TO: Mayor and City Council
THROUGH:
FROM: Steve Powers, City Manager
SUBJECT:
title
City Council 2018 Policy Agenda.
Ward(s): All Wards
Councilor(s): All Councilors
Neighborhood(s): All Neighborhoods
end
ISSUE:
Discussion of City Council Policy Agenda.
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
City Council direction for 2018 City Council Policy Agenda.
body
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND:
The Salem Strategic Plan, adopted by City Council on October 23, 2017, articulates the mission, vision, values and goals of the City (Attachment 1). The Strategic Plan charts a three to five year course for the City and represents the culmination of extensive community input on issues, followed by discussion and vetting by issue work groups of actions that would advance the policy issues. Through an annual City Council Policy Agenda, City Council will make its initial priorities for action clear to staff and the community, and provide direction on aligning resources towards the policy areas in the Salem Strategic Plan.
FACTS AND FINDINGS:
The Policy Agenda will provide guidance to the department directors and city manager in the preparation of the annual budget. An annual policy agenda, or City Council work plan, is critical to effective city government. City Council will establish its policy agenda by agreeing upon actions from the Salem Strategic Plan for City focus during 2018. The desired outcome for the Work Session is for City Council consensus on a 2018 Policy Agenda that would be brought to the February 12 City Council meeting for adoption.
The 2018 Policy Agenda is part of an annual cycle of policy and program evaluation, financial forecasting, and reporting to City Council and the community (Attachment 2).
Staff have evaluated the actions in the Strategic Plan for each priority area. The actions were considered through the lenses of financial need and organizational capacity. Staff also evaluated actions for a logical sequence or order. Capacity must also include City Council and the City’s advisory boards and commissions. Is City Council ready to spend its limited time on an action? Does the Planning Commission’s annual work plan include the actions from the Strategic Plan? What actions may have to drop off or wait? Not all of City Council’s time can or should be spent on issues and actions from the Strategic Plan. Although operations, program delivery, and asset management, are primarily managed by staff, there is an essential oversight and accountability role served by City Council. Also, there are multi-year and carryover projects that require City Council attention and decisions. Going forward, City Council will need to decide for new issues, whether these new issues are of importance, magnitude, and urgency that they should be added to the Policy Agenda.
To assist City Council, staff have prepared presentations and progress reports. The presentations are for actions that would benefit from City Council discussion and direction because the action was not fully developed by the work group, the action has changed or evolved, a specific action is being recommended that was not considered by the work group, or discussion of the action is critical to informing the budget. For those actions underway or still in progress, a report has been provided. The policy issues with a presentation are Sustainable Services (Attachment 3), Vision for Growth and Development (Attachment 4), Environmental Action (Attachment 5), and Affordable Housing, Homelessness, and Social Services (Attachment 6), and Economic Development and Downtown (Attachment 7). The Work Session agenda can be adjusted if City Council wishes to spend more or less time on an issue or action.
Steve Powers
City Manager
Attachments:
1. 2017 Strategic Plan in Brief
2. City Council Policy Agenda, Budget Development and Operations
3: Sustainable Services: Core services and desired level of service through Priority Based Budgeting
4: Vision for Growth and Development: Updated approach and timeline
5: Environmental Action: Greenhouse gas inventory
6: Affordable Housing, Homelessness and Social Services: Sobering center
7: Economic Development & Downtown: High speed internet downtown, market feasibility