The goal of The Fort Lauderdale Forum is to provide a place for reasoned discussion of current issues affecting the lives of citizens in Fort Lauderdale and Broward County.

VISIONING UPDATE

February 18, 2011

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

A BIG STEP TOWARD VISIONING OUR FUTURE

On Tuesday, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission unanimously authorized City staff to negotiatiate with Wallace, Roberts and Todd, the top-ranked consultant from the Visioning Committee's selection process. (As a historical note, WRT was involved in planning the beach redevelopment and the Riverwalk 25 years ago).

Before and at the meeting, the Commissioners heard from both supporters and detracters, but, after discussion, all agreed to proceed.

Among the detracters, no one said that a vision for the future was unnecessary. Rather, the objections were (1) the City's budget is too high already; (2) it can be done more cheaply (by recycling a vision statement from 1995 or by having the Visioning Committee do all the work for free, etc.); (3) that it will be just another "plan" that will never be implemented.

The last is a very valid concern. The process is intended to create a consensus vision and goals with acheivable results. However, no consultant can things happen: only our citizens and elected officials can do that.

Therefore, I hope that those who have been opposed or skeptical will give the process a try and participate. If you like the result, then you can help make it happen. Or you can sit back and say, it's just another waste of time and money, and then perhaps it will be.

Congratulatilons and thank you to the Visioning Committee, who worked long and hard to make the recommendation to the Commissioners, and to the Mayor and Commissioners, who had the courage to invest in the future even in challenging times.

AND A "SWAN SONG" FOR YOURS TRULY

On a personal note, I want to thank you for taking the time to read these periodic Updates, and all who participated in planning the new visioning process.

As Mayor twenty-five years ago, I had the privilege to be involved with a visioning process
which repositioned our City for the future and provided direction for many years thereafter.

Two years ago, hearing community leaders complain about lack of community consensus, vision and goals, I thought, "Why can't we do it again?", and started asking others what they thought, and the response was enthusiastic. So, after many discussions and decisions and long, hard work by the Visioning Committee and its Chair Tim Smith, we're on the verge of renewing our vision for Fort Lauderdale's new century.

Now that the new Visioning process has been launched this will be my last Update. I'm ready to enjoy my retirement by travelling, writing, and, to the extent possible, avoiding meetings.

Thanks again for your interest.

Rob Dressler

PS: Despite the above, I will continue as Moderator of The Fort Lauderdale Forum, the next meeting being next Wednesday. The March 23 program will be (suprise) "Visioning Fort Lauderdale: Past and Present".

February 14, 2011

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

DECISION TIME FOR VISIONING

Tomorrow, February 15th at 2:15pm the City Commission will discuss the Visioning proposal.

Yesterday, local blogger Earl Rynerson sent an email blasting the Visioning proposal as a boondoggle for consultants that the City does not need and cannot afford.

Mr. Rynerson has written some thoughtful commentaries (although his combative attitude often detracts from the content), so his views (relayed to a huge email list) deserve attention.

In a recent blog listing the perceived failures of the current administration, one of Mr. Rynerson's top complaints was "lack of a vision". Therefore it is worth exploring his objections to the current visioning proposal and suggested alternatives.

We don't need it. We just should recycle an old, largely-ignored visioning document from an "American Assembly" held one weekend in1995 . A fine idea, assuming nothing has changed in Fort Lauderdale in 16 years. It could have a great tag line: "A Vision for the Future, from the Past."
We can't afford it. The City's total budget is roughly $625 million per year. Is there not room for an amount less than 1/10 of 1% for one year to determine the wishes of our citizens and prioritize how those funds are spent, in order to make Fort Lauderdale a more livable city for its residents and more competitive on a national basis? (Mr. Rynerson uses the analogy of car companies cutting costs instead of planning future vehicles. If Ford and GM had done that instead of doing both, they would not have survived.)
Mayor Seiler should come up with the vision. Jack's a smart guy, but it may be asking a bit much to expect him to plan the future for our diverse mix of almost 180,000 residents.
"These plans usually end sitting on shelves gathering dust." There is a lot of truth to this. Of course, Mr. Rynerson did not live here in the 1980's, when our 10-year, "Fort Lauderdale 1994" Mission Statement, led to the beach redevelopment, the Riverwalk, Downtown, neighborhood and park improvements, expansion of the Museum of Science and Discovery and other cultural facilities, etc; the things which make our City special today, and resulted in huge amounts of private-sector investment.

Unfortunately, I do not believe Mr. Rynerson listened to any of the consultants' presentations. If he had, he would understand that they are action-oriented; implementation is an integral part of the process.

Finally, he could also have quoted former City Manager Gretsas who said: "We don't need a vision; we already have lots of plans".

More than a year ago, the City Commissioners each appointed a diverse and talented group of citizens to serve as a Visioning Committee, and asked them to suggest a process tfor creating create a vision and plan for our City's future. They have worked long and hard and made a unanimous recommendation to the Commission. If the Commissioners are serious about restoring a vision for the future, they should follow the recommendations of their appointees.

But these are difficult financial times, so perhaps the Commissioners will decide that we can't afford to plan for the future: We'll just spending Centennial year celebring our past.

Ultimately, the only opinion that matters is YOURS. If you think that an investment in planning our City's future is important, let your thoughts be known.

Otherwise, let's just enjoy the beautiful weather and beaches and let the future take care of itself.

Rob Dressler

January, 2011

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

Fort Lauderdale's "Centennial Vision": Will it finally happen?

On January 14, the Selection Committee of the Visioning Committee listened to presentations by the four top-ranked responders to the rfp for a consultant to manage the visioning process:

ACP Visioning & Planning
IBI Group
Renaissance
Wallace Roberts & Todd

I watched the first two, which I thought were excellent. Each firm presented a basic, moderate and comprehensive proposal.

The Committee selected both the Moderate and the Comprehensive proposals of Wallace, Roberts and Todd, a well-known interdisciplinary planning and design firm based in Philadelphia WRT has selected three partners: PlaceMatters a technology based visioning and planning company; ETC Institute, a respected community survey and research firm; and Mad4Marketing a Fort Lauderdale based Strategy and Creative Concepting company who will handle local Interactive Marketing & Public Relations related to the process. Their proposal is available for review at the VisCom website: http://www.fortlauderdale.gov/visioning/index.htm.

OnJanuary 25, the full Visioning Committee met and unanimously approved the recommendation of the Selection Committee and noted their preference was for the Comprehensive Proposal.

The proposal is expected to go to the City Commission on February 15, probably at the Conference meeting. (I will send final details before the meeting.)

The cost of the moderate proposal was $319,160; the comprehensive proposal is $403,540. While these amounts are not insignificant, the amount is a tiny fraction of an annual budget of over $600 million.

The goal of the visioning process is not only to obtain the views of our diverse citizenry, but to create an implementable plan for enhancing Fort Lauderdale's liveability and competitiveness in a rapidly-changing world.

At the last Fort Lauderdale Forum meeting, Mayor Seiler spoke strongly of the need of a vision for our future be part of the celebration of our Centennial. The other Commissioners have also spoken positively about visioning, but no funds have yet been committed by the Commission.

In the early 1980's, approaching the City's 75th Birthday, the Commission embarked upon a visioning process which led to the "Fort Lauderdale 1994" Mission Statement, a ten-year plan to make Fort Lauderdale the most liveable city of its size in the Nation. The results of that process, the beach redevelopment, the Riverwalk, neighborhood master plans and improvements, funding for parks and cultural facilities, etc. are many of the things that we can celebrate on our Centennial, twenty-five years later.

In the Fall of 2008, the Forum hosted two panels consisting of eleven of community, business and political leaders to discuss "Fort Lauderdale: What's Good and What's Not". The unanimous answer to the negative question was lack of planning and a consensus vision for the future.

From that time, a group of citizens started meeting to promote a new visioning process and ultimately presented their ideas to the City Commission. The Commission appointed the Visioning Committee to recommend a process to implement the visioning. The VisCom is a diverse group and had numerous meetings and several "full and frank discussions". The fact that the group is unanimous in its recommendation to the Commission is a tribute to the committee members.

So far, this has been a "low profile" endeavor, with no known media coverage to date, and It is important that the Commission understand that there is support in the community beyond the VisCom members, and the time has come.

Therefore, if you believe that the creation of a "Centennial Vision" is important (if not vital) and worth an investment for our City's future, please let your Commissioners know your feelings before the meeting next Tuesday. Even better, also attend the meeting. (Agenda information will be sent beforehand).

"If not us, who? If not now, when?"

Rob

December 1, 2010

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

The first meeting of the Selection Committee for the Visioning proposals was held yesterday, November 30. The Committee consists of 5 members from the Vis Com (Tim Smith, Charlie Ladd, Gloria Katz, Randall Vitale and Peg Buchan) and three voting City staff members and two staff advisors.

The 13 submittals were ranked in each of the three categories: Basic, Intermediate, Comprehensive. Four firms/teams were selected to make presentations. The top 4 firms are:

Wallace Roberts & Todd (Philadelphia, PA)
IBI Group (tie score)
Renaissance (Orlando, FL) (tie score)
ACP Visioning & Planning (Columbus, Ohio)

Following that, the next four firms are: AECOM, Keith & Schnars, Rand, Hellmuth.

Presentations by the top four will made be during the first or second week of January in in the 8th floor conference room of City Hall.

The Selection Committee may ask for a subsequent, "Best & Final" proposal from some or all of the shortlisted firms after the presentation, to incorporate some of the best features that they will have heard at the presentations.

As indicated in previous emails, all of the proposals are available for review at the VisCom website: http://ci.ftlaud.fl.us/visioning/index.htm.

Before long, the Vis Com will have done its job, and it will be up to the Commission and community to make it happen.

November 19, 2010

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

It's hard to believe, but it has now been two years since the two Forum panels about Fort Lauderdale indicated a major concern about lack of a shared vision for the City's future, and a volunteer group started discussing how a community visioning process might be accomplished.

Ultimately, the planning group decided that the process should be initiated by the City, rather than a citizen group, to insure that the process would be inclusive and that the Commission and staff would "buy into" it and act on the results of the community input.

The Visioning Committee, with Tim Smith as Chair, has made great strides in coming to the consensus necessary to create an RFP for a consultant to help manage the visioning process.

The responses to the RFP have been impressive: thriteen proposals, including well-known local and national firms.

The total price estimates ranged from $90,000 to over $1million for the "Comprehensive", 3-phase process. The median was around $500,000 for all 3 phases, but less than half that for the "Basic" (Phase 1) proposal. A spreadsheet is attached.

Also, all of the actual proposals are now available for review on-line at: http://www.fortlauderdale.gov/purchasing/visioning.htm .

Five members of the Visioning Committee (Charles Ladd, Gloria Katz, Peg Buchan, Randall Vitale and Tim Smith) and five City staff members comprise the 10-person Evaluation Committee, which will review the proposals and make a recommendation to the full Visioning Commmittee and ultimately the Commission.

The first RFP Evaluation Committee Meeting will be held at City Hall, 8th Floor Conference Room on November 30, 2010 from 8:30 am - 12:30 pm.

Of course, no funding has been approved by the Commission, so implementation of a Visioning process will require substantial community support.

However, much of what we now "celebrate" about Fort Lauderdale was planned on our 75th Anniversary.

It would be an embarrassment if we spend our Centennial year celebrating the past but not planning for our future.

The next meeting of the full Visioning Committee will be Tuesday, December 7, at 4pm at Executive Airport.

Finally, the Committee now has a web site at: http://www.fortlauderdale.gov/visioning/index.htm

Best wishes for Thanksgiving and the Holidays.

Rob

September 16, 2010

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

Perhaps the quotation should be "Trying to Create a Vision is a Nightmare."

If you believe that recreating a Vision for Fort Lauderdate is important, please read or skim to the end of this Update regarding the crucial Commission meeting tomorrow afternoon and express your support for Visioning to the Commissioners.

Brief History
As many of you will recall, the concept of starting a process for a renewed vision for our City began in late 1998, after two panels of involved citizens at Fort Lauderdale Forum commented on the lack of vision in City government.

For several months, an "Ad hoc Visioning Planning Committee" and subcommitties met to discuss how such a process could be initiated, and produced suggestings and even an outline of a of a possible visioning proess. The ultimate, although not unanimous, decision of the Ad hoc Committee was that such a process could best be carried out by means of a Visioning Committee appointed by the City Commission.

During the campaigns in early 2009, all the current Commissioners expressed support for the visioning concept.

In late March 2009, after the elections, the report of the Ad Hoc Committee was sent to the newly-elected City Commissioners.

All the above information is listed on The Fort Lauderdale Forum web site:
http://www.ftlforum.org/ftl-forum_visioning.html

The Commission decided to create a Visioning Committee at its meeting on December 15, 2009, but did not complete the appointment of members until late January.

Since then, the Visioning Committee, consisting of eleven diverse and talented members, with former Commissioner Tim Smith as Chairman, has met, gathered information and, after much discussion and compromise among the members, approved an RFP to obtain information to hire a consultant to facilitate the process at their meeting on July 13.

Since then, the RFP has been subsequently been under review by City staff, but it is finally on the Commission agenda for approval tommow, Item 1-C on the Conference agenda.

However, the City Staff prepared a Commission Action Report (attached), which was so negative that Chairman Smith, in an email today, expressed his "shock and dismay" at the "flawed" report and has requested a corrections.

It is no secret that former City Manager George Gretsas did not support a Visioning process, because, to paraphrase "it would create unrealistic expectations among citizens and more work for City staff" and isn't needed because we already have lots of plans". It appears that his legacy continues.

Action Requested

If you support the Visioning Process, please contact your City Commissioners before the meeting tomorrow or, if you can, attend the meeting to show citizen support.

If the Commission does not show strong support for the Visioning RFP, it would seem that we have all been wasting our time for the last year and a half.

February 12, 2010

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

The first meeting of the City's Visioning Committee was held at 4pm on Tuesday, February 9.

Also attached are two emails I sent before the meeting; one to members who weren't aware of the work of the Forum's "ad hoc visioning planning group" and one to all the Committee members.

I attended the meeting to see that it actually happened (after 15 months of planning and discussion!) and to meet the members who I didn't know, but did not stay for the meeting. However, I have talked to several members in order to send you an Update, rather than wait for the official minutes.

All members except one were in attendance. A list of the members is attached. Former Commissioner Tim Smith was elected Chairperson, with Stan Eichelbaum as Vice-Chair. A representative of the City Attorney's office advised the Committee about the "Sunshine Laws".

Thereafter, the members discussed a variety of issues, apparently with a considerable diversity of ideas, perspectives and opinions, as befits a diverse committe.

As I understand it, the following decisions were made:

The Committee will meet monthly, and next meeting will be on March 9 at 4pm. Fact-finding groups, if established, can meet between meetings.
The Committee will consider using consultants to organize the visioning process . An expert from the University of Miami will advise the Committee about criteria for hiring a consultant.
The Committee invited the City Manager and his department heads to meet with the Committee at the March meeting to discuss the current state of the City eight focus areas, as a benchmark. Chairman Smith's letter to the City Manager is attached.

December 17, 2009

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

At its meeting on December 15, 2009, the Commission created a "Visioning Committee" and made appointments as listed below.

Commissioner	Appointment	Appointment
Mayor:	Tim Smith	Stan Eichelbaum
Roberts:	Gloria Katz	Alan Gabriel
Rodstrom:	Charles Ladd	Gary Sieger
DuBose:	Randall Vitale	Desorae Giles-Smith
Rogers:	Wiley Thompson	Peg Buchan
Consensus:	Dan Lindblade

Congratulations to the appointees, many of whom have been receiving these Updates.

Three appointments remain to be made, including the consensus appointment, so don't give up if you're interested.

Also, the Ordinance was passed on first reading, but apparently there was no discussion about how the Chairperson will be determined.

Since there are enough members for a quorum, Committee has been authorized to begin meeting without waiting for the remaining appointments, and the City Clerk is apparently calling members about setting up a meeting.

I will provide more information as it becomes available.

From my personal perspective, it looks to be an outstanding group of knowledgeable people who should be able to work well together and expand the visioning process into the community. Congratulations to the Mayor and Commissioners.

Rob

December 14, 2009

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

Tomorrow is the day the Commission will make their appointments to the "Visioning Committee" and approve the Resolution to create it.

Attached for your information are the Commission Agenda Report (Item CR-12) and the proposed Resolution.

I hope that someone at the meeting will suggest that the proposed task of producing "a vision plan for the next century" (Section 2 b) might be a bit ambitious. Perhaps a "first decade" plan, with shorter-term interim goals, would be more realistic.

Also, the Resolution does not mention how the Chairperson will be determined. As I've mentioned before, I think it's important for the Commission to work together and make their consensus appointment the Chairperson. If you agree and will be at the meeting, I hope you will make this point.

From what I've heard, the Commissioners are considering their choices carefully, and I've heard some excellent people mentioned.

Again, best wishes to those who have applied to serve on the Committee.

I will continue to provide Updates as the process continues.

Rob

December 10, 2009

"Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare"

As indicated an earlier Update, the Commission decided at its December 1 meeting to make appointments of the Visioning Task Force members at their meeting on December 15, i. e. next Tuesday.

The Mayor and Commissioners will appoint two persons each (one of whom must be a resident of their district) and will make a consensus appointment.

Previously, the Commission discussion was that the consensus appointment would be the chairperson. At the 12/1 meeting, there was discussion that the consensus appointment should just be a regular member, and the Task Force would chose its own chair.

Personally, I think that the Chairperson should be the consensus appointment, a community leader not tied to one District or Commussioner.

The Task Force will have a significant task ahead of it, and not much time. If the Commission appoints the Chairperson, the Task Force can "hit the ground running", without elections, possible hurt feelings, and/or an elected chairperson who is not acceptable to all segments of the City.

The final structure of the Task Force will also be discussed and determined next Tuesday, so if you agree with the above, there is still time to contact the Commissioners.

Best wishes to all of who apply.

Rob

PS: For your information, the official notice is below.

From: City of Fort Lauderdale
Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 4:52 PM
Subject: City News: Initial Visioning Task Force

City Commission Seeks Individuals for Initial Visioning Task Force

The City Commission is seeking interested individuals to serve on an initial task force relating to developing the City‚s vision for the next century.

Once established, the task force will develop a format to recommend to the City Commission from which to launch the visioning process community-wide.

For membership details and to apply, contact the City Clerk's Office at 954-828-5288.

October 16,2009

Greetings!

This is a brief Update on the status of creating a renewed Vision for our City, and is being sent to those who participated in the Ad Hoc Visioning Planning Group and others who may be interested in a new visioning process. Please feel free to forward names of anyone else you know who is interested.

This subject has now been under discussion for almost a year, starting with panel discussions at The Fort Lauderdale Forum last Noverber and December. All of the history is listed on "The Visioning Process" section on the Forum's web site: http://www.ftlforum.org.

As noted in the last Update in August (http://www.ftlforum.org/ftl-forum_visioning-update.html), the Commission was going to discuss visioning in October, but apparently the schedule has slipped, and it is not on the agenda on Tuesday, 10/20.

HOWEVER, Vice-Mayor Bruce Roberts said he will bring up visioning in the Commission Reports portion of Tuesday's Consent Agenda, and will ask that it be set for discussion at a future meeting.

The Conference Meeting starts at 3pm, and agenda information can be found at http://info.ci.ftlaud.fl.us/documents/agenda/2009/102009cc_conf.pdf.

I would encourage everyone with an interest in visioning to attend or at least watch the discussion on the City's web site or TV Channel 78.

If the Commission sets the discussion for a November meeting, the results will be the subject of a FTL Forum meeting on 11/18.

As best I can tell, three Commissioners are in favor of a visioning process and two are skeptical, so your input to your representatives will be important.

In the interim, I will learn what I can and pass it on in periodic updates. Likewise, please feel free to forward any new information.