5.12. SR 06-07-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MEMORANDUM Item 5.1 2. TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Pat Klaers, City Administrator DATE: May 17, 2004 SUBJECT: Council Discussion on Annual Reports The annual report meeting and process continues to evolve. Staff would like to receive Council feedback on the latest version and the May 3, 2004 presentation. I think that everyone agrees the video was a big highlight this year and that not showing the video during the actual presentation helped to save time, although the meeting certainly was lengthy (3 hours, 15 minutes). One thing we need to consider in the future is to hold this annual report presentation at a special City Council meeting on the fourth or fifth Monday of the month. In this regard, we can meet a little earlier in the evening if desired. Also, if the meeting is going to take three plus hours then we will need to take a break somewhere along the ]me so that everyone can be recharged for the second half of the presentation. With 17 different sections in the annual report, it is difficult to condense the timeframe too much. On the average, 10 minutes per department for the presentation and Q/A session is just short of three hours. This timeframe is really too brief for a true review of yearly departmental activities and a discussion of upcoming goals and projects. On the other hand, 10 minutes per department can make for a long evening when we concentrate too much on "routine" activities versus highlights and goals for the past year. Having the annual reports on cable TV is great public relations for the city and very informative for the public. One of the questions that need to be discussed is whether or not the annual report meeting is mainly for the public or mainly for the City Council. There is no staff consensus on the best approach or what changes are most appropriate for the annual report presentation. One item discussed was breaking the evening up into two sessions so that a more detailed discussion on each department can take place. Another discussion point was that the only thing needed for public awareness is the video and that the annual report meeting can be in a worksession environment. In this manner we can have an expanded question/answer session and little if any discussion on the actual report, as it is assumed that the narrative is the basis of some of the Council questions and that the report has been read by the Council. S:\Council\ Pat~2004NAnnualRepor tFeedback.doc