circumstances. So the more you can educate yourselves and focus on learning from each other, learning from peers and learning from resources in the region and in the state and nationally, the better your decisions will be. So lifting this up for you just as food for thought as we start this process and as you continue your journeys as elected officials. Um but as we go throughout the day today, we want to think about how are we activating and and trying to to be a highly effective um deliberative board. These are things that we think are really important to getting to this outcome. The first is awareness and appreciation of each other and we're going to really spend some time on that in a second. Then we get into communication which helps collaboration, accountability, and trust. So these six things working together can really help drive an organization and drive a board towards being highly effective in your work. We're going to start really by focusing in on this idea of valuing your uniqueness as individuals and as leaders and elected officials um for this community. This is a a mosaic that you see here. Um mosaic tiles tiles can stand on their own, right? You can have one little individual tile that can be very beautiful. Um, but when you put tiles together into a mosaic design, it represents something else. And so what

we're trying to do in this next section is think about how how you all as individuals come together uh and lean on your strengths uh and find those shared areas of appreciation and then also understand and appreciate your differences because as you when you were doing your opening um icebreaker and sharing out you all are individual people that think and act and process information differently and having some awareness Awareness of that fact will actually help you make better decisions. So when uniqueness is valued, when you can say, "Oh, you're a very logical and analytical person and I'm a very emotional um sensitive person. How can your strengths as logic help me understand where you're coming from from a different perspective? And how can you use my strengths in sort of emotion and sensitivity to help you make better decisions? So when it's valued and harnessed, it can unlock these things, right? Greater productivity, a sense of belonging, uh, greater innovation. But when it's not working, right, when the fact that Scott, you're so analytical really annoys me and irritates me and I can't stand to be in the same room with you, right? Then I'm going to think of you as a problem. As I'm picking on you because I know you. So those interpersonal dynamics can create a problem, right? I don't want to be in a meeting with Scott because he's just going to make me look at numbers all day and I want to know what the community says about an issue, right? So understanding and appreciating, well, I don't really get the numbers, but Scott does, and therefore maybe I can learn from him. And so that's where really we're trying to understand those uniqueness as assets rather than obstacles. And ultimately, if you're if you're looking at

difference as an obstacle, you're going to create those interpersonal dynamics will ultimately make the boat not move in the direction that you need to. So, um, what we're going to be doing today, um, is going through a series of exercises and conversations to understand some of this awareness of your style and your preferences. And we're going to be focusing on a couple of core areas. Um, this is loosely based on MBTI MyersBriggs framework if anyone has done that before. Um, but it's adapted for the context of local governments and governing boards. So, if you know your letters, fantastic. If you don't, don't worry. Um, so, uh, we're going to be talking about how to develop awareness and understanding and then most importantly, communicating what you need to be successful. That's at the end of the day or at the end of our this particular session of the agenda before lunch. We're going to help you identify and articulate to each other what you need to be successful in your role based on your style preferences. That's where we're getting to. All right. So, here's what we're going to do. Kosha, if I could tag you in Kosha is going to hand out um a quick little assessment tool. We're going to focus on four elements of style. The first is energy, how you engage with others. The second is information, which is how you process information. Okay. The third is how you make decisions. And the last is how you structure your life and your work. So the first uh sheet of this paper is those essentially those four questions. You have a scale of one to seven and so you're going to review the question and rate yourself based on how you typically behave. Right? So it's this is a little

it's unscientific but this is just for the purposes of discussion today. Right? So are you typically more introverted or extroverted? Meaning how you draw your energy from being with others or being by yourself. And then the second two pages are a little bit more of a deeper dive into these questions. I'd like you to do those pages and then go back to the first sheet and think about hm if I answered the first three questions on energy and engagement subdimensions. Is my question around energy is it do I need to relook at that or did I learn something about myself when I dug a little bit deeper that I might might want to change my rating. So, page one first, pages two and three second, and then go back and just revisit your your selections. Okay? You're going to do that individually. We're going to give you a few minutes. Are those instructions clear to everybody? Okay? And if you guys want to do this, too, you're welcome to.

use the microphone. Uh, okay. We're gonna I'm getting the thumbs up from the room. Balance teams make make space for both. Right. So when you have in the second column over here team dynamic challenges sometimes extroverts can dominate the conversation right because they're so energized by being in the mix right introverts might struggle to interject in that particular situation um how this relates to elected boards so your extroverts are going to be on the dis and commenting raising their hand in interjecting helping to surface issues quickly. Um, introverts might need a more of an invitation to participate or might need a little bit more time to come to conclusions. So, what's been what is your dynamic maybe sharing from your own dot perspective from an introvert and an extrovert standpoint when it comes to how how it works as an elected official and in your role? How are you feeling? energized by others needing more time to to engage. John, you look like you want to jump in.

I actually Richard said it earlier about um well, maybe it was just in the discussion between he and I, but all of us are reluctant leaders. I think and that might be a good way to explain I I think you can we never planned to I don't think any of us have the overriding need to run for office. We saw a need

and we were looking for people. Uh they're looking for people to help. And so based on a need uh voters, our neighbors, you know, people we interact with in the town, they weren't being heard. There was a need there uh for people to be heard and we felt like that was something that um I think all of us have can identify with that. So, um, that's why I think you see a lot of the numbers kind of centered in the middle on that one. Yeah. Well, this one right here or Yeah. This one right here. Yeah. Yeah.

So, so I'm building on that when it's commission meeting day. Are you all energized and and ready to get in here or is it like, "Oh god, I got I got to gear up. gotta get what what's the what's the feeling? Everybody's got a balance really. I think we're all excited to do the people's work. I might be speaking for myself, but I'm I'm pretty sure you vocalize that as well. We're excited to do the work of the people, but we we don't have the the need to be center stage. Do you want to jump in? Yeah.

I would just like to point out that the extrovert was the first to pick up the mic. situational awareness. I love that pro. Yeah, I think not get past.

Um, yeah. So, I think John hit the nail on the head. I don't think any of us need to be center stage. We all bring our strengths. You know, some of us are more analytical. Uh, for me, I like being out in the community. I like being at the veterans coffees like we were this morning and talking to people and I think you know for me that brings a different perspective to the board because when people don't feel heard they'll see me because I'm out so much and they'll express something that I wouldn't have thought was a problem.

Yeah. Right. Being on on that end. And I think that's important to get out there and and understand what the person who's battling the traffic or getting to the schools or going to the grocery store and not being able to make a left at a food line and all those things. And when we're making these decisions just based on the facts, you can lose sight of that. Yeah. So, I think it's important and I'm happy that I I think we have that balance right now. So those those moments where you get to engage with the community are very energizing to you. It fuels your work. Yes. Awesome. Did you want to jump in?

Yeah. So I am a little bit more on the introvert side. Not as far. I'm just floating around a five. Um for me I know that I have to prepare myself a little bit beforehand before a meeting. So I I will take time to prepare and do a little more research also going handinhand with being new.

Yeah. But at the same time too, I appreciate getting out there, hearing what the residents perspectives are. But for me, I'm an operations person. I'm in trucking and logistics for my background. And so finding and everything and grounding it in facts are the most important portion of what I hold essentially. Excuse me. what I hold and are an important value for me is factf finding and logic.

So for me that's a little bit of how I go about perceiving and thinking things. I know I have to prepare a little bit more beforehand but at the same time I also appreciate when gathering that information tableabling things or or continuing things for reflection. Sometimes we we we have to get things in a meeting on the fly and sometimes that might lead to a moment where additional time might be needed. Yeah, that's a little bit my personality. So acknowledging and your colleagues awareness that you got to prepare, you got to get ready to step into this room, kind of get yourself grounded,

grounded and ready to go. uh I putting on a new set of lenses uh essentially transitioning to essentially just as we have different lenses for governance. It's kind of putting on a different lens for me of okay, I'm transitioning into this governance role. I'm switching from my business role or my I'm my dad or husband role or whatever it may be. And so that's the way I a little bit operate and sometimes I take a little bit more time to research and prepare in advance.

So you mentioned the um the information. So let's move to this next one because I think that's that's a really important one. So this this is your second sheet. Oops. Talking about information. So how you access and gather information. You all are pretty that there. So when you have a lot of sensors, right, focusing on facts, data, things that you can observe versus the intuition, intuitive side, which is more about patterns, big ideas, future outcomes, right? So on the sensing side and looking at this first table on how that infer impacts team dynamics, your sensors can help people stay grounded, right? We're not in the clouds talking about like what might happen in 50 years. We're we're here in the moment and we're present and we're uh kind of connecting into this data. On the other side, your intuitive folks are looking out for that bigger picture, right? They're saying if this could happen, we need to be prepared for it. How can we be agile and be resilient? So having a balance of both, I think, is really important. Um, if you're too sensing heavy, if you're too factsheavy, you might be missing out on some of these bigger ideas. If you're too intuitionheavy as a board, you're all, you know, looking out into the future and you're not focused on what's happening in the present, right? So, that balance of both looks like you've got a he like I think it's what four four in the middle here, which is great, right? Because you're able to see that on both sides. Um, in terms of how this this might help in terms of your governance, sensing heavy boards can be really focused at incremental

improvement, right? So, we're just kind of moving forward in the steps. Intuition heavy boards really excel at strategic planning. So, what I see in these results with having a a healthy middle is that you you all are capable of doing both and you value both, right? You want to know what the bigger picture is, what the priorities are, but you want that to be informed by facts. Is that sort of a good summary of of where you currently are?

Very much so. I feel like that would it is the exact summary of the dynamic I feel like we have. we can all daydream a little bit and hype and making sure that those daydreams are grounded in facts um and essentially have good guard rails I think are are important pieces that I think we all that's why I think so many people are at four we we balance that daily already I believe does any conflict come up

I think there's some self-awareness with that as well like I mean I speaking for myself I think sometimes I tend towards the idealism more uh than the facts, but I'm conscious of that in myself and so then I make a conscious effort to be more fact-based.

That's great. How else does it show up? Has there been a particular issue that you've dealt with recently where this balance of the kind of bigger picture and the on the ground data has come up? Has that caused any conflict or healthy debate amongst the group? Well, we haven't had too many uh meetings together to have that happen, but I know that when um Dan was on the planning board and I had some questions and definitely more analytical when it comes to that stuff and I'd say, "Yes, but you know, I talked to so and so and this is what's really happening." So, um I try to bring that um uh maybe not emotional but that people perspective to what the plans are, right? Because I'm a teacher. So, when I was learning how to be a teacher, the professors had a lot of great ideas on what a classroom should look like, but then you get in the classroom like, whoa, we cannot do that,

right? Then you add the people perspective in there and it changes the whole analytical this is what should happen but this is what's really happening right so yeah and we can segue to the thinking and feeling any other comments or reflections on how this shows up in your deliberations and discussions as a group

Oh no I was just going to say about uh Susanna she talks to the people closest to the issue always finds the people that are um directly affected. And it when we talk about uh you know making decisions based off of what we learn from other people, it's important to talk to the people who actually know the most about it. A lot of times, um, there's people in the town, um, that that will say things and they're not exactly sure what they're saying sometimes and they don't know the issue, but Sue always finds the people that are closest to the issue actually gets the best out best answer out of those folks. So, um, it's really important to have that skill.

Yeah. And your results here are very interesting too because it seems on the thinking versus feeling spectrum which is our next one on how you're processing and making decisions. Um pretty logic heavy in this group, right? Um do you feel that your feeling perspective is appreciated amongst the group? Do you feel like you have to to fight to to share that or is that pretty easy to share and and people know you're kind of like the go-to for that?

Yeah, I think like I said, we all have our strengths and I'm pretty logical myself in making big decisions and and I'm organized so I don't lose sight of that.

But I think you really can't make decisions in isolation, right? And you you have to look at the whole picture. And so, um, I don't have a problem stating that and giving my opinion and it's respected. So, that's all you can ask for. That's good. That's great. So, um, some other potential dynamics when it comes to um, thinking and feeling. You know, thinkers could see feelers as overly emotional or subjective, right? So, how do you how do you know you're talking to the right people versus just some people who have your ear, which in public life I think can be very challenging. Um, and then feelers might see thinkers as insensitive or detached from the community, right? So, I think in the public service setting, this one is really tricky, right? Because you serve at the, you know, at the pleasure of the people who elected you. So having a balance of both in in your decision-m in your engagement becomes really important as you wear this hat for this this particular uh responsibility that you have. Um, so thinking about how you can, you know, lean into the strengths of the feeling perspective, you know, to emphasize fairness and outcomes in your decision- making as you're weighing the factual um and logical process um of the decisions that are in front of you. So that can be a challenge to um if you tend to skew a little bit more on the thinking side, how can you tap into uh the resources that you have access to, the people you have access to to make sure that you're thinking about these other elements of the decision? Um on in terms of governance implications on the the back side of this of the sheet, thinking heavy boards tend to really excel at budgeting and contract reviews and procedural integrity. um and feeling heavy boards tend to excel at

constituent engagement and coalition building. Um one of the main points that we see of conflict between um the council manager form of government is when you have very thinkingheavy boards trying to get into the operational details of how the town is run. So your manager here and is the captain of that team, right? and you all are leading your mayor is the captain of this team. Um so thinking about how to um tap into your need to shape priority and your responsibility to shape priority and the direction of the commission without getting into the pen color and the type of gravel in the road. Right? So that's the that's the manager's job and you all are thinking about well where are we putting that new road in and how much are we spending as a as a commission on these various things of supply. So that's where we see in some organizations a tension um between real heavy thinking boards that really want to get into the details um and and that might not be their responsibility in in this role. Does that come up at all for you guys? Do you feel yourself going there just by nature?

I think the this town in its history uh historically speaking um it hasn't been council manager for all that long. Um, and so and it's grown so fast that I think there was a culture uh of that leaned more towards the mayor council model where the elected officials are in the weeds, you know, and more connected with staff. Um, and I think actually that's something that our new town manager Scott has been really good at helping us to uh move beyond. Um, and yeah, we probably as as the thinking people, um, maybe we tend towards more getting in the weeds, but um, I think we all aspire to, uh, step back as well and and let Scott do his job. You know,

it's a tough balance. Yeah. To Commissioner Ston's point, that's we can't govern. We can't do our job if we're if we're somewhere we don't need to be. So, we have to trust our subject matter experts. And I'm new first term, so really going on two months and had interactions with Scott already. And being listening to what his processes are, it's it's it's reassuring. We can't do that. We have to be able to delegate and the old firm is private trust and verify in the in the private sector. But we've had a really good start so far. So, we can do our job. we can take on what we're accountable for and let the staff do the do the do the work. Yeah.

So, it's been a really nice start so far.

And I know for myself whenever I have a question, I've been able to go to staff or Scott or or Barbie and get the answers. And sometimes it's just a matter of educating the public or communicating to the public why something can't be done. And I think, you know, there have been times in the past where that was not being done effectively. And so then that causes bad feelings and mistrust. So I think if communication is always key in any uh job and in any family really. And so if we can get the message out and explain our process, our way of thinking, you'll have less people feeling like something's going on that's really not. And so I think that our job is really to be here and uh communicate to staff and to Scott like this is what you know we've been hearing and this is what we would like is it possible how if if it's not possible now can it be possible and how how do we make that happen what avenues can we take and then we can communicate that and explain it and then I think that quells everybody's fear

absolutely out there one last I think you just reminded me of something. You know, Scott when we first met, he was it was very very refreshing that what is your vision? What are you guys looking to do? And let's see how we get there versus a silo. We're not we're not listening. Which I really appreciated. This is new to me coming from a private sector into this position. We need to lean on our subject matter experts. And he was very open about that which I appreciate it.

Yeah. Well, and you all have a very challenging role, not only being in the public eye and being an elected official, but you have to make that shift between the work that you do on the dayto-day, which might be very in the weeds, operational, you might be leading teams and taking all these strengths and applying it to your business or to your home life, wherever that might be. And then you got to come into this role in this organization, you know, a couple times a month or a couple times a week, whatever that frequency looks like, and you got to put on another hat. And that's hard. And that takes some mindfulness to to make that shift and to not carry necessarily carry forward all of the things that you did in your those other situations, but still bring your strengths, right? Um the last one we have is around kind of organizational how sort of framed as how you work style or how you see the world. This is really about are you are you pressure prompted and comfortable with change or are you more focused on a plan sort of organization. This is the last one on judging and perceiving in your packet. So judges are very planful, right? They like their structure. They like their agenda packet. They like walking through a very disciplined process. And perceivers are a little bit more spontaneous. They want to go with the flow. They want to be flexible. Um so this can um this can show up in team dynamics around you know judgers might perceive perceivers as being more spontaneous and unpredictable which can be challenging in government circumstances when you're trying to use a transparent process to make decisions. And then perceivers can look at judges

and say, "Oh, you're very just rigid, right? You're just it's an a toz process." And if someone, you know, throws a a public hearing into the mix and you know, you learn all this new information, you're you're not adaptable, right? So that can be that can come up in team dynamics. Um, but there are strengths that you can lean into each other. I put this down without actually seeing. So you've got three more on the flexible perceiving side and a few in the middle. So how does this show up in how you make decisions and work together as a group given how processoriented government is? So maybe someone more on the flexible adaptable side. How does that resonate with you as you do this work? I'm more in the middle on that one. But I think that uh I like to be organized. I like to have a plan. I like to know the direction. But again, being a teacher, you kind of have to pivot, right? And you have to be able to to be flexible. And I can be flexible if I have a general direction. And then I can

find the gray area there because it's really not nothing's really black and white, right? But um So far, I think, you know, from the the couple years we've worked together, I think that that's been working out and uh I'm hopeful it will continue. So, not throwing out the process for the sake of new information, but just how do you adapt within it to get to where you need to go?

Yeah, because I think a lot of the flexibility stems from the need to go through things and discuss things and be open about our discussions. So that's why I personally like to encourage the flexibility and we're going to talk this through a little bit and if that discussion goes a different direction so be it. And you know that's that's the organic nature of it to kind of get to a better solution. So I I think the open collaborative nature sort of necessitates a little bit more flexibility. Is your work session format helping in that structure? Is that helping to

That's the goal. Exactly. And and just to echo what Commissioner Wedder just said 100%. And it it puts it more into an environment that I'm used to, which is brainstorming. And the idea that you've got a problem, you need a solution. Let's throw everything out there. We'll see what sticks. No idea is a bad idea. Just get it out on the table because I don't know how many times a terrible idea that wouldn't work in a million years sparks a great idea that's going to be the best thing moving forward. Um, so that's kind of the culture I'm used to and that's the goal with the work sessions is to sort of create that spontaneity and that kind of culture where great ideas can percolate from there.

Is that a com is that for the new folks is that a comfortable process for you or is that feel a little um uncertain?

Well, I'll speak for myself. I I that's a comfortable process for me. Um it I am okay with essentially following the patterns uh um wherever the conversation kind of leads sometimes. Um and sometimes following and essentially uh and going down those longer conversations where we can game out and and theorize a little bit. Uh you could you get a chance to also pressure test those with your peers. And so it's definitely opened essentially even though we haven't done it a lot, it's definitely an open and welcoming form of conversation to say, "Hey, what about this? Can we talk about that as we start getting into those PE pieces that we need to?" But again, still very new, less than, you know, six meetings total. Forgive me for missing one. Thank you for your a but uh um

you were clearly busy. I was I was that that that that was a definite definitely timing conflict. Um but so definitely the the flexibility side essentially speaks to me. I normally prefer a little being a more adaptable can go with the flow essentially at times but yet still kind of willing to be out there and have a framework of a structure to to to be our guard rails.

Yeah. Yeah, I think just to echo and kind of amplify one of the key words you said is uh the stress testing because I think that's what the brainstorming session is all about. And I don't know how many times I've thought of something and thought it was brilliant and then you put it out to the group and the larger group takes a look at it and they're able to look at my ideas dispassionately. I can look at their ideas dispassionately and then we can point out the things that our passion and our exuberance might prevent us from seeing. And that allows us as that group dynamic grows. It allows us to stress test our ideas and make sure the ideas come out, you know, more fully baked than just something that, okay, that the dictator said do it, so we're going to do it. But no, let's let's vet this out a little bit. Let's talk it through and make it work. Yeah, the adaptability and spontaneity is needed as sort of an exploration, but um we can't just wander around forever. Uh you know, eventually we have to button things down and make a decision. So

yeah, that's the balance that we need.

I'm probably more of a two, but I put a three just to keep the peace. Um I love collaboration, though. Collaboration keeps everybody vested. You don't chase people away when people feel like they're part of the solution. And just this one, this group, I've heard things that I didn't consider before. As I go and have dinner somewhere or lunch by myself and I'm eating and I'm enjoying myself as I go through processes, that's my happy place. And then you come in with this rigid idea that you have all the all the answers and then you hear somebody come out with a collaborative spirit and say something and it brings you back. So I I love the collaboration that we've had so far. So to Commissioner Don's point, how do you get to the what's next in your work sessions? What how how do you structure those so that you leverage the collaboration and the brainstorming but move towards here's how we're going to make a decision or set a direction. What has that looked like so far? Yeah, I think the key is to let everybody have a chance to speak and then once everybody's spoken, the final ideas start to cultivate out of that and then everybody then gets to address that final idea. Um, we had some ideas coming out of a closed session the other day and even the discussion about the park for instance, the skate park discussion I thought was an an awesome discussion. Um, and it was clear that everybody took time and effort to express their ideas, to express their main concerns, and I think once we were able to go around the table and everybody felt like they had a chance to speak and any points and counterpoints were made, we were able to kind of wrap that up. And and I think, you know, that's a little I feel like it's a little bit my job to kind of, okay, let's pull this in. everybody's talked and I think that's where um as a group dynamic we need to continue to operate and play in that realm of let

everybody speak, let's come up with the final solution, point counterpoint the final solution, and then agree now is the time to make the decision. Um so I mean luckily it's it hasn't been that long, but um it's worked out really well so far and I hope it only continues. But I think the main thing is to everybody get a chance and then no one grandstanding. Nobody's sit there saying, "Okay, my idea is not winning the day, but I'm digging in. This is my idea and this is what it has to be." We haven't gotten to that. Um, and I don't think it will. These all seem like very reasonable people. And I think that's what really is is what it's dependent on is everybody being reasonable about things

and accepting the fact that they're part of a team. And I I think cultivating the teamwork and the team mentality of the whole thing is is key in letting folks express their ideas, do the point counterpoint, stress test the ideas, vet out the best solution, and then finally come to an agreement.

And then after the decision, whatever the decision might be, how do you move forward knowing I might not have quote unquote won that round, right? But the decision was made by the body, right? And respecting that decision and being able to move forward. We see a lot of councils, commissions get stuck up to the point of decision. This decision happens and then it becomes, well, I didn't agree with that. And I went on Facebook and I told all my people why I didn't vote for it. Right? So thinking through how when you get to a sticky issue and you've had a deliberative transparent process where everyone's voice had the opportunity to be heard and then you came to the a decision, how you move beyond the decision to continue to have that collaborative teamwork spirit. That's really important.

So you mentioned the R word, but I'm going to mention the A word. Um the R word. You said respect. Well, respect. So, and it's probably not the a word everyone's thinking. So, I I'm just thinking again, I've worked in teams my whole career and engineers are creative, thoughtful people. They seem analytical, but they can be very passionate as well, especially when it's an idea that they thought would really, really work. But the the key is that everyone is a respectful adult.

And if you're working in a group of respectful adults, then wasn't my decision. Didn't necessarily agree with it, but I'm going to support it because it was the team decision. It was the group decision. And that requires respectful adults. And I think that that's where we need to focus our energies. and at the end of the day all agree we're going to be respectful adults. Yeah.

Yeah. We all need to sort of think outside of our own bubble. Uh you know one of the things that we opened this board up with was the sentiment that uh we can do important work if we do not become self-important. Right? So as long as everybody has that base of humility and listening to others then we can really function as a group.

Yeah, those are great great thoughts. So what we want to invite you to do as we kind of close out this part of the conversation, you all are a new team, right? Oops. Right. um you're a new team. Anytime you've got new dynamics, you basically start over, right? You're you're forming that team again. Even though you guys have worked together and have a strong dynamic, you all are new. And so, you're finding your feet together, right? And a really important part of that is taking a moment to understand what do you need to be successful? thinking about your own strengths, how you make decisions, where you draw your energy, how you organize your thoughts, the the categories that we just talked about here. When you're in this group, being able to articulate what you need to be successful becomes very important because it gets to respect, right? I need very clear information ahead of the meeting so that I can processes it and come to the conversation ready to brainstorm would be an example. So in other words, Scott, I'm going to pick on you again. If if that's what I need, Scott giving me something 15 minutes before the meeting is not going to be helpful to me. Right? So it might mean I need people to show up to meetings ready to brainstorm and ready to respect the ideas of others. So it's just taking a moment to think about these are the rules that I have on on how I want to show up in this team. So Kasha is going to pass out a worksheet. The other side to that is what can you give your teammates?

I can give you my listening skills or my ability to tap into the empathy of the community, right? What strengths do you have that you can bring to this team? So, we just want to invite you to kind of reflect on those two questions to kind of close this out. And it's your your commitment to each other. Your your commitment to building this highly effective team is being able to articulate these things to yourself and then share them with each other. So, we're going to give a few minutes for you to do that. What you need is on the first side of the sheet. What you can offer others is on the back side of the sheet. Peace. One or two bullet points. Maybe

What's that? Yeah, Pleasure.

information. Be honest. agenda.

We know each other. I'm just saying who do I need it from staff very easybody supposed to take

these are guiding ideas. So just think about this is this is about you and what you need. So just having some reflection on you know all the things we just discussed

and then you'll know who to have those conversations. Maybe it's somebody like it could be a faith leader. It could be, you know, who do you need who do you need in your um your coaching team, right? Isn't that what they say? You have to have a coaching team to kind of get you through life, right? Everybody's got their own life coaches. Well, you know, not one, but you know, you need your I'm not there yet. Who's going to tell you the truth? Who's gonna tell you not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear.

All right, we're gonna do a little sharing out. just like a journal. So, let's start with um let's start with this not with the script. So, flip your sheets over and we're going to start with what you can offer others spirit of teamwork going off what mayor talked about. So, what of your strengths are you offering this team? Who wants to go first? Jump in. I'll start up.

Start up generically and go into that. Um, I mean, the simple one is just be an honest ear with honest feedback. I We're a board. We make decisions collectively. It's a majority. So being able to feel people feel they can approach you and give you a scenario and they're going to get an honest answer back so they can assess and make a decision based on your honest assessment and not just tell them what they want to hear. All rights jump in

we'll bounce about. So I said patience listening and courage. So basically it's the patience to listen really um the patience to take the time to understand things and um the willingness to take it all in. The patience to take it all in and then of course the listening listening to everybody's opinions listening to everyone's arguments um and then listening to everybody's ideas trying to trying to come up with what's good and what's better. And then courage. And I think as the facilitator of the board meeting, I think I need to have the courage to stand up and say, "Okay, we're clearly not productive anymore. We're kind of going round." I think there's those times when that happens. And then sort of the courage to ask harder questions and to ask questions altogether uh either from board members or staff. So that's why I said patience, listening, and courage. We're sharing what we're giving to others.

Okay. Don't pressure going around. Whoever wants to go next.

Uh experience I guess with the board. Um I can offer to my fellow board members. um been on it for a couple of years now and um they're just coming in new and so I have it in my head all all of the things that have gone on for the last couple years and although they've been paying attention but um it's a little different when you're in it as well. So

experience perspective what can I offer? So I would say um provide the people's perspective uh from the community aspect and um communicate that to the board and to Scott and to staff um and then um listen and then educate educate the public on why we're doing something, why it hasn't been done, and the realities around, you know, why we still don't have a roundabout at New Town in Cuthbertton. that was supposed to come when when my daughter was in third grade and now she's a sophomore in college. So, we're still waiting.

A skill that I think I can bring I don't think I had to use it yet because we've had really u robust and respective conversations. But at my regular job, pushing conversations beyond their immediate constraints. I saw a, you know, quality in there that I think that that describes me when I'm in meetings at work and you get people talking in generalities and they're circling the issue and circling the issue and they're really not zeroing in on it. And and so a lot of times just by speaking specifics, you're able to direct that conversation away from, you know, the 30,000 foot look or whatever. And sometimes that's it's productive, but you can talk about it way too much. And so, uh, being able to help people focus, um, I hope I hope I can use that. I we're all pretty good about getting to the issue pretty quickly. So, um and another thing is probably listening and taking emotions out of contentious issues. Um that's something else that at work I seem to do maybe more than others that I work with. So,

that's great. In the heat of the moment that can be very helpful, right? It's just this is the decision. This is the process and we're kind of leaving it. So, one of the things that I've continually offered is essentially just a a wanting to inquire um and learn not just about the process, but a little bit of inquiring about okay, we got to a certain point. we're here in where can we inquire to go next at times but also keeping it as grounded to in logic and what are the facts available because sometimes like like Sue excels at the human facts the human input sometimes there's a geolog geographical constraint I one of the things that I would say I could offer to this team is essentially I enjoy maps I'm not a map expert but I will do my research in the GIS is one of those things that I fi I find to just it is a place of ex exploration and what can be and what is not. Uh and sometimes with as we've learned about paper streets as of lately. Uh paper streets are there is a reason why they never became a real street. And so it's um one of those things that just what I offer is I just trying to bring a a a sense of this logic and as balance to the best but yet also a place of inquiry.

Yes. Any uh well, I just wrote um from you know this is sort of nuts and bolts stuff but like from manager and staff you know they provide accurate relevant information regarding the decisions and then uh from the public we need community feedback public comments at meetings uh information processing uh I had a conversation with Scott the other day and it really helps being new on the board, like how to organize your thoughts and prioritize the decision inputs. So, I feel like, you know, he's already helped. I'm sure I'm going to lean on him more about stuff like that. And, uh, actually, Daniel's really good about that as well. Yeah. So

information like everyone else has said, you know, um current information, right? Because that changes from sometimes day to day, right? Certainly from year to year. And then the ability to communicate the outcomes and how to do that effectively. And um sometimes what can we say, what can't we say? We don't want to inflame anything, but we want to be transparent. So, how do we do that without making a situation worse? Let's talk about that one a little bit. That's kind of interesting. So, I was gonna lean on you for that. Well, and then I'm gonna lean on Matt when we need it.

So, what would be Give me a picture of is there a gap there currently? No, it's just what you need moving forward. It's just in general what I think you as a town when um you know when we have big developments coming online or when there's been a decision uh that has been made that um well yeah for example this this happened recently we sold a property that was um part of our parking and when we made that decision I don't know that we had all the information and the options And so it became a nightmare because the parking lot got closed. There was a gap. And so um we did not communicate that well ahead of it and we didn't communicate it. We tried to communicate it after the fact, but being reactive is never great. Um so then I went into a few of the businesses and tried to explain it. You know, this is what happened. I'm sorry. Made a mistake. You know, they appreciated it. didn't make it much better at the time, but at least I can walk into the businesses now and they're not totally mad at me. But um you you don't know what to say in that moment. And so I I think now we're in a better position to communicate those efforts. If if there's a mistake, be honest about it. It was a mistake because you you can't fix you can't lie about it, right? Just face it. So making sure that you all have all the information that you need to make the decision and then coming out of this the decision what are the salient talking points to be able to communicate consistently on behalf of the town. That's kind of what I'm hearing.

And along those lines, it also has to do with the impact of the decision. Uh option A will result in option B will result in. Um, and it's things like that that I think need to be included in a lot of the presentations, information that we get, okay,

is what is the real ramification of this decision? Um, what are the budget impacts of this decision uh both short-term and long-term? And I I thought that was a great part of our discussion around the uh safe streets for all work that we were doing uh this last work session and how you know you can sign up for all these grants and then oh by the way you'll be on the hook for this much money over this much over this time and that's yearly it's this amount the the matching funds

exactly so the idea that we have to come up with matching funds and and what the yearly responsibility would be for that. So that's the kind of information that I think that's especially useful and helpful in making a good informed decision of because I mean we have other jobs, we do other stuff and but we do come here knowing that our decisions have an impact and I think understanding that impact is makes the decision I don't want to say easier but it at least gives us the tools um to communicate with the people and so we can share with them the ramifications as well why we made a decision and and why the decision was justifiable. Um because the worst thing I think is to to go before the public, either an individual just accosting you at the grocery store or if you're in a group setting somewhere just to have to answer a question and and not really being able to explain what would have happened had you made a different decision. Um because I think that there are significant impacts to a lot of the decisions we make and understanding those impacts would would be helpful. So what I'm hearing from you, mayor, is that we in when when in when when decision points or options are presented to the board, you all want a clear statement of the option and an explication of what the impacts of making that choice would be. Let's pull that string a little bit a little bit more. What else? Like if we're thinking about like clear and consistent information that you would get to tee up and help those decision is it fiscal impact is it community impact like what what would that look like? What would be most helpful?

I guess it depends on the topic right but so for me um when I came on the board we do surveys public surveys. What do you want to see in town? You know what are the things that you need? So, for example, one of the items people the people would like to see is a dog park. And the sticker price is $825,000 for a dog park, right? But what are the rest of the costs? That's an initial cost. So, what will it cost in staff? What will it cost in insurance? what will it cost in upkeep over the next five years so that we can make an informed decision on whether or not that's something that they really want and perhaps put that in the survey because I think that when you know my kids want a lot but when they have to figure out how they're going to pay for what they want too sometimes

their uh their top five list changes right so I I don't want to be making the decision on something like that without the public knowing how much the real costs are. Would that be helpful to others? Not just the capital costs, the outlay, but the operating part of it as well if it's that type of project. Yeah. Because a lot of people think, oh, a dog park is just grass. It's grass and a fence, right?

But it's really not just grass and a fence. No, I I would I would echo very much that that sentiment of that, you know, there is always and and I think that's a little bit of what we we're supposed to do here as members of the board is hash out a little bit in that conversation pieces in in the work sessions. What what are the second order effects? Sometimes there's even a third order effect um of what a decision may or may not equate to. and and then we're we're setting up too and I I know I take this philosophy very much to heart. Uh those pieces that we put into place are aren't there just for four or five years. We're talking 20 50 years. Uh this this building will be here for 30 years plus. And so we understand that when we're setting those cornerstones in some of these decisionmaking pieces, uh, we're making a 50-year determination of what will be. And so we're trying to weigh those out to to its whole to the best of our ability based off of essentially our governance of chapter 160D sometimes. So I know that is one of my perspectives is is we I think we all understand you know there's limited resources in certain aspects and those it once essentially is built on or not built on um or uh budgetary purposes it you know we we were on the hook for a note now for 20 years for uh whatever it may be uh whether it's equipment uh for our police department or equipment for our public service team or equipment for this building. We we understand that that you know and making sure that those are mapped out within the web of essentially in in a meaningful way so we can digest them and then communicate them.

Yeah. For anyone else that had information as something that you need on your list, is there anything else we haven't flagged that would be helpful inputs into your decision making that you'd want to surface? Okay. Anyone else want to share their a new idea?

What you need to be successful? Oh, I was just going to say and I'm not sure how applicable it is right at this second, but we had a cost to serve study presentation and um you know the the numbers are like really necessary to have for future decision- making uh but not to get so married to the analytics of those numbers because what gets developed in this town whether it's commercial, residential, it has a real real tangible impact on quality of life for our residents. And uh that that's something that's sometimes hard to measure unless you go out to Providence Road at 4:30 and and 5:30 p.m. You can tangibly measure a quality of life decline that people are experiencing. So, um, those numbers are great to have that information, but you also have to have a a sense of what people are struggling with dayto-day.

And, um, having that human, uh, that that human impact, knowledge, it's something that I think all of us really, uh, strive to gain and excel at being able to communicate to the people that ask us questions like on the campaign trail. I mean, I can say that we all do a pretty good job of that, but um just not to get bogged down in the numbers and the facts, then you have to have that that human impact,

a balance of perspectives as they're as your team is bringing full total cost. Also, maybe linking it to survey results or linking it to your comp plan or guiding documents or priorities that you all have set. I very much so I mindful of the surveys. Surveys are a useful tool, but I think in our recent survey, we can also make sure that we're weighting it appropriately and and making sure that we're um the these are positive priorities, but how many people did it did participated? Was it out of our total populace uh that might have participated? I'm just picking a number 10,000 250 participated.

So you know what how do we go about also weighting those mindfully making sure that that that's when we're doing data driven that we understand that okay this was a small sample. I I think we're also working with sample sizes in our cost of serve analysis that responses are correct and how thoughtful the responses are. There are gaps sometimes in those surveys that we we have to do our best to flesh out and ha and and hash out in between. Awesome.

And and that comes back, you know, I think one of the things that we all want to do is in that service is mindfully absorb and communicate. I think that's what we all are are sitting here wanting to do and that's what all really brought us to this table.

Great. All right. Any other thoughts? what you need to be successful that we haven't covered from your lists. Okay, very good. Is our lunch here? Lunch is here. Wonderful. Um so, um we're going to take a lunch break until about 10 to 1 and then come back. Staff will join and we're going to start with our afternoon program. Yeah. lunch.

That's a good suggestion. Thank you again.

No worries. Anytime you need something, just give me a hug. I have my emails up all the time and then I'll I'll take phone call back. I know people I need this done. Get on it. Damn, I'm all over it.

I'm very excited. That's what you do. New York. back on the plane.

I'll take the train. I'll take the train. I mean, yeah, I'll take the train down or something. I'm not doing What the hell? I tried. What are you saying? You're welcome. and

just decision. We do that by email. So we send that to This was That's the first thing I thought of All right, we'll go ahead and uh call this meeting once again to order. We will resume. Where'd Ferris go? He said he was here.

There he is. He took his coat off. Um, all right. Let's go ahead and kick this off. Geraldine. Thank you, mayor. Uh, good afternoon to our department leaders who have joined our session today. Hey, we appreciate you all taking time out of your busy days to be here and be here with your commissioners in the spirit of brainstorming and in the spirit of uh doing the good work on behalf of the citizens of Waxaw. I'm Geralding Gardner. I'm the executive director of the Central Regional Council. Um we're happy to have Waxaw as a member and to support you on various activities that we do including um board facilitation. And I'm here with my colleague Thompson.

Hello, I'm Kasha Thompson. I met many of you on Zoom the other day. Thank you for being part of that conversation and I'm excited to see you in person. And our department is strategic engagement and technical services. So that might be something we can have conversations about later. We're here to support you, build relationships, and connect you to the things you need to know around the region. So with that, we would love for each of you to introduce yourselves. You may or may not have been acquainted with the board yet. So, please stand uh share your name, your department, and we'll move through the entire staff. Congratulations.

I'm Andrew. I'm a parks and um facilities. Sorry, I'm a little nervous at the moment. I was just put on the spot and I had candy in my mouth. Uh so, I'm with Parks and Recre. I'm Andrew and I am the deputy director of parks and facilities. I'm Janet Pirano. I'm the assistant planning director. Dena Spinsky, park and rec director.

Hello everyone. My name is Bradley Lucor. I am your public information officer and communications manager. I'm happy to be here and I'm glad to see all of you today. tough act to follow. Uh Melissa Johnson, I'm the deputy of recreation with Parks and Recreation. And I'm Robin Ber, deputy of admin for parks and recreation. And now moving over here, I'm Brad Lawick, uh public service team leader. Matt Cohen, public service director.

Kevin Robinson, development services director. And that is um that's inspections, planning, and engineering. Hi uh Baltmiscus. I am the interim downtown director, business development director. Oh, am I doing it? Okay. Okay. Uh I'm Michael Cannova. I am the I'm an internet town of Waxall departments. Hello, my name is Orion Holtai, a town engineer. Hi, I'm Paula Eel. I'm the administrative assistant for public services and the cemetery manager.

Uh, David Kimchula. I'm the facilities manager. I'm Brandy Stout. I am the deputy clerk. Susan Lee, administrative services manager. Dana Adams, assistant finance director. I'll say that it won't make much difference. I'm Rosie Dad. I'm the finance director. Emily Learned, the HR director.

Sure. Sure. Hey, I'm Matt Dillinger. I'm the town attorney. Scott, anything you want to say to your team before we jump in to this afternoon?

Run. That that was for y'all. No. Uh, welcome everybody. Glad to see everyone. Um, this is a great opportunity to work together with the board as they're trying to prioritize their goals and objectives for the year. And so what we have for you folks today that will help you as board members are uh uh experts in their field. uh folks who have been here both short time and long term and hopefully we can assist you folks as you need information uh search for answers on things as you work through your prioritization. In the end, it's y'all's but uh we're here to help you out with that. They'll be back uh in tomorrow morning to do some uh presentations for y'all just uh bring you up to speed on where we are with things for the year and uh that's what will finish everything out. today. They're here to help you as you folks formulate what your strategies are and where you want to see things for the year.

All right. So, um we're just going to orient the team leaders here to what we've been doing so far this morning. We've had a couple of objectives for this meeting. We're going to be focused on the one that's highlighted in yellow. Uh to collaborate, we talked this morning about a team of teams. So, the commission is a team. you all are a team and Scott is your quarterback or pitcher, I don't know, goalie.

So, working together and leveraging your strengths for the good of the town. So, what we're going to do this afternoon is talk about the vision, talk about the future of Waxaw. Um, what it's not going to be is a coming to conclusion and writing an actual vision statement. What we're going to do is some brainstorming, right? So all of you have different perspectives from where you sit and different levels experience. We want to pull that out and have you all working together to generate some ideas about the future. The second thing we're going to do is to think talk about priorities and talk about the interconnected issues that this town is facing and go through a framework process and small groups to help identify how those issues connect, the role that the town plays in those issues and then start to think strategically about how to prioritize uh solutions related to those issues. Uh at the end of the day, it's the commissioner's decision. It's the commission's decision what the vision and what the ultimate priorities are, but you all are very important part of the team to lend your expertise and perspectives. Couple of ground rules that we went over this morning that I'll just talk about for the good of the new folks in the room. Um, be present and be engaged. I know, you know, there might be a finance emergency or someone falls off the slide at a park and wreck facility, but we would love you to be present. If you need to make a call or return an email, please step outside and do that. Stay curious, right? Ask good questions. We're going to have you working with the commissioners today. Use this opportunity to get to know them and and share your perspectives and uh expertise. Um, lead with respect, right? Everyone's uh point of view and position is valuable. So, we want to hear from you and ask for what you need. So, if an instruction isn't clear, we're going to be doing a lot of group work. There's a lot of process this afternoon. So, if

you're not clear about what you're doing and what the instructions are, it's chances are someone else isn't clear either. So, raise your hand and ask and we can make sure we are all um marching in the same direction. you all good with these ground rules who joined us? Excellent. All right, so we're going to jump right into it. Uh this afternoon, we're going to talk a little bit before we get into our interactive activities about kind of the strategic framework and strategic planning in the local government context. Some of you who are are familiar with strategic planning, it is a tool that you can use as an organization to point a direction into the future and set a clear path for getting there through a series of goals and strategies. It's also a way to measure progress and performance. So, have you done what you said you were going to do? Have are you reaching your goals? And how do you measure that? Strategic plans start with a clear foundation. What is your vision? What is your mission? And what are the core values that are driving your decisions and how you're treating your customers and each other in pursuit of your goals and your vision? So, uh, today we're going to talk a little bit more about vision, but that really sets the stage. If you know what you want to be in the future, you can define clear goals to achieve that vision. Those goals can be achieved by a set of strategies and ultimately that can be measured. Right? So, Waxaw is going to be the best place to live in North Carolina. How do we get there? What are your goals to achieve that? And then how is each department contributing to that goal uh through the work that you do either through core services, investments, or other activities that you offer your community. Again, today's objectives is really to bring about a shared understanding about the town's future vision. Okay. It might

be that after our brainstorm today that the town wants to lean into formulating a clear vision statement and starting to put the pieces together for a strategic plan. But it might just unlock some ideas that as you were doing your budgeting process and talking about priorities for the town, we have a general understanding of where we want to go and we're going to use that to make decisions. We're going to talk about some of the challenges and opportunities for those of you who participated in the premeating survey. We got a lot of really good information. We're going to talk about how that relates to your vision and more importantly how all these issues connect to each other, right? Your residential growth driving your traffic problems. Your residential growth driving concerns about unbalanced tax rates. The capacity of the town staff to meet the service expectations of a growing community. These are all issues that came through the survey and they're very complex. Right? So, we're going to take some time today to unpack them a little bit, hear from all of you, and then we're going to walk you through a framework to really start to analyze these issues. We're not going to solve them today. If we had that, we could all kind of we could retire early and go home, right? But we are going to do is try to give the board some tools and perspectives to look at these issues objectively and then for you all to use that framework to help set some priorities. All right. So, we're going to lean in a little bit to the visions vision component of this talking about the future of Waxaw and I'm going to turn it over to Kasha to talk a little bit about visions.

Oh, sure. Thank you. So, your vision statement, it's not a reflection of what the town is today. It's the town that you want to be in the future. and it's going to set you up to take steps to get to that future and it's going to align all of you to a common future. So the purpose of a vision statement is to declare what your organization aspires to be. Again, not what you are today. It's aspirational, forward thinking, right? How many of you have seen the create a headline as the the basis of an exercise around visioning? It needs to be clear, memorable, and unique. How many of us have had vision statements you can't even maybe remember but three words of it? It's it's it's a whole statement rather than um you know, a longer statement rather than something short and memorable. And it's the north star. It's what everybody's working together to achieve. And that's a big important part of it. You have to work together toward this common vision. It reflects the future. The mission statement reflects the present. So the mission is how you're going to work together to get to that uh future vision. So the importance of a vision statement, it's supposed to be inspirational. When you're on boarding an employee, what's the fastest way to get them to understand what your organization stands for? It's through this vision and mission and values work, right? And it's also going to attract the kind of people that you want to have in your organization. It's going to pull together people that are focused on the same things that you may feel are important. It's meaningful work. So when they're bought into that mission statement, they're going to be more productive each day because they feel, especially in the government space, that their work is bringing value to the

community. It's bringing value to the organization. It's a promise to your stakeholders. It's so the community knows exactly where the organization stands and what they can expect of you. It's also a way for them to know what you expect of them as community members and their relationship with the government organization and it informs the rest of the strategic plan and the organizational strategy. It's what everything cascades from. So here are a few examples of vision statements. Uh three years ago I was with Cabaris County and we were working with Central on our strategic planning process. And when we started our process uh it was under the idea that the state of North Carolina told cities and counties what they can and cannot do, right? We're all familiar familiar with that. So rather than creating a vision statement that was external, it was more internally focused. It was how do we become more efficient and effective as an organization to achieve the things that the state of North Carolina said counties do? And we also tried to be very succinct, to the point, and memorable. Cabaris County strives to empower people, act intentionally and decisively, and focus on the future. That's a t-shirt, right? We were able to make t-shirts and things out of that so that everybody knew where they stood and how they contributed. Then you have uh areas like the town of Harrisburg that were more reflective on outward uh connections. Harrisburg will be dis a distinctive family focused community where memories are made. It's external but still short and memorable. You know where they stand. So good practice in writing a vision statement. It should be clearly written to describe

that future state. The most important thing is the organization influences. So that future state, I like to call it a stretch, right? It's not who you are today, it's what you need to stretch to become. It's almost a way of setting up what your next brand will be should be inspiring and motivating. A call to action. Why do we do this work? Why do we show up every day? When you talk to your employees, how are you going to communicate that information to them and make them understand that they're a part of it? It provides a clear framework to establish your goals. You're starting from the same place and you're going in the same direction. So, taking a look at the survey, thank you all for participating in the survey. I appreciate it. if you didn't have a chance to participate, you'll still be able to add to the conversation and make sure your thoughts and opinions are expressed within that. So, based on what you said to the um question, what three words or phrases would you like to use to describe the town of Waxaw in 10 years? Uh you have three color codes up here. Uh the top one, the gray, is uh thoughts that came specifically from the board that were not echoed by staff. The middle is where you all have a lot of common ground and I ordered those based on the number of times it was said. So, uh, economic prosperity in various forms was mentioned multiple t times across the board and then the items on the bottom were things that the staff reflected that the board did not necessarily pull out in their thoughts yet. So, um, that's where we start the conversation. Are there any questions about what you see here? Are there any surprises? Yeah, it's a great list. So, let's look at the vision statement

of 2015. We're going to jump in the Wayback Machine because this is still where we are today. Waxaw is a friendly, vibrant, prosperous town where history and creativity build an enduring, safe, and healthy community for people of all ages to live, learn, work, play, or grow a business. Any thoughts on that? I've heard a lot of those words expressed today. Does it still feel meaningful? You're shaking your head. Yeah. Oh, hold on.

I would say that that vision statement still echoes true. Um, but it definitely could use some um a revisiting 2015. uh what what do we need to do to essentially evaluate uh essentially for the next set of essentially what are the next lenses that we're going to be looking at for 2040 2050 2060 now at at a certain point of what WAX is is it does grow and it has grown um and where are we looking to reinforce the in between of where you know uh the live learn and work Yeah, we have a sandbox to play in right now. And that's what we're going to do. We're gonna jump in the sandbox and acknowledge that a lot of what we say in this statement and a lot of what we say here is the same, right? There's going to be echoes of the past, but how do we make it relatable to the people in the organization we are today? And that's where you all come in because how many of you were here in 2015? Okay, a few. A few. Yeah. So you would say

not working here, but did you ever imagine in 2015 that that the town would be where it is today? It's it's entirely different.

So when you're visioning, think about the difference between what it was in 2015 when this is written and the town you're going to write for in five years, right? 10 years. Think about those leaps of where we're going. So, don't be afraid to take chances in this sandbox, right? This is the time. It's it they're it's on pieces of paper. We're not putting it on an official sign and hanging it outside. This is paper sandbox. Think big time. So, uh with that, we're going to start an exercise. Geraldine and I will pass out a sheet. You are going to review the inspirational sources and brainstorm a vision. Waxaw will be so I want you to think about um we'll have all the the comments you put in the survey at the top of the sheet so you'll be able to reference them. But I want you to make sure that you're thinking about that future state, not today. What will it be in 10 years? And with that, think about how much the town has changed over the last 10 years. go that far with what you're thinking. Beware of lists. We don't want to use a list unless it's a very strategic um move to make. So, don't just copy down the things that are on the the sheet. Try to think um beyond the words and think about the outcomes or the meanings or how it's uh going to sit. What does it actually look like? Uh clarity of language is key. Avoid the jargon. Try to stay away from a statement that would work in any municipality. What is uniquely Waxaw? And there you go. Be unique. So with that, we'll pass out the sheets. Again, think big, think bold, take chances, have fun with it. Nobody's going to hold you to it. Like this is just a chance

for us to discuss and we want everybody at tables. So what I'm gonna suggest in the process I want each of the commissioners to stand up and sorry would like each of the commissioners people at this table to stand up and find a staff person to pair up with. Okay. So you guys pair up with a staff member and for any of our department leaders who are not claimed by a commissioner pair up with each other and move like I I see a lot of park people over here. Move out of your comfort zone. Get out of your departments. Find somebody else that you work with so that we can really mix up the perspectives. Are the instruct you can move wherever you want. Find your pair. You can There's a whole table over here that's empty. Are the instructions clear? Okay. And you guys have to find pairs, too. been working so well.

Come on. Hey, come on. Do we all get a sheet? One quick point of clarification. Can I get everyone's attention real quick? One point of clarification on the instructions. Everyone has a copy of the worksheet. We need one person with great handwriting to be the scribe. Okay? Because you will be sharing out. Is there only one you got? Come over here.

Is this accomplish reality. This is very

Okay. If you're struggling to work with, just put words on the page. Just give yourself something to react to. Don't worry about the uh intricacies. So your vision Remember, if it's who you are today, Don't drown.

I'm trying to How to get opport

Oh Hallelujah. What's another

So this is what I got so far. I had the words that Yes. Yes. The vibrate community. Sounds kind of dark. Here

it is. I've got the answers. Remember remember that. Oh yeah, I got smile.

We'll give it another minute or so and then we are going to share out I think we got All right, folks are saying they're ready to So, I'm hearing a lot of conversation. I know you're so excited to share these vision statements. I am ready to be inspired by your ideas. I'm so excited for this. All right. Are you ready to start?

Okay. All right. We're going to start reading out these vision statements. I want you inspired. I want you to feel it. I want you to see where this organization's going. Stand up and share, please. I will. All right. Listen up. Listen up. I am got it ready to go. Are you ready? Okay. Waxaw is a welcoming and vibrant community that pro preserves its unique heritage while embracing economic prosperity. Say it one more time because I was talking over. Okay. Waxaw is a welcoming and vibrant community that prever preserves its unique heritage while embracing economic prosperity.

We had the best group over here. We are motivated. We are ready. Was that the entire group or do we have a second statement? Okay, that was a collective there. All right. Are we ready? So ours is Waxaw will be a charming family community that embraces its history and integrates innovation to drive strategic growth and economic prosperity. All right.

Okay folks, we did a massive rewrite on this. We rethought the whole thing. We we are pushing the bounds of the time space continuum with this one. So so follow along. Waxaw is a friendly, vibrant, prosperous town blending history and creativity to build an enduring community for all people to live, work, play, and grow a business. I heard a Back to the Future reference and I'm not hating it.

Yeah. So, we didn't realize we were supposed to put this together as a a full statement, so we made bullet points. Waxaw will be connect the old and new, preservation of the history and family focused feeling of our town, economic opportunity. Give it up. dropped. All right. Ours.

Our small town charm preserved through intentional strategic growth, strengthening families, and fostering connected, thriving community. Oh, wait. Yes. Tasha. Natasha. One more time. That was really thoughtful. The small town charm preserved through intentional strategic growth, strengthening families, and fostering a connected, thriving community. That's good. Well done.

All right. We went uh short and sweet with ours. We said, "Wax will be a welcoming and friendly environment that allows people and businesses to thrive as a community. The Thrive is alive. All right. Um, I got a few things here, but I I kind of went short. I I said more of the same because there's a lot to like about it. Um, but I guess you could take that different ways. Um, the place you want to stay. The place you want to stay with everything you want. Um, yeah. Say your original funny. Everything you need. Oh. Oh. The place you the place you don't need to leave.

Sounded a little dark. Say one more time. Which one? The last one. The place you don't need to leave. The place you want to stay. More of the same. It's good.

You want to mind games, right? You don't want to leave. You want to stay in the traffic. Hold up. Uh, Waxaw will be a family focused community with a strong sense of place where thoughtful innovation and small business growth strengthen our commercial tax base while preserving the character that makes our town unique. Very nice.

Um, we said Waxa will be a town with a vibrant downtown known for strong community interaction, parks, and recreational outlets. Very nice. Waxel will be a stable community where service motivation can flourish in a leafy historic setting and its representative government is an example to all. There you go.

Okay. Bradley and I have Waxaw will be a focused town where urban conveniences meet a community lifestyle. Read it again. Stand up. Waxaw will be a focused town where urban conveniences meet a community lifestyle.

Oh, okay. So ours is a community that is a safe and charming sorry a community that is safe and charming with economic growth that retains its quaint hometown feel.

All right. I've got Waxaw is a community where we weave our history into where we are going where where we are driven by responsible growth, innovation, and providing a safe place for all to thrive. Okay. Waxaw will be a prosperous and strategically managed family oriented community filled with historical charm and creativity for people of all ages. Waxaw will be a welcoming home for families and a flourishing hub for local businesses where a community connectivity and historic charm meet fiscally responsible leadership.

Very nice. Did we hit all the groups? All right. Great. What were some of the key words?

Now it's on. Okay, good. I got the thumbs up from the back. What were some of the key thoughts and words that you heard a lot as people were sharing out? Prosperity. Okay. Innovation. Prosperity. Family. Community. History. Responsible.

Welcoming. What um what phrase was memorable to you? We talked about vision being memorable. So, what caught your eye for me, Emily, it was the term weave. I was I I went right to it. That was very memorable. What were some other memorable little phrases people came up with? Yeah. Anything come up? leadership.

Community lifestyle. Okay. Anything else? All right. What I'd like you to do, I asked you to write legibly. Hopefully you did. Whoever has your legible vision statement on the piece of paper, come up and grab a little blue tape and I'd like you to post them up on that wall back there. Okay.

Commissioners, come back to the table. All right, mayor. Can I Mr. Mayor. All right. If I could have our commissioners and the mayor back to the table, we're gonna

Yes. Okay. So, we're gonna we're going to do two things simultaneously and as part of that, take a little break. So, my commissioners, your task in the next 10 minutes, I'm going to give you each two dots. Two dots and be two different colors. a green dot. And what other color dots do we have? Oh, we have purple. Let's do

Let's do purple. So, green, you're gonna go over there in this 10-minute little break that we have. As we move stuff around, I want you to go over there to that wall. Look at the statements. I want you to use a green dot for the one that really speaks to you, like there's something here, and a purple dot for the one that maybe is a strong second. Okay, we're not making this is not a vote. This is just to kind of get a sense of like as our leaders of the town, what's resonating with you from this brainstorming exercise. Okay, that's what you guys are going to do for Kasha is going to give you your dots for our teams here. We're going to break you up into we're going to do in this next exercise, we're going to have teams of five. So, if at your tables you could count off by five. Oh, you already did. Way ahead. All right. So, in your 10 minutes, you're going to move yourself to your labeled table. So, this is going to be table one, table two, table three, table four, and right here will be table five. So, that's what you guys are going to do in over the next 10 minutes. You'll be at your tables. You can take a a bio break if you need to grab something to drink. By 2005, you should be at your table and commissioners green dot first preference, purple dot, second preference.

All right, I think everyone is back in the room and you guys are doing awesome with following directions today. So, thank you. Uh let's just do a quick little pulse check readout of what the commissioners thought of these concepts. So with three green dots and one purple dot, we have some synergy here. I'll just read this for everyone for the good of the group. A welcoming home for families and a flourishing hub for local business where community connectivity and historic charm meet fiscally responsible leadership. Some good head nods there. All right, down here we have two green and two purple. Waxaw will be a prosperous and strategically managed familyoriented community filled with historical charm and creativity for all ages. Also good. And up here in uh let's see two purple, one green. Waxaw is a welcoming and vibrant community that preserves its unique heritage while embracing economic prosperity. Also good and a lone purple dot up here in the corner. Still good. A focused town where urban convenience meets a community lifestyle. Short, sweet, and memorable. All right. So for our commissioners and the mayor, any last reflections on this exercise? How would you like this conversation to continue? Do we want to push towards finalizing a vision statement? I mean, this is definitely a unique exercise and and a good opportunity to just kind of reflect on our mission statement, what it's been, and what it's meant for us over the last 10 or 15

years while we've been kind of trying to live through it. Um, there's some good ideas and some good thoughts here. And I think it's definitely one of those things that the board should consider whether or not we want to update our mission statement or our vision statement. And I think it's something that the board can continue to talk through and work through these ideas and kind of workshop. Thank you.

All right. So, we'll when we do the report and kind of wrap all this up, we'll obviously capture all this and give you some recommendations on how you might continue the conversation. All right, you guys ready to press on? All right, so we're going to talk now about some of the challenges and opportunities facing the town. So, we asked in our pre- retreat survey, for those of you who participated in it, to answer a couple of questions about challenges and opportunities. And if anything that I think we have all learned in our various roles in local government over our careers is that our municipal challenges of today are not linear. They are not simple. They are very complex and are interconnected. You pull one lever or push one domino and all the other dominoes are going to go down. You are shaking your head. Give me an example of what how this shows up in your work.

Well, you can make a decision and that decision affects either other departments or it a it definitely in in my department it affects the community hands-on in that moment. um with park and wreck. So, you have to be very strategic but very mindful of how that works and and communicate with the other departments to make sure you minimize that effect on them.

Thank you. So when we asked you all to simply state what you think the highest or the best opportunities are for the town and the greatest challenges, obviously what we got back was a very interconnected web of issues and those three questions that we asked in the survey. The last one is also very interesting. What is the greatest what challenge that you listed presents the greatest long-term risk if not addressed and why? And we got some very diverse answers to that, but also reinforced some key observations that we had about the results. There's a lot of synergy on what you all thought the key challenges were, which is good. If everybody was all over the place, then that's an that's an agenda that's going to be hard to wrangle. Your challenges that you identified included both drivers or causes of other issues and symptoms of other issues. So a driver if one of your main challenges is um let's say your uh your tax base driven primarily by residential growth, right? That's a symptom of a driver of a lot of rapid residential growth, right? It is a effect of those decisions. So, it's interconnected. Your ability to influence and control over a lot of these issues varies wildly and a lot of your constituents want you to do things that you don't have the legislative abil or the the um the the delegated responsibility to address. And

then obviously some of your challenges are more resource intensive both capital and operating as well as staff. So, what we did is we took all that input and we themed and came up with 12 challenges based on your survey results. And I'm going to have give you a couple of these. There should be six copies that you all can have this as a reference. There you go. For you 12 issues. Now, is this every issue under the sun? No. Are these descriptions perfect? No. So, you got to give us ourselves a little grace. This is what we came up with. Oops, not a stretch break. But what we're going to do today is really try to unpack these very complex issues. Today is not about problem solving, okay? Today is about sharing, creating shared understanding and giving the board good feedback to help come to some priorities for your town. So, we're not going to be solving how do we get more commercial development. We're going to be talking about how that issue is related to others. What is the role of the town on it? and then how do we make progress in understanding um its relationship to others. So the first thing we're going to do is do a little issue mapping. Oops. But what I'd like to do is just give you all a few minutes to review this list, digest it, make some notes, because

we're going to be working with these 12 things for the next little bit of time. This is the this these next few steps are the last things we're going to do today. So, just read quietly to yourself, ask questions at your table, but let's just make sure we've got a clear understanding of these 12 things, okay? This is North Carolina's music hall of fame.

Oh my gosh. I think two copies per table we said.

Yeah, I just need at least one one. All right, so let's just take a a little moment to come together before we give the instructions. So thoughts on this list? right? It's about right. Okay. Anyone see anything off not listed? What do what what is your thought on this list?

Well, this is it in a nutshell. I mean we have other things but these are the priorities that either a we can do something about but mostly our hands are tied with a lot of these issues and are dependent on other partners to um to play and if they don't want to play there's not much we could do to get them to recess.

Great segue because we're going to kind of talk about that role piece. Any questions for clarification? Anything look off to anyone or is this some there's a shared understanding in the room? Okay. All right. So, here's what we're going to do. How we're going to work with these 12 issues. So, the first thing that we like you to do, um Kasha has passed out, I think how many copies per one copy per table. So, you're going to have to kind of gather around and on these cards is a summary of each of the 12 issues that you have on your reference sheet and two questions. The first question is how this issue connects to others. So, we're kind of mapping cause and effect, right? Traffic is related to residential growth. capacity is rel internal capacity is rated to related to funding. Now you don't it could be quick, right? You don't have to bend your mind about this. So just take a few minutes to map those connections. The second question is the town's role. So there's four choices. Control you. You own it. It's your asset. It's your decision. It's your policy. Second is you influence it. You don't fully control the outcome but you can definitely shape it. A shared role is you have maybe a shared decisionmaking partner. And the last one is advocate. You have a limited direct role over the issue. So this question is really important because when it comes to prioritization, if you're trying to prioritize an issue you don't have control over, you can run into some roadblocks, right? So it's important that we have a clear answer at

least to the con to the role question for every issue. So that's your task. You can do all of these. We're going to give you a set period of time. You can focus on the issues that are most important to your group, but you're gonna do those two things. How is this issue connected to others? And what does the role what is the role of the town of Waxaw on this particular issue? Are the instructions clear for each group? So, you're going to pick a scribe, someone who's going to write on that worksheet. Everyone good? All right. Have at it.

We have about 15 minutes left in this exercise. So, if you've only done one or two, think about moving to a couple others.

Could I give everybody's attention real quick? Can I Sorry to interrupt your conversations, but we're gonna we're going to make this a little interesting. We're going to throw a little wild card into the process. So, I'd love all of our commissioners to stand up and rotate one table in this direction. Yes.

All right, we're going to move the commissioners one more time. One more time. Move the commissioners.

One more time.

All right, we are calling time. So if you guys want to head back to your groups, stay where stay in your group. Stay in your last group. Head back to your seats. Sorry. Yes, go for it. Go for it.

All right. So, before we move on to the final thing we're going to do today, I think um Kasha and I just want to hear a little bit about how this exercise was for you guys. So, just a couple of popcorn reflections. Kasha, what question should we start with? What was it like to hear staff perspective on things like resident input? Because I think the boards hear one set of input from residents and staff hear a different one. So, what was it like to hear staff or board talk about resident perspectives? Who would like to take? Who is excited to take that one?

Okay.

It's already live. um pleasantly surprised, very cognizant of the direction what the town the citizenry wants and um that they kind of understood that and I like that their perspective when we went to a staff driven um indicy that we kind of learned from watching what their perspective is inside the building and again I always use the term subject matter experts so I got to learn from that perspective but they're very very aware of um the feelings of the citizenry. Wonderful. How about staff? If anyone want to talk about Commissioner, did you want to jump in on that? You're just grabbing a mic. Oh, my extrovert is ready to go.

So, staff, what did you staff leaders, what did you learn from engaging with your commissioners? What was a little aha moment from this experience? Don't be shy. Brad always has something to say. So Brad, oh me. Yes, I learned that the commissioners deeply love this town and they represent the values of uh their elected constituents.

Oh my god. Oh, come on, Barbie. Let's Let's go uh like real real world waxaw, right? Let's tell let's have Okay. Real world waxaw. Talk about board perspectives. What did you learn from the board? What did you learn from the board?

I don't think the We get it. I mean, we hear it too. We get it. So, from that perspective, I don't think it really was that much different. We hear it every day, too, just like the board does. We see it. Um, we read it and we understand. It's a lot of shared a shared understanding and awareness. Was there a particular category that generated a lot of debate in your in the indices or got where did you get maybe stuck or have some conversation? Scott

the differences in the capital. So the three capital ones I think we kind of looked at and were like really struggling to segregate them and prioriti you know just work our way through that. That that's where we got stuck. Was there a category missing? You're like, I wish we had a column for this over. Kevin, I won't say I won't say one was missing. Um, but a lot of these, um, number two, you have two years on there. Um, that's a great metric. It's easy to measure off of. Some of these are low in the immediate and high in the long term and then vice versa. And really depending on how you're thinking about it, uh it makes a big difference.

Yeah, it really it really forces you to think about what are we going to do with the short-term resources of the next couple cycles. Kasha, I have a question for the board members. You were talking earlier today about the value of having data. Actually, we should go over here, right? You were talking about the value of having data and making informed decisions. So, how did talking through the categories listed today give you perspective on what kind of data or what kind of information you'd like to see on agendas or in work sessions, etc. as you discuss topics?

You're putting me on the spot now. When I reflect about this essentially this exercise that we just went through, one thing that I w picked up that was easily for me, we have a lot of subject matter experts already on hand. And for us, it's about hearing um essentially and evaluating where we can find refinement and and hone down essentially a little bit of the policy lenses that we as board of commissioners are using and to help build but not replace the framework that is already existing. I think we have some good cornerstones already. Um, but for me it's more just right now I'm I'm still trying to absorb all the data being a new commissioner and sitting down and talking with you all about hearing essentially organizational capacity. Uh we we had an open and honest conversation about uh losing some of our experts in in certain categories and how do we uh fill in in between with the staff that we do have um is a tugof-war. uh it requires capital and time and phasing some of that some of those together uh is one something that I've picked up in the conversation.

All right. So, we're going to make meaning out of these very vibrantly colored charts in this final thing that we're going to do. So in your groups, we would like you to look at your charts and find the patterns across your high, medium, and low rankings. And as a group, work to identify your issues roughly in these three tiers. So a tier one issue would be one where you've got a lot of highs, right? A lot of things identified, a high signals. And this issue will really materially affect the town's success if you address it. So those are your tier ones. Your tier twos are still important, but maybe they're not ready. Maybe you need a little bit more information, a little more clarity, a little more resources, maybe more partners or advocates, or maybe there those are the issues that are pretty constrained by external forces. And then the last tier would be your monitor. They're they're there. They're not going away, but you might not be able to impact them. Uh it's a lower risk if they're delayed or maybe you have a limited role. So, work together, identify what issues belong in each tier. We're going to bring you a flip chart piece of paper so you can write that clearly. And then we're going to report out from each table your tier one issues. instructions clear.

Cut. Yeah, sorry. Blue is two.

You're done scribing. You could everyone can go back to their original seats. Yeah. Or you can stay where you are. The commissioners need to come back to the table. We're going to break up number five. You guys can go back to your original tables. And then our final group, group two, I've got some blue tape. All right, we're going to carry this train to the station. We are almost done, but we're going to get a report out from each group. So, what I'd like Who are my presenters raising their hands? Okay. So, my presenters, we're gonna ask you to focus on your tier one recommendations and give a little bit of a why. Okay? Little bit of a why. You can you can phone a friend and ask for help from your group if you need to. And for those of you who are presenting

after the first person, think about building on the ideas of the other. So, notice the own patterns. We also have economic diversification as a tier one. So don't just repeat kind of build on uh what you see from the presentations before. You make sense? All right. Who's going Who is this lovely? Is this group number one? All right, come on down. Yeah, you can team up. You can team up. Okay. Make sure everybody can see that.

Um, so should we just list the ones that we put for tier one? You're going to present your tier one and why. Okay. So for tier one we put economic diversification rapid and predominantly residential growth long-term fiscal sustainability infrastructure capacity not keeping pace with growth and unbalances tax structure uh re revenue I don't know is that mix okay um and and the reason why

you can Um, Scott. Yeah. I don't I don't really test.

We really didn't get that far. We just listed them. So, so thinking back on your check marks, why did some of those rise to the top? comparison to some of the ones in tier two and tier three. Why did they rise to the top? Yeah, if you if we can solve these issues, then they kind of everything else kind of falls into place.

Excellent. Round of applause. I was trying uh let's see here. We pulled an audible and instead of thinking about the assignment, we just copied the list verbatim. No. Um because you will notice this is in the same order that it appears. Uh what was interesting is we did all the scoring and the tier one stuff scored as sorry the tier 2 stuff scored as if it was tier one. But then when you look at the list in its entirety, thinking about the priority, the real priority of things, that's when we'd kind of pulled the audible and basically switched the tier one and two and basically made tier one is all about the rapid growth, economic diversification, the tax structure and the fiscal sustainability. And when I when I think you consider fiscal sustainability and tax structure, you start to realize those become the backbone of everything. And that's why we again pulled that audible and and shuffled them to the top. Um, and then as far as the tier three stuff, just to kind of go over that, um, service expectations is it was kind of a tier three one along with organizational capacity. These are things that we can really kind of control a little bit more directly. Um, historic preservation unfortunately was a tier three as well as an unclear vision. Um, the town's going to work whether it has a vision statement or

not. It's it's just going to do what it needs to be needs to be done. And then limited local control. That was a tier three purely because of the limited local control. So we have no control over that. So that's how that ended up in tier three. Um if we had more local control then maybe some of this stuff would be tier two instead of tier one. Um but anyway that was the list that uh we came up with and any questions. All right

t uh let's see this pink group right here. Who is that? All right. Yes.

Okay. So, we did like all the others. Uh we have our tier one. Basically, we felt that the tier one was the uh catalyst for everything else within tier 2 and tier three. Um so without addressing economic divers uh diversification long-term fiscal sustainability um I have to get my sheet because I can't read my short hand. That's not good. Can I see your sheet? No, this sheet. This sheet. Yeah, this sheet. This sheet. Okay. So, um, capital improvement needs, um, infrastructure capacity and organizational capacity and workforce. If this wasn't addressed first, then the others would not um, be able to be accomplished. But if you address what's in tier one, then everything will flow through for tier two and tier three and you'll be able to manage that um with a little bit of ease.

Thank you. So, we added the organizational capacity and the capital improvement into the tier one group. Thank you. Great job. All right, green team. green team.

Green team. So to build on what was already outlaid here, we had uh the rapid residential growth as a tier one priority. uh capital improvements and needs and there's backlog and um we all are very familiar with a handful of the tier one issues that are already um were challenging us currently will continue to challenge us again more into the future is because we have had essentially a steady uh log of residential rooftops coming forward as well in the future. A lot of it of course tier one transportation and traffic. Um we we all understand that there are uh aspects within our control that within uh town's control but we also understood too that there are partnerships uh and and outside influences within that traffic and infrastructure piece. Um organizational capacity is something that we did felt like was a tier one issue. It was an issue that where essentially making sure that we had the right essentially tools within our own house to continue to handle some of these day-to-day issues commain essentially our experts and uh in-house compared to going to outside resources at times. uh tier 2 uh economic diversification if uh adjusting the economic diversification will adjust some of the capital improvement needs over time. Um we had a debate on how to rank the essentially uh economic diversification uh but ultimately felt that it was something that was important but yet we're not yet ready there on what is that total vision for diversification.

we have a good core, but yet what is that next step? And so that's why we ended up there with tier two. Uh tier three, well, a lot of it was essentially tier three monitoring and background. All of it needs a little bit of essentially active coaching. we felt like within the list uh nothing is so much so of a priority to where we just need to uh really have it just an issue that's not ready for us to be involved in where we're just monitoring it in the background. Uh all of the issues today I believe before us need some form of essentially active uh management or active input. Last but not least, Kevin.

Okay. Um, we actually Let's see how this shakes out here. I'm gonna try to justify it, but we, um, we ranked ours and we waited everything with points and then we kind of just plopped them on there. So, we're going to see what happens. Um, I think it worked out well. Uh, tier one rapid and predominantly residential growth. Um, I don't want to demonize residential growth. Everybody wants homes. Um but really if you look at some of the items in tier two, a lot of those are directly impacted um and are at least partially the result of number one um for different reasons. Um so that's kind of your foundation there. Long-term fiscal sustainability and cost pressures, that's kind of your roof. Tier three or tier two, unbalanced tax structure and revenue mix, capital improvement needs and backlog, infrastructure capacity not keeping pace with growth, economic diversification and commercial development. Um those are all some of the symptoms there. Um they're inside the house. Um we do have a number of tier three items as well. Um transportation, traffic and um connectivity constraints. organizational capacity, workforce sustainability, community character, and historic preservation, unclear vision for Waxaw's future. Um, which I personally think we're getting started on right here. Um, which is is great. Um, limited local control and external constraints. Um, again, it's, you know, as the mayor said, there's nothing we can really do about that one, but it is a it it does it does cause issues. um service expectations versus service capacity. Um those were all important in their own right um but a little bit less than your tier one and your tier tier two items.

All right, little round of applause for that group. So just kind of looking at the patterns across how you all shared out your results. The four of the five groups had residential growth and long-term fiscal stability as the the common thread across uh and then we have infrastructure common in two groups unbalanced tax structure also two groups organizational capacity and CIP and I didn't write down eight does anyone have their cheat sheet

capac capacity. Oh, what was 12? Sorry.

Economic diversification. I transposed those. So, economic diversification, two groups and organizational capacity also two groups. Uh transportation one out of the five groups lifted up as a tier one. So, how to use this? How to go forward? Obviously, the final priorities for the commission is up to the commission. Um, you can think about when you're in your presentations tomorrow, right? When you are when the staff leaders are presenting on tomorrow's agenda, think about how your work ties into these emerging priorities. How are your core services, your facilities, the work that you do on the dayto-day helping to drive forward either solutions to these top challenges um or ways to to address them for the town moving forward? It seems to me there's a lot of shared synergy in the room on the things that you all should be focusing on. Um, which is which is great, right? As an organization, as a local government, if you were all were on different sides of the room, you would have a very challenging, you know, time moving forward. So, this is, I think, a really positive outcome to affirm that. the real rubber hit the road moment is going to be the specific solutions and investments that you want to make to move the needle on your top issues which is something that you know additional planning and synthesis through your budget and other activities is going to bear fruit on. But I think in terms of what we set out to accomplish today, the afternoon session really built on the teamwork objectives that we had. The morning session obviously created some awareness and understanding for you all as commissioners and how you can work together and then how the team of teams can work together moving forward. So overall I think you guys worked really hard this afternoon. Hopefully the insights that you had from your conversations were worthwhile and then

the insights you had about where you needed to go as a as a team of teams and as an overall town also came out in the conversation. So, um, before we close out, just wanted to open it up with the room for any kind of final comments or thoughts from the commissioner, from the mayor, from staff on insights, ahas, or appreciation that you want to show for each other for today's conversation and today's um, deliberations. Well, I I think it's really uh important. I was encouraged by the the exercise itself, how it involved folks from one department to look at the town from a 360 perspective and getting everybody to to think in those terms even though they may not have to um on a day-to-day basis, but it does I think it really helps kind of put the direction of the town in in proper perspective. And um and then that's where that vision comes a lot clearer for everybody.

Okay.

Um and I wanted to thank everyone for participating and I think it's clear that we have more in common. Our direction is focused. Um and sometimes not that we're working in isolation but you know we're not always in this type of environment. the work sessions are an effort to bring us to the to another day like this. But having gone through two other retreats that were not like this, this was definitely um something I I I enjoyed doing and it wasn't just digesting two days worth of information um for a year-long plan that you know it it it's hard to make decisions when given all that information. that this shows our focus and then we can, you know, tweak it from here, but it's definitely a direction that we can see we have in common. So, I appreciate it.

Awesome.

I know for me just spending time together, uh it's a multifaceted organization is the way I keep looking at it with uniqueness and um individuals in every department that make that department special in itself. So spending time today and tomorrow with you all just getting to know you all conversing with you all and then hearing through these exercises in an organic way that uh we're all seeing the picture through similar lenses through a similar scope. Um it and then just working as a commission together uh to uh prioritize and how to elevate these tier priorities and where that we can focus our energies. focusing them to the best of and the wisest of our abilities. And so just just spending today with you all. I just wanted to say and echo my other commissioner's sentiments. Thank you.

Great. All right. Mr. Mayor, any closing thoughts from your perspective?

I guess in closing in closing, I'll just say thank you to everyone for participating and participating enthusiastically. Um I think everybody was fairly engaged the entire time you were all here. So, I just want to say thank you for that. I know these things can be a little bit tedious and sometimes they feel childish, but I think they're very necessary. Um, this helps clearly define what the focus needs to be, I think, and the fact that that came from the entire group. The fact that all these concepts and problems and issues sort of have been sort of percolated through the entire group to give us a very clear priority, I think is a very good thing. and it helps the board feel more confident in some of the decisions we're making and while while giving you all a little bit more sense of direction, too. So, I wanted to say thank you,

Scott. Anything else you'd like to add? Okay, tomorrow we shift gears a little bit, but we're going to keep all this up and I think it's good to have it up. Sorry, do that to you. Um, we'll take pictures.

Okay, you'll take pictures. All right. Um, the reason being is they'll sit here. You guys have three minute pitches, three to five minute pitches. They're one pagers that the board's going to get. And then you have 10 minutes to ask questions back per group. So, think about that. Uh we've gone from having 30-page reports to one pagers from everybody based upon what you heard today and the exercises that you have and getting to know folks and issues better. I think it should help you tomorrow. You get a thing. We're not done after that. My recommendation after that is that you we get this collected with the cog. It comes back to the board. The board then in a public setting can discuss it and affirm it um change it, modify it. But you'll have your direction. You have the final say on that. Staff will then have a book. You'll have that information behind you and you start work sessioning your way through uh the year. Um it doesn't stop and start with budget. It doesn't stop and start with a particular issue. It keeps going all year. That's, you know, that's kind of the job you're in and we're we're here to support you. So, we're really looking forward to tomorrow morning 8:30 sharp. We'll be here to give you our best and um uh I think the staff with the COG help um thank you so much Tasha. I just absolutely fantastic helping us get direction. Bradley put a focus um together where the staff could really hone in on giving informations, deliverables, expectations, um all kinds of things and good information for you folks. So, we're really looking forward to that tomorrow. Um, it won't be like drinking from a fire hose because you'll have today to have absorbed a lot of what you may have heard over a couple days worth of stuff. So, thanks to the COG for really helping us um, uh, be

part of this together and to help you folks be the best commission you can be. Great, great way to end, Scott. Thank you very much. Um, you will be getting our report with all these materials. So, we do need your big posters. So, please, please don't. I know you might want to walk away and, you know, frame them and hang them up in your office, but we do need them. Um, so we'll take that back. It's been our absolute pleasure to be uh spend the day with all of you, and I hope you have a great session tomorrow, and we look forward to continuing the conversation.