SPECIAL MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NOVI

NOVI CIVIC CENTER -ACTIVITIES ROOM - 45175 W. TEN MILE ROAD

Mayor McLallen called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m.

ROLL CALL: Mayor McLallen, Mayor ProTem Crawford, Council Members DeRoche, Kramer, Lorenzo, Mutch, Schmid

STAFF MEMBERS: Ed Kriewall - City Manager, Tonni Bartholomew - City Clerk

FACILITATOR: Bill Richards, Jr.

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION - None

PURPOSE OF SPECIAL MEETING: Work Study Session to set Council goals.

Mr. Kriewall introduced Bill Richards who is the Assistant City Manager in Farmington. Mr. Kriewall advised that Mr. Richards has worked with Eastern Michigan University and the Michigan Municipal League on goal setting. Mr. Kriewall believes it is important to note that because Mr. Richards works for a city, he has a good understanding of local government.

1. Goal Setting - Bill Richards Jr, Planning Facilitator

Mr. Richards advised he conducts goal setting sessions at different levels. He added his major is public law and government, a minor in communications with a masters in communications.

Mr. Richards began with a basic definition of political science and advised political science is the study of the process of the allocation of limited resources. He then advised they will discuss synergy, and the distinction between management and leadership.

Mr. Richards believes trust is the fundamental underpinning of successful organizations. The first item on Richard’s "Trilogy on Trust" is that trust is not just granted and has to be earned to some extent. The second is that it can be lost in an instant and the third, once gone, it can almost never be fully recovered.

Mr. Richards conducted an activity called, "Lost on the Moon." He asked Council to imagine that their ship just crash landed on the moon and their task is to rank the twelve items that survived the crash according to importance and need so they may survive the journey to the mother ship.

After completing the individual activity, Council members broke into two discussion groups to reach a consensus ranking for the twelve items. Mr. Richards asked that they not argue for their own point of view. He asked that they listen to other members of the group and be willing to change views on the basis of reason and logic. However, he also asked that they not change their views simply to avoid disagreement. He asked that they seek out differences of opinion and involve all members in the decision making process. Mr. Richards added the more information they have, the better chance they will have of making a sound decision. He also asked that they avoid such techniques such as majority vote, averaging, flipping coins and bargaining.

After their discussion, the following were considered to be City Council and Staff strengths:

1. Council’s interest in support of citizen’s involvement.

2. Strong commitment of Council and Staff.

3. Dedicated to proactive comprehensive community planning.

4. Financial stability based on effective management of financial, natural and human resource assets.

5. Council and Staff are communicative and accessible.

Their weaknesses were considered to be:

1. Information and work overload.

2. Need to get "on-line" with current technologies, development influences and their impact.

3. Some lack of operational efficiencies.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business before City Council, the meeting was adjourned at 10:40 p.m.

Mayor City Clerk

Transcribed by Barbara Holmes