At our January goal setting session, the Council took a look at the 2009 goals and began to revise them. What were goals are now called Strategic Directions to reflect their broad, on-going nature. The Strategic Directions are:
- Continuously improving communication with citizen advisory groups and community
- Building a foundation for a vibrant community where resources are carefully managed and preserved and which integrates economic, environmental and community values for long term success
- Providing city facilities to ensure excellent service to our citizens within the financial limitations of the city
- The Council will implement a systematic approach to problem solving and decision-making
Jim Pokorney and I have been tasked with simplifying, prioritizing, and organizing the goals and action steps under each of these direction. More to come after we finish our assignment and the Council weighs in again.
Betsey:
It looks as if two of the Strategic Directions are Council specific goals (better communication and better problem-solving) and two are City-wide goals (vibrant communities and excellent facilities).
Let me suggest that the “vibrant communities” is not a government goal, but a result of many different funtions, almost all of them non-governmental. This is a nebulous “goal”.
Let me also suggest that excellent facilities is neither a goal nor a result. In this economy, more services per dollar might be a better goal. Government expenditures HAVE to be reduced. The trick is reduce them in a way that results in the smallest marginal consequence.
Betsey,
I didn’t stay till the end of last night’s council meeting where 2010 goals were on the agenda.
Can you summarize what was discussed/decided?
The discussion was a follow up to Jim Pokorney’s and my reorganization of the goals. Jim and I tried to take what the Council had done at its retreat and distinguish goals from action steps, determine if some goals were duplicative, etc. We made a strategic choice to take the MN GreenStep Cities program goal and use its framework to organize many of our sustainability goals. Mayor Rossing objected to this as not a Council choice, although the criticism seems premature. Jim, Rhonda Pownell and I get to work on the goals after Council members identify who should be responsible for achieving each goal (the staff, Council, board/commission, etc.) and what priority the goal should have. It should be clear that no decisions have been reached.
Thanks. Is there a timeline for the Goals? It sounds like the process is going to take quite a while.