Visioning tonight, Regenesis/KKG withdrew, plus Art & Politics

The icon to the left belongs to popsicles+handgrenades, a blog by political artists, Jorge Arrieta and Dominique Arrieta.

Dear People: Council will be meeting tonight in a joint meeting with the Miami Township trustees to begin the next steps of our visioning process with the finalist firm ACP, based in Columbus. The meeting will be tonight at 7 pm in the Bryan Center

Originally, this was to be a discussion to decide which of the two finalist firms we should hire to help us complete our visioning, but late last week, Regenesis/KKG wrote us a letter explaining that they were voluntarily withdrawing from consideration. They did not feel they could do the work we wanted given the constraints of our budget.

This may be a very short meeting, but the process is very important. Please plan to attend.

I have received a lot of useful feedback regarding the banner issue after the article from this week's Yellow Springs News. I am thankful we live in a town that attracts and nurtures serious artists (whose actual art may, of course, be whimsical!), and that there's passion to defend the arts, and freedom of artistic expression.

Thank you for keeping me mindful of this critical value, and for offering constructive help on how best to ensure that freedom.

Here's a poem about arts and politics, by the Polish Nobel Prize winner, Wislawa Szymborska:

"Children of Our Era"
by Wislawa Szymborska
Translated by Joanna Trzeciak

We are children of our era;
our era is political.

All affairs, day and night,
yours, ours, theirs,
are political affairs.

Like it or not,
your genes have a political past,
your skin a political cast,
your eyes a political aspect.

What you say has a resonance;
what you are silent about is telling.
Either way, it's political.

Even when you head for the hills
you're taking political steps
on political ground.

Even apolitical poems are political,
and above us shines the moon,
by now no longer lunar.
To be or not to be, that is the question.
Question? What question? Dear, here's a suggestion:
a political question.

You don't even have to be a human being
to gain political significance.
Crude oil will do,
or concentrated feed, or any raw material.

Or even a conference table whose shape
was disputed for months:
should we negotiate life and death
at a round table or a square one?

Meanwhile people were dying,
animals perishing,
houses burning,
and fields growing wild,
just as in times most remote
and less political.
---

Peace,
Lori

Energy Task Force, LGBTQ rights, First Amendment rights...

The picture to the right is of a bronze sculpture, entitlted Continuum of a Dream, by 2008 Antioch College graduate MacLean Tiffany, commissioned by the Coretta Scott King Center for Intellectual and Cultural Freedom, located on the Antioch College campus (operations currently suspended). [Thanks to Alexandra for the corrections!]

Dear People: The agenda is pretty packed tomorrow night (Mon 4/20), but it's a lot of stuff that actually strikes at the core of my values: energy usage, human rights for all (especially focused on LGBTQ people) and questions about first amendment rights related to the banners on the poles downtown, employee blogging, and our policies regarding the Bryan Center. The meeting is at 7 pm in the Bryan Center; please come!

LEGISLATION: We have an ORDINANCE with some small changes to the budget to discuss; and then 5 RESOLUTIONS that would, if passed:

• Establish an Energy Task Force--This task force would have as its goals: reducing our usage, developing an energy conservation program; investigating opportunities for renewable energy generation and businesses related to energy, research funding opportunities (esp. TARP) and develop a plan for adequate base power.
• Release Maintenance Bond--Birch III
• Enter into a cooperative paving plan with Greene County
• Authorize the village manager to complete paperwork for engineering at the CBE (the Antioch-McGregor lot)
• Allow a a tap-in, outside village limits, of two water lines to the Kahoe property south of town (on Hyde Road), per the request of the current owner. This would not cost us anything, and the owner is concerned about the capacity of the current well on that property; they suggest that some wells in the area have ground water contamination. The village solicitor warns that there's no evidence of environmental contamination, so this would be against current policy and strongly recommends against our so doing.

After we hear annual reports from Cable Advisory, Village Mediation, and the Library Commission, JOHN CHAMBERS, village solicitor will then address questions regarding both new and old business. He proposes for our consideration:

• OLD BUSINESS: An analysis of Bryan Center guidelines with regard to religious services and non-profit status: can we honor the spirit of the original Bryan family deed, which requested that no worship services be performed on the premises, and still provide fair access to the space as a public forum? And, how do we make sure we treat all organizations equally?
• New: Domestic partnership registry: Mr. Chambers has drafted an ordinance whereby YS would allow same-sex or opposite-sex couples to register as partners. This can be helpful for couples in ensuring that they can visit one another in hospital or attain partner benefits from their employers.
• Updated language regarding 1) unlawful discrimination and 2) crimes of "intimidation" (i.e., "hate crimes"): these updated statutes would emphasize that all entities providing public accommodation--restaurants, apartments for rent, etc.--in YS cannot discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, in addition to sex, race, color, religion, disability, national origin, etc., and making it unlawful to commit a crime against persons based on those characteristics, or perceived characteristics.
  
• Banner policy: We've received a complaint about the "Superman Obama" banner on a village-owned lamp-post on short street. What should be our policy with regard to art that may have political content?
• NEW BUSINESS: Village employee blogging policy: Someone purporting to be a village employee is reported to be anonymously posting on a social-network site "questionable and possibly obscene content." The solicitor has provided suggested language for a blogging policy. I am concerned that we protect free speech rights of employees--and make sure they understand their "whistleblower" rights.
  

Then there will be some brief discussion of liquor license renewals, the street-fair street closing request, and our Village Manager's request for an extension on the residency requirement, due to difficulties selling his home in Troy.

After standing reports from the Commission reps, we'll adjourn to EXECUTIVE SESSION where we'll be discussing:

• The situation at the village property currently leased to Stutzman's Gardening
• The Antioch Chiller agreement.

Peace-out!
Lori

No office hour / PC tomorrow night (Mon 4/13)

Dear People: I won't be in my 'office hour' at the Emporium tomorrow, but I'll stop by during "prime time," 9:30/10ish or so, on Wed. morning for a fabulous breakfast burrito, & as a makeup hour--I'd be happy to meet with you then.

Due to duties up at Wittenberg I will not be attending the Planning Commission meeting tonight (Mon 4/13), which will focus on finalizing the Comprehensive Plan (we hope) and exploring the Design Advisory Committee's recommendations for the green space along the bike path, amongst a few other items. Karen Wintrow will be substituting for me. She was on the committee that drafted the design recommendations, so this is a good meeting for her to attend on my behalf.

Peace,
L.

Budget, Pool Fees, Econ Dev, Energy, and the Skate Park

Dear People: We have a pretty heavy agenda to get through tonight on Village Council (7 pm, Bryan Center). The main item is our annual appropriations ordinance,, i.e., the budget for this year, 2009.

BUDGET: This is perhaps our most important discussion of the year. Please come! We are set to pass what I believe to be a solid, responsible budget tonight--one that should still slightly increase our reserves and that gives appropriate moneys to long term values of the Village. There are still many letters showing up in the YS News about the budget, some of which I would say have actual misinformation: for example, one letter this week alleges that we have not spent the money from the levy as promised to street improvements. Let me be clear: the levy, crafted by a previous Council and approved by a narrow vote of the citizenry, was not designed to go 100% to street improvements.

If you look at the table on the first page of the YS News this week, you'll see that the previous Council and ours has actually overspent the percentage set aside for streets, and underspent on other promised areas--sometimes for good reasons. (For example: since we haven't been sure what is the best way forward on economic development, it hasn't seemed prudent to simply spend money for the sake of spending it; the pool, also, did not need some of the suggested changes, but may be reaching the end of its useful life. We are planning to look at whether it might make sense to start setting money aside and working towards building a new pool.). However, we'll seek to bring that spending back into alignment as we move through Visioning and the final two years of the current levy.

Our investment in the green space fund, energy efficiency, and the modest budget request from the Human Rights Commission (which is also a separate discussion item--see below) to help with programming will likely be seriously questioned. It's a lot easier to defend those spending priorities if people who care about them show up. I'd love to see your smiling faces out there.

We'll also discuss three other items of legislation:

• A new schedule of pool fees for residents and non-residents, already informally approved at an earlier meeting, including new, lower rates for seniors, and explicitly allowing for grandparents with live-in grandchildren over the summer to pay the resident rate for their family pass.
• Budget transfers to cover the next month while this new budget is still pending.
• A new, updated lease with the library (as recommended by the library commission and our village lawyer)

Special reports will be made:

• Human Relations Commission will offer their annual report and explain why they are requesting a $9,000 budget line to help with programming that they believe will encourage inclusiveness and justice in our village.
  
• Environmental Commission will make its annual report

Old business will include:

• Economic Development task force/ next steps
• Energy task force/next steps
• Visioning/Planning consultant selection: next steps
• The Skate Park--needs some repairs and there are suggestions that it needs some reconfiguring to avoid vandalism problems on nearby property. Please show up if you are concerned about youth recreation in our town!
  

New Business:

• Appointments will be made to the Environmental Commission and the Cable Advisory Panel.

Then there'll be reports and agenda planning before we adjourn for the evening. Hope to see you there!

Peace!
L.

ACP visit tonight, 7 pm in Bryan Center.

Dear People: Tonight we will have the opportunity to meet, hear from, and ask questions of ACP, a group based in Columbus, Ohio, with vast, nationwide experience doing visioning work with communities. I hope that many of you will turn out to hear their presentation. 7 pm in the Bryan Center.

I will also be in the Emporium for lunch/office hours from 12-1.

MON: Visioning Interview #1: Regenesis/KKG 7 pm, Bryan Ctr.

<--pic is from one of my favorite blogs, jafabrit's art

Dear People: I have been scrambling to get caught up after being out of town on a much needed spring break trip to see two old friends from grad school. So somehow I didn't even manage an email/blog update last week. Nevertheless, I was very pleased with the turn out at our meeting this past Monday where we discussed the budget and had our first vote on it. (Since it's an ordinance, we'll vote a second time at our next meeting on April 6).

The main thing I want to remind you of is our special meeting on Monday, 23 March, a public interview with Regenesis/KKG, at 7 pm in the Bryan Center. Their websites are here (Regenesis) and here (KKG). Regenesis gave a sample "charette" to a fairly large group of interested villagers last year in which they explained their "story of place" approach to working with communities; they would for the first time be working with the more local group, KKG associates, who are urban planners/architects from Cincinnati.

We'll then do the same thing with the second visioning candidate, ACP of Columbus, a firm with a long history of doing visioning work in the state and around the nation, NEXT Monday 30 March, 7 pm in the Bryan Center.

The format of both meetings should be identical: if I recall correctly, both have been asked to do a brief presentation of their proposed Visioning process, followed by Q&A. The Visioning subcommittee has created a list of specific questions that they plan to ask at the meeting, and Council will also have a chance to weigh in with questions about their work, approach, experience, and plans for us. Since this is being envisioned as a process for both village and the Miami township, Township representatives will also likely be present and engaged.

Villagers will also be encouraged to ask questions and engage with both groups, and your feedback, and experiences interacting with them will be vital for informing our decision on this process. Please plan to attend! We need variety of villagers--young, old, new and longer-term, all backgrounds, incomes and ethnicities, to give us the best sense of how to proceed.

VC: Budgets, Cell Tower, ESTF, Pool Fees

<--my dogs on a walk after that last storm. (And, um, yeah, my thumb...)

Dear People: I attended Eric Siemer's beautiful memorial service yesterday. It was a good reminder of how important it is that we appreciate life and the people around us, while we are here for our short, short stints on this crazy, beautiful, fragile, resilient planet. Even when that's hard to do, for all kinds of reasons... Including things like our Budget meetings this past week, and our village Council meeting this week (Mon 3/2, 7 pm, Bryan Ctr) , and all the other busy-ness of life. ...

I'll be in the Emporium from 12-1 tomorrow if you want to chat!

BUDGET MEETINGS REDUX: We had the final two major budget hearings last week, with yesterday's overall review of the budget lasting from 9:30-about 1 pm.
Mark Cundiff and Sharon Potter have done a simply phenomenal job for us; please thank them for their hard work and attentitiveness to detail. Although our operating income, from tax revenues, is projected to be smaller than last year, by about $300,000, Staff will be presenting a budget at our March 16th meeting for our vote that features the following:

• An across-the-board pay increase for all non-salaried employees of 3% with no staff reductions (Per unanimous Council vote).
  
• $100,000 for the green space fund drawn from estate taxes (Per a Council vote yesterday of 4-1).
  
• $50,000 for energy efficiency improvements to village properties as recommended by the ESTF Phase II report (these improvements, we believe, will eventually pay for themselves). Per Council vote yesterday (I think it was unanimous, but am not 100% sure).
• $50,000 for Visioning/Planning (as voted on earlier this year)
  
• Maintains our commitment to use the levy fees for street improvements, the pool, etc. Kathryn Van Der Heiden expressed concerns about the library being not sufficiently attended to--she will be bringing a proposed amount for library improvements to be included in this budget to our mid-March meeting
• Capital allocations for all major projects like improvements to our waste-water plant and a related rate study, sidewalk improvements, the Northern Gateway and CBE projects, etc., and various prudent staff requests that should help them better serve your needs (e.g., new equipment, office equipment, etc.)
• We did vote to allocate funds but to delay the purchasing of security cameras for some village properties until we've had a public discussion of this issue.
  
• YET STILL should increase our general fund reserve, currently at $1.65 million, by about 7%, to over 1.7 million which is still at or over 50% of our operating expenses for the year, giving us more than a 6-month cushion in case of catastrophe. This does not make us rich--and doesn't mean that a levy renewal might not be in order as this one phases out--but we are not at this point in the serious financial crisis/bankrupt situation that many Ohio and US communities are in.
  

I do want to clarify a couple of things that came up in our meeting yesterday. One resident suggested that our "unencumbered balance" or "reserve" cited in this year's budget--currently at almost $1.65 million--is not really "free" but is allocated for capital projects. This is not true: the unencumbered balance is just that: unallocated, not appropriated for any use at this time it does NOT include things like the Green Space fund balance or money that we've said we're going to spend on big projects but haven't actually spent yet.

And it should also be clear that that is just the general fund balance. Only one of our "enterprise" fund balances--water, sewer, electric, solid waste, etc.; the funds that depend on rate-payer support--is currently operating at a small loss. (That's our solid waste budget--which we will need to address). They all have some level of "reserve" balance, including solid waste, and the others all seem to be doing reasonably well, although we'll be having rate studies for several of these areas this year.

(Additionally, we are hoping to get some federal stimulus package monies for a few of our "shovel ready" projects--particularly the WWTP. Mark, once again, has done a tremendous job of applying for those grant monies in a timely fashion.)

Obviously, these are very uncertain days. But I have emerged from these meetings feeling that, while we are not "rich" and must remain vigilant about spending, we are in a position to be reasonably proactive about our future, as opposed to simply hunkered down in a survival posture--which can feel "prudent" but can be extremely detrimental in the long run.

That's why I've supported the small additional appropriations for the green space fund (which represent a commitment to our identity as small, vibrant community with a clear village center, and, when expended for worthwhile projects, can bring federal and other matching grants into our area) and for energy efficiency for our buildings.

If you agree with this stance, the priorities represented in this budget, letters to Council thanking us, and staff, for making these commitments and urging us to stand firm on them, would be welcome, because there is so much fear and some misinformation out there. (Questions, constructive critique, concerns, of course, are also welcome.)

VC on MONDAY: On our agenda are the following:

• No legislation
• SPECIAL REPORT from VILLAGE SOLICITOR re: how to understand the issue of "Conflict of Interest" in a small village, and his advice on Guidelines for the Bryan Center with respect to religious/spiritual organizations

OLD BUSINESS:

• "New" ESTF: Next Steps: The ESTF-Phase II report suggests working to improve our energy efficiency and create energy-related jobs in the village. We'll be discussing how to move forward.
• Verizon "Flag Pole" Tower: Selecting a site. We have pictures of similar towers. The two places under consideration are next to the skate park and near the Bryan Center building.
• 2009 Goals Kathryn Van Der Heiden and I have been working on streamlining our goals over the last month...it's still a little messy.
  
• Visioning/Planning Update we have narrowed the field of contractors and have tasked the Visioning Task Force with helping us move forward with interviews, etc.

There's no NEW BUSINESS, but in the MANAGER'S REPORT are the following:

• An excellent plan for Gaunt Park Pool fees--small changes in daily fees ($.25 to make even $ figures: $4 for youth 4-18; $5 for adults, with a proposal for seniors, over 62, to pay youth fees). Season pass fees would not change, and grandparents taking care of children for the summer could buy season passes at resident rates.
• Employee compensation report: confirms that a 3% hike is reasonable.

Finally, we will be going into executive session with our village solicitor regarding pending litigation.

HEADS UP: The MARCH 16th meeting will be molto importante because we'll be approving the budget. If you can come to that meeting or write a letter to Council about your views on the budget before that meeting, I will be most grateful. The more villagers make it clear where your priorities are, the better we can represent you.

Enjoy the sun, love each other, pet a dog, ponder a cat. Be strong.

Peace--
Lori