City Commission Candidates’ Answers
about Public Engagement, Government Collaboration, and Transparency
Public Engagement
Q1: How would you plan to integrate community input into your decision making?
Mike Courtney: I intend to continue to engage constituency groups, neighborhood associations, and the public through proactive communication.
Kristine Polian: I plan to setup a system that helps me engage the community on a regular basis for both daily issues, as well as issues coming in front of the Commission at each meeting. The information I receive from the community, as well as my research, will significantly impact how I make decisions.
Bob Schumm: Get all the written data available, ie: written reports, technical analysis, written comments from the public. In other words get all the available facts. Next, be available to talk to as many people in the community as possible to get their thoughts about the subject matter. Use all this information to reach a preliminary opinion. Finally, listen to what your co-commissioners have to say. They are also investigating the question and may have additional information that will help in your final decision.
Q2: How would you ensure early community engagement opportunities in the planning process? What new mechanisms would you implement for engaging the community from the beginning of planning processes?
Mike Courtney: One of the areas that I have discussed is to make sure that we give the community an adequate amount of time to respond to items on the City Commission Agenda. Items are announced on a Thursday with only a few days to communicate with City Commissioners and provide feedback. We should give more than a week on highly-charged topics. This will allow the City Commissions to deepen their understanding on the topic and provide questions to the City Staff. This will also allow the public to formulate questions of the Commission during public comment.
I also believe that in the upcoming year we can expand outreach to help connect with working families where they are, without expecting them to come to us. Here are four ideas for engaging the community:
At the pickup line at local schools
At local sporting events for children and at college events
Pop-up events in collaboration with local businesses
In partnership with the Neighborhood Associations
Kristine Polian: It is essential for the Commission to have discussions with the community on issues BEFORE decisions are made, so most agenda items will have to be distributed to the Commission well in advance of any formal decision-making on the issue. I will establish weekly times that the community can access me, and discuss upcoming issues, as well as general issues regarding the city.
Bob Schumm: Currently the City mails out notices to property owners within a certain distance from the subject property asking for a change. That notice area should be expanded to double or triple this distance. Additionally, ads should be placed in the local media. For major rezoning, I would propose town hall meetings in the neighborhoods where the planning action is being considered.
Q3: How would you want to be engaged by your constituents? What are the best methods for you to receive community input? What type of information could residents provide that might affirm or change your opinion on an issue?
Mike Courtney: I have found that direct conversations - face-to-face or by phone - have been the most effective way of receiving input.
Kristine Polian: I will engage with the community in the way it is easiest for the community. I will provide opportunities to communicate with me through social media, email, phone, and in-person meetings before every Commission meeting, as well as weekly hours for general discussion.
The information that truly impacts me the most is both the facts surrounding an issue, as well as the story of how it is affecting someone. Any opportunity I can receive information through someone’s lived experience is preferred, as this allows me to see true impact an issue may have.
Bob Schumm: I would want to be engaged by email, phone, or in person. I have learned to keep an open mind in all instances because one’s opinion is likely to change as you gather your information. All relevant information is very helpful. Fact-based data is very important to me in order to form the best opinion about a project.
Q4: What public engagement efforts are the City/School Board already doing that you think are most effective?
Kristine Polian: I believe their use of social media and website information is fairly effective.
Bob Schumm: The most effective is listening to the public at City Hall during the discussion time available during the agenda item. From 12 years of personal experience, I know the impact that a crowded room of speakers has on a commissioner. This action is currently employed effectively.
Collaboration between Governmental Entities
Q1: How would you improve collaboration between the City and School District to improve addressing issues that impact both entities, such as housing, infrastructure, taxes, tax abatements, school closures, and school boundaries?
Mike Courtney: The first thing we need to do is to acknowledge where we currently are, and that's in a place that needs better communication. This communication will allow each governing body (City Commission, School Board, and County Commission) to realize that they are not alone in the community and the decisions they make have affect all three bodies.
The City and the County have joint meetings, but it has been a while since all three governing bodies had a joint meeting. I’m willing and eager to make that happen again.
Kristine Polian: I will establish regular communication with all governing body members, for all taxing authorities (City, County, School), so when issues come up that affect any of us, it is easy to begin discussion immediately. Technology exists that makes this process easier, which I will utilize where available.
Bob Schumm: Interaction is key to collaboration. There should be quarterly joint meetings between the City and School Board in order to discuss these issues. We should look at any redundancies these two bodies might have in order to make our systems more efficient and reduce costs.
Q2: How would you improve the current culture of your governing body to increase collaboration and reduce siloed decision-making?
Mike Courtney: I have seen siloes broken down throughout my career, it just takes concerted effort. I am committed to meet with each individual commissioner and to understand their goals as an elected leader. From there, we can figure out where we have common ground and where we need to continue the dialogue.
Kristine Polian: I will start by example, through consistent community engagement. If I have to bear the burden alone initially, that is ok. I believe eventually, other commissioners who lack in engagement, will come around. I am convinced that increased community engagement will strengthen trust, and trust is vital to progress.
Bob Schumm: The City Commission needs to be the body that takes control of this agenda. One or two City Commissioners need to be present at regularly scheduled staff meetings.
Q3: What limitations do the Commission and School Board have in engaging with each other? Which of these are official institutional limitations, and which of these limitations are self-imposed or a product of institutional culture?
Mike Courtney: Rather than a limitation, I believe that we can use this moment as a reset in the post-pandemic era. As stated earlier, the three entities used to have a yearly meeting. I think even a bi-annual meeting would start to increase the communication between all three bodies in this tight-knit community.
Kristine Polian: There are limitations as it pertains to open meetings laws, however, these are easy to get around with proper planning. Personal and cultural limitations that exist, in my opinion, include lack of trust and lack of resources (time). These limitations are more difficult to overcome, but it is still an elected official’s responsibility to collaborate with each other, even when our personal beliefs or culture make us hesitatant.
Bob Schumm: Currently these two bodies do not meet together. Another limitation is time. Most all members of the City Commission and the School Board have full time jobs and family obligations to be considered. I would say the first limitation here is an institutional limitation by tradition, ie: we just haven’t done this before; and the second is a self-imposes limitation, ie: being out of time due to work and family.
Q4: How can the City and School District better collaborate to address budget challenges?
Kristine Polian: In general, the average citizen does not know the difference between City and School taxes, so working together to at least understand the challenges everyone is facing will assist when engaging with the public.
Each governing body must make collaboration a priority, which requires effort. Setting regular meetings, whether quarterly, semi-annually, or annually, is a good starting point. In these meetings, budget really needs to be a leading discussion point, where a year-to-date assessment is provided by each governing body, at minimum.
Bob Schumm: Meet early in the budget process to get a better picture of each body’s needs and challenges. Continue to meet throughout the process.
Transparency
Q1: How would you increase the availability, accessibility, and transparency of data so residents could provide more informed feedback? How would you engage in the City’s/School District’s storytelling to the public?
Mike Courtney: Earlier this year I began to look at the City's online budget information. I found the data was very hard to export. I would work to make sure that City data is a format that can be easily accessible and parsed by interested parties.
Kristine Polian: There are several reports that should be accessible to the public, whether it be through the Commission meeting agenda, or through the portal, that will provide a better understanding of the city’s financial position, procurement practices, and general issues that may affect the community. I will ask for that information to be made available, whether I am elected or not.
Given my experience in city government, one of my goals is to increase community education in the topics that are most pressing. Often, staff lacks the time, and commissioners lack an intimate understanding (understandably), to be able to educate the citizens on difficult, or highly technical, issues Lawrence faces, so it is my intent to provide people with a better understanding of these issues, so they can provide better feedback.
Bob Schumm: All reports, minutes, advisory committee votes should be posted on the city website at least three days prior to the next official action to be taken. Additionally, Department Heads should make available email notices to individuals trying to follow a particular subject matter. I would be engaged in the city’s storytelling to the public by being available to the press for comments about city issues. I would also be available to meet with groups of people, ie: service clubs and schools, to update our citizens about city issues.
Q2: What benefits do you see in being transparent with your constituents? How do you determine the threshold for information you think should be easily accessible to the public?
Mike Courtney: A lot of people in town have lost faith in the City Government due to the town becoming increasingly unaffordable. I believe the answer to this is to provide even more transparency. That in a moment like this, we should provide even more sunshine for people to see where we have been, and where we are going.
Kristine Polian: The biggest, and by far most impactful, benefit to transparency with the citizens is TRUST. With trust comes collaboration, and with collaboration comes progress. Only information we are strictly prohibited from sharing will be inaccessible. There may be matters of sensitivity involving attorney-client privilege or land acquisition that, if accessible, will adversely affect the city, and if so, the community needs to understand why it isn’t being shared.
Bob Schumm: The biggest benefit of being transparent is that you build trust with your constituents. The threshold for dissemination that I would use is that any revenant fact about an issue should be available to the public.
Q3: How do you determine what issues the public should have input on? When should an item be on the governing body’s consent agenda versus the regular agenda, which community members can publicly comment on?
Mike Courtney: The consent agenda should be used for approving previous meeting minutes, receiving reports, and items that are routine in nature. Over the past year, we have seen items such as the status of tax abatements, million dollars projects, budget adjustments, changes to the Capital Improvement Plan, and the second reading of the Gateway Project via a consent vote. I would like to see those items brought to the regular agenda for a discussion amongst the City Commissioners.
Kristine Polian: The Consent Agenda is specifically used for recurring and or and/or benign items that are not contentious to the community. The intent behind the Consent Agenda is purely logistical in nature, so as to make the Commission meetings more efficient and timely, and should never be used to circumvent public awareness or engagement. If these norms are being followed, I would not be in favor of the public having the ability to remove items off of Consent, but I would certainly be willing to do it on behalf of a citizen if I felt I could not represent them appropriately.
Bob Schumm: When I last served in 2015, the system was this: The Mayor set the agenda, with routine items being placed on the consent agenda and major items being placed on the regular agenda. Any Commissioner could remove a consent agenda item for discussion, as well as amember of the public.This system worked well in the past. Yes, I would support allowing members of the public to pull items off the consent agenda for discussion.
Q4: How would you balance the legal versus the ethical obligations of the governing body’s actions and choices? How would you codify your ethical obligations and publish them so the public can understand your decision making?
Kristine Polian: I will always do what is ethical, which means I will make decisions that are best for the community as a whole, not for myself or individuals. I will justify any decision I make to the public, and will do so in public meeting as much as possible, so people will understand. They may not agree, but they will know why.
Bob Schumm: First of all, I try to be ethical in all of my actions everyday. I also am very respectful of the law. In the City Commission work, there are times where one cannot comment, ie: lawsuits in progress, personnel matters, and contract negotiations. Other situations may exist too. I think this question is an example of the trust that the community has to have with their elected officials.This is why we have an extraordinary vetting process in place before each election. I would be as open as possible with all my constituents about my thought process that goes into making a decision. I think the press has an obligation here to tell the story behind major votes.