TO:
Honorable Mayor Powell and Members of the City Council
FROM:
David N. Carmany, City Manager
SUBJECT: Title
Monthly Status Update of Strategic Plan Goals and Objectives.
RECEIVE AND FILE
Body
____________________________________________________________________
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council receive and file this report.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
There is no fiscal impact associated with this recommendation.
BACKGROUND:
The City Council and Department Heads participated in an all-day retreat held on Wednesday, July 11, 2012. The goal of this retreat was the development of a unified City of Manhattan Beach Strategic Plan, and part of that being the identification of three-year strategic goals.
The result of this meeting, the mission statement, and updated three-year strategic goals are included in this report. The City Council will receive monthly updates to the Strategic Plan Monitoring Matrix in order to measure progress on the goals and objectives, and to allow for the revision of those objectives (add, amend, and/or delete), as needed.
The City Council also scheduled the next strategic planning retreat to follow in six months. It is to evaluate progress on the goals and strategic objectives, identify core values for the City, and to develop objectives for the following six-month period. This meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm.
DISCUSSION:
All Departments have reviewed the Strategic Plan and updated progress where appropriate. The changes from the last update are highlighted in yellow for your convenience.
There are differences between a work plan and a strategic plan. A work plan is task focused. A strategic plan is focused on clarifying the overall purpose and priorities of the organization.
Ideally, a work plan outlines all tasks necessary to complete an entire venture. This involves identifying, planning, and executing the steps necessary to achieve a particular result. It serves as an operational tool that could ultimately include management's layout for each team member and the tasks assigned to that individual towards overall project achievement.
A strategic plan focuses more on critical issues and defines an organization's strategies, decisions, or guiding direction in allocating resources to position the organization for success. This larger view allows the organization to focus on issues of change, adaptation, and innovation. The City engaged Marilyn Snider, of Snider and Associates, to facilitate the new strategic planning process.
Strategic Planning
"Strategic Planning: A Guide for Public Managers" published by the International City/County Management Association in August 2002 has been used as a resource to identify elements and processes associated with development of the Strategic Plan and much of the following comes from that document.
The purpose of public sector strategic planning is to establish long-term goals, annual objectives and detailed actions/strategies that address issues related to performance, productivity, community and personal well-being and required statutory services. The focus must be on identifying the most critical issues affecting the community and on seeking the most effective and efficient means to address them.
Care must be taken to differentiate between a true planning issue and action or task. The tendency is to state issues as solutions rather than true issue statements. An example of the former is "The department needs more police cars to meet community needs." An example of the latter is "Crime has increased 12% since 2009." A natural tendency is to focus on activities or solutions and not on ultimate outcomes or achievements related to an organization mission or to focus on solutions when writing issues/challenges or problem statements or to write goals and objectives as action statements. Participants should be cognizant of this tendency and avoid it.
There are particular elements in the framework of a strategic plan. A properly crafted strategic plan offers a clear road map for continuous improvement; presents the organization's mission, vision, and operating philosophy, and; provides quantified goals and objectives against which to measure personal and program progress, performance and success.
The elements of a strategic plan include:
1. Mission - Why do you exist? What do you do?
2. Vision - A practical statement about the future and the organization's role in it.
3. Operational Philosophy or Values - Describes a group of employees and the organization in the employees' own words; it is often based on a set of adjectives that the team feels best describes them and their group.
4. Significant issues and challenges - Internal issues are problems or challenges within the organization that affect efficiency, productivity, harmony or overall effectiveness and thus affect performance. External issues are the problems or negative situations in the community that relate to a particular mission. Tangible issues concern people, facilities, equipment, funding and anything that can be counted, inventoried, bought, sold, procured or repaired. Intangible issues are those related to morale, attitude, trust, loyalty, public opinion, image, communication cooperation, collaboration, leadership, commitment, initiative, creativity and overall culture.
5. Long Term Goals - A goal is generally measurable and you will know if have achieved it if asked in the future. You must be able to quantify its success or failure. A goal is not an action or activity but an outcome that relates to the mission and to at least one issue. An objective is very quantifiable and includes numbers or percentages to help evaluate its success in the next fiscal year. It represents incremental progress toward a goal.
The strategic plan and the annual budget are linked. Fiscal resources must be allocated to accomplish the goals developed in the strategic plan. The strategic plan is the blueprint for change and performance; the budget is the engine that drives and energizes that change and performance. Requests for funding must always relate to actions, which in turn relate back to both goals and objectives. This is what ties the plan to the budget. Budgets should be based on strategic plans, not the other way around. The idea is to plan first, then develop the budget to gain the greatest value.
CONCLUSION:
Understanding the terms, process, and goals of successful strategic plan development will facilitate the development of a functional strategic plan for the City of Manhattan Beach.
Attachments:
1. City of Manhattan Beach Strategic Plan Matrix