Pepper Pike website soft launch is here! Please check it out & offer input

Happy New Year!

As Mayor Bain mentioned in his December 2012 resident communication (which you can read here), we are now rolling out the new website for the City. The URL (web address) remains the same: http://pepperpike.org

Many thanks to the resident members of the Communications Committee (Tom Andrzejewski, Valeri Furst, Beth Robbins and former Councilman Cleve Svetlik), the Council members of the Committee (Scott Newell and Bob Freed), the Mayor and the City staff - especially Katy Zippert - who have all played and will continue to play a role in making this overhaul happen.

The first part of the soft launch emphasizes improved functionality. The next phase will focus on copy editing and updating content. Your input on any and all aspects, large or small, are invited and desired. You can respond by email, call or use the feedback form on the City website (here).

Thank you as always and have a fabulous 2013.

[Live-chat] THURSDAY: The Pulse of Pepper Pike, 11:30am-12:00 PM

Good morning and welcome to the sixth session of The Pulse of Pepper Pike. Today's topic for the live-chat is communications, technology and the web - the topics of the City committee which I chair. The time for the live-chat is 11:30am  to 12:00pm.  You can read the "what you should know" items below the chat frame.

Pepper Pike Updates from Thursday, September 16, 2010

Many (though not all, believe it or not!) people found this information that I sent out yesterday to be useful, so I'm publishing it here for everyone else to check out.  I have received a few emails saying that yes, people would like to get links to whichever articles the two local papers put online, so I will try to do that starting next week. For those fasting tomorrow, have an easy fast and may we all be put in the book of life for another hopefully good and healthy year.

Good afternoon on this very Fall-looking and feeling day.

 

1. The meeting minutes on the City website are up to date except for the June Road & Safety meeting's minutes which are still being completed and the Oversight Committee meeting minutes which is in the process of approving all prior minutes (though some are posted currently).  September minutes will be posted as they are completed and approved but you can always go to City Hall and request to listen to the tapes if you're eager. 

 

2. Saturday September 25: Read about prescription drug take back day. It's a state-wide effort and Pepper Pike's Police Dept. is working with New Directions to make it happen in our community.

 

3. Last night at the monthly City Council meeting [9/15/10], the City reached an agreement with Waterway (the new gas and car wash on Lander Circle) that will see them make a donation to the City of $10,000 plus consult with the City's beautification committee on providing up to $5,000 in landscaping for their quadrant of Lander Circle and maintaining that portion for five years.

[audio] WCPN Sound of Ideas on Regionalism

Want to know what others in our region are saying about regionalism? According to Mike McIntyre, who hosted WCPN's Sound of Ideas program this morning on the topic:

I have to say we had a lot of e-mails, calls and Web page comments from people who aren't very interested in the concept of sharing.

I have not listened to Shoring Up The Core yet but I am going to shortly. Here's the blurb:

As residents move out and businesses close in older cities like Cleveland, Akron and the inner-ring suburbs around them, they have little chance of renewal without help. So say some mayors in the region who are advocating that tax revenue be shared across city and county boundaries. Burgeoning Avon helps prop up withering Brooklyn? A pipe dream, or a partial solution for saving Northeast Ohio's older and newer communities? The debate Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. on 90.3.

Thomas Bier, senior fellow at Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University
Stephen D. Hambley, Medina County Commissioner
Lynn E. McGill, Mayor of Aurora

Now, WCPN also provides a link to the Regional Prosperity Initiative ("RPI") and without listening to the show, I wont' declare RPI RIP, but its website needs some resuscitation - last news item is from December 2009 and last report (only report I see) is June 2010.  Virtually demonstrating a regional concept would be a win-win. A website can be a terrible thing to waste.

Hattip to Mike McIntyre on Facebook for heads up on this show.  As he suggests, take a look at the comments at WCPN's page for this show.  Add yours there or here.

Meeting Reminders and Website Updates

This text reflects information I shared in an email I sent out today.  The information under the third item is in this blog post already.

Good day to everyone.

The disclaimer per usual re: being on this list: If you would like to be removed from my distribution list, please let me know. I understand and respect people's desire to receive less email. Please know that I do not share your emails with anyone, this is my personal list and those are two reasons why I keep your email addresses in the "blind copy" recipient section.

1. Meeting Reminders

• Monday, August 30, 2010, 7:30 pm, Planning & Zoning Commission meeting, City Hall, open to the public (as always).  This meeting is the September P&Z meeting which, if normally scheduled, falls on Labor Day (Monday, September 6, 2010).
• Tuesday, September 7, 2010, 7:30pm, Road & Safety/Planning & Zoning meeting, City Hall, open to the public (as always).  This meeting, if normally scheduled, falls on the evening that the Jewish New Year begins (Wednesday night, Sept. 8) and therefore was moved to 9/7/10.
• NOT YET SCHEDULED but mentioned at last week's City Council meeting: Wednesday, September 1, 2010, a special Council session to discuss the topic of re-hiring a police officer.  This meeting, to the best of my knowledge, has NOT BEEN SCHEDULED but this date was mentioned at the 8/18/10 Council meeting last week.

2. City Website Updates

Meeting Reminder & Agenda; City Website Updates

Here is the text of an email I sent out this evening. If you desire to repeat or use any of the information, please be so kind as to provide attribution and a link back to the original source:

Good evening or good morning, depending on when you find this email in your inbox!

The disclaimer per usual re: being on this list: if you would like to be removed from my distribution list, please let me know. I understand and respect people's desire to receive less email. Please know that I do not share your emails with anyone, this is my personal list and those are two reasons why I keep your email addresses in the "blind copy" recipient section.

1. City Council Meeting this Wednesday, 8/18/10 You will find the agenda for the meeting here on the City website but I've also attached it to this email (in pdf format).  It is a scan of the copy I received but I will replace it on the website with a pdf of the original once I've received that version.

2. City Website Updates

a. The Mayor's "Collaborative Plan for Pepper Pike's Future"

Special Council Meeting: Thursday, June 24, 2010 (tomorrow night)

The Mayor has scheduled a Special Council Meeting for this Thursday, June 24 at 8:00pm at City Hall.  It is, as always, open to the public and I hope those of you who can will consider attending.  The subjects to be discussed can be viewed at the City website here or on the official agenda which can be viewed at that City web page via the link.  They subjects are:


-Discussion on sequestering the estate tax
-Update on Dispatch Center
-Discussion on Funding the levy campaign


I also wanted to let you know that minutes for all previous Special Council Meetings are now posted on the City website.  The most comprehensive page from which to open these documents is here.

Absentee ballot applications for the August 3 election have started to arrive at city households.  If you have not received one and would like to, please go here for information on how to obtain one.  Remember, you do not need any specific reason to vote by mail in (or absentee) ballot. Pepper Pike will have two issues on the ballot and you can read more about them (a tax rate increase and a budget process-related charter amendment) here.

Feel free to contact me or any of your elected officials with questions, comments and concerns, as always, from here.

Upcoming Pepper Pike City Council Meetings, City Information

Please find below the content of an email I sent out today to those on the distribution list I have. For those who would like to receive the periodic updates I send but currently are not, just send me your email address and I will add you to the list. However, I do also post the content on this blog (all though, seriously - only about 20 people read it!) for those who prefer to not add to their email inboxes. I completely understand!

Here goes:

Good Afternoon!

A reminder: if you would prefer not to receive emails from me, please let me know.  If you know of other residents who might like to be included in the distribution list, please let me know that too (they can contact me as well).

Enumerating just seems to keep things orderly so I hope no one minds the formality.

1. This week
a. I do not have the agenda yet for this week's City Council meeting. The meeting will be on Wednesday, June 16 at 8pm in City Hall Chambers. I've requested that we discuss a "Plan B" (to start consider budgeting for 2011) in the event that the August ballot tax issue does not pass.  Another item that should be on the agenda is continued discussion of whether any part of or all of the Dispatch Center (also sometimes called the Communications Center) will be outsourced to either Chagrin Falls or Beachwood.  Two important documents for that discussion which you can access from the City website tab, Dispatch Center Documents:

6/9/10 Report from Mayor's appointed investigator, Tom LeKan

February 2010 Report from Baldwin-Wallace study

b. The Oversight Committee will meet an hour prior to the City Council meeting, on June 16 at 7pm in the lower level conference room.  This meeting is open to the public.

Citizen-Engagement Communities: we could scale this, right?

I'm signed up for a variety of information sources related to Gov 2.0 initiatives.  I just received, through a listserv, notice about communities that have been designated as Citizen-Engaged Communities. Now, of course, maybe not all communities want to be citizen engaged communities - I think we know that I come from the perspective that would say to that, "Say what?"  But to be fair, I can make room for the knowledge that not everyone believes in it the way I do.  And sometimes there are understandable reasons, but not, most likely, ones which I'd give a high enough priority to outweigh the pursuit of citizen-engagement.

One of the member communities with the Public Technology Institute is Upper Arlington, Ohio.  Their population is just over 33,000.  Pepper Pike is still significantly smaller, and there may be some smaller cities on this list.  But they do have a nice looking (and new) setup.  I think it's kind of soft, not overcrowded, clear, simple but with all the basics covered...what do you think?

The question remains, though, in regard to stepping it up: do we need it, and can we scale it?* Thinking cap on and I'm thinking...there must be a way...right?

*Don't worry - the "can we afford it?" question isn't even on the table.  I know the answer to that one. ;)

NOW POSTED: FAQ's Regarding Tax Increase With Sunset, Proposed Charter Amendment

Residents should be receiving in their mail, today or tomorrow, hopefully no later than Saturday, the same three documents which I've now posted to the City of Pepper Pike's website.  You can see the documents here at the web site.

If you have trouble viewing them, you can also see them below.  As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, you know how to find me (or should by now!).
Letter to Residents on Issues for August 2010 Ballot
FAQ's on Pepper Pike's Financial Status May 2010
Article IX of City Charter on Finances May 2010

FAQs on City's financial situation, City's town hall (not Civic Leagues')

At last week's Special Council Session, each of the council members present received a copy of a draft of FAQs (frequently asked questions) that reflects the questions Councilman Scott Newell, myself and the other members of the Budget Communications Committee (Mayor Bruce Akers, Cindy Eickhoff, Jean Seaton and David Portmann) are hearing most frequently from residents and know need answers.  It is my expectation that the document will go out this week and be posted on the City website. I will also post it here on the blog and via Scribd.

The hope is that once received, the final FAQ document will spur residents to attend, provide input and ask more questions at the City's town hall meeting which is scheduled for Wednesday, April 28 at 7:30 pm (location still being decided) and has also been mentioned already in public meetings and in the local papers.

In the meantime, if you have not yet communicated directly with either the Mayor, a council member or a member of the Budget Communications Committee and have questions regarding the City's financial situation which you want to be sure get answers, please do contact any of us through whatever means you feel most comfortable.

Transparency is Two-Way

In "Fostering Citizenship with Transparency and Active Listening," Jennifer Pahlka writes about the reciprocity between city residents and city governments in terms of accountability and transparency.  In that post, she addresses the dialectic between a city and its residents, how transparency requires listening and action on the part of both.

When we talk about open government or transparency, there’s an assumption the goal is to change the behavior of various actors inside government.  This is true, but transparency on a granular, day-to-day level, has an aspect that is much less discussed: the opportunity to change the perspective of citizens as well.  It’s a chance to build trust, and to help citizens see their individual needs as part of a whole, in the context of a larger society. 

Pahlka illustrates how this works by describing web applications she wants to have built through her organization, Code for America.  For example:

Updates on the City Website

Former Council Member Rick Hankins spent nearly four hours with me yesterday and, literally side by side with our laptops, we worked on the City of Pepper Pike website.  It was a lot of fun - and aggravation - but we think similarly and I'm grateful that Rick (who is the head IT guy at the Cleveland branch of the American Red Cross) continues to be so willing to help me work to master the ADX Studio CMS (content management system) that runs the website.  Some of the updates:

1. Scott Newell's bio and photo is now posted (just my photo and contact info is up at the moment);

2. You can see the brochure for the new rubbish collection plan and a list of collection days by street name from a number of locations (i.e., under "For Residents," under "Service Department" and under "Rubbish Collection");

3. You can see the forms & permits (nicely alphabetized I might add - that required going into some html) used by the Building Department from a number of locations (under "For Residents," under "Building Department" and under "Government");

4. There is a new news item about the Orange Schools success in special education efforts;

5. You can see minutes from the Architectural Board Review meetings from a number of locations; and

6. You can see the minutes from the City Council, Road & Safety/Finance Planning Committee and Planning & Zoning Committee meetings as "bump outs" when you hover over "Government-Meetings and Minutes," eliminating the need to hover on Government, and then click on "Meetings and Minutes."

Got more ideas? Can't guarantee what can be implemented, but I definitely want to listen.