Earth day

Jim proposed an earth day event at the high school. Giant rummage sale, a city hazardous waste dropoff, recycling dropoff. The event could create a lot of energy around citywide sustainability effort. Bert said it would really help this cause, but who would do it? Bert suggested his study circles could be a source of volunteers. Jim said he would contact the city. John said he would work on the giant rummage sale, as well set up the first meeting, along with a call for volunteers in an email to past PL participants. Inga, Leo, John, and Kim volunteered to help.

Sustainability

Bert said another round of study circles will kick off Jan. 2. There will also be training for facilitators. He said the Mayor is interested in announcing Porstmouth is an Eco Municipality. Requires only a commitment to principles of the Natural Step. Discussion of whether it was too soon.

Candidate’s night

Shaun read feedback from the candidates (attached). Consensus was we should do the event earlier, and print the Q&A sooner before the event. Eric Spear and Nancy Clayburgh both suggested the city charter as a study circle topic. The group recommended Shaun work with city clerk Kelli Barnaby to determine dates early.

Annual Meeting

Discussion of election of Steering Committee and officers. Previously, the group discussed having a nominating committee chosen by the Steering Committee to present a slate. Jeff suggested a possible 12 person Steering Committee, nominations for eight and another four nominated from the floor at the annual meeting. John said a nominating committee assures the nominees know the time commitment and duties. Bert said the annual meeting’s breakout sessions to discuss possible topics for Portsmouth Listens “could dramatically change” how we operate. What if some topics are voice but not acted upon? Jeff said the input to the Steering Committee must be advisory. Jim said we should all review the bylaws one more time. He suggested there would be a lot of momentum after the Earth Day event and we could hold the annual meeting in May and ratify the bylaws.

Discussion of whether the annual meeting should be sooner to develop topics now. Jim said study circles don’t occur that many times a year. They require a certain level of energy about an issue. There are many other things Portsmouth Listens does beside them like candidate forums and other dialogue, reforming city process to make it more dialogue-based, he said. Jeff said the annual meeting should happen sooner. John said topics have key dates that make the process occur (September vote on Middle School, input timeline for Master Plan). Jeff said too often we get on a topic too late. The waterfront is being discussed right now, he said. Parade Mall is already all approved. Shaun said it might be good to have topics as a new council takes their seats. Kim said when bringing topics forward, we need to come with the information, the key dates, when votes occur, etc.

The group decided to decide the timing of the annual meeting at the January Steering Committee meeting.

Master Plan update

John reminded the group the city manager had promised public annual updates. John said he and Jim should talk to the city manager about an update to the study circle participants. Diane suggested the annual meeting include a Master Plan update. Jeff wanted to know how long that would take. Jim said we can work on getting dialogue as part of the update process to “reform the process” versus a Powerpoint presentation from city department heads.

Old Library

John asked how the group felt about Dennis Robinson’s proposal to turn the old library into a Visitor’s Center. Kim said the city Building Re-use Committee has stipulations on the property. Jim said our role would not be to decide where to put a visitor’s center but create energy around the idea with Dennis and see if some dialogue can start to happen. John promised to get all the facts about building re-use for next meeting.

After an evaluation by each member, we adjourned at 9:05.

Note next meeting is January 9th due to the holiday.

Feedback to Shaun from candidates:

Below are the responses from Portsmouth City Councilors regarding Portsmouth Listens Candidate's night and future potential Portsmouth Listens' dialogue issues.

Shaun Rafferty

Portsmouth Listens questions

• How can Portsmouth Listens improve our candidate forum process?

• Are there any local issues you believe should be addressed by Portsmouth Listens sponsored study circles or round table public dialogues.

Candidate answers

Chris Dwyer

First, thanks so much for doing the candidate forums. I know participation was lower than hoped for this year, but those who attended were very active in the discussion and I thought the dialogue was excellent. Here are a few ideas for improvement:

1. Conduct the circles earlier in the campaign—maybe fairly early in October—to allow for more robust idea exchange. In other words, ideas that candidates hear from participants could then work their way into campaigning.

2. If you decide to do written Q&A again, the responses should be available at least a few days in advance of the forum so that there is time for preparation by attendees, and possibly it would also create some more interest. Much as I appreciate the opportunity to be able to write out my own responses, I think there was a saturation point this year—given the regular Herald pull-out, the WIRE, the South End written document as well as the Portsmouth Listens document. For all the work and expense, I’m not sure the piece didn't get lost in the mix of other responses.

3. I realize that the size of the crowd dictates how many candidates are at a table but 2 would be better than 3 just to ensure air time for everyone. And, you might consider the mix of new and incumbent. As an incumbent, I felt I should allow the newcomers to have more opportunity to answer some questions—on the other hand, there were detailed questions (e.g., the Westin garage agreement) that newcomers couldn't be expected to have detailed answers for.

4. There doesn't seem to be much real “challenging” happening from voters to ferret out the rhetoric from the follow through. So, for example, I was amazed during this election how incumbents who had advocated for higher budgets and increases for the school department over the past two years were able to present themselves to voters as the friend-of-the-taxpayer candidates who were going to hold down budgets. No one from the public seemed to notice the gap between rhetoric and recent reality—I did not hear challenges or questions to the assertions. Similarly those who describe themselves as tax savers in one sentence, describe in the next sentence all the services they will add. Again, I don't hear any challenge from the general public to the incongruity. The gap between rhetoric and behavior plays its way out in other ways as well, e.g., location of middle school. So, that’s a long way of saying that it would be interesting if Portsmouth Listens could become more the place where councilors and council candidates are actually held accountable to say more that what they think it will take to get elected.

5. In terms of next issues, I think the study circles will be a good vehicle for discussion potential city charter changes.

Nancy Clayburgh

The only change I would make is to possibly have a moderator at each table during the forum. We definitely had one candidate that dominated, and I spoke out and asked him to let others speak. I had to do that several times. I sort of became the moderator. Also, some participants had a specific item for a specific candidate and the others could not really respond because they were not involved in the event. A moderator could keep the event going so that all had an equal chance. Other than that, I really enjoyed the forum....it was different from the others and allowed you to speak individually with folks.

I think study circles about the McIntyre Building would be very helpful.

Eric Spears

• I think everything was run just fine.

• Local issues: The city charter is up for evaluation in a couple of years, and that one is certainly important