Recently, City Council held a virtual study session to discuss the status of the city’s strategic plan, evaluate the vision statement, review the city’s financial picture, revisit results from the 2020 community survey, and review City Council’s protocols and rules and regulations.

• Watch the livestream of the two-day virtual study session

The meeting began with Council team-building and reviewing Council’s protocols. Council plans to complete this review and update of the protocols and rules and regulations at the Monday, Aug. 31 study session meeting.

Council reviewed the status of the city’s strategic plan in light of the impacts of COVID-19 and revisited feedback from the community survey. Council also discussed the current vision statement and used feedback from the community survey and forums conducted by the facilitators to craft a new vision statement, which they are in the process of finalizing. A final draft of it will be reviewed and approved by Council at a later date.

City staff provided a more in-depth examination of the current financial crisis, reviewed steps already taken to mitigate the impacts and outlined potential future steps. The presentation included a fund overview, 2020 revenue shortfalls due to COVID-19, revenue projections, and short- and long-term mitigation strategies.

• Financial Sustainability Update presentation

The outlined strategy involves both revenue-generating and cost-cutting measures that protect and preserve city assets, encourages new approaches to service delivery, implements community and employee-generated feedback, prioritizes ongoing and existing operations and maintenance, rebuilds reserves, and protects employees by transitioning some staff to roles that can continue to serve the community.

“I’m proud of the work we’ve all done as a team to collaborate during this public health crisis for the benefit of the city,” said Deputy City Manager/Chief Financial Officer Larry Dorr. “I remain confident in our tactics and our strategy.”