You might at this point be wondering, what are some of the priorities of Council? We were curious of that as well. City staff compiled a list of priorities based on the PA Economy League Strategic Management Planning Program Report, as well as, some items that Council members themselves determined they would like as priorities. This list, which is still in it's draft form, is available by sending a request to the right-to-know officer at the courthouse. Of course, we already went through the "trouble" of obtaining this information to share with all of you. We do want to ensure you're aware, this is a working list, and at the January 19, 2022 Council meeting City staff was asked to group like tasks, as well as, create a timeline of completion.
All of that said, we present you with the proposed priorities list;
Now, we're not going to delve too far into each of these bullet points. But, the encouragement is for you to utilize the City website to research all of these priorities. We will however, enclose some of the links to info on the City website, to ensure you can easily access these items. The items we're enclosing are based upon some of the conversations we have heard, either at Council meetings or "word on the street". The best thing anyone can do is, be informed and ask questions. Speaking of asking questions, should you feel so inclined to visit the Mayor or some of the Council members to ask questions in person, they do have office hours. At the February 2, 2022 Council meeting Autumn stated she was in on Mondays from 11-1, Jaime is in Tuesdays and Thursdays "all day", and Gretchen is there Fridays from 12-2. Alternatively, you could make public comments at City Council meetings, which would hopefully result in Council answering your questions publicly.
Now, back to the list. The full STMP report is available by going to the following link, as well as, a presentation explaining home rule, and the Climate action plan.
The summary of recommendations from the STMP report is as follows;
They then go on to detail out the specific recommendations and implementation timeline. It is quite lengthy, so we're not going to enclose all of that information here.
The next "hot topic" that is being discussed is home rule charter. By following the same link above, you will find the presentation on this. The example timeline is:
So, if you have questions on this topic. You might have time to get some questions in to Council.
Next, the Climate Action plan;
This one touches on a lot of different talking points. But, we all know that members of this Council would like to address blight. So, how does this pertain to the Climate action plan? Well, we demolish the blight and plant a garden. A garden doesn't pay taxes though, and is an additional maintenance item. If you haven't seen the other gardens in town, go read "overGROWn Meadville".
We're not sure how many more volunteers the City would need step forward to make this "financially feasible". But, if it's any comparison to the current amount of volunteers helping with "Grow Meadville", we're not sure this will ever be financially feasible.
And, we're not really sure how to feel about fruit trees in walking paths. Could these end up being a safety hazard? Falling apples on the sidewalks. In theory things could sound nice, but is it really practical? That's for all of us to decide and weigh in on.
This climate action plan also touches on housing topics.
Some of these items sound a lot like their idea for a rental registration/inspection program. So, are we approaching topics from multiple angles and seeing what makes it through? Maybe there's more "hidden" down in here than meets the eye. It's highly advisable for everyone to read and understand what all is in this Climate Action Plan (CAP).
There is definitely a lot of information to unpack in this CAP, and we likely will see things moving forward with this in the near future. (This is opinion, based on the closing statement in the report, as well as the deadline for some of the action items.)
The final topics we have drawn attention to in the past are Participatory budgeting and the rental licensing/inspection program. You can revisit older blog posts to get insight on these items.
Next steps for all of us should be to keep up with this list of priorities and the timeline of implementation. We should also take the time to really read and understand ALL of the topics of which are proposed. Once a new list with timelines and groupings is made available, you can rest assured that we will obtain it and share it. Although, it would hopefully be something that City Council would choose to list directly on the City website, to ensure that residents and tax-payers understand what is potentially going to be going on within the City.
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