By Per Peterson
The Tracy City Council last Wednesday engaged in a lengthy, and sometimes heated discussion concerning the process of coming to a consensus on what to do for a new senior/community center in town as it relates to the newly-formed Community Center Work Group.
Tracy City Administrator Erik Hansen reminded the council that the resolution it passed earlier this summer authorized the creation of a work group that includes each member of the city council and five members of the public. Confusion over who meets with whom and how often arose during the meeting.
“It was designed that way, because that was the direction that (the council) gave me,” Hansen said. “The whole purpose of doing this was to have a group that we could collaborate with.”
Council member Jeri Schons, and her fellow council members agreed that the five members of the group will be charged with interacting with the public in an effort to gather information — the thoughts, opinions and ideas of the residents of Tracy. The way she understood it, that information would be brought back to the council in a work group session, not at a city council meeting.
“I want them to bring the good, bad and the ugly,” Schons said. “I want them talking, not to just their own group, I want them talking to everybody. They bring everything to us at a separate committee meeting, then we, as a group, discuss it. I don’t want this done at a council meeting.”
The council targeted Aug. 12 at 6 p.m. for the initial meeting of the work group at the library. It will be designated as an open meeting.
“I was under the assumption that they were going to get together as a work group and research things and bring it back to the council to discuss it with us,” council member Ron Koopman said. “That’s how I understood this whole thing.”
See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.