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

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accomplished. He encouraged Staff to jump in and share as they see fit. He asked if there was anything additional that the City could be doing to identify and implement operational efficiencies, cost savings and additional funding sources while maintaining and increasing transparency and accountability. He noted that maintaining and increasing transparency and accountability has been dropped off for now and is being thought of as a separate strategy. Councilmember Woestehoff asked if, due to the change in the objective, this strategy applies locally to every other strategy. He asked if there are specific operational efficiencies that they want tactics on how to execute. He stated that he can think of additional funding sources, similar to the older gentleman who lobbied at the Capitol for funding for Highway 10. He added that when it comes to additional funding sources this tactic helps make the strategy make more sense. Economic Development Manager Sullivan explained an example of operational efficiency when he started with the City was converting their handwritten licensing to e-licensing. He stated that this is a change for the customers, but they like it better and makes it more efficient for everyone. Councilmember Woestehoff said he agreed but asked what is next. Economic Development Manager Sullivan stated that there are still some licenses that need to be converted to e-licenses. Councilmember Specht shared his thoughts that as things come up they will look at things, such as zoning, and look at how to make this more efficient, how to save costs, and finding other funding sources. He suggested using this kind of mindset with all new items that come up in the City. Mayor Kuzma asked if everyone was comfortable with keeping this strategy as is. City Administrator Hagen shared that they can leave the part that says to identify and implement operational efficiencies, cost savings, and additional funding sources. He stated that this strategy would tie back to financial stability, as well as, an effective and efficient organization. He noted that from these they would look at the actual plans. He stated that the objectives and strategies tend to be more broad. He explained that these are similar to other cities and they will make the plan more unique to Ramsey through the action items under each objective. Mayor Kuzma asked if they were removing the section that says maintaining and increasing transparency and accountability. City Administrator Hagen said yes and that the transparency and accountability remain in some fashion but will be dropped from the first strategy. He discussed maintaining and increasing transparency and accountability and stated that they have talked about this in detail over the past year and that this ties back to being a citizen-focused government. He asked if the Council would like this strategy to stay. Councilmember Woestehoff asked if this could be merged with improving the City’s communication. City Council Special Work Session /April 24, 2023 Page 7 of 21