Marana Citizens’ Forum Resumes Meetings for Fall 2021

Last Thursday, the Marana Citizens’ Forum reconvened after being off for more than a year and a half due to COVID-19. This fall, the Forum will be discussing the concept of creating a Marana Livability Index or Community Health Dashboard to continually gather feedback from the community, focusing on key indicators of quality of life in Marana.

At some point, you’ve likely seen an article using random aggregations of data to bestow labels of “most livable”, “best parks”, or “safest community” on a city or town. While these designations are wonderful, do they truly reflect the actual opinions of the citizens within them?

The Marana Citizens’ Forum is tasked with the question: How can we create something that truly reflects the opinions of Marana citizens and reflects the quality of life produced and maintained by Town staff and Council?

By soliciting feedback from the community and cross-referencing that feedback with Town staff projects and programs, the Forum hopes to create a continuous feedback loop to incrementally update a Community Health Dashboard.

See below for a list of delegates and a schedule of upcoming meetings.

Marana Citizens’ Forum Delegate Roster

1. Al Aven

2. Angela Wagner-Gabbard

3. Brad Demidio

4. Chris Deyoung

5. Dale Moe

6. David Hindman

7. Ginny Huffman

8. Kelle Maslyn

9. Kyle Canty

10. Linda Crotts

11. Mike Smentek

12. Pam Bramlett

13. Ronald Hill

14. Sharon Foltz

15. Stephen Stone

Schedule of Meetings – Fall 2021

Marana PD Community Room (11555 W. Civic Center Dr.), 5:30PM – 7:00PM

• September 23, 2021: Session 1: Orientation– Delegates will be educated on the Forum consensus building process as well as expectations for the Fall 2021 Session. A briefing regarding the Fall 2021 topic will be provided, as well as a short brief on Open Meeting Law. Additionally, a presenter will be chosen for the presentation to Council, and minutes from the last meeting will be reviewed for approval. 

• October 1, 2021: Session 2: Issue Naming– This meeting will consist of a complete presentation on the chosen topic for the Fall 2021 Session. Forum Delegates will identify issues of importance and reach consensus on priorities, as well as request pertinent information related to the topic.

• October 14, 2021: Session 3: Data Presentation/Issue Framing– Information requested during the Issue Naming meeting will be presented to Delegates. Delegates will begin the process of framing the issues based on the data that is provided, and finalize the issues for discussion and public deliberation at the next meeting.

• October 28, 2021: Session 4: Public Deliberation & Recommendation Creation- This meeting will be a facilitated exercise with a trained recorder to help delegates reach consensus regarding the action plan to be presented to Council. This will include crafting formal recommendations specific to the chosen topic.

• Week of November 1 to November 5: Session 5: Presentation Construction– The Delegate presenter will meet with Town Staff to construct the presentation of recommendations to Council.

• November 8, 2021: Presentation Review– The draft presentation of recommendations will be given by the presenter to the full Forum body for critiques and final changes before the final presentation to Council. Town Staff will be present to answer any questions and assist in any content changes.

• November 16, 2021: Presentation of Recommendations to Council- The Forum recommendations are presented to Mayor and Council at a Regular Council Meeting for consideration and possible action.