Title
City Council’s March 26, 2022 Bi-Annual Priority Setting Work Session
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff recommends the City Council receive the report and provide direction on Fiscal Year 2022-2023 priorities.
BACKGROUND
Twice a year, the City Council gathers for a planning session (also commonly referred to as the annual “City Council Retreat”) to formulate the City’s policy priorities for the upcoming calendar year. The outcomes of these meetings provide the framework for staff workplans.
Although the precise details of the planning session agenda vary from year to year, it typically includes the following components:
1. Updates on the previous year’s projects and initiatives.
2. City Council discussion of priorities and goals for the upcoming year.
To set the priorities and goals for the upcoming year, Council is presented with a list of known projects and is asked to prioritize those items, typically through a “dot exercise”. This important process ensures the City’s staffing and budgetary resources are directed towards those matters that are of most urgent importance to the City Council and the community.
In an effort to focus on the highest priorities, this year’s retreat format will include some changes in how the City approaches prioritization. This new approach will ensure Council has the opportunity to communicate its priorities while also providing the City Manager the ability to shift resources within those priorities as bandwidth increases.
In the spirit of continuous improvement, the tracking of referrals and priorities has changed. Attached to this report is the presentation and the priority charts that will be used to guide the prioritization exercise.
Attachment A, the Council Priorities Table for FY2022-2023 includes two documents:
1. “Council Priorities FY2022-2023” - This is a summary of all the active priorities the City Council established in 2021. This is for reference purposes only to discuss Fiscal Year 2022-2023 priorities.
2. “Council Referrals for Voting” - This is a summary of every referral that was documented since City Manager Robustelli’s arrival as the Interim City Manager in December 2020 and any new referrals that have not already made it to the priority list developed during the last two retreats. This will be the document used during the “dot exercise”.
The priority items and referrals have been tracked under nine categories. The categories are as follows:
1. Community and Business Development
2. Community Engagement and Outreach
3. Fiscal Sustainability and Transparency
4. Housing and Homelessness
5. Infrastructure
6. Public Safety
7. Race and Equity Initiatives
8. Sustainability and Resiliency
9. COVID Recovery
Prior to the Council Retreat, each Councilmember worked independently to begin the prioritization process. They were given three votes. Councilmembers were asked to place their votes on the categories that represented their highest community priorities. Based on the outcome of those votes (included in the attached presentation), the following activities will occur during the priority setting portion of the retreat:
1. Each Councilmember will be given five votes to remove an item from the unprioritized referral list. Referral items that receive 4 or more votes will be removed from the prioritization “dot exercise”. Removal of less urgent items increases the chance of consensus for more pressing items in the next exercise.
2. Each Councilmember will prioritize within the categories and be provided the following votes:
a. 3 votes for referral items in the (red) top two categories
b. 2 votes for referral items in the (orange) middle two categories
c. 1 vote for the referral items in the final (yellow) four categories
* COVID Recovery is not included in the category voting because the City must do this work or risk the loss of ARPA funds
3. Referral items that receive four or more votes at the retreat will be placed in a queue. As items are completed on the current priority list, items in the queue will be moved into the active priority list.
4. After all the above activities are complete, If the Council desires to move an item out of the queue at the retreat, something will need to be removed from the active list. This will be part of the broader discussion to focus City priorities.
ATTACHMENT
• Attachment A - Council Priorities FY2022-23
• Presentation - March Council Retreat 2022
PREPARED BY
Scott Koll, Deputy City Manager