Dear Mayor and Commissioners:

Congratulations on your election as new leaders of Fort Lauderdale.

As you know, as a result of previous Forum meetings where panelists and participants expressed concern regarding a lack of consensus, vision and goals for the City, I have been working with a group of citizens (the "Ad-Hoc Visioning Planning Group") to suggest a plan to assist the Commission in involving our citizens in a process to provide input as to goals and priorities for the upcoming few years.

The results of the group's efforts are posted on the Forum's web site at www.ftlforum.org/ftl-forum_visioning.html.

One is a brief Concept Plan for a visioning process. The other is a more detailed Outline of how an ambitious city-wide process might be accomplished.

The proposals were discussed at the Forum meeting on March 25, with approximately fifty people in attendance,including several former officials and community leaders, and I am forwarding separately a Summary of the discussions at the meeting for your reference.

As you will note, there was a strong feeling that some form of community-involved visioning/goal-setting process should be initiated, and as soon as possible. Beyond that, there were differences as to how such a process might be accomplished.

The ultimate consensus was that this information should be conveyed to you, as our newly-elected elected leadership, with the understanding that the decision as to whether and how to proceed is now in your hands.

Thank you for your consideration.

THE FORT LAUDERDALE FORUM
Robert A. Dressler, Moderator