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III Creatin g City's Your Future By Kent E.Eklund and Cathy Jacobson eeting after meeting, city these planning processes are part of changes occur as a result of elections, councils make decisions on developing and implementing the each council can at least select the behalf of their city or town. vision that the strategic plan sets in key, three to five goals that will be Often, councilmembers will place. A strategic plan starts with a the hallmark of their council. begin to feel there is no pattern longer-term view of the city and Questions to consider. Councils should start these types of discussions with the following questions: In the or common vision driving the answers key questions about the five various decisions. This lack to ten year vision of what the city of a sense of a larger picture wants to become. history of this city, what do we want often frustrates councils. Strategic plan- This long-term thinking is hard this council to be known for? How ring is a technique to develop a vision work. The time horizon is beyond does this answer fit into the vision for a city and create an understanding the normal, day-to-day thinking and of the previous council? Even in of that bigger picture. Strategic plan- acting. Yet elected and appointed city elections where there seems to be ning offers a city a greater potential to officials have a unique opportunity and little mandate from the voters, this guide and participate in its future. The responsibility to think in the long term question gives the council freedom alternative is to be directed by future about the future of the whole commu- to think about its vision for the city. visions developed elsewhere. nity. A final question councils often ask 0 Importance of strategic planning. A strategic plan is organized into is whether an outside consultant is n fast changing environments, it is yearly, incremental steps or goals that worth the expense. The answer to this often easy to feel a certain loss of start a community down the path of question depends on the availability control. The economy is in the midst making the vision a reality. Most plans of seasoned facilitators in the commu- of a major restructuring, "old" indus- identify only three to five goals for nity. The individual who facilitates the tries are changing, and even newer any one year. This is as much visionary strategic planning discussion cannot companies come and go. The increas- work that any council normally has also participate in the conversation. ing rate of technological innovation time to address. The remainder of the So, whoever is selected to facilitate affects all of us. Social institutions, such annual agenda is devoted to oversight the discussion must be comfortable as the family and religious organiza- of the daily functions of the city and being a non-participant and have skills lions, are undergoing rapid change as responding to the issues that emerge in forging consensus and resolving dif- well. In the midst of all these changes, during the year. ferences, which will inevitably occur. it is often easy to feel helpless and sub- Some of the hurdles. A very difficult An advantage of relying on someone jected to forces over which you can part of strategic planning is finding time from outside the community to guide exercise little control. in the busy operations of the city to the conversation is that they will be Strategic planning helps communi- focus on implementing the plan. This able to ask questions from an entirely ties recognize these forces and deter- is why councils should focus on a lim- objective perspective, with no agendas mine long-term coping strategies for ited number of goals each year, and that obviously come with being a dealing with these changes. In many build those goals into the work plans resident of the city. cases, communities are forced to recog- of city staff. Keeping those goals in Final thought. Of course, there nize that their original purposes for front of staff is a critical responsibility are no guarantees for any community. even being in existence are no longer of the council. What strategic planning enables is a viable and the community needs to A second problem with strategic realistic assessment of a community's re-think its whole position within a planning is elections. With each elec- prospects and the development of larger, regional context. Such thinking tion cycle, new councilmembers arrive longer-term strategies for working helps develop proactive strategies for with potentially little ownership of a towards a more desirable future. r working with the trends to arrive at a plan authored by the previous council. more pleasing future than if communi- This necessitates, usually in December .jes merely respond to outside forces. after each election, the re-opening of What is strategic planning? Strategic the plan and a discussion among all the planning is different than comprehen- councilmembers—newly elected and Kent Eklund and Cathy Jacobson sive planning, land use planning, or veterans—about the vision and compo- are with Cincinnatus, a member of facilities and capital planning. All of nents of the plan. Even if dramatic the LIVIC Business Associate program. J U L Y 1 9 9 9 M I N N E S O T A CITIES 13