CITY NOTES: Goals – both old and new

 By Mayor Jim Erb   |   Charles City

During the past few weeks, our city represented by myself, our city staff, and the city council has met several times with Jeff Schott of the Institute of Public Affairs.

The result of these meetings is a Goal Setting Report which will be reviewed by all concerned prior to final adoption by the City Council. Keep in mind that all of this is for planning purposes. Final approval of any specific initiative will happen only if specifics are worked out and funding is identified.

The idea is also to have periodic review of all the pending proposals.

With that being said, here are portions of the report that are currently at the forefront of the council’s planning.

On-Going Commitments and Obligations

The following were identified as on-going commitments/ obligations for the upcoming 24 month period:

• Street reconstruction program/Street crack and seal program

• Pavement Management Program

• Waste Water Treatment Plant expansion planning

• Maintain financial stability of city

• Proactive enforcement of city nuisance ordinances — Review and evaluate alternative methods to deal with problem properties

• Scanning city records

• Implement GIS program

• Continue participation in regional flood mitigation initiative

• Development of city-wide Capital Improvements Program/ Equipment Replacement Schedule

• Continue support of economic development activities and programs

• Determine city role with respect to Middle School repurposing

• Continue to promote communication and collaboration between city, other local governments, non-profits, etc. in issues of key importance

• Installation of Permeable Pavement Street – 9th Street

• Victory Park trail lighting

• Update Comprehensive Plan

• McQuillen Place longterm construction financing participation

• Water meter change-out program

• Continue to Support Charitable Solicitations/Endowment Building Programs

• Study feasibility of providing local/regional fiber network as a municipal utility

• Study Jail construction/ Law Enforcement Center expansion Please note, there is a healthy dose of planning and capital projects on this list. A great deal of creativity will be required to fund a sizable number of these priority projects.

New Priority Projects, Programs, Policies and Initiatives

The participants reviewed potential projects, programs, policies and initiatives for consideration. The mayor and City Council then selected the following as new priorities for the upcoming 24 month period:

• Study and make a decision regarding City Hall Renovation/Relocation/Use of Building

• Wayfinding signage

• Planning and branding

• Develop funding plan

• Acquisition of land and Development of Certified Industrial Site:

• Site selection

• Develop funding plan

• Land acquisition

• Project development

• Develop plan to address water quality/storm water/ watershed management issues

• Washington watershed study

• Sanitary Sewer System – Smoke testing, sump pump inspection and cross connection elimination

• Study ways to mitigate future flooding issues at WWTP

• Flood preparedness guide to streamline procedures Again, capital projects and planning dominate the list. A number of other initiatives are going to require the active input of other third party entities to be viable.

Organizational Effectiveness

The mayor and City Council reviewed a variety of ideas relating to improving organizational effectiveness to accomplish the selected goals and priorities. After review and discussion, the Mayor and City Council selected the following steps to improve organizational effectiveness:

• Continue to include department heads for input/ goal setting

• Continue conducting employee evaluations; incorporate more performance measurement/outcome analysis

• Continue to incorporate adopted priorities into council decision-making processes

• Review and update city employee handbook and job descriptions

• Succession planning

• Review possible additional revenue sources

• Evaluate use of social media; use of technology

• Encourage more sharing/ creation of joint entity projects/ working with County and School

• Review city services to look for overlap and efficiency opportunities. Use budget to determine what programs need to be added and what programs need to be eliminated

• Research methods to provide additional opportunities for community promotion, partnerships, fund-raising to match opportunities in the community

• Hold semi-annual review of the goals and objectives with council at planning session

• Re-initiate Safety Committee/address workplace safety programming and training

• Have presentations by department heads to city council on revolving basis Of the above items, I would call attention to the following item: “Research methods to provide additional opportunities for community promotion, partnerships, fund-raising to match opportunities in the community.”

My experience working with projects in Floyd County is that volunteers can be obtained for almost any task with the exception of fund-raising.

Aggravating the situation is the fact that a number of local owners have moved away from Charles City making the fund-raising task more difficult. The long and the short of it is that a portion of the city’s agenda will never see the light of day without considerable improvement of fund-raising at the private donor level both in Charles City and outside of Charles City.