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Home My WebLink About02/14/2006 Adjourned Meeting 446 ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE YAKIMA CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 14, 2006 - 7:30 A.M. - 9:00 A.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS - YAKIMA CITY HALL 1. RoII Call Present: Council: Mayor Dave Edler, presiding, Council Members Ron Bonlender, Micah Cawley, Norm Johnson (arrived at 7:38 a.m.), Bill Lover, and Susan Whitman Absent: Council Member Neil McClure (excused) Staff: City Manager Dick Zais, Community Relations Manager Randy Beehler and Acting City Clerk Moore 2. Consideration and review of City Council Strategic Goals and Priorities City Manager Zais gave an introduction on the continuing process of updating the strategic goals and priorities for the City of Yakima. This is done following each election, especially when there are new members on the City Council. Material provided for review contains our Mission and Vision statement and Strategic Direction Priorities. Also included is a report giving an update on challenges and opportunities that were set by the Council two years ago. The Regional Government Services Initiative, a high profile priority for the city, has also been updated. Mr. Zais then spoke about the committee structure and how they should focus on the critical priorities that are set by the Council. Perhaps the most challenging objective is the regional service initiative, because it is not just something we can direct or impose. We have to have partnerships and they take time and effort of other governmental agencies, particularly the County. Randy Beehler, Community Relations Manager, was introduced as the facilitator of this meeting. The process will be to go through the three tools that we have to guide and implement policy: • Mission and Vision statement — broad in nature • Specific priorities • Actual assignments Mission and Vision Statement The mission of the City of Yakima is to govern responsively with leadership that is committed to: enhancing the quality of life; continually improving services; and embracing the diversity of our community. 4, 47, ADJOURNED MEETING FEBRUARY 14, 2006 ` The vision for the City of Yakima is to: build a modern responsive government; provide cooperative, diverse leadership; promote a regional approach to services; focus on improving public infrastructure; and act as a catalyst for economic development. The mission statement sets out the policy and the vision statement is how to reach the mission. Mayor Edler suggested the vision should include the word safe because the community has asked us to focus on safety. Mr. Beehler responded that it could be added between "public" and "infrastructure" so it reads "...improving public safety and infrastructure." A discussion ensued on citizens' requests fora safe community and how best to reflect that idea. Mr. Beehler advised that they would be proposing something under the strategic direction priorities to incorporate public safety as one of the priorities. Council Member Lover suggested we add the words "safety in the community" rather than just safety. Strategic Direction Priorities At the 2004 workshop, the Council developed the following priorities: 1. Community image — alley clean up, economic development 2. Economic improvement over the last decade 3. Regional government services 4. Increased community involvement. The Council reviewed each priority for changes based on their current emphasis on public safety. It was suggested they combine community image with increased community involvement to create a new priority. Council Member Johnson spoke about the need to encourage more minority involvement. He said he felt it is very important to go into the neighborhoods, listen, and solicit involvement of those residents to rebuild our image. Mayor Edler commented that these are working documents, filters through which goals are set. The previous Council simplified them to four from twelve original priorities and now we are going beyond simple and adding a lot of text. He said he feels committed to the . four priorities on the board and does not want to expand to twelve again, although he does accept the idea of adding one more bullet dealing with public safety. Council Member Johnson spoke about community involvement stating we have a viable Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and we should be involving them in situations where we're attempting to solve some of the community problems and images. Mr. Beehler reiterated the various sets of tools the Council has that get more specific at each level; the broad mission /vision, the strategic direction priorities, the actual tasks that are assigned to Council committees, and then through those committees, direction to City staff. He referred them to the updated report of the challenges and opportunities with examples of tasks to achieve the goal. The assignment section organizes the strategic priorities that give us a structure to measure progress. These three tools combined, give us an ability to track and to report in a fairly simple way. Combining increased community involvement and community image has created a challenge to apply specific tasks to the increased community involvement priority. That priority isn't very specific so it has been difficult to identify tasks that fit. Mayor Edler 2 44 , a. ADJOURNED MEETING - FEBRUARY 14, 2006 noted that these two documents are not only a place for the Council to declare their goals, but also a measure of City Manager and staff accomplishments. In his estimation, these documents are important because they are Council's way of saying to staff, "These are the things we want done - get after it." Mr. Beehler mentioned that the subcommittee would add language that addresses diversity. He then brought up the idea of "hometown security," working off the federal homeland security concept. Mayor Edler commented that he didn't like the hometown security reference. Council Member Johnson commented that it was an excellent goal, but he didn't think we needed to have a heading called hometown security. Mayor Edler suggested the heading be "community safety." The Council continued discussing their goals and strategic direction priorities that the subcommittee would further review and then recommend four or five priorities to the full Council for adoption. The Council commented on the Regional Priorities report and the Challenges and Opportunities report. These two reports clearly reference accountability. Council Member Lover commented that he thought the work with the citizen Budget Strategy Team had been completed. If we were going to continue this type of citizen involvement, he would like to see task forces rather than committees. A task force could study specific issues in the budget. He would like to see new people involved and a movement that is voter approved with performance audits. It was agreed that that task has been completed and staff is following through with many of the BST recommendations. Council Committees Mr. Beehler pointed out that there are eleven standing committees of the Council and several task forces. The committees and their priorities were part of the packet. The Council discussed aspects of the various committees and their priorities, but due to time constraints, did not go into detail. It was the consensus of Council that committees should review and discuss their priorities and bring them back to the full Council. It was verified that the ad hoc committee to review the Mission and Vision Statement consists of Mayor Edler and Council Members Whitman and Cawley. 3. Audience Comments (8:45 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.) No one came forward to speak. 4. Adjournment JOHNSON MOVED AND LOVER SECONDED TO ADJOURN. The motion carried by unanimous voice vote; McClure absent. The meeting adjourned at 9:01 a.m. 3