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<br />MINUTES OF THE TOWN MEETING OF THE CITY OF LA PORTE
<br />MARCH 11, 2003
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<br />Members of City Council Present: Mayor Norman Malone, Councilmembers Chuck Engelken,
<br />Bruce Meismer, Charlie Young and James Warren
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<br />Members of City Staff Present: City Secretary Martha Gillett, Director of Public Works Steve
<br />Gillett, City Manager Debra Feazelle, Police Chief Richard Reff, Parks and Recreation Director
<br />Stephen Barr, Administrative Assistant to the City Manager Crystal Scott, Assistant City
<br />Secretary Sharon Harris, Assistant City Attorney Clark Askins, Assistant City Manager John
<br />Joerns, Director of Planning Doug Kneupper, Director of Finance Cynthia Alexander and
<br />Assistant Director of Finance Michael Dolby
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<br />Citizens Present: Sue Gale Mock Kooken, Dr. Charles Hilborn, Betty Waters, Dottie Kaminski,
<br />A. J. France, Kim Meismer, Colleen Hicks, Norman Cook, Leon Waters, Dr. P. J. Mock, Pat
<br />Mock, Dr. Molly Helmlinger, Paul Pieri, Al Ward, Gordon Westergren, Jesse Garcia, J. B.
<br />Williamson, Tyler Swenson, Marco Mejia, Bonnie Natole, John Lair and Lisa Cook
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<br />Councilmember Bruce Meismer addressed the public, stating he called a town meeting for the
<br />purpose of discussing items that are important to the City, as we move forward (economic
<br />development, diversity and things of that nature). The meeting was informal, with Mr. Meismer
<br />serving as Chair. He welcomed audience participation in a round-table discussion atmosphere.
<br />Mr. Meismer laid down basic rules for the conduct of the meeting, asking that participants
<br />identify themselves before speaking and limit their time to two (2) minutes.
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<br />The intent of the meeting was to see if there is enough interest in moving some of the ideas
<br />forward. This may be accomplished with additional meetings, but this meeting is just an
<br />opportunity to commence a dialog on the subject.
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<br />The City Staffhas done quite a bit of work in setting a plan in place on certain issues. In the
<br />1984 plan, certain things were pointed out that are still important today. Number one on the
<br />survey was recreational facilities, another was City beautification, and air pollution was another
<br />point, as well as City services, traffic noise, and employment.
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<br />Mr. Meismer read Section 3.1 of the Master Plan, dealing with economic growth; stating if La
<br />Porte took no action, the City would become more of a bedroom community, with most industry
<br />located at Bayport or the extraterritorial jurisdictions to the north. This would have an adverse
<br />effect and impact over all revenues for the City and the capability of the City to provide services
<br />for its citizenry.
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<br />This was brought up as a starting point for a topic of conversation. City staff has done a good
<br />job putting into place certain things to foster growth, but there is not enough long range planning.
<br />We need to look down the road 10 or 15 years, like staffhas done in regard to water rights and
<br />securing landfill waste areas. The discussion was opened by asking the following: Are these
<br />studies effective tools? Are we aggressively using the information contained in these documents
<br />to facilitate change for the cost we expend on those documents? Mr. Meismer feels we are not
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