02-18-13 Special Meeting of La Porte City Council

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ii. Organizational development exercises to identify gaps in trust with a plan of action on closing those gaps should have the effect of extending better service to the customers. 2. Establish a culture of greater trust and open communication between the staff and City Council. Earlier recommendations spoke to City Council and staff working together to determine their working relationship for customer complaints, code revisions, and overall economic development philosophy. Resolution of these issues through frank discussion and clear directives also allows for open communication and the building of trust between the groups. 3. Revise the monthly and quarterly report format to emphasize communication of successes, problems, and obstacles in lieu of purely statistical data. The statistical portions of the reports should be augmented to provide more context such as current month versus same month previous year; or year-to-date versus same date previous year. This format provides more meaningful benchmark type information to both the management and City Council and helps measure progress and/or provide information on gaps that need to be closed. K. Code Recommendations Findings The zoning code and development ordinance were reviewed in light of opportunities to reinforce improvements recommended under the themes identified during the departmental review. This review was focused on items that may be an impediment to efficient processing of applications and the ease of use from the customer's perspective. This review was not intended to be the exhaustive review that should be conducted to ensure the codes are consistent with the recently adopted update of the comprehensive plan. Recommendations 1. Zoning Code Recommendations: i. 106-62. Planning & Zoning Commission Membership and Structure The current Commission size and appointment method is atypical. Appointment of members by district may promulgate any district tensions that may exist at the Council level and may be an impediment to a city-wide planning perspective. The Commission should be a more typical seven members with the only condition that they are qualified voters of the City and appointments made by a majority vote of the entire City Council. The Commission should select its own chairperson and other officers. The City Council should consider 20 Planning Department Review Mueller Management/Ron Cox Consulting