Minutes - Council Work Session - 04/24/2023 - Special Strategic Planning

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Councilmember Riley stated that they have already focused a lot on streets and road conditions in the last few years. He added that a lot of progress has been made with the Pavement Management Program, which was not in the packet. He explained that a lot of time has been put into this and there is still a lot to do. He suggested adding this as a strategy or objective as it is a vital service that the City does. Councilmember Woestehoff agreed with Councilmember Riley and added that he has always struggled with the strategies as some of them are cross-departmental, where it is not worth it to remove all of the strategies in the big picture and focus on a departmental structure in terms of each departments strategies. He stated that each department already has their own set of strategies and sets their own outlines that relate to the mission, values, and objectives. He suggested that this may help organize things better as the different departments likely have their own strategies that they would like to identify. He noted that all of the departments are interrelated and point back to the mission, values, and objectives; however, the strategies may come across better with a department mentality. City Administrator Hagen shared that they can come across better with a department mentality; however, there are a few strategies that aren’t cross-departmental, such as economic growth and development, which seems to deal with only Economic Development, but also includes the divisions within Community Development, as well as, engineering, utilities, and streets. He stated that all strategies are cross-departmental to some extent. Councilmember Woestehoff agreed and mentioned that there are certain things that the City is already doing a lot of that do not show up in the strategies, which may just fall into general duties of the City and do not need to be outlined in the strategies. City Administrator Hagen explained that he looks at the strategic plan as what are things that the City does not do on a regular basis or year-to-year. He stated that he also looks at this in terms of the operating budget, which is money in and money out within the year and the capital plans are the long term investments. He noted that the strategic plan is a long term investment and something that will span the course of a year or two. He added that the overall objective is financial stability, which ties in with the strategies by looking at cost savings, additional funding sources and how the budget is done. He mentioned that engineering took a wide view of the City and determined that 40% of the roads were needing major work over the next 10 years. Mayor Kuzma stated that when the Council first started with their strategic plan, the amount of work that was put on the Staff was a lot and over the next few years it was reduced. He stated that in recent years with reaching a lot of goals have been more reasonable on Staff. He added that he feels good about the progress that has been made. He stated that the strategic plan gives Staff direction as far as where they need to focus. He noted that he is very pleased to see how many items have been completed. Councilmember Musgrove wondered if they had considered that some strategies may go and some may stay but looking at the objectives and put ideas under the objectives to see if they fall in line with that strategy before removing or adding strategies. She gave an example of enlisting help from citizens to take care of the fire hydrants during the winter, which could go into community City Council Special Work Session /April 24, 2023 Page 4 of 21