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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/04/2011 Work SessionCity of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2011 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Library Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon,.on Monday, April 4, 2011 at 6:00 p.m., with Mayor Lundberg presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Lundberg and Councilors Pishioneri, VanGordon, Wylie, Moore, Ralston, and Woodrow. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, Assistant City Attorney Mary Bridget Smith, City Recorder"Amy Sowa, and members of the staff. 1. Council Goal Setting - Strategic Plan Overview. Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery presented the staff report on this item. Council annually conducted Goal Setting to ensure that its priorities reflected the direction of the community. This year, Council would be engaged in a series of goal setting activities, including this presentation providing a current overview of the Citywide Strategic Plan and how it directly related to the Council's goals. Consultant Stan Biles said tonight's meeting was designed to give the full Council a basic level to begin their discussions on the goals and strategies. The information they were receiving was current and would help set the stage for their final goal setting session scheduled for April 25. Mr. Biles referred to three questions he wanted the Council to consider as they heard the information in tonight's presentation: • How is the balance between generality and specificity? • Are your priorities adequately covered by the current goals? Is anything missing? Those questions had been raised by multiple councilors during the one-on-one interviews he held with them in January and February. Mr. Towery presented a power point, which would be made available for the Councilors either electronically or in paper following the meeting. Tonight-'s presentation was less about the details of the plan and more about how the plan was communicated internally and publicly, how the Council's goals fit within the larger structure of the Strategic Plan, and how the Strategic Plan drove City processes. The dashboard was used for Executive Team reporting, to provide quick accountability, and for public viewing. He did note that there was no specific data on the dashboard, but was more of a snapshot. The narrative descriptions (Attachment 2 of the agenda packet) included the detail behind the dashboard. He referred to a slide of one of the detailed tracking sheets. Each department managed their own spreadsheet to track their detailed measures. Mr. Towery provided information on how the measures tied in with the Council Goals. He referred to the current Council Goals. Goals had been set by the Council for many years, but the Strategic Plan had only been in place for the last two years. The Council Goals were the foundation of the Strategic Plan. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes April 4, 2011 Page 2 Mr. Towery spoke regarding how the Strategic Plan drove City processes. Each of the departments' measurements were monitored with additional activities and processes. He provided examples using each of the Council Goals and how they tied in with the targets and measures. He asked for questions. Councilor Pishioneri referred to the dashboard and asked about the benchmark date. Mr. Towery said the benchmark date was adopted by the Council to begin on July 1, 2010. The high level measurements adopted by Council were for the next fiscal year. The departments' supporting measures were developed in response to Council's higher level measures. The data was measured periodically; some monthly, some quarterly, and some annually. The data on the dashboard was current. Some were updated at different times of the year based on the measures. He provided the example of urban renewal which was updated when the tax figures came out in November. Councilor Pishioneri referred to public safety and said that the crime rate target seemed behind based on the dashboard. Mr. Towery said the crime rate was decreasing, but not at the goal that was set. The dashboard was good for a quick look, but didn't show how close actuals were to the target. The detailed narrative showed the target from last year, what was done last year, the new target, and the current data. Councilor Wylie said one of the Council goals was Livability and some of our biggest changes had occurred in downtown. She asked if there was a way to include that in the dashboard. Mr. Towery said there were some things the City had done, such as Council adopting the Downtown Plan which had specific measurable targets they hoped to achieve in the next 6 months or a year. Council could suggest new targets or measures based on the Downtown Plan in this next fiscal year. As they did new things, new targets would be established. A couple of urban renewal targets had already been set, but they could certainly set measures. Councilor Wylie said downtown was so much livelier and the banners really brightened up the streets. She asked about having more subjective things added to the targets. She gave the example of their new goal of Diversity and how they could test to see if attitudes had changed. Mr. Towery said internally, staff had discussed doing a climate survey to address that issue. Also, the Human Resources staff had worked with Eugene, Lane County, and other public agencies, and participated in at least two events where they had invited people of color in the community to come in and learn how to apply for a job with the City. Many of them had never applied for a job at the City of Springfield. In the future, when we posted for jobs we would have more successful. outcomes because of that outreach. Councilor VanGordon spoke regarding the dashboard. He would like to see the elements combined from the dashboard and measures. He referred to the Library slide and noted that there were many measures related to one component on the Strategic Plan, and he wondered if there were too many measures. If they could tie more of the specifics from the detailed measure to the goals, it would help Council. Councilor Ralston said it took him five minutes to analyze one category and the dashboard looked like we weren't meeting goals. He didn't want to see the minutia, but just wanted to know whether or not the goal was met. He said it seemed like it took a lot of staff time. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes April 4, 2011 Page 3 Councilor Woodrow said it was difficult to go from the dashboard to the information and put them together. The dashboard gave her an idea of what fell under each goal, but she didn't see a relevance of the targets in the description. Mr. Towery responded to Councilor Ralston's questions and said staff measured more than what showed up on the plan. It was a challenge to make sure what was measured was useful information and had an impact on the Council Goals and direction. Representatives from each department meet regularly to discuss the measures. After Council's last Goal Setting, staff would look for an electronic solution to link the dashboard to measures to make it easier to connect. This was a work in progress. Councilor VanGordon suggested they also link each item to Council goals. Mr. Towery said it could be relatively easy to create an automated way to calculate that index so the dashboard would indicate how close to the goal they were. The feedback from Council would be very helpful in setting up the electronic system. Councilor Pishioneri said footnotes could be put on the dashboard that would show hyperlinks to the measures. Mayor Lundberg said the Council was trying to accomplish Goal Setting. She appreciated that staff had linked the Council Goals to what the City was doing in between goal setting sessions. The AIS's always linked the agenda item to the Goal. She referred to page 3 on Attachment 1, Encouraging Economic Development. She was looking more in terms of grouping. The layers of what they were trying to do needed to be accessible, including the specific data. As the Council went into setting their goals, they needed to look at the targets to determine what they would like to encourage to happen. Councilor Ralston said they needed realistic goals. Councilor Moore asked where dreaming and visionary thinking came into being. Mr. Towery said that was a challenge, so staff had taken incremental approaches. Some of the targets had changed based on reality or other outside factors. The Council Goals and the dashboard were the tip of the iceberg, but there was a lot of work being done beneath the surface. If there was a better way to communicate the information, he asked Council to let him know. Mayor Lundberg said it was the Council's job to be the dreamers and set direction for the City. It was staff s work to be the realists to determine what could be done. That was the purpose of Goal Setting. Councilor Woodrow said there were two parts: the dream and the incremental improvements on the way to the dream. If the dream was too far out and there was nothing in between to measure, things would get bogged down. Mr. Towery said City staff valued the policy direction of the Council, were looking at ways to get them there"and wanted to make sure it worked for the Council. He referred to the final quote in the slide show and noted that this was the last quote sent to Management Analyst Courtney Griesel by late Councilor John Woodrow. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes April 4, 2011 Page 4 Mr. Biles said this discussion was very good. How to make the goals attainable, but also allow the Council to dream was a difficult task. He encouraged them to take it one step at a time and keep it simple. Last week Council set a no-surprise policy, and this was the first time for them to use this policy practically. He asked each of the councilors to look at their Goals, think of any changes they would like to advocate to their colleagues, or if they were happy with the Goals. Changes could include adding new goals, removing existing goals, or revising goals. Once they made those decisions and were considering proposing changes, notifying Council leadership or the City Manager was an important first step. The length of their next meeting would be based on the number of changes proposed, and that was important to know ahead of time if possible. There were key questions to answer for any goal, and they needed to be clear when presenting their ideas so everyone could weigh in on the decisions. Councilor Moore asked how they were to provide a change or new goal. Mr. Grimaldi said conversations were a good way to communicate that information to him or to the councilors. Mr. Biles said if any of the councilors had any questions, staff from the City Manager's Office could provide that information in a timely manner to help them prepare. Mayor Lundberg and Councilor Pishioneri said the discussion could get bogged down if it became a wordsmithing process. It was noted that there would be more time for this part of the process during their April 25 meeting. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at approximately 6:48 p.m. Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa r Christine L. Lundberg Mayor Attest: Jfu) 4LI Amy So City Recorder