The meeting was called to order by Mr. Ben Haddad at 4:10 pm. He explained that the City Manager and new Mayor Dick Murphy would not be able to attend the meeting. However, outgoing Mayor Golding was planning to attend the meeting.

Mr. Haddad advised the Commission that three new members and two ex-officio members were appointed by Mayor Golding, and approved by Council. The new members were invited to today's meeting and it was anticipated they would join today's meeting. The new members are: Vicki Marion of JABRA, Martha Dennis, Waveware and Doug Gray, Gray Systems. The ex-officio members are: Kevin Leap (San Diego Data Processing Corp.), Larry Rosenstock (High Tech High)

Mr. Haddad welcomed the new members who were present, Kevin Leap, Doug Gray and Martha Dennis and asked that all members introduce themselves.

Ms. Veronica McCune, founder and president of MLT Productions spoke briefly of her company. The company is building a multi cultural women web server which is geared to women of all ethnicities. Ms. McCune stated her organization is interested in the Commission's roles and responsibilities as relates to the community and possibly how the Commission and MLT Productions could work together. Her organization is interested in building a technology center in the Memorial, Stockton, and Grant Hill communities; all of which are in Council District 8.

Additionally, Mr. Bostic Project Manager of MLT Productions added they have visited several community meetings in the areas mentioned to get a grasp of what the communities are looking for. He found that at each community meeting, the community was looking to set up some type of community computer center.

The minutes of the above meetings were not approved. Approval was tabled until the January 22nd meeting.

Per Mr. Haddad, the City Manager was unable to attend the meeting because a special Council meeting was called. It is hoped he will be able to attend the January meeting.

A. Visioning - Thomas Dillon

Dr. Dillon stated the group met as a "working" group and put together a visioning draft. He stated the group felt there were three categories that are important in a vision and they are: 1) mission statement; 2) core beliefs and, 3) big, compelling, audacious goals

Dr. Dillon asked that the full Commission have a short working session to go over these three components. He also invited the members to make further comments, suggestions, etc. and send them to him and Ms. Neff via e-mail.

Dr. Dillon stated his goal was to draft a vision statement that would stimulate the thinking of the Mayor and Council's vision for the City.

Mr. Haddad stated the Commission was formed to get the benefit of their thinking as business leaders in the community and share their vision and guidance as to where the city should be headed in science and technology.

Ms. Wright asked how the changes in Council would affect the Commission's role?

Mr. Haddad stated the Commission has the same force of law as any other Commission; it is in ordinance. The new Mayor and Council could chose to not pay attention to certain issues. However, Mr. Haddad felt that science and technology is an important issue to the new Mayor and Council as it is to the Commission. He could not comment on how much time Mayor Murphy and Coucilmembers would want to spend on science and technology issues. Mr. Haddad added he felt the Commission should formerly present their suggestions and updates to the Rules Committee. He also stated he is aware that Mayor Murphy is interested in meeting with the Commission.

There was much discussion and revision of the visioning draft.

Ms. Neff mentioned that it would be appropriate if the vision recommendation from the Commission and the City's IT Strategic Plan was presented to the Rules Committee at the same time. February is the target month for the IT Strategic Plan presentation to the Rules Committee then to Mayor and Council in March.

(A copy of the 11/2/00 Visioning Draft is attached)

B. Digital Divide - Carrie Stone

Ms. Stone stated with the help of Susan Myrland, the Digital Divide Working Group has pulled together an overview of many initiatives that are going on in San Diego. She stated that one of the questions that arose was "quantifying" and "defining" what digital divide really means; also looking to other cities and bench marking against other progressive cities.

Ms. Stone stated the digital divide working group wanted to know what does the City and Council need or want to learn from the Commission and the public stakeholders around the issues of digital divide? She added there are many initiatives around the City, as well as the not for profit sector. Also, how do we arrange a briefing and with whom in light of the RTA study that will be forthcoming? Finally, what can the working group produce that would be most useful or acted upon?

Ms. Stone commented the Digital Divide Working Group could do many things, provide a lot of information, but felt it needed some guidance as to where it should proceed.

Mr. Haddad commented he felt the full Commission could educate the new Mayor and new Council members, adding there should be an advisory type board to keep the Mayor and Council abreast of science and technology in San Diego. Mr. Haddad also added the Commission was formed because of the expertise of the members in the fields of science and technology to provide ongoing advice on the various issues.

Mr. Haddad commented the Commission needs to get more specific on tackling issues and present those issues to the Rules Committee, one at a time.

Ms. Wright suggested providing an inventory of all the programs we know that exist and tackling them without any endorsement of programs, whether they are good or bad. The other suggestion Ms. Wright gave was to look at "best practices" in other cities. Additionally, Ms. Wright suggested a format for the digital divide could be a Science & Technology Commission White Paper that is non-judgmental, but provides useful information to Mayor and Council.

Mr. Haddad and Ms. Stone added there are many aspects to the digital divide (age, ethnicity, language, bandwidth, etc.), and the working group's goal is to help define issues and opportunities and present them to the Mayor and Council.

Mr. Gray commented the Commission should reflect credible sources; whether challenged or not. At any level we will have an accurate credible reference base. He also added he felt the Internet was a great resource in researching digital divide and other areas.

It was noted the digital divide results of the RTA study are expected in January, 2001; UCSD results expected April, 2001

Ms. Stone felt the Digital Divide Working Group hopes to have their white paper to the full Commission by late February. Mr. Gray would like to participate with this group.

Additional comments were to have something sooner than February and yet more concise information that would be useful to Mayor Murphy as he tackles the public policy issue.

Ms. Stone stated the Digital Divide Working Group will have additional information to present at the January meeting. She added the group has many other resources and will potentially hold an informal public focus group to obtain information from additional people.

Ms. Myrland commented as a board member of RTA, that RTA used the Dept. of Commerce Study as a starting point looking at Internet access coming into the home. They are asking what people are using the Internet for. They are already into the study and she doesn't feel the Commission can influence any of their questions. (Ms. Myrland has a copy of the instrument)

Ms. Neff added the City's report will incorporate information on digital divide and will be statistically valid.

Mr. Eccles suggested the Commission should identify what it wants the City to do and what the Commission will leave to industry to do in the competitive environment.

Ms. Neff noted there are many non profits who are looking at the digital divide.

Ms. Dennis commented there are many different kinds of incentives and the Commission needs to be in a position to be able to make suggestions to the City.

The consensus of the Commission was to formulate a "one pager"- statement of work of what the Commission is doing with at least two bullet points. This would very helpful to the Mayor and Council.

There was much discussion on the digital divide issue.

C. Public Policy Working Group - No information

A. Economy - No comments

B. IT Service Delivery Model

Mr. Haddad commented this is a huge issue for the City and Ms. Neff and the City Manager are heavily involved on this issue. Mr. Haddad added he felt the Mayor and Council would be looking to the Commission for advice in this area. Ms. Neff added she will bring the City's IT Strategic Plan to the Commission for a thorough discussion in February.

C. Technology Element for the General Plan

Ms. Neff & Mr. Haddad highly recommended the Commission get involved on this issue, which ties in with the City of Villages.

It was suggested that the new chairperson of the Commission initiate contact with all the members to reinvigorate the Commission. Additionally it was suggested that each Commission member sit on one of the working groups to be accountable.

Mr. Eccles raised the question of voting and publishing minutes via the Internet. Can this be done? Ms. Neff advised because of the Brown Act, the Commission cannot vote via e-mail.

There was much discussion regarding voting at meetings vs. voting via e-mail.

Additionally, Ms. Wright suggested the Commission have a goal to communicate quarterly to the Mayor and Council on the Commission's status.

Ms. Neff added there have been Council Representatives who have attended 2-3 Commission meetings. The question was raised regarding the Commission meeting time. Ms. Neff advised that Council convenes on Mondays, which is why Councilmembers and more council staff do not attend Commission meetings. Comments made to change meeting time. No further comments or suggestions as to when to change the meeting time.

Mr. Haddad acknowledged that all comments and suggestions were valid. He advised that Mayor Golding named Vicki Marion as Chair to the Commission. He added that once the chair is in place and driving the Commission forward, the members should see progress.

Mr. Eccles asked if the Commission needs a quorum to produce a white paper? Mr. Haddad replied that a quorum is needed to go forward with any official act coming from the Commission.

The question was asked if the Commission could vote to change the size of the quorum? Mr. Haddad advised he would check on that issue.

Ms. Neff asked if members were willing to keep the January 22nd meeting time, and at that meeting discuss changing the date? The members agreed.

Ms. Neff presented a handout on the City's strategic framework element workshop. She stated this is a lead-in to the City's General Plan, which is looking to the year 2020. The Planning Commission is leading this project. Ms. Neff referred the members to page 10 of the handout, which describes collaborating with community planning and citizen groups. She also stated there has never been in the City's strategic plan a technology element. She suggested if the Commission was interested in helping in this area, this would be a good opportunity. Ms. Neff added that through the Commission's working groups there may be areas the Commission could be of assistance to the Planning Commission.

Additionally, Ms. Neff commented that the one of the projects the Planning Commission is very interested in is the City of Villages. This project Ms. Neff noted addresses a strong need for the use of technology in all areas of the city.

(A detailed copy of the handout is attached)

Ms. Neff also reported that the City has completed the fiber map for CCDC (Centre Center Development Corp.), which is the first in the nation for large cities. This is a high level map for businesses looking to see if a downtown building is wired, and what carriers are in the streets. The map will be available to the public December 1, 2000 on the Bandwith Bay page of CCDC (bandwithbay.org) , and also on the City's SANGIS (San Diego Geographical Information System) sangis.org

Ms. Neff invited the members to look at the map. She also added this map is basically for the downtown area, it does not extend up to the north city.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:00 pm

An audio recording of the meeting is available upon request. Contact Bonnie Pearson at (619) 533-6565 if you are interested in receiving a copy.