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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-10-2024 CC Strategic Plan Minutes1� SEBASTIAN W4.= SEBASTIAN CITY COUNCIL 2024-2028 STRATEGIC PLAN WORKSHOP MINUTES WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2024 — 5:00 P.M. CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS 1225 MAIN STREET, SEBASTIAN, FLORIDA Mayor Dodd called the Strategic Plan Workshop to order at 5:00 p.m. 2. A moment of silence was held. 3. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited. 4. ROLL CALL Mayor Ed Dodd Vice Mayor Kelly Dixon (Via Zoom) Council Member Fred Jones Council Member Bob McPartlan (Via Zoom) Council Member Chris Nunn Staff Present: City Manager Brian Benton City Attorney Jennifer Cockcroft City Clerk Jeanette Williams Building Director/Fire Marshal Wayne Eseltine Community Development Director Alix Bernard Community Development Manager Dom Bosworth City Engineer/Special Projects Director Karen Miller Parks and Recreation Director Richard Blankenship Public Works Director Lee Plourde Airport Manager Jeff Sabo Human Resources Director Cindy Watson Golf Pro Greg Gardner Police Chief Dan Acosta Also Present: Dr. Joe Saviak, Saviak Consulting, LLC Dr. Richard Levey, Saviak Consulting, LLC FBI R1ili MC9 ►7�f8I:111Y w6lF1 2024-2028 Strategic Plan Workshop July 10, 2024 Page 2 Workshop Obiectives/Definin¢ Success - Dr. Saviak Dr. Saviak said they would be discussing the key concepts and provide specific direction on the mission, vision, value and goals with Council. The next step would be a community meeting to receive feedback and ideas, then staff will develop specific statements and then the statements would come back to Council for adoption. He said successful organizations do this to identify opportunities that can be optimized or threats they can avoid. It also helps align operations with a specific set of objectives so positive measurable outcomes are archived. It sets the direction for the future of the City to produce positive results for the citizens. Pumoses and Benefits of Strategic Planning — Dr. Saviak In summary, he said given the mission, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, stakeholders, history, capacity and resources what objectives and strategies should be implemented to achieve those objectives to transmit those to positive measurable outcomes. This will help establish a mission that is future oriented that is aspirational. Values are standards that define how people think and goals are long term purposes. Research Process — Dr. Saviak He went over the process on slide 9. He said the beauty is that will allow everyone to participate in process and provide hard evidence. 5: 08pm Research Findings — Dr. Levev 5:08 Dr. Levey described how they interviewed Council, the City's management team, and an electronic survey to 100 employees to see if there was a consensus in the findings. He said most responses indicated they were interested in refining the City's mission statement indicating it was time to refresh the overall vision of the organization. (Slide 17) He said preserving the vision of hometown/coastal charm came out on the top; honesty and transparency was highly valued showing how the City thinks and acts; and, he said the goal of smart, sustainable growth was the most important. Dr. Levey said with the SWOT analysis, the leadership team felt high quality, knowledgeable employees was a strength and there was a strong feeling that there needed to be more professional development and a leadership succession plan. (Slide 23) Threats included home rule/pre-emption/unfunded state mandates and economic downturns were seen as a threat as with most cities. The top three objectives across all categories included workforce training/increase staff; stormwater improvements; technology upgrades; recreational opportunities and external communications. This will feed into the objectives of the plan and be measurable. 5:14pm He said respondents indicated that they really want engagement with residents, staff and Council to develop a transparent process. He said an electronic survey of 100 employees was sent out to test the responses from the lead staff. The results were as follows: (slide 33): 2024-2028 Strategic Plan Workshop July 10, 2024 Page 3 1) Quality public services should be the centerpiece of the City. 2) The City should enhance the quality of life for the residents. 3) The City should foster economic opportunity with the community. 4) The City should maintain the small-town feel as the City grows. Dr. Levey said in testing the responses with the employee survey it shows that the highest component of mission is quality public services. He asked Council if they feel this finding is on point because it will drive the language drafted for the for the mission statement. Discussion of Mission. Vision. Values. and Goals — Dr. Saviak. Dr. Levev. Citv Council. and Executive Team Mayor Dodd said he agreed 100%, the four points are what they should be doing. He asked that the concept of workforce training and succession planning be included in the mission statement. He said succession planning is important and they must provide training for those to do that and have a budget for it. In response to Council Member Jones, Dr. Levey said resident's quality of life for residents is defined in eyes of beholder. They would have to develop goals to measure that. Council Member Jones said to him, quality of life means maintaining a small town feel and continuing what they are doing. Dr. Levey said it could be included into a vision statement for the character of a community. It could be used as a guide to develop of a community. The City Manager said they could join multiple elements to create their mission statement. Council Member Jones said he was on board with where they were going. Mayor Dodd said quality of life could expand into other areas as well such as expanding into Riverview Park that citizens can enjoy. Dr. Levey all those projects become part of the strategic plan; they are linking deliverables to their mission. They will help develop a strategy and plan. Council Member Nunn said the quality of life to him is good parks, good roads, things that make people safe and improve their quality of life. He asked what fostering economic opportunity within the community entails because every cent is taxpayer money. He said he agreed that the mission statement does need updating. Mayor Dodd said economic opportunity can transcend itself into reassessing how they deal with business environment, how deal with chambers of commerce and noted they won't be major employment center but more of a small business center. Dr. Levey said once they identify their economic plan, their economic strategy needs to compliment that. 2024-2028 Strategic Plan Workshop July 10, 2024 Page 4 5:25pm Council Member Jones said they need to do more to keep the small businesses here and that will attract more small businesses. Dr. Levey said that may very well be their strategy. He complimented them for already thinking about executing their strategy. Vice Mayor Dixon said everything so far is spot on. Council Member McPartlan said a lot of the pieces are already there; some the weaknesses are already being worked on. Council Member Jones said their recently improved social media presence is already happening. Dr. Saviak noted their plan could be building on and optimizing what is already there. It was the consensus of Council to include all four concepts. 5:28pm Council Member McPartlan said the piece that ties it all together is the quality of public services. Vice Mayor Dixon said small businesses give Sebastian the small-town USA feel and maybe they could incorporate that instead of "fostering economic opportunity." Vision Dr. Levey said the electronic survey indicated the vision should include: 1) Preserving the hometown vibe and coastal charm 2) Making the community a vibrant and desirable place to live 3) Ensure smart sustainable growth 4) Promote the beautiful waterfront Mayor Dodd said these also were spot on with his feelings. He said making a desirable place to live is a catch all phrase. He said some of the waterfront problems are what the state regulates so they can strive to do more but within those regulations because it is important to have a vision for the waterfront. He also said sustainable is important for smart growth. You can't build smartly if it doesn't sustain the community. He said he was on target with this. Council Member Jones asked to combine the preservation of the hometown vibe/coastal charm and the promotion of the beautiful waterfront. Dr. Levey said some would overlap and they could if it was the consensus of Council. Mayor Dodd said part of this was preserving could be changes to the Land Development Codes and the other is to promote. Vice Mayor Dixon asked if that was for the chamber. Dr. Levey explained that City staff could work with other entities to accomplish the promoting objective. Mayor Dodd said they should leave that in there so the City can have plans for the waterfront and not expect private enterprises to promote the waterfront. That might lend itself into the plans of what they do with the waterfront. 2024-2028 Strategic Plan Workshop July 10, 2024 Page 5 Council Member Nunn said "promote" from City's perspective is double edge sword because other businesses might feel slighted in not being promoted. He noted the chamber who receives government funding, should promote all small businesses in area. 5:37pm Council Member McPartlan suggested the following statement, "City will preserve our home town vibe and coastal charm through quality public services, a vibrant citizenry and ensure smart sustainable growth." He also said that he was contemplating adding, "and fostering vibrant citizenry and fostering local business." Dr. Saviak confirmed the vision statement would include all four elements along with Council Member McPartlan's statement. Dr. Levey said they understood the sensitivity to the word "promotion" and with regard to one geographic area, they would like to add coastal charm but not necessarily the waterfront. Values (Slide 53) Dr. Levey said the values are standards on how an organization talks and behaves. The five concepts from the interviews are: 1) Public transparency 2) Professionalism 3) Protecting the natural resources 4) Preserving the coastal charm 5) Innovative initiatives He said transparency and honesty came out in the interviews with Council and senior staff but they are not included in the employee survey. They may want to consider transparency and honesty in the values. The City Manager said the survey asked employees to rank their level of agreement and order of importance. Dr. Levey said the values could be the reality of the staff as to who we are today and continue to be. Council Member Nunn asked if fiscal responsibility was a question that was asked. Dr. Levey said if that was expressed, now is time to let them know to include it as a value; the recurring things of interview translated to the electronic survey. Council Member Nunn suggested there should be a value of fiscal responsibility to the citizens. Mayor Dodd said fiscal responsibility can be at odds with innovative initiatives. He said he did agree that the CFO and Council has a fiscal responsibility but the staff needs to work to do their job and it's up to Council to think about the money to do it. Council Member Jones and Vice Mayor Dixon agreed that if they put that in there, it may inhibit initiatives. 2024-2028 Strategic Plan Workshop July 10, 2024 Page 6 Council Member McPartlan said he agreed and suggested that all of the initiatives start with a "P" so they are easy to remember; and he asked if they put honesty, in there, does that mean that they haven't been going that. Council Member Nunn said they said many things are already being done and all managers all need to be fiscally responsible because there is a lot of money spent that doesn't come to Council. They are setting their values for who they are going to be as a City. It was the consensus of Council to include all five of the values. Council Member McPartlan noted that fiscal responsibility is a part of professionalism. Dr. Levey agreed, some are umbrella values take on other values. 5:49pm Goals (slide 56) Dr. Levey said the following were the results of the electronic survey. They are actionable items with will need strategies and tactics to result in an operational plan for the City: 1) Support smart, sustainable growth 2) Preserve our hometown feel and coastal charm 3) Encourage economic development 4) Improve organizational efficiencies 5) Ensure a high-level of public safety for our community Mayor Dodd said he did not know how to make "preserving our hometown feel and coastal charm" an actionable item with measures. Dr. Levey said the plan can define what that is and then define actionable items such as not spend on capital projects that won't be hometown feel. Council Member Nunn said the CRA District helps with that some. The City Manager said the objectives that align under the goal will include parks and recreational element, the special events on the riverfront and the opportunity for small businesses to come into the community. Mayor Dodd, Vice Mayor Dixon, Council Member Jones, Council Member Nunn and Council Member McPartlan said they were okay with the five goals. The Process and Schedule Dr. Saviak said the next step is to move to community meetings to hear from citizens, then come back to Council. They will then adopt the mission, vision, value and goals and then the administrative leadership will develop specific objectives (capital projects, policy and program services, institutional capacity, organizational ability to effectively execute) and summary plans for these objectives which all together becomes the strategic plan in guiding the City for long term for success. It is everything important to Council that matters to them. 2024-2028 Strategic Plan Workshop July 10, 2024 Page 7 Mayor Dodd invited the public to the Strategic Plan workshops because all of the projects will come out of the strategic plan. 6. Being no further business, Mayor Dodd adjourned the workshop at 6:00 p.m. Approved at the July 24, 2024 Regular City Council Meeting Mayor Ed Dodd ATTEST ,I nette Williams, City Clerk