(Columbus) Columbus City Administrator Matt Amundson recently updated the common council on its strategic planning process. Two community input sessions and two separate staff input sessions have been held so far. From those sessions the city has identified four major priorities.
“So, organizational culture. sustainable growth and development, communication and engagement, and financial sustainability,” Amundson says.
Amundson says that with each of the four priorities, specific goals will be developed, objectives for implementation, and metrics for measuring the progress for each item. He adds that along with those goals, strategic themes have also been developed including public safety.
“Basically, the community [is] viewed very favorably, very family friendly,” says Amundson. “And we want to make sure we protect and enhance that as the community grows.”
Other themes include quality of life, city facility planning, business and residential development and community cohesion.
Alderman Michael Lawson wanted to know how this would get in the capital improvement plan.
“So, in a perfect world, we’d have a strategic plane done and wrapped up right now,” says Amundson. “Not a perfect world, you’re dealing with new people, lots of new people, lots of moving parts.”
The city administrator says it is possible to go back and tweak some things, but at this point, it needs to be moved forward because he does not want to rush the process of either the strategic plan or the budget. One of his biggest hopes is to put together an interested parties’ group that is cross representational of the community.
“When we get a draft, strategic plan that I can run this by them, meet with [them], and say ‘Are we headed in the right direction before we even bring that to council?’”
Amundson says there are steps to this, and he wants to make sure to not only have a plan that is actionable and can be put in place, but also realistic. A link to the strategic planning site is available HERE.
