Cape council aims to improve communication with staff

The Cape Girardeau City Council met Tuesday morning to continue discussions from its April 10 retreat, focusing on methods to improve council and staff communication.

The council chose to adjourn the April retreat after about eight hours and continue the final agenda items during a later special study session.

The conversation picked back up Tuesday with a look at council interactions. City manager Scott Meyer said the goal was to talk about what the council and staff are doing to communicate with each other and how they could improve.

Specifically, "how I can improve my communication with council and how council can improve communication among itself," he said.

Improving communication to promote more meaningful meetings and efficiency has been a suggestion pointed out at times by council members, especially when a larger issue -- such as finances, taxes or policy change -- is up for consideration.

One-on-one meetings between council members and the city manager are available, Meyer said, and some council members take advantage of the opportunity.

There also is a lot of email correspondence between staff and council.

Few issues were discussed with that method of communication.

Inter-council communication was one of the key discussion topics.

Councilwoman Loretta Schneider, one of the council members to take advantage of a one-on-one meeting with the city manager, said while she finds the one-on-one meetings helpful, those shouldn't replace actual council discussion.

"We don't always interpret things the same way ... so we need to talk more before something goes on the agenda or becomes an ordinance," she said.

Other council members pointed to the need for more council discussion, particularly on more-significant projects. Councilman Victor Gunn pointed to the new indoor sports complex project as an example.

He commended staff for its work up to this point and said he found a recent public meeting where each of the top three plans were shared informative. But he said it was his first time hearing much of the information, leaving him unable to answer many questions from constituents.

A city-appointed selection team vetted applicants who submitted plans to become a private partner with the city in the construction and operation of the sports-complex facility.

Ultimately, the council will have to select an entity, which is not a small decision, Gunn said.

"As a council person who has to vote on a $12 million project, I would like to have a little more information about that," he said.

"I don't know, for instance, who selected the selection team [or] how we got to the top three."

Councilman Mark Lanzotti, who has served as council liaison throughout choosing the sports complex to be the next restaurant-tax-funded project and selecting a partner to assist in its operation, said Gunn and any other council members were welcome to come to him with questions about the facility or the process.

It was an offer Gunn said he would have taken if he were aware of a council liaison.

Councilman Wayne Bowen said receiving regular updates at council study sessions might have been beneficial, and he pointed out members could make more of an effort to share updates about projects and priorities of the committees in which they are involved.

That sparked another conversation about time management.

Lanzotti said each study session is limited to a finite amount of time during which the council hears presentations and updates from the public and staff.

Schneider, an advocate of holding more special study sessions to talk about certain issues, said Tuesday she did not believe council communications would improve until they took that step.

As for the existing study sessions that are held at 5 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of the month, followed at 7 p.m. by regular council session, council members agreed they could be improved.

Meyer said staff could come better prepared to each meeting if council members sent questions a few days in advance.

On a similar note, Bowen said the council would benefit from having staff reports available well before the meeting.

He previously said the council sometimes doesn't receive documents until the day of its meeting.

He also asked whether Meyer could share at each meeting a general report of what key issues he anticipated would require council attention over the next month or two.

Creating such a schedule should be a simple task, Meyer said, saying some staff committees use such a tool for organization purposes as well.

Other council members agreed with the idea of a schedule, saying it would help them get questions to staff more quickly.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.