ACTION REQUESTED:
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Communication from the City Manager and the Chief Innovation Officer with a Request to APPROVE a SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT with LEADING CHANGE SCHOOL, LLC for Community Engagement Training, in an Amount Not to Exceed $19,800.00, for a 2-day Staff Training and Related Travel Costs.
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BACKGROUND:
The City of Peoria Innovation Team (i-team) is charged with increasing innovation capacity within City government. The i-team is seeking a contract (see attached) with Leading Change School, LLC for the delivery of training session titled “Leading Change: Hosting and Facilitating Public Meetings for Positive Community Engagement” to up to 20 staff from the City.
Effective Community Engagement is crucial to the success of City projects, but public meetings sometimes fail to fully engage residents. Public meetings are often characterized by polarization, unequal distribution of power and platform, absence of relationship and trust, and difficulty arriving at tangible outcomes or agreements. City staff often work with a limited one-size-fits-all toolkit for hosting meetings that might engage some residents, but not others.
Leading Change: Hosting and Facilitating Public Meetings for Positive Community Engagement is a 2-day session designed to provide City staff with the tools to thrive in challenging interactions and engagements. Participants will gain skills in working with these tools and apply them to a critical work challenge. Participants will leave equipped to operate more strategically within the organization and empowered to make immediate impact. Specific outcomes include:
• Understanding the value of learning new facilitation tools that allow us to elicit more engagement, distribute leadership and share power in the interest of creating positive change.
• Internalizing new tools and practices for designing and hosting productive community engagements.
• Identifying adaptations and competencies needed to make progress.
• Connecting the tools and concepts for application to participants' individual and team / department challenges.
• Gaining insights from peers through group discussion and dialogue.
Leading Change: Hosting and Facilitating Public Meetings for Positive Community Engagement sessions will be delivered all-day on September 13th and 14th, 2018.
In a time of fiscal challenges and high resource demands, innovation is necessary to bring new approaches to bear that effectively meet the needs of residents. The training is also an opportunity to invest in the professional development of staff during a time on constrained resources.
FINANCIAL IMPACT: Funding for this contract will come from the Bloomberg Philanthropies Innovation Grant and is a budgeted item within the 2018 Innovation Team Budget (City Manager’s Office). Since we are in the last year of funding for the Innovation Team grant, if the funds are not spent, they will have to be returned to Bloomberg Philanthropies.
NEIGHBORHOOD CONCERNS: N/A
IMPACT IF APPROVED: The City of Peoria will benefit from the Community Engagement Training for City Staff.
IMPACT IF DENIED: The City of Peoria will not have the Community Engagement Training for City Staff.
ALTERNATIVES: N/A
EEO CERTIFICATION NUMBER: 03491-190930
WHICH OF THE GOALS IDENTIFIED IN THE COUNCIL’S 2014 - 2029 STRATEGIC PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION ADVANCE?
1. Financially Sound City Government, Effective City Organization
WHICH CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR(S) FROM THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DOES THIS RECOMMENDATION IMPLEMENT?
1. Have an efficient government.
DEPARTMENT: City Manager’s Office