A Message From Mayor Tilghman

On Saturday October 13th the City Council and I joined the City Administrator and
Assistant City Administrator for our annual goal setting session. The entire Council with the exception of Debbie Campbell spent over four hours discussing, in an informal setting, the goals that we see as important for the fiscal year that will begin in July 2008.

The session is well in advance of the time when the goals will guide our work plan, but not too far in advance of the development of that work plan. The goals will be refined over the next few weeks as they circulate among us all and then they will go to the different City departments to be transformed into a tangible allocation of manpower and funding requests for the budget for Fiscal Year ’09. That process begins in earnest before the first of the year. These goals are invaluable to the City staff as they offer a blue print of Council and Mayor’s hopes for advancing the interests of the citizens we represent.

The goals this year included:

• The development of a comprehensive environmental policy
• Continued emphasis on growth management
• Enhancing neighborhoods
• Focus on inclusive housing and children’s activities
• Promoting regular and open communication with our citizens
• Developing & diversifying opportunities to reduce the burden on the City taxpayer
• Enhance the motivation & effectiveness of the City workforce

The important element in these sessions is the joint nature of the work we do. Now as the staff fleshes out the details of the goals for our further consideration, primarily during the budget process, they understand that these goals represent out mutual commitment to these areas of community life. In addition to the over-arching goals listed above, we also discussed a number of specific elements we want to see included in staff focus. It was exciting to review the work we have done over the past year and to see the successful programs and policies we have initiated to accomplish our current year goals. It was challenging to look at the areas where we have not accomplished as much as we would have liked. Going through this process each year helps us focus our resources more effectively and keeps us on track. We can measure our work each day against the question: How is this helping to accomplish the City’s goals?

This year it was even more exciting that several residents took time to attend and watch the most basic part of our representative democracy in action. More information will follow once the goals are finalized and the staff begins work on them.