Concord advisory committee finalizes stakeholder list, prioritizes hiring consultant for outreach

The Town of Concord advisory committee on Monday approved an inclusive stakeholder list and agreed to move quickly to hire a consultant to organize outreach, communications and a short-term engagement calendar.

Committee members said the list includes virtually every interested organization and individual and that the next step is to group those contacts into priority tiers and define channels and frequency for communication. "Rather than contacting 162 different stakeholders one by one, we should group them into five groups," Speaker 2 said, arguing for tiering by priority and communication channel. Speaker 1 said the committee would add consult/inform columns to the list so the group could track who needs one-on-one engagement and who should be kept merely informed.

Members discussed candidate consultants and procurement constraints. Speaker 1 identified Laura Davis, "someone who's been involved in a bunch of things in Concord, kind of an organizer," as a potential near-term hire, but Speaker 3 reminded the group that the town's public procurement rules apply. "We the committee will need to go through the public procurement process and follow all those guidelines," Speaker 3 said. The committee agreed to consult with town procurement staff to determine whether a short, low-dollar contract could be issued quickly or whether a larger, longer engagement would require a formal procurement timeline.

The group discussed contract size and timeline. Speaker 1 said it might be possible to issue a small contract immediately: "It's possible... we can, you know, just go ahead, for example, and issue a $6,000 contract to a Laura Davis or somebody similar" to get work started; the committee also noted a more extensive 12- to 24-month contract would take longer under procurement rules.

Committee members also prioritized a simple engagement calendar and identified near-term opportunities for public outreach. The League of Women Voters has invited the committee to speak in November; Speaker 1 said the committee would prepare a short presentation and a question-and-answer session. "They want to know what's going on," Speaker 1 said of the League event; committee members agreed Speaker 1 would draft a presentation for review at the next meeting.

The committee discussed outreach to schools and involving students in mapping or design exercises but agreed that school engagement would take additional time to arrange and should follow initial stakeholder communications. The town maintains a public events calendar on its website, which staff said the committee will use to amplify partner events.

Action items recorded at the meeting include: adding consult/inform columns to the stakeholder spreadsheet, preparing a draft League of Women Voters presentation for the committee's next meeting, Speaker 1 contacting procurement staff (Chris Comerty/Chris Carmody in discussion) to clarify contracting options and timelines and Aaron drafting the committee's initial stakeholder letter. There were no substantive public comments during the public-comment period and the committee adjourned.

The advisory committee will revisit the stakeholder matrix, consultant procurement and presentation materials at its next scheduled meeting.