More Edgewater Craziness

I’m trying to make heads or tails of the most recent emails flying around. I wasn’t at the meeting in question, so don’t know what happened, but this is a good indication of why there are so many problems. The parties don’t have even the most basic level of communication skills, and Alder Maniaci seems to add to, not help resolve the communication insanity. Check it out.

Here’s my best effort to put these in chronological order.

HAMMES SETS A NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING WITHOUT CONSULTING ON DATES

From: Amy Supple
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 5:45 PM
To: Verveer, Mike ; Maniaci, Bridget
Cc: Mendoza, Mario ; Murphy, Brad ; Bob Dunn
Subject: RE: Neighborhood Meeting

All –

Based on the message I received today from Mike asking us not to attend the CNI meeting and in order to ensure we have a meeting prior to the Plan Commission meeting, we have scheduled a meeting at the Edgewater on January 5, 2010 from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm. We will plan to have an open meeting that includes residents, business, landlords, etc. that wish to participate in the discussion. We will be prepared to describe the key terms / conditions of the management agreement and the easements.

Give me a call or I’ll try to catch up with you over the next few days to discuss.

Thanks.

Amy Supple

MAYOR’S OFFICE LIKES THE MEETING

On Dec 8, 2010, at 12:22 PM, “Mendoza, Mario” wrote:

> Amy:
>
> Thanks for organizing this meeting. I think it is very important that a meeting take place in advance of the January Plan Commission meeting to which the Agreement was referred. I appreciate your efforts in this regard.
>
> Mario Mendoza

MEETING CONFLICTS WITH NEIGHBORHOOD MEETING, MANIACI WANTS HER OWN THIRD MEETING

From: Maniaci, Bridget
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 2:39 PM
To: Mendoza, Mario
Cc: Amy Supple; Verveer, Mike; Murphy, Brad; Bob Dunn; Kerr, Julia; Cnare, Lauren; ledell.zellers@xxxxx
Subject: Re: Neighborhood Meeting

Hey all,
I was sitting around the table with the neighborhood folks last night when your email came through. That day and rough time is when Mansion Hill is scheduling their neighborhood meeting. I talked with them about moving their meeting to the following evening, so this issue would not monopolize their meeting (there’s a timely street reconstruction project that staff is coming to present on.) they refused and would like Hammes to come to their meeting, location pending, and wanted to allocate 45 minutes to the discussion. They also rebuffed my desire to send a formal notice to a number of affected constituents about the meeting and insisted on noticing them themselves. I cannot in good conscious not reach out to neighbors in the immediate area.

What I propose is that Hammes attend their neighborhood meeting on the 5th, additionally, I would like to set up a noticed meeting much like Hammes is proposing on the following day, the Thursday, in my capacity as alder.
To try to have both groups meet separately on the same night is not feasible, and I believe I need a venue that I can publicly notice a meeting for constituents. If they will not allow me to notice constituents for their meeting, then I have no choice but to organize one where people can come out.

This is not ideal, but let’s make it work, and it gives Hammes 2 opportunities to interact with stakeholders.

Please let me know your thoughts.
Thanks,
Bridget

NEIGHBORS RESPOND TO MANIACI’S CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MEETING
Here various responses from various emails:
“WOW!!!!! What meeting was I at?”

“unreal”

” I also don’t understand why Bridget is so poisonous. It does feel like she was in an alternate universe last night”

“While Gene indicated a desire to uniformly blanket the neighborhood with leaflets about the meeting, I don’t recall anyone saying that other noticing was unwelcome…so I don’t get Bridget’s “rebuffed” statement. As Mike indicated, notices can go out to some by virtue of being property owners on Gilman/Carroll…but that he and Bridget could not send notices to the whole neighborhood.”

“I don’t understand Bridget wanting to do a separate meeting the next night (indicated in the attached)—seems bizarre.”

HAMMES RESPONSE

From: Amy Supple
To: “Maniaci, Bridget” , “Mendoza, Mario”
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 15:52:52 -0600
Subject: RE: Neighborhood Meeting

Bridget –
Thanks for the email. Unfortunately, we’ve made arrangements with others related to this evening and this is the date that works with our travel schedules. That said, we would be happy to move the time of the Edgewater meeting a little earlier or a little later to allow CNI time to conduct their other business on that same evening. Given that they only want to meet for 45 minutes this seems like something that should be able to be accommodated. If travel time is an issue, we would be happy to arrange for the CNI committee to meet in another room at the Edgewater before or after the management agreement discussion. This solution should also address any concerns about having a venue that can be publically noticed or having a place that is easily accessible to pedestrians and for vehicular parking.

I hope that the you, Mike and the members of the CNI steering committee will find this to be a reasonable solution to address the concerns about the date of the meeting.

Thanks.

Amy Supple

If ever there was a situation in need of a good facilitator this is it. This alder clearly doesn’t have the chops to do it. If they can’t even figure out when to have their meetings and how to notice them and how many meetings to have, how will they ever get to the point where they have a chance of discussing the very real issues with the management of the public access areas? This continues to be a disaster. It didn’t have to be this ridiculous.