12/08/2022 - Strategic Planning Council Work Session Meeting Minutes December 8, 2022
City of Clearwater
Main Library- Council Chambers
100 N. Osceola Avenue
Clearwater, FL 33755
m
ap
® e
Meeting Minutes
Thursday, December 8, 2022
9:00 AM
Re City Council Strategic Planning Session
Main Library - Council Chambers
Council Work Session
Page 1
City of Clearwater
Council Work Session Meeting Minutes December 8, 2022
Roll Call
Present 5 - Mayor Frank Hibbard, Councilmember Kathleen Beckman,
Councilmember Mark Bunker (arrived — 9:01 a.m.), Councilmember
David Allbritton, and Councilmember Lina Teixeira
Also Present: Jon Jennings - City Manager, David Margolis — City Attorney,
Rosemarie Call — City Clerk and Nicole Sprague — Deputy City Clerk.
To provide continuity for research, items are listed in agenda order although not
necessarily discussed in that order.
1. Call to Order— Mayor Hibbard
The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m.
2. Council Discussion Item
2.1 Review input obtained through interviews with City Council, executive team, staff, and the
community.
The consultants will review strategic planning elements and process.
Discussions will refer to Attachments A and B included in the workbook.
Baker Tilly Consultants Jacquelyn McCray and Dale Sugerman
introduced themselves and reviewed the process for the day.
In response to an activity regarding potential headlines about Clearwater
in four to five years, comments were made that Clearwater is the envy of
the state, is an overnight success in 45 years, leads the region, turned
Downtown around despite the Church of Scientology's efforts, offers
extensive housing options, celebrates ground opening of the Bluff
development, achieved diversification of the economy, and attracts
national employers.
2.2 Review results from the November 17 Department Head Workshop.
Discussions will refer to Attachment C included in the workbook.
Ms. McCray provided a PowerPoint presentation that summarized the
Page 2
City of Clearwater
Council Work Session Meeting Minutes December 8, 2022
department head workshop on the City's vision and mission statements.
In response to comments, Ms. McCray said Council may look at the
strategic plan annually, prior to the budget and may assess mid-way
through the budget process. The strategic plan document will be
Council's policy. The consultants are working with the City Manager and
department directors on the implementation plan, which should match
Council's policy. Mr. Sugerman said the professional staff is in charge
of the day-to-day work and figures out the best path moving forward
(strategic planning). Council should be doing the strategic thinking,
aggregating information from all sources and stakeholders to craft the
best ideas to carry out the plan. Ms. McCray said the City Council is at
the top of the executive team and the City Manage and staff execute the
policies.
City Manager Jon Jennings provided a PowerPoint presentation,
highlighting the City's demographics, socioeconomic indicators, land use
and zoning maps, budget, and current strategic plan achievements.
It was requested that copies of the land use and zoning maps be
provided.
In response to questions, Mr. Sugerman said staff discussed sustainability
as part of their goals discussion, it was not raised to the top. The
document before Council is a draft, based on Council's feedback, the
document will be amended. The City Manager said the Hercules
Avenue area provides a significant opportunity for light industrial
development. He said Pinellas County does not support another
Community Redevelopment Agency. He is speaking with the County
Administrator regarding partnership opportunities for installing
underground infrastructure, which is needed to get the area shovel ready.
He said sustainability is overtly stated as staff is focused on Greenprint
2.0, which is embedded in everything staff pursues. The City Manager
said transportation is beyond the City's control but there are discussions at
the county level, regarding implementing sustainable transit over water.
The Council recessed from 10:24 a.m. to 10:34 a.m.
2.3 Establish priorities, goals, and objectives for Fiscal Years 2023-2024 and 2024-2025.
The consultants will refer to page 10 of the workbook.
Page 3
City of Clearwater
Council Work Session Meeting Minutes December 8, 2022
Mr. Sugerman and Ms. McCray led a discussion regarding the City's
vision. The vision statement states where the organization is going and what
the organization is doing. The vision statement is aspirational. The
mission statement is how the organization is going to do it.
In response to comments, Mr. Sugerman said transparency, stewardship,
and accountability are values and state how the organization behaves.
The vision statement should say what that organization is working
towards.
Discussion ensued with comments made that the vision statement
should be concise and memorable. There was consensus with the
following vision statement: Clearwater, a community that thrives from Bay
to Beach.
In response to a concern, Mr. Sugerman said each department had their
own mission and list of items they want to accomplish. Staffs general
mission statement was to optimize the use of resources and provide
quality services for all. Council should not focus on the operational level.
Council must identify the overall organizational mission. Ms. McCray
said the mission statement applies to the employee, regardless of the
position they hold in the organization. Mission statements foster a culture
of excellence.
Discussion ensued with consensus to use the following mission
statement. Clearwater is committed to quality, sustainable, cost effective,
municipal services that foster a healthy residential and economic
environment.
Ms. McCray led a discussion on future priorities.
Discussion ensued with comments made key priorities include:
housing crisis, attaining/attracting high paying jobs and industries, be
seen and recognized as leaders in the county, responsible development
(i.e., land use transitions - residential to commercial, greenspace, traffic
impacts), include environmental issues (stewardship, water quality),
public safety, municipal services, communications with residents,
economic development, infrastructure, and diversification of the economy.
The Council recessed from 11:53 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
Page 4
City of Clearwater
Council Work Session Meeting Minutes December 8, 2022
Ms. McCray led a discussion on the outcomes Council wishes to
achieve. Council should identify goals for staff to work on.
It was suggested a council discussion item be agendaed to discuss the
Church of Scientology and how the City will interact in the future.
Discussion ensued with consensus to establish the following economic
development priority goals: partner with educational/research institutions,
such marine biology, to create spin-off jobs, define citywide housing
goals by type%ategory by first quarter in 2023, reconvene the Business
Task Force to review the 2011 business process study, and work with key
partners to promote economic development vitality.
Ms. McCray led a discussion regarding identifying the goals Council
wants to achieve in the next two to five years under the municipal services
priority.
Discussion ensued with consensus on the following goals: educate the
public about the role of government, create city dashboards to
track/monitor service delivery, and host neighborhood training sessions.
The Council recessed from 2:01 p.m. to 2:20 p.m.
In response to questions, Ms. McCray said the team will draft a
one-pager of the City's vision, mission, goals and objectives based on
Council's feedback. The City Manager said staff needs
guidance from the entire council for direction. Ms. McCray said
dashboards and analytics are typically not assumed by existing staff,
typically handled by separate staff. The city Manager said the city of
Pittsburgh had 10-12 individuals dedicated to their
dashboards/analytics. Mr. Sugerman said decision making trees are not
part of the strategic plan but Council may want to create one for projects
that do not have a return on investment. Ms. McCray said the team will
prepare a summary and draft a strategic plan for council adoption. She
said the team will work with the City Manager on the action plan.
3. New Business (items not on the agenda may be brought up asking they be
scheduled for subsequent meetings or work sessions in accordance with Rule 1,
Paragraph 2). — None.
4. Closing Comments by Mayor— None.
5. Adjourn
Page 5
City of Clearwater
Council Work Session Meeting Minutes December 8, 2022
The meeting adjourned at 3:03 p.m.
Page 6
City of Clearwater