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2023 Work Plan Draft Review
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Purpose
In this presentation, staff will report on the Strategic Priorities identified by City Council at the 2022 winter retreat, draft goals that support each priority prepared based on the 2022 Work Plan, and draft objectives prepared by department directors based on Council’s input that will accomplish each goal.
Staff is looking for Council’s feedback on what was captured based on the 2022 Winter Retreat to ensure that the Strategic Priorities, Goals, and Objectives accurately reflect Council’s vision for the 2023 Work Plan.
What is the Work Plan?
The Work Plan is a document prepared annually that tracks progress made by staff on Council-identified priorities for that specific year. Work Plans are useful tools for transparency and accountability for City Council, City Staff, and residents to track priority work in the City. The Work Plan also allows Council to identify priorities for the budgeting process.
The Work Plan is prepared by City Council, City Staff, and outside facilitators 6 to 9 months in advance of the Work Plan going live. Facilitators work with City Council at the Winter Retreat to identify priorities for the City’s next fiscal year. After the retreat, the facilitators work with City Staff to prepare a draft Plan for City Council to review.
The Work Plan does not capture all work done by staff on a daily basis. Instead, the Work Plan is a more focused document that captures Council’s high-priority initiatives.
How is this year different?
In following with best practices from high-performing municipalities across the Country, the 2022 Winter Retreat was used to prepare both the 2023 Work Plan and the 2023 - 2025 Strategic Plan. These documents are meant to work in tandem with one another. Council will discuss the 2023 Work Plan the same evening as the first 2023 Budget Retreat on August 8th, 2022.
How does the Work Plan Support the Strategic Plan?
The strategic plan is the overall document that Council uses to track multi-year priorities, projects, and initiatives. The work plan should be the annual document that largely aligns with the strategic plan by tracking progress of the strategic plan’s priorities and projects in each individual year. In total, over the course of a 3-to-5-year strategic plan, a City will have 3 to 5 individual work plans that tell the story of progress made year over year.
Description of the Work Plan Levels
The Work Plan will always align with the Strategic Priorities outlined in the Strategic Plan. The Strategic Priorities are one- or two-word priority items that Council has identified as high-priority topics, such as Housing or Economic Development. The Strategic Priorities will remain the same over the course of the Strategic Plan’s life cycle and will be updated by Council one year prior to the start of the new Strategic Plan.
The top-level of the Work Plan is the Goal level. Work Plan goals are value statements identified by Council to support each of the Strategic Priorities. For example, if the Strategic Priority is Housing, the Goal may be a statement such as “Promote a balanced, thriving, and inclusive city economy that cultivates, attracts, and retains business”. Goals may be updated by City Council at the Winter Retreat the year prior to the Work Plan’s implementation year, but it is not necessary that the Goal changes year-to-year. The language of goals may change, but the overall action statement should still be in pursuance of the Strategic Priority with which it is aligned.
The second level of the Work Plan is the Objective level. Work Plan objectives are action statements that all work together to form the overall action plan by which staff intends to pursue the goal and strategic priority for that year. For example, if the Goal is “Promote a balanced, thriving, and inclusive city economy that cultivates, attracts, and retains business”, the objectives may include action statements like “Identify and develop a regional activity generator” and “Become a leader in renewable energy and manufacturing”, among other items. Objectives are prepared by Department Directors with the support of the City Manager’s Office when the Strategic Plan is created. Objectives may or may not be updated each year, depending on the overall progress made in pursuance of the Goal. Council may collaborate with the City Manager to provide input on Objectives, but these should largely remain the products of the City Staff working to meet these objectives.
The third level of the Work Plan is the Strategy level. Work Plan strategies are ground-level statements informed by performance data and staff expertise that form the quarterly reporting level for each Objective. Strategies are used exclusively by staff to track progress on each objective and share progress on strategies during quarterly updates to Council.