Anatomy 103 the Nooks & Crannies of Public Info for town meetings

Kowabunga..Dude!

Surfing ... TOWB.org

      Why use the website? There are many reasons, but it all boils down to accessing important TOWB information:

Editorial Comment: (comment? ha ha.. do we have a comment, that's a laugh, but seriously, we really do have our opinions here at WrightsvilleView and here is one of them)

As this post goes off to the internet we are not aware of any plans to upgrade the Town of Wrightsville Beach website aka TOWB.org, It is unfortunate that despite Town staff requests for support, the budget funding for upgrades of hardware, software, archiving, transferal of legacy systems and website design were all cut by a 3 to 2 vote last June....By comparison to other towns and small cities, even mom & pop businesses the TOWB site is far outdated and not providing effective enough service to the citizens or the businesses of Wrightsville Beach. Search capability, transactional capability, form filing, ease of use are all lacking in functional quality. This is a strategic issue, there are staff efficiencies among many other benefits to be gained.

        Be that as it may, we hereby will outline how to use the website. We hope you will use it in preparing to get involved in agenda issues  or just to register your view at future Town meetings or directly to town officials..

         Important TOWB information to be accessed: 

• Contact information for Elected Officials and Town Staff
• Schedule for various town meetings (Alderman, Planning, Adjustment, Parks & Rec Advisory, Historic Preservation, Marketing Advisory etc.)
• Latest Board of Alderman Meeting Agenda and also the Meeting Preparation Packet (all the relevant documents)
• Past Board of Alderman Town Meeting Minutes 

Note:  We have more than a "pet peeve" regarding Meeting Minutes....typically the publication on the website of BOA Approved Meeting Minutes  lags by 3 or more months. This makes it near impossible as a citizen to follow a particular issue. This reflects a failure of our elected officials to place a priority on informing the citizens.

• Research Town & State Ordinances (building codes, noise and pet rules, event permits and much more)
• Information about the Beach (Swim Advisories, Weather Link, Tide Table Link, Park Ranger, Surf zones, Beach Rules)

       Below is the Home Page. We have noted the Key Categories section on the upper left side. This where you should start your journey to drill down for more information. It is unfortunate that the right hand column is basically stagnant old info.

TOWB.org "Home Page"

       As a priority scroll through Key Categories and you can readily see what's available. "Board" "Departments" "Staff Listings" "Forms" are probably to most valuable.

The "Board" drop down menu

       Under " Board" you can find out about each member, upcoming meeting agenda and preparation packet (usually the Monday prior), past minutes (usually 3 months lagging)
Town Meeting Nov 8, 2012 Meeting Info Packet 71 Pages... here is the link below.


Packet Find Under "Board"
Sorry link not functio!ning another reason to upgrade TOWB.org!
http://towb.org/LinkClick.aspxfileticket=2Cn9PUrHOx4%3d&tabid=163
Beach Rules Brochure Find under "Beach Info"
http://towb.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=mYnzXchdU8Q%3d&tabid=182
Marine Water Quality/ Swim Advisories find under "Beach Info"
http://xapps.enr.state.nc.us/eh/beaches/notification.do

Note Shortcut: Contact Ginger Reid (greid@towb.org and request to be added to the "sunshine list". She will send you the TOWB BOA Agenda about a week before!

Marine water sample quality results

Beach Rules Brochure

Report Storm water Violations 
910-524-2102



       This has been a broad brush tour of TOWB.org, hopefully will spend some time digging in to learn more about what's going on and what is important regarding your quality of life in Wrightsville Beachin

Find the full TOWB Contact List under "Staff Listing"

Mayor and Board of Aldermen
David Cignotti, Mayor	910-256-5817	dcignotti@towb.org
Susan Collins, Mayor Pro Tem	910-256-5072	scollins@towb.org
Bill Sisson, Alderman	910-256-1898	bsisson@towb.org
Elizabeth King, Alderman	910-256-2260	eking@towb.org
Darryl Mills, Alderman	910-228-8552	dmills@towb.org

Important Alert:

       This coming Thursday Dec 13, 2012 at 6 pm is the next TOWB Board of Alderman Meeting. Key items on the agenda are Implementation of the Smoking Ban and Implementation of Video Streaming.  Both items have been contentious issues in the past your input to the board concerning implementation by simple email is very important.

       Thanks for reading please let us have your comments.    Noah

Anatomy (102) The Nuts & Bolts of a Town Meeting

Anatomy 102

Let's take a look at the basic structure of a Town Meeting in Wrightsville Beach (aka the Nuts & Bolts)

The whole purpose of a Town Meeting is the timely public conduct of the local government law making and strategic decisions for the municipality. PUBLIC... as in "out in full view" of the citizens not behind the scenes, in the hallways, or at the coffee shop. (in a future posting we will show you how to access all this public town info)

 The TOWB Board of Alderman (aka Town Meeting) is scheduled once per month, held on the 2nd Thursday of the month at 6:00 pm in Town Hall Chambers.  There is the the option, to call interim meetings as situations (urgent decisions) may dictate.  There are currently 32 meetings listed on the Official Public Notice for 2012 of which 12 are the regular monthly Jan - Dec 2012).

YIKES!
Doing Homework for a Town Meeting

That's a pretty busy schedule for Alderman, plus we need to factor in preparation time and external engagement and participation with Citizens, Town Staff and  other community, county  and state panels, boards committees..etc.

Like any meeting it starts with the objective(s).What needs to be addressed by the elected officials? What is the desired result? The needs could range from providing direction to Town staff,  hearing public comment on key issues, budget matters, decisions to renew contracts, hiring, approving zoning, preparing for hurricanes, discussing reports from staff or even dealing with NCDOT repair of the draw bridge...and the traffic on a big weekend.  Over the course of the Town's fiscal year the annual Budget will take on a large focus (Jan to June) and extra meetings will be held to focus on just that (aka Budget Workshops). The agenda for each meeting will be setup based on the objectives set.

Generally the regular monthly meetings have a fairly standard format with varying intensity and time allocated on particular  items as needed.

A Standard Agenda (as partially seen here) will have 8 categories.

• Cat 1 through 3 are... Call to Order, Pledge of Allegiance, Invocation (non-denominational prayer)
• Cat 4... Public Comment (could be you or I notifying in advance the Town Clerk, Silvia Holleman (910-256-7900 or sholleman@towb.org) that you want to speak at the meeting about issue X, Y and/or Z) The Mayor will make an introduction in the meeting and allow 3 - 5 minutes for each scheduled speaker to talk about their issue(s). Often this time is used by citizens to request that something be addressed or looked into or even propose a Public Hearing (ref. Cat 6). However there is no obligation of the Board to take any actions, including asking any clarifying questions of the speaker.
• Cat 5 ... Consent Agenda (this can be a long list of fairly standard type operational issues that are voted for approval as an entire group...such as approval of the minutes from past meetings, acknowledgement of previously approved events, approval of certain newly proposed events, approval to proceed with specific administrative actions (adoption of state mandated record retention or writing off bad checks), officially canceling or rescheduling  future meetings of various town committees (when requested), set public hearing dates...etc. The point is this can be routine but, if a Board member has a question or issue on a specific item they can pull it out from the common vote approval of the list.  Any pulled items can they be separately questioned, answered, discussed and voted individually. 
•  Cat 6 ... Public Hearing (If there is to be a Public Hearing, it will have been agreed at a previous Town meeting and there will have been multiple public notifications in the news paper. This enables interested parties "for or against" a particular issue to assemble and be heard. The goal of the PH is to air the complexity of issues and public sentiment... to better inform our elected officials. You can experience a broad swath of arguments to consider in weighing the  pros, cons consequences and costs  of a potential decision by our officials. The Mayor will usually manage the logistics and timing of the public input, especially when many citizens have come to speak. 

Hint: ..Get there early to get a seat or you may end up participating 

from the patio outside

Patrick Henry
"Wows the room"

Both Catagories 4 and 6 can be quite informative and entertaining. Imagine the raw verbal passion emoting the grassroots wisdom from the mouths of your fellow citizens/ comrades in arms

     Richmond Virginia: March 23, 1775 In wrapping up

     his public comments to the 2^nd Virginia Convention

     Patrick Henry stilled the air from corner to corner

     with his closing words…

    ”I know not what course others may take; 

     but as for me,…
    Give me liberty or give me death!”

A short Patrick Henry History Lesson can be found at this link
http://www.history.org/almanack/life/politics/giveme.cfm

Some Topic examples of past Public Hearings in Wrightsville Beach are:

1. Ban smoking on the Beach
2. Adoption of the Unified Development Ordinances (aka UDO - basically about the building codes & zoming)
3. Consideration of parking space exemptions or increased open patio space for a local bar/ restaurant
4. Zoning change requests
5. Comprehensive parking plan changes
6. The annual Budget

I'll have mine "well done please"
Regular Agenda

• Cat 7 ...Regular Agenda ...Aside from a Public Hearing this is the.. Meat & Potatoes of the meeting and the process of government. This is the item by item component where each piece is usually looking for voting decision or critical discussion of an issue that may lead to a Public Hearing or a future agenda vote. Often there will be a briefing by staff on research they have performed or a proposal they have prepared. There can be specific zoning/ variance requests brought forward by individuals. Perhaps the Police Chief is seeking funding to acquire a Live Scan Finger Print System or Personal Body Cameras for Police Officers or maybe the issue is reducing the speed limit on Salisbury Street for 1/8 mile to protect lives of bikers.

It is important that citizens know in advance what is on the agenda and what is coming up for a vote... Don't be a day late trying to give your input to our elected officials after the vote has taken place. It is very tough to unscramble an egg! 

....and now finally the last piece

• Cat 8 ...Other Items and Reports (This is where the Mayor, all Board members, Town Attorney, Town Clerk have a chance to share input to one another about what they see as upcoming issues for future agendas. As Board members also sit/ participate on other boards and committees in the town as well as county etc. this is a place where they bring in such information from far and wide (i.e. county transportation plans, beach renourishment, utilities...waste, water, power) Importantly the Town Manager generally gives a healthy dose of what's coming up. 

This is a great opportunity to gain a stronger understanding of issues driving the government activities. It is also a great opportunity to see, judge and build your impression of how well each member of the Board is working beyond just the town meeting in our behalf.

Caution: ...Don't be surprised if some Board Members seem to never have much of anything to contribute here. We see this segment of the meeting as one of the important indicators of individual Alderman performance which will be covered thoroughly in a future blog post.

Thanks for reading we hadn't expected it to be such a long post, but we hope you have learned something of value that may directly effect your future quality of life in Wrightsville Beach.

Please share this post with friends and family... basically anyone who has skin in the game regarding this town and of course feel free to comment below.

I like my nooks & crannies toasted, thanks

Next post up will be about, accessing the TOWB website and all the nook & crannies of public info!.


Reminder: Next TOWB BOA Meeting ia Dec. 13, 2012 6 pm... stop in and participate!

Noah & Liz

Anatomy of a Town Meeting (101)

       For arguments sake let's call this Anatomy 101, simply because we believe  at Wrightsville View blog that we will be covering our local Town Meetings many more times in the future.

High Impact Town Meeting...Your Government at work

       It dawns on us, that many readers may not have experienced a town meeting, either in person or by way of video broadcast or streaming on the internet.

       With the recent acceptance of  the donation of video equipment from local citizen Bill Columbus, the Town of Wrightsville Beach will join the 21st Century and numerous other municipalities in providing broader public access to government proceedings. This will enable our civic participation to become much easier.

       A key starting point is to understand how important your active input to our elected officials really is. Having attended as well as watched a continuum of town meetings it has become obvious that some elected officials skate on very thin ice. By that we mean, they have very little basis for what position they take, what information, arguments or data they reflect upon and consequently how they vote.

When operating like that, they simply are not being accountable to the citizens nor the complexity of the issues at hand.

Weigh in with your opinion to our elected officials

       Imagine a town government where the majority of it's citizens and neighboring communities are able to see and hear the proceedings on particular issues of interest. Whether you live here or not...Do you care about parking, traffic, litter, recycling, noise, boat speed, zoning, taxes, beach renourishment, biking, running, walking-the-loop, coliform in the bay or drinking water? That would become a well informed and active base of citizens and would consequently drive an informed and responsible government. Wow!

         A good discussion, weighing of the pros and cons and finding the middle ground across the group of officials in a town meeting can give a citizen a proud feeling that their government is alive and well and working in their behalf.

       Consider the alternative...elected officials come to a meeting unprepared, with their mind made up! Perhaps their close group of friends have told them they "don't want this" or "do want that"...but without the benefit of a broader open discussion of the issues. Ouch!

       As citizens, who have elected these government officials, we have the right to know fully why they vote "yea or nay". What pros and cons they have considered? What are the options? What are their expectations for future impact and what will success look like? What will it cost in time and money? What is the priority. How far reaching and sustainably are they thinking?

       It has become very easy for elected officials to ignore the wishes of the majority of citizens.  Simply observe how they answer a question...Do they side step or divert.. obfuscate? We have numerous examples right here in Wrightsville Beach of 3 to 2 Board of Alderman decisions that have halted progress on addressing important strategic as well as quality of life issues around our town. Of course the recent referendum to Ban Smoking on the Beach is a colossal example of a fed up citizenry taking on a town government composed of a few too many "out-of-touch" Alderman.

Please SLOW down

       We'll leave you here with a short list of past issues derailed by the 3 to 2 voting.

• Failure to adopt a smoking ban (took 3 years and a citizen's petition driven referendum to overturn the 3 to 2 vote)
• Failure to reduce the speed limit to 35 MPH on Salisbury Street (aka NASCAR Blvd)..just like on Causeway
• Failure to join the NHC Emergency Operations Center (Disaster Management) we are a Billion Dollars of real estate at WB
• Failure to effectively fund Capital Reserves for future equipment needs (utilization of low cost financing)
• Reversal and Stripping of previous funding for video streaming of town meetings. 
• Failure to adopt a strategic agenda and follow it. (Traffic, Bike Lanes, Recycling, we face significant challenges)
• Wasted numerous staff hours on rezoning of town property at fringe of salt marsh
• Failure to provide reasonable pay increases to town staff after multiple years of budget requests.  ("they are lucky to have a job...!!!"  are you kidding? did you really say that?)  

Nuts & Bolts  :-)

Next time we plan to cover more "nuts & bolts"  of the town meeting. We will also be putting forward a way to evaluate our elected officials and ways to communicate with our government officials.

Thanks for reading, get active, stay tuned for more..

Noah.. Oh, and please comment on our blogs.