Applicant Review Panel Friday, March 22, 2013 6pm City Hall, Boards & Commissions Room 1101 301 W. 2nd Street, Austin, TX 78701 Members: Michelle DeFrance Carol Feller Caroline Limaye CALL TO ORDER 1. CITIZEN COMMUNCIATION: GENERAL (Please limit to 3 minutes per speaker) 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Approve minutes of March 11 and March 15, 2013 regular meetings. 3. NEW BUSINESS The ARP may discuss and take action on the following agenda items A. Discuss approach to assessing applications and application merits B. Define work plan C. Set ARP future meeting dates 4. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Request future agenda items, information, and reports ADJOURNMENT The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. Meeting locations are planned with wheelchair access. If requiring Sign Language Interpreters or alternative formats, please give notice at least 4 days before the meeting date. Please call Jawana Gutierrez at 512-322-6596 for additional information. TTY users route through Relay Texas at 711. Questions regarding the Applicant Review Panel may be directed to Jawana Gutierrez at 512-322-6596.
Page | 1 Applicant Review Panel Meeting Minutes Friday, March 22, 2013 The Applicant Review Panel convened in a regularly called meeting on Friday, March 22, 2013 6:00 p.m. at City Hall’s Board and Commissioner’s Room #1101, 301 W 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701 Meeting was called to order at 6:12 pm by Jawana JJ Gutierrez, ARP staff liaison. COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Michelle DeFrance Carol Feller Caroline Limaye 1. CITIZEN COMMUNCIATION: Lorraine Atherton, Mario Cantu, Linda Curtis, Edwin English, Steve Bickerstaff 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the regular ARP meetings on March 11, March 15, 2013 were approved on member Limaye’s motion, member DeFrance second on a vote of 2-0 (member Feller abstaining because she had not been officially appointed at the time of the meetings.) 3. NEW BUSINESS: The ARP may discuss and take action on the following agenda items: A. Discuss approach to assessing applications, application merits, and work plan The Panel agreed to review applicants from precinct 2-3 using the same scoring system used for Precinct 1. Panel member Carol Feller stated she will begin scoring on this next test run, rather than go back to work on precinct 1; the panel agreed. The panel members agreed to rank the application on just the final score and will provide their results to liaison Gutierrez prior to the next scheduled meeting. B. Define work plan The tentative work plan was approved on member DeFrance’s motion, member Limaye’s second on a vote of 3-0. The tentative schedule and proposed work plan is subject to change if the panel members deems it necessary. Liaison Gutierrez suggested that she could add information on the gender and minority status of the applications raked. Also, the panel agreed to disclose any person the member may know outside of the application process. The motion to accept citizen information (if signed with an email address and additional contact information) was approved on Page | 2 member Limaye’s motion, member Feller second on a vote of 3-0. Liaison Gutierrez said she will work with other City staff to propose a process to collect citizen comments. The panel may consider the process at the next meeting. C. Set ARP Future meeting dates As agreed by the panel members, the next ARP meeting will be held on Friday, April 5th, 2013 at 6:00 PM. The meeting will be at City Hall’s Board and Commissioner’s Room …
Page | 1 Applicant Review Panel Meeting Monday, March 11, 2013 DRAFT The Applicant Review Panel convened in a regularly called meeting on Monday, March 11, 2013 2012, at 6:02 p.m. at Town Lake Center, Assembly Room (1st Floor), 721 Barton Springs Road, Austin, Texas 78701 COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Michelle DeFrance Caroline Limaye Martha Parker Meeting was called to order at 6:02 pm by Jawana JJ Gutierrez, ARP staff liaison. 1. CITIZEN COMMUNCIATION: Fred Lewis, Steve Bickerstaff, Linda Curtis, Debbie Russell 2. NEW BUSINESS The ARP may discuss and take action on the following agenda items: A. Introductions of ARP members and staff B. Option to elect a Chair and Vice Chair – The panel decided not to elect a Chair or Vice Chair. Future meetings will be lead by JJ Gutierrez, staff liaison. C. Discuss the ARP’s mission and purpose: Sabine Romero, City Law Department D. Discuss ARP legal considerations i. Voting Rights Act: Syd Falk, Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP ii. Texas Open Meetings Act, Public Information Act, and City Charter No-Contact Period: Sabine Romero, City Law Department iii. Records Management: Jannette Goodall, City Clerk E. Discuss approach to assessing applications, application merits, and work plan – Jason Hadavi from the Office of the City Auditor described the process performed by City Auditor’s Office to determine if applications meet the basic requirements. Jason also displayed a map depicting the location of residence for each applicant. Jason agreed to provide a final list of applicants by Thursday, March 14th 2013. Citizen speakers suggested that the Panel members use a process similar to the process used in California for assessing applications. Panel Members agreed to review the California process. Citizen speaker, Steve Bickerstaff advised the Panel Page | 2 to categorize the applications by precinct. The Applicant Review Panel requested from staff a spreadsheet and/or map that contained the applications delineated by precinct. Panel members agreed to develop the initial criteria that each would use to assess the applications. These criteria will be submitted to Mrs. Gutierrez as backup for the next meeting. F. Housekeeping matters, including resources on the City of Austin website, ARP member contact information, staff support, and scheduling future meetings – Panel members set dates for the next two meetings, March 15th and March 22nd. Staff Liaison Gutierrez adjourned the meeting at 7:23 pm without objection. The City of Austin is committed to compliance with …
Page | 1 Applicant Review Panel Meeting Friday, March 15, 2013 DRAFT The Applicant Review Panel convened in a regularly called meeting on Friday, March 15, 2013 2012, at 6:00 p.m. at Town Lake Center, Assembly Room (1st Floor), 721 Barton Springs Road, Austin, Texas 78701 Meeting was called to order at 6:02 pm by Jawana JJ Gutierrez, ARP staff liaison. COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE: Michelle DeFrance Caroline Limaye 1. CITIZEN COMMUNCIATION: Frances McIntyre, Edwin English, Roger Burgett, Brad Parsons, Linda Curtis, and Steve Bickerstaff 2. NEW BUSINESS The ARP may discuss and take action on the following agenda items: A. Discuss approach to assessing applications, application merits, and work plan The Panel members reviewed a spreadsheet with the summarized application data provided by the Office of the City Auditor. As the Panel discussed the assessment approach several questions were raised, such as: Should we interview applicants? Can Panel members speak with the applicants? What happens if a panel member knows an applicant personally? The Panel agreed it would be best to contact City of Austin’s Legal department for answers to those specific questions. After more discussion the Panel agreed to perform a test run of the application screening process using the following parameters: Assess a subset of the applications, the 98 applications in Precinct 1 Score each assessment category either 1-No, 2-Maybe, or 3-Yes Provide results to staff liaison for analysis and review during next meeting The Panel envisioned that it would require multiple rounds of scoring to eventually result in 13-17 applications from each Precinct. The Panel agreed to separate the student applicants from the non-student applicants due possible differences in assessment criteria. The Panel agreed to have the screening and scoring process finalized at the next meeting. Page | 2 B. Housekeeping matters, including resources on the City of Austin’s website, ARP member contact information, staff support, and scheduling future meetings It was decided that the next meeting will be at 6 pm on Friday, March 22nd at the City Hall Boards and Commission Room, Room 1101. Future meetings will not be discussed and finalized until the third panel member is available for discussion. Staff Liaison Gutierrez adjourned the meeting at 7:05 pm without objection.
