Loading...
01/12/1995 CITY COMMISSION SPECIAL MEETING Strategic Planning Session January 12, 1995 The City Commission of the City of Clearwater met in a strategic planning session at the Solid Waste Complex Conference Room, Thursday, January 12, 1995 at 9:03 a.m., with the following members present: Rita Garvey Mayor/Commissioner Fred A. Thomas Vice-Mayor/Commissioner Richard Fitzgerald Commissioner Sue A. Berfield Commissioner Arthur X. Deegan, II Commissioner Also present: Elizabeth M. Deptula City Manager Kathy S. Rice Deputy City Manager William C. Baker Assistant City Manager Cynthia E. Goudeau City Clerk The City Manager opened the meeting indicating there is a need for a long term objective to be established. She noted she found a system for strategic planning and sent for training tools. She indicated some of these tools will be used in these sessions as well as some procedures from Commissioner Deegan. She stated it was necessary for roles to be suspended during this process and that all opinions will need to be respected. She indicated it will be necessary to stay with a topic until it is resolved and there can be no 3-2 votes in determining the strategic plan. Commissioner Thomas agreed it would need to be a unanimous agreement. He stated he felt the City Attorney should be a part of the meetings. Ms. Deptula indicated that would be a part of the discussion today. She stated this will be a long process. She noted the Mission Statement for the City is contained in the budget document, however, she did not feel this statement had been taken all the way down through the organization. She stated the statement established needs to become a part of the City culture. She also indicated additional strategic planning meetings will be needed. The Mayor suggested, rather than having separate Monday and Thursday Commission meetings, that during this process, the Monday dates be set aside for strategic planning. This will be discussed later in the meeting. The City Manager reviewed the planning model contained in the literature. The steps are: 1) planning to plan 2) Values scan 3) mission formulation 4) strategic business modeling 5) performance audit 6) gap analysis 7) integrating action plans 8) contingency planning 9) implementation There are sub-steps within each one of the steps and environmental monitoring will be required along the way. Commissioner Fitzgerald emphasized that environmental monitoring will include internal and external environments of the organization. Regarding gap analysis, the City Manager indicated that if it is determined that the gap between current performance and desired performance is too large, there may need to be a change in the plan and the direction of the City. The City Manager indicated the strategic planning done last year was not the process she is proposing. She stated that planning provided direction regarding the fiscal year budget. She stated the purpose of the current strategic planning sessions are to put together a mission statement and values. She indicated, when the plan is finished, three basic questions will be answered; 1) What is the environment ?, 2) Where are we going ?, and 3) How do we get there ? Commissioner Thomas indicated the questions answered in a business environment are: what business are you in, where are you in that business, where are you going, and how are you going to get there. Ms. Deptula indicated those steps may be part of the Enterprise Funds. Commissioner Thomas questioned what each of the Commissioners considered government to be. Deputy City Manager Rice indicated it was important to identify what the City's business is. Commissioner Thomas reported regarding Texas and Dallas being the most entrepreneurial governments today. He stated Dallas has bought technology to do away with toll booths and the State is marketing cholesterol/fat free foods that were developed for the prisons. Commissioner Fitzgerald indicated where the City wants to go may be different from where we are currently heading. He pointed out he has received information from Dallas, in which he owns property, regarding a new assessment based on square footage of ground. He stated this is not a tax but is in addition to the ad valorem tax. Assistant City Manager Baker indicated this was based on a concept that although there may be very little of value on the land, it still costs the city something for it being there. Commissioner Thomas again emphasized the need to determine what business the City is in. Ms. Rice agreed stating that if the City is in a business that we should not be in, we need to get out of it, even if that business is popular with the citizens. Mr. Baker agreed, using Clearwater beach as an example, stating it is clear the public does not want a Las Vegas type atmosphere but rather a family oriented destination. And yet there are protests regarding this vision from people who call themselves the majority. He emphasized there is a wide range of popular opinion. Commissioner Fitzgerald felt it was important the community consensus be used. Commissioner Thomas agreed. Ms. Deptula indicated there may be a desire to change the format of the Town Meetings in order to receive information from the public. She emphasized the importance of publicizing the plan once it is established. Various ways of getting input were discussed. Ms. Deptula indicated that once the plan is published, citizens may then review the plan and indicate decisions made by the City do not track the plan. She stated the purpose of strategic planning is to envision the future and to develop the necessary operations and procedures to meet that future. The City Manager distributed an exercise for connecting the dots. The purpose of the exercise was to indicate a need to go "outside the box" in order to meet the goal. Commissioner Deegan reiterated that the purpose of the exercise was to show we tend to operate in nice, neat, little boxes and we need to put aside boundaries. The City Manager indicated there needs to be a willingness to take risk and a willingness to allow mistakes. Ms. Rice re-emphasized this point by saying there are some non-risk taking departments due to an individual wanting to do a good job but also from fear of retribution for making mistakes and not meeting goals. She stated it will be necessary for the example to be set that mistakes can be made. Commissioner Fitzgerald expressed concerns regarding government not being able to take the same risks as a business as it is the citizens' tax dollars that are at risk. Ms. Rice indicated there was a need to decide what behavior will be exhibited when risk is taken and there is failure. It was indicated that as long as mistakes result in learning, that is good, but the same mistakes over and over are not acceptable. The meeting recessed from 10:08 a.m. to 10:22 a.m. The first step was to identify the team members and their role. Discussion ensued regarding whether or not the City Attorney should be in attendance at the meetings. It was the consensus of the Commission that Ms. Akin should attend future strategic planning sessions. Commissioner Thomas felt that as issues arise, the key personnel should be invited to the meetings to provide information but not as part of the strategic planning team. Concerns were expressed regarding whether or not the management team would represent the city employees. The City Manager indicated there would be times they did and times they did not. It was agreed the team members would be the individuals attending today's meeting with the addition of the City Attorney. The next issue to be discussed was the time commitment for the planning process. The Mayor's suggestion regarding the Monday meetings was reiterated. Commissioner Thomas stated he liked that idea and he felt the Commission was beginning to conduct business more quickly. Commissioner Deegan disagreed that time has been saved in meetings. He did not feel it was time to do away with the Monday meetings until it could be shown that they can be kept to reasonable lengths. Ways of controlling the length of the meeting were mentioned. The City Manager indicated she was hearing direction that if, over the next few meetings it can be shown that the agendas can be managed to keep the meetings at reasonable length, a decision would then be made to have the strategic planning sessions on the Mondays and all business items on the Thursday night Commission meetings. Commissioner Deegan indicated he would agree if in February, the meetings can be managed, that in March, an experiment could be done to see if the Monday meetings could be allocated to strategic planning. Commissioner Thomas raised a question regarding the candidates being notified of the strategic planning meetings. The City Clerk indicated they are being notified of all meetings. A question was raised regarding whether or not there are receiving agenda packs. The City Clerk indicated they are provided when requested. It was generally agreed the candidates should be provided agenda packs. Consensus of the Commission was to review the time commitment and the meeting schedule after the February meetings. The third topic was to identify the stake holders. Those listed were: 1) the planning team 2) employees, including all employees, the professional staff and department directors 3) the public, including taxpayers, citizens, residents, visitors and business people 4) the school system 5) other governmental agencies 6) the next generation 7) vendors and suppliers 8) customers 9) grantors 10) regulators 11) lobbyists These are all individuals who are impacted or affected by decisions made by the City. It was indicated there would be degrees of significance of the named stake holders. The City Manager pointed out that, right now, the City is a reactive government and it may be decided to become more proactive regarding regulations imposed on us and other such issues. Commissioner Thomas expressed concerns regarding the movement in the federal government that could eventually result in programs becoming the responsibility of the state, counties and cities. He was concerned the City would become overwhelmed. Discussion ensued regarding how to involve the stake holders and how to get information out to them. Suggestions included use of the City's new cable channel 35, having meetings in neighborhoods and being more proactive with the homeowners associations and the regional chambers of commerce. It was suggested various stake holders meetings be held which would result in, for example, vendors being invited or lobbyists being invited to the meeting. Regarding how to receive input from the next generation, it was suggested the PTA presidents of the elementary schools be contacted. It was also suggested there be meetings with High School students and St. Petersburg Junior College students. It was agreed the strategic planning process would be finished prior to final decisions being made regarding communication avenues to the public and stake holders. Further discussion ensued regarding how to get the word out and it was indicated the City used to entertain the legislature more than they do now. It was indicated a dinner or luncheon could be held for them. Commissioner Deegan indicated there was nothing like one on one contact and once they have the final product, that would be the starting point. Commissioner Thomas felt it was important to have contact with the legislators. The City Manager indicated a couple of years ago she had a meeting with surrounding municipalities' city managers and key staff and City of Clearwater key staff. Ms. Rice indicated the planning team needed to be careful to get enough information on which to base their decisions. Commissioner Thomas suggested a questionnaire be sent out for input. Commissioner Deegan indicated it would be important to protect the anonymity of responders. The City Manager indicated there would be selective sending out of the questionnaires in order to get a broad enough reaction. Commissioner Thomas indicated he would want to know from which group of stake holders the information was coming. Commissioner Deegan questioned if there would be an opinion poll of the employees soon. Ms. Deptula indicated this would be some time in the future. Commissioner Deegan stated that by fall of next year, there should be some information available. The Mayor suggested starting sooner with the department directors and mid-management that are not currently involved in labor negotiations. Ms. Deptula indicated there will be certain people from which information is needed. She stated there will be a need for financial forecasting and questioned at what point the planning team should get information from the experts on staff. Commissioner Deegan recommended study groups to develop responses for the department directors. He did not feel that 24 individual responses would be beneficial. Ms. Deptula indicated she would be using internal experts to help identify the environment. It was agreed the City Manager will develop the plan for receiving input from inside and outside the city government. The topics identified for which study groups will be developed were: 1) demographics, 2) economy, 3) labor market, 4) government and regulation, and 5) technology, to include information technology and infrastructure technology. Ms. Rice questioned if education and health should be study topics. It was agreed that education should be a component in the labor market. Commissioner Deegan brought up the need to determine a time horizon for strategic planning. Discussion ensued regarding practices in business, being from 3 to 5 years. Concerns were expressed that some projects can take longer than 5 years. Ms. Rice indicated the vision for the City can be long term while the planning can be done in 5 year segments. Consensus of the Commission was for the strategic plan to have a 5 year horizon and it was agreed the vision for the City would be farther out in time than that. Commissioner Thomas expressed his perception of a need for a well defined mission plan. Ms. Rice indicated many cities are going to a quality of life vision statement. Regarding factors that would support successful strategic planning, a readiness for strategic planning questionnaire was distributed. This questionnaire had such topics as financial resources, complexity of organization, management development skills and creativity of key managers. The planning team indicated whether or not they felt there was no problem or a critical problem with the particular dimensions. Time was taken to fill out the questionnaire. Ms. Deptula questioned if any of the Commissioners had any zeros or ones in any of the categories as this would indicate potential problems. Perceived problem areas were: rewards for down board thinking, in that long term success is not rewarded; willingness and capacity to take risks, as it was felt this was not currently built into the city's culture; communication was cited as a potential problem; history of planning was also noted as a potential problem area. Ms. Deptula indicated that while some dimensions had been identified as possibly being problem areas, there were not enough to call for stopping the strategic planning process. She indicated the first step of planning to plan had been completed. She indicated again the strategic planning process would be a long, time consuming procedure. Commissioner members indicated they felt this was an excellent starting point. The meeting adjourned at 12:29 p.m.