6.8. SR 09-27-1999
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ITEM # 6.8.
MEMORANDUM
FROM:
Mayor & City Council L2.....
Pat Klaers, City Ad~_tor
September 27,1999
TO:
DATE:
SUBJECT: W orksessions to Discuss Council
Priorities
Over the past six months or so, the City Council has briefly discussed the need and
desire for some type of work session to review City Council priorities. Whether or
not one or two worksessions per year is sufficient, or whether quarterly or monthly
council worksessions are necessary is unknown at this time. It will certainly be
beneficial to staff, which is charged with implementing City Council policy, to get
"everyone on the same page" so we are "speaking with one voice" on the direction
the city is going and the goals we hope to achieve. Building a consensus on issues is
essential to having support for city-wide goals and the action plan to achieve these
goals.
. A worksession on City Council priorities may include a discussion on such topics as
a community center (when and where to build, how to finance, what is included in
the facility, how and when to establish a committee to work on the project, and how
to "sell" the project to the public)......when the city should pursue a city engineer or
public works director and department (including how to finance the position and
department, how many support staff members are needed, where is this office and
department going to be housed until city hall is expanded, etc.)......the need and
desire for a city-wide strategic plan (this is in addition to a city Comprehensive Plan
- a proposal could take about 18 months and 20+ meetings, i.e.: the Economic
Development Strategic Plan and the original and updated Comprehensive Plans all
took between 12 and 20 months to accomplish and included between 12 and 25
meetings). A city-wide strategic plan is a major undertaking and is not necessarily
12 different plans for each department like the Economic Development department,
but may be more of a general overview plan with less specific action steps.
Establishing the committee to work on a plan and getting a committee to agree on a
plan with public input is an incredibly challenging undertaking......transportation
has also been identified at a number of meetings as a council priority worksession
topic......and I am sure that there are many more topics for council priority
worksessions.
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13065 Orono Parkway. P.O. Box 490 · Elk River, MN 55330 · TDD & Phone: (612) 441-7420 · Fax: (612) 441-7425
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This September 27, 1999, meeting started out as an open agenda a few weeks ago,
and I targeted this meeting as a City Council priority worksession type of meeting.
The idea was to combine this council priority discussion with a continued discussion
on the draft city capital improvement program. However, in the last few weeks a
number of items which could not wait until the October 11 meeting, or which were
not able to be resolved at or prior to the September 20 meeting have been added to
this 9/27 agenda. Herein lies the problem with a growing city trying to reserve
regular council meetings for worksession agendas. We may need to have special
meetings for the City Council priority worksessions. I know that everyone already
has a lot of other activities and meetings on their schedule, and this makes
additional special meetings less pleasurable and more of a burden.
The City Council should establish a meeting date (or dates) for a worksession on
city priorities. Also, the City Council should identify the topics which it wants to
discuss at the worksession.