Jumbo Shrimp

I wanted to share some thoughts about our City Council Strategy & Goal Setting session that was held today. I found our facilitator, Dr. Lee, to be very engaging and he set the tone for an engaging and productive meeting. I was pleased that each council member had the opportunity to share their goals one-on-one before today's meeting. As a result of these meetings Dr. Lee had the opportunity to formulate 7 Strategy Statements for us to discuss and finalize.

We will now take time at our next Committee of the Whole to set a time-line for applying our goals to each Strategy. Dr. Lee facilitated some discussion about our new strategies being applied to all agenda items in the future. If this suggestion were to be used, staff will be required to analyze all potential agenda items and much like their recommendations, give commentary as to how the item relates to our council strategies. ( A move in the right direction)

Interactive Government, this is where the Jumbo Shrimp comes in. I would like to see our strategy statements posted to the city website with an additional weblink for each that explains the details of that strategy, specific goals and a timeline for action. I also asked that the goals have an interactive component that staff would update accomplishments, actions taken and give dates for discussion of further action toward accomplishing each goal.

This concept would give citizens complete access to our council process and make our strategies and goals a living, breathing entity instead of a list that council refers back to at the end of our term to see if we hit our mark. We could also have a monthly Goals Check at the first meeting of every month. This would facilitate meaningful and purposed discussion between council members on a regular basis.

Too often we continue making decisions based on outdated information and we need to move toward a more accountable and transparent process. Let me know what you think.