HomeMy WebLinkAboutInformation Update 042721 Amended1
AGENDA
INFORMATION UPDATE
Amended 3:20 4/23/2021
April 27, 2021
5:00 PM,
I.INFORMATION UPDATE
I.A.0.5% RETT – Future Expanded Uses
I.B.Update on Communications Strategic Plan
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INFORMATION ONLY MEMORANDUM
WORK SESSION MEETING DATE:April 20, 2021
FOLLOW-UP MEMO DATE:April 21, 2021
AGENDA TOPIC:0.5% RETT – Future Expanded Uses
PRESENTED BY:Finance Dept
COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT:Torre, Richards, Mullins, Hauenstein
(Mesirow absent)
_______________________________________________________________________
This information only memo is to help document staff’s understanding of the April 20 work
session meeting discussion. If there are perceptions that deviate significantly to what is
noted in the narrative below, please let staff know.
Topic: Staff request was for direction around the desired level of reserve to be held within
the Wheeler Opera House Fund. Current City financial policies require a reserve equal
to 25% of annual budget (roughly $2M); whereas current fund balance is 500% of annual
spend (roughly $32M).
If Council felt it was appropriate to recommend a reduction to the fund balance to a lesser
amount, a ballot question would be needed for voters to possibly approve an expanded
use of future 0.5% real estate transfer tax collections, thereby slowly utilizing the existing
fund balance over time until it reached a preferred level.
In addition to the discussion around reserve threshold, staff also sought input around a
duration / sunset to any expanded use approval. Staff recommended a duration of
between 5 and 10 years to allow for a check-in with the Community as to if the expanded
uses were aligned with expectations and to ensure the level of support for the Wheeler
Opera house was being met.
Majority Consensus:Council was unanimous in its response that a conservative stance
should be taken for how far the fund balance should be drawn down. However, there was
still some uncertainty around what a “conservative” reserve may equate to between
Council members. Possible options were discussed and included:
Maintaining an reserve equal to 100% of annual spend (up from 25% in the current
financial policies) which would equate to roughly $7.6M at the highest year in the
current 10-year planning horizon
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A new capital set-aside for already planned capital needs in the Wheeler Opera
House over the next 10 years (to be drawn down as capital improvements /
purchases occur) plus maintaining an annual reserve requirement equal to non-
capital spend (operating reserve). This would equate to a required reserve of
roughly $15M in the first year, and then be reduced over time as capital needs
were addressed and drew down the capital set-aside resources.
For each of these options, there was direction that HOW to model these reserve
thresholds should include options that do not solely reflect a 100% diversion of future
0.5% RETT collections away from the Wheeler Opera House Fund; a suggestion of
possibly one-third of future collections continue to flow into the Wheeler Opera House
Fund. The varying factor being considered here is how much funding would be available
for expanded uses on an annual basis and the pace at which the fund balance will be
drawn down.
Finally, consensus was reached by the Council that the ballot question should include a
six to eight year for the expanded use and require a check-in with the Community.
Next Steps: A future meeting on the expanded use of the 0.5% RETT is scheduled for
May 3. This meeting is scheduled to discuss the policy framework, public involvement
process and guardrails on possible expanded uses of future tax collections.
In tandem with the above topic for discussion, staff will also bring back modeling of various
reserve threshold options for the Council to digest. These options will be based on the
general guidance that the reserve requirement should be conservative and that models will
include different ways to arrive at the threshold targets.
Note - the horizon on when a targeted reserve can be achieved is based on the level of re-
allocation of future RETT collections. Application of existing fund balance depends solely
on the shortfall between annual expenditures and annual revenues – if future 0.5% RETT
collections continue to flow into the Wheeler Opera House Fund at some level, the fund
balance will be drawn down more slowly and therefore dictates the timeframe.
CITY MANAGER NOTES:
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
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INFORMATION MEMORANDUM
TO:City Council Members
FROM:Denise White, Communications Director
Karen Harrington, Quality Office Director
THROUGH:Alissa Farrell, Administrative Services Director
Sara Ott, City Manager
DATE:April 23, 2021
RE:Update on Communications Strategic Plan
REQUEST OF COUNCIL:
This memo is informational only. No Council action is requested.
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND:
One of City Council’s top goals is to “create and implement a strategic and comprehensive
communications plan.” The process to develop a Communications Strategic Plan was initiated in
August 2020 following a brief delay due to the COVID-19 response and recovery, as well as
staffing changes in the Communications Office. The purpose of this memo is to provide Council
with a progress update on several activities related to the plan, including results from the
community eChats and survey related to communication satisfaction and preferences.
A critical component of the Communications Strategic Plan is public engagement. As such, staff
has sought better to understand community members’ communication needs and preferences.
The team’s overarching research objectives are to:
Better understand current perceptions regarding how the City communicates.
Explore perceptions about how the City incorporates community feedback into decisions.
Clarify preferred communication channels and frequency.
Verify preferred communication formats.
Understand the barriers and motivators for community involvement.
To that end, staff has focused on three initiatives over the past six months:
eChats
Communication survey
Best practices research
Staff worked with consulting firm Elevated Insights (EI) to complete the eChat sessions and a
communications survey. Together, these two tools have provided a substantial amount of
information to guide plan development.
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In addition to the community outreach efforts, staff has focused on developing an inventory of
the City’s communications channels and assets, documenting standard operating procedures
for consistency and process improvement opportunities, defining internal organization levels of
service and staff roles/needs to maintain quality service, and auditing the City’s current social
media and website practices. Staff has also extensively researched best practices and industry
trends to identify opportunities to improve current City practices while forecasting future
needs. Communications staff continue to support ongoing, real-time needs while establishing
the Communications Strategic Plan’s framework and first draft.
DISCUSSION
EChat Summary
An eChat is a type of online focus group that uses a text-based chat session. City staff and EI
developed a discussion guide with questions. EI sent chat invitations to those residents who
opted in through the 2019 Resident (Citizen) Survey to participate in discussions about key
community topics. Nineteen residents chose to participate in the chat sessions. The City hosted
two sessions on Aug. 19, 2020, one during the day and one in the evening. Exhibit 1 provides the
findings and notes from the sessions.
Key findings include:
Participants find the City better at sharing information than listening. They were unsure
whether and how the City uses the feedback it receives from residents, and as a result,
were uncertain whether their participation makes a difference.
Most participants relied on the local newspapers for information and on Pitkin Alerts for
emergencies and traffic. They were interested in a text service from the City.
Younger participants were more likely to use social media.
Participants had many suggestions for communication improvements, such as providing
information at a consistent location; providing regular updates; listening to all, not just
the loudest voices; integrating communication with Pitkin County; and hosting meetings
virtually.
Participants indicated “good communication” means communication is honest, timely,
concise, accurate, transparent, and easy to understand, among other attributes.
The types of information and outreach people wanted varied depending on their age and
life stage.
EI suggested the City make a concerted effort to acknowledge resident input and transparently
share the impacts of that input; that the City consider whether and how there might be
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opportunities to collaborate with the County on communication; and that the City take steps to
more effectively reach a variety of different audiences by offering engagement opportunities at
different times of the day and sharing information in a variety of formats and places. EI further
recommended that the upcoming survey:
Focus on actionable input, not general impressions
Discern preferences (format, source) by type of information
Better define the tangible attributes of broad concepts such as transparency
Gather input from a diverse audience
Communications Survey Summary
The objectives of the communication survey were to:
Learn more about community perceptions when it comes to City information and outreach.
Identify more effective options for sharing how the City uses input and feedback.
Clarify what topics, methods, sources, and how frequently the community prefers to receive
information from the City.
Understand how habits and preferences vary between key demographics.
Understand barriers and triggers for community involvement.
On Dec. 5, 2020, the City sent an announcement email to interested community members who
provided their names and email addresses during the 2019 Resident (Citizen) Survey.
Subsequently, EI emailed a link to the survey to those community members. Communications
staff made the survey available on the City website, social media accounts, and emails shared
with partner organizations. Additionally, the City promoted the survey with paid advertising
online and through local media. While English and Spanish versions of the survey were
available, no Spanish versions were completed by respondents. Exhibit 2 contains the survey
results.
Three hundred sixty-one respondents completed at least a portion of the survey. The survey
was more representative of older residents than younger residents (median age was 58 years)
and more representative of females (59% of respondents) than males. Less than one-quarter of
respondents had children 18 years or younger at home. Nearly all respondents speak English at
home.
Current behaviors and awareness
The local newspapers were the most frequently used source of information about the City.
Emails were another commonly used source of City information, as was the website. Sixty-three
percent of respondents felt somewhat to very informed about City news and decisions.
Respondent interests and how to communicate about them
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A higher proportion of respondents were interested in COVID-19 information than any other
topic (83%). The second topic of most interest was general City news, followed by parks, trails,
and recreation information.
Respondents selected three topics of most interest to them and then provided a higher level of
detail regarding how to reach them with that information. Two means of formatting topics
were popular across most topics: short written summaries and headlines with links to more
information. Participants commonly mentioned detailed written articles as well. Respondents
often prefer to find this information in emails or the local newspapers, with the City website a
third choice. Local radio, Facebook, texts were sometimes mentioned as good sources as well.
While responses varied across many topics, weekly updates were a favorite.
Transparency, Trust, and Accessibility
Because the City is interested in fostering better communication in general, the survey asked
how it might improve transparency, promote trust, and improve accessibility. The survey also
asked how to improve the website.
To improve transparency, sharing the whole story – the good and the bad – was the most
frequently selected action step for the City to take. This selection was followed closely by
sharing information in community-wide sources such as the newspapers and providing
information early enough for input to make a difference.
To foster trust, 65% of respondents said the City should share information early and often.
Close to half indicated the City should include numbers and facts with the communication and
share bad news.
No one choice was dominant when asked how to improve accessibility. More than a third
indicated it would help to share where to find information and details more clearly. This aspect
was particularly important to those age 65 and over.
Finding ways to improve search and navigation was mentioned by 21 respondents as a way to
improve the website.
Engagement and factors affecting it
Slightly more than half of the respondents who answered a question about their current level
of engagement with the City (55% of 216 people) said that they are very or somewhat involved
with the City already. Most frequently, they are involved because they want to make a
difference in the community or impact on topics about which they are passionate. When asked
how likely they were to use new ways to provide input, more than half were likely or very likely
to participate in direct emails to Council or staff, or to engage via Aspen Community Voice.
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To further encourage engagement, around half of respondents shared that making them more
aware of opportunities that match their interests and providing more online engagement
opportunities would help. Regarding interests, housing was mentioned most frequently, with a
broader variety of interests after housing.
Preferred feedback and engagement options included participating in polls and surveys (57%),
being a part of a small short-term group or task force (41%), and attending virtual meetings,
focus groups, or open houses (36%). Common barriers to engagement included not having
enough time, not being aware of opportunities, and not feeling my opinions are being heard or
valued.
Closing questions
The survey closed with two open-ended questions:
What do you like best about what the City is doing to share information and/or listen to
residents?
And how could the City of Aspen improve its communication with residents - either with
sharing information or with listening?
Many respondents provided answers; Exhibit 2 details the full text of their responses. When
categorized, the most frequent answers to what people like best about what the City is doing to
share information or listen include:
1. Opinion polls and surveys
2. The City’s active approach to seeking input and reaching out
3. The City’s willingness to improve its communications
4. Use of local media (newspapers and radio)
5. Use of virtual meetings, webcasts, and access to meetings on Facebook
For improvements, the most frequent answers were:
1. Listen more frequently and to a broader set of people
2. Improve the quality and frequency of sharing in newspapers
3. The City is already communicating well
4. Use emails with relevant information
5. Providing clear, concise, consistent information
6. Listen better and share information more effectively
Next Steps
Staff will be reviewing the survey results along with research analysis of industry best practices
and trends to develop its strategies and identify key action items for the draft Strategic
Communications Plan. Additionally, staff remains flexible to address additional opportunities and
needs that arise throughout the process. For example, survey results indicate that input from
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some of our community’s hard-to-reach audiences requires additional outreach. Staff will
continue these efforts as we identify and evaluate options for a draft plan.
Keeping in line with the feedback the City has received related to transparency, survey results
will be shared on the City’s website. Staff will also share how community feedback and input
influence recommendations and prioritization in the draft and final plan. When available, the
draft plan will also be shared with the community as a check-in for any discrepancies.
A Council Work Session is scheduled for May 4, 2021, to provide an updateon the project, review
the current situation, and ensure the project is on track to meet the needs of the organization
and the community.
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