CEC MINUTES 11-1-2021 ti
CITY OF
SOUTH LAKE
TEXAS
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES: November 1, 2021
LOCATION: Southlake Town Hall
1400 Main Street, Room 4A
Southlake, Texas 76092
TIME: 6:00 P.M.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
Place 1 —Sherry Berman, Chair
Place 2—Vandana Tanneru
Place 3 — Eric Wang
Place 4 —Vamsi Alla
Place 6—Shayne Forsyth
Place 7 — Muhammad Igbal
COMMITTEE MEMBERS NOT PRESENT:
Place 5— Roja Kasarla
STAFF PRESENT:
Melody Andersen, Operations Manager, Customer Relations
Madeline Oujesky, Assistant to the Director, Planning and Development
Lauren E. LaNeave, Assistant to the City Manager
CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:
N/A
OTHERS PRESENT:
N/A
REGULAR AGENDA
1. Call to order. Meeting called to order at 6:02 by Sherry Berman, Chair.
2. Approve September 29, 2021 CEC meeting minutes. Muhammed lqbal made a
motion to approve the minutes as written. Vandana Tanneru provided a second.
Meeting Minutes: Community Engagement Committee Meeting—August 16, 2021
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Approved (4-0). Vamsi Alla arrived after the minutes were approved. Eric Wang
did not participate in vote for minutes.
3. Discussion
Welcome New CEC Member— Eric Wang
• Brief introduction of new member
• Roundtable of introductions of existing members
Citizen Satisfaction Survey Update
• Encourage CEC members to take Citizen Satisfaction Survey
• One week left— closes Friday, November 5th (open through the weekend)
• Scaling social media up once more, regressed due to negative climate
circulating national media pertaining to Southlake
• Lauren LaNeave sending information to CEC members to push
communication about the survey
o Providing suggested blurb for post, link, and graphic to publish on
social media
• Lower participation this year than in year's past
o Potentially due to scaled back communication on social media
o POV— multiple opportunities for citizens to provide feedback in other
forms and platforms aside from the Citizen's Satisfaction Survey
• Sherry—open-ended box at the end, where did it go?
o Lauren LaNeave—that box was just for CEC testing
o Strategic method to make survey shorter by removing open-ended box
at the end
• Vandana - Highlights of survey or importance of why to take it?
o Lauren LaNeave — how we (the city) use the feedback in planning and
day-to-day functions is most important
• Master Plan development
• Improving service provisions
• Facility construction
• City staff develops annual work plans with feedback
• Performance assessments of city departments
• Muhammad — Did we mail a postcard?
o Lauren LaNeave —Yes, they should have delivered 1st week of
October
Review Feedback from CISD Candidate Forum
• Vandana — More refined this time. Regarding the forum itself, would like to
minimize candidate attacks or improper use of time (candidate not answering
Meeting Minutes: Community Engagement Committee Meeting—August 16, 2021
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the question and instead using the time to attack their opponent or defend
themself)
o Sherry—Add to letter that gets sent to candidates "this is a
professional forum"; we ask that you answer the question and not
attack/bash your opponent. No "props" —that loses the professionality
of the forum. Suggest that the moderator emphasize this during the
forum.
o Vandana — Can we restrict no props?
• Lauren —Yes you can but would caution using the moderator
too much during forum decorum. We need to keep the
moderator as neutral as possible, not favoring one side or the
other.
• Sherry— Option: only notes allowed at the forum
• Vamsi — Did not like the prop aspect. There were some audience disruptions
(smirks, clapping, grunting, etc.)
• Sherry— How many seats do we have open for the May 2022 election?
o Lauren —Two on City Council, two on CISD School Board. Anticipate
that these will be contention. As neutral and close to the middle we can
keep the forums, the better (avoid attacking the process, attacking the
committee, etc.) Charge from City Council is to stay neutral.
• Muhammad — Moderator called "time" worked very well. Need to be realistic
about limiting people bringing props. Need to articulate what the forum is,
what it stands for, and what it does not— not a debate. Send this information
in the letter to the candidates.
o Lauren — Emphasize this is an event to promote your stance and
viewpoint
o Muhammad — Is there a way to keep peace before the forum? Shaking
hands or sharing a brief comment
o Eric— Like having candidates shake hands before and after—shows
unity and sportsmanship
• Vamsi — Include lighter questions instead of hard-hitting questions to ease
tensions
• Vamsi — Positive feedback about the questions
• Sherry—Any pushback from City Council or the Mayor?
o Lauren — No pushback or comments
• Sherry— How was the moderator? Did you like him?
o Committee —Yes, we should have him back
CEC Officer Appointment
• Staff recommends tabling item until January 2022 meeting
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o Melody— brought to our attention that a recently adopted ordinance
states that City Council will appoint the Chair of the CEC. We would
like to wait and see who City Council appoints for Chair before we
move forward with officer appointments.
• Vice Chair and Secretary
o Vandana — interested in remaining as
o Vamsi — interested in remaining as
• Vandana — Nothing has changed with term limit or officer responsibilities?
o Melody— No.
• Voted to table the officer election until January 2022, approved 5-0, new
member, Eric Wang, did not participate in vote.
Approve CEC Calendar
• Melody— Created CEC meeting calendar
• Sherry— Pushed for extra meetings for potential candidate forums and prep
next spring
• Vandana — No September meeting?
o Melody— Normally have meetings every other month, but
• Muhammad — Meetings on Mondays?
o Melody—Yes, every first Monday
• Approve CEC Calendar—Vandana made motion, Sherry second, all in favor,
approved 5-0, new member, Eric Wang, did not participate in vote.
Approve SPIN Calendar
• Madeline — Option 1 and Option 2
• Approve Option 2 SPIN Calendar—Vandana made motion, Sherry second, all
in favor, approved 5-0, new member, Eric Wang, did not participate in vote.
FY 2022 CEC Strategy Plan
• January— Communication Plan for FY 2022 (Jessica McBride to make a
presentation at CEC meeting)
• January—Annual Report for CEC — meeting statistics and SPIN map
approval
o Chair will bring report forward and make presentation at City Council
• Possible focus areas
o Resident welcome packet— paper or emailed
• Muhammad — Distribution wise: placing information in an app or
on the website for new residents
• Melody— Prefer not to print and deliver packets, but would like
to have an option for paper copies
• Vamsi —Are you taking about an actual app or a place on the
website
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• Muhammad —Actual app you have on your phone
• Vandana — Useful to have when trying to find communication
and information
• Muhammad — Dubai: one app/account for all city services. App
is self-contained
• Vamsi —Ways to have a website linked to an app
o Emergency Preparedness —Amanda Meneses with Emergency
Management (can make a presentation in January) —weather related,
cyber security, active shooter, water shortage/issues
• How we can communicate better in times of crisis
• Videos or vignettes throughout the year
• Vamsi — Fire could be included
• Muhammad —What would be the end goal of tackling cyber
security piece?
• Sherry— More of an education aspect. Having Amanda in
for a meeting would be helpful to guide these efforts
• Muhammad — Interesting to add solar energy aspect for energy
savings
• Lauren — City facilities or residents' usage?
• Muhammad — Both
• Lauren — Can have a presentation from PDS about solar
panel regulations or management
o Automation projects
• 311 tool — CRM
• Forms on website currently, what we don't have is
tracking capability on those submitted forms — City lead
effort, would like CEC direction, feedback, and
engagement
• Chat Bot feature?
• Vamsi —Automation of the city website? Scope includes
the website or larger than it?
o Melody— Goal is to improve city response to
submitted forms online and tracking purposes.
Hoping that everything will meet in the same place
on the back end
• Eric— Being able to have customer/resident 360
feedback and experience is crucial
o Muhammad — Economic Development: more engagement with
improving tax revenue and give incentives to residents to shop locally
o Vamsi — Infrastructure: water related information and how old it is?
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• Lauren -We can have someone come in and talk about water
quality and infrastructure
o Vamsi - Internet speed is not great. Anything that can be done about
that?
• Lauren - Regulated by the FCC. Regarding bringing in
competition or making the providers better, the city cannot
regulate that
4. Development Report
Development Update - Carillon Parc Updates
• Madeline to send reports from SPIN and Corridor Committee meetings to
CEC
5. Staff Reports: N/A
6. Discuss community interest topics.
7. Discuss future agenda items.
8. Adjournment. Sherry closed the meeting at 7:30 PM.
ATTEST:
ttc 1/AA)?
am r.si Alla, Secretary
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