Suggestions for city manager goals and objectives ignored 11 years ago; can still guide us today
[The following are goals and objectives provided to the Oshkosh Common Council by Jim Simmons and Citizens of Representative Democracy shortly after Richard Wollangk was hired as city manager in 1996. According to Simmons, the goals and objectives were essentially dismissed by the council. A couple of things immediately come to mind: First, as I've said before, I believe that all past council members bear some of the responsibility for a lack of accountability and lack of direction coming from the office of our city manager. Had some or all of these goals been put into place back then, it's likely we would not be in the situation we are today. It also might be interesting to know what reasoning the council at that time - which included (alphabetically) Melanie Bloechl, Bill Castle, Jon Dell'Antonia, Stan Kline, Larry Spanbauer and John Stenz, and later, appointee to fill Bloechl's council seat who filled Wollangk's, John Rupenthal - had for dismissing what, even today, seem like pretty good ideas. Knowing what their thought process was or wasn't at the time might prevent the same mistakes from being made again. The second point is, as we look to the future - either with a full-time elected mayor with executive powers or another city manager - we might be wise to take these goals and tweak them, and add or subtract to them based on our current situation - so that we can start off on the right foot. I want to thank Jim Simmons for sharing this information with me...]
Goals & Objectives
Richard A. Wollangk, City Manager
1) Develop a long range (3-5 year) capital improvement program for the city.
* Conduct town meetings, focus groups, opinion surveys, radio talk show call-ins and a web page with e-mail for public input in order to prioritize city goals.
* Inventory and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the existing municipal infrastructure (streets, bridges, lighting, sidewalks, utilities, etc.).
* Provide the Council with a cost-benefit analysis for all the potential projects and alternative improvements indicated by the prioritization process.
* Submit preliminary plan for group workshops, public scrutiny and discussion in Council in 5 months and the final plan for Council approval within 8 months.
2) Work on a plan to enhance the customer relations skills of all city employees.
* Survey city residents on services and results desired, and on satisfaction with existing municipal services.
* Survey front-line city employees on barriers to, and ideas for matching the best practice in municipal service.
* Survey top-level officials in comparable medium-sized cities for an evaluation of our current practices and potential innovations.
* Within 6 months, report the results of these three steps to the Common Council.
* Develop a citizen service plan with clearly established standards in one year.
* Provide choice in service delivery, make service information easily accessible,
create pleasant surroundings for citizens and institutional redress for poor service.
3) Develop a team approach that involves all city departments in working together toward common goals in planning all projects.
* Enlist consultants to evaluate the potential for team building in city departments.
* Create an interdepartmental Council to identify areas for quality improvement.
* Establish joint meetings with members of the City Council, department heads and local interest group leaders to establish management objectives.
* Track and report on program achievements.
4) Work on the residential, commercial and industrial growth and development of the city.
* Publish a yearly Accountability Report with explicit measures of the city's well- being that shall include:
- industries gained and lost to the city with comparable data on jobs, salaries and benefits.
- new commercial developments as well as commerce lost through relocation, business failure or catastrophe.
- housing starts, residential developments, educational opportunities and zoning changes
- environmental indicators of city air, water and land quality with special attention to growth induced natural resource loss and degradation.
- crime and fire statistics for the city with comparative data for other municipalities.
* Establish public-private partnerships whenever possible in efforts to achieve municipal goals.
* Create small-business incubators in order to assist firm start-ups.
5) Have each department justify the cost of each program during the budgetary process.
* Establish a cabinet-level Enterprise Board to oversee all new initiatives with representation from the city's major stakeholders (ie. business, consumers, labor, neighborhood associations, public employees, etc.).
* Evaluate deregulation, ordinance reduction, contracting-out and other methods of cost reduction in every spending proposal.
* Provide expenditure data and best practice information from comparable cities and medium-sized private corporations.
* Institute biennial budgets and appropriations with broad outcome-oriented priorities for allocating funds.
* Provide cost-benefit analysis with each proposal as well as for the leading policy alternatives.
6) Establish a comprehensive plan for the city's management information department.
* Institutionalize information provision, accountability and responsiveness by implementing many of the previously mentioned measures.
Goals & Objectives
Richard A. Wollangk, City Manager
1) Develop a long range (3-5 year) capital improvement program for the city.
* Conduct town meetings, focus groups, opinion surveys, radio talk show call-ins and a web page with e-mail for public input in order to prioritize city goals.
* Inventory and analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the existing municipal infrastructure (streets, bridges, lighting, sidewalks, utilities, etc.).
* Provide the Council with a cost-benefit analysis for all the potential projects and alternative improvements indicated by the prioritization process.
* Submit preliminary plan for group workshops, public scrutiny and discussion in Council in 5 months and the final plan for Council approval within 8 months.
2) Work on a plan to enhance the customer relations skills of all city employees.
* Survey city residents on services and results desired, and on satisfaction with existing municipal services.
* Survey front-line city employees on barriers to, and ideas for matching the best practice in municipal service.
* Survey top-level officials in comparable medium-sized cities for an evaluation of our current practices and potential innovations.
* Within 6 months, report the results of these three steps to the Common Council.
* Develop a citizen service plan with clearly established standards in one year.
* Provide choice in service delivery, make service information easily accessible,
create pleasant surroundings for citizens and institutional redress for poor service.
3) Develop a team approach that involves all city departments in working together toward common goals in planning all projects.
* Enlist consultants to evaluate the potential for team building in city departments.
* Create an interdepartmental Council to identify areas for quality improvement.
* Establish joint meetings with members of the City Council, department heads and local interest group leaders to establish management objectives.
* Track and report on program achievements.
4) Work on the residential, commercial and industrial growth and development of the city.
* Publish a yearly Accountability Report with explicit measures of the city's well- being that shall include:
- industries gained and lost to the city with comparable data on jobs, salaries and benefits.
- new commercial developments as well as commerce lost through relocation, business failure or catastrophe.
- housing starts, residential developments, educational opportunities and zoning changes
- environmental indicators of city air, water and land quality with special attention to growth induced natural resource loss and degradation.
- crime and fire statistics for the city with comparative data for other municipalities.
* Establish public-private partnerships whenever possible in efforts to achieve municipal goals.
* Create small-business incubators in order to assist firm start-ups.
5) Have each department justify the cost of each program during the budgetary process.
* Establish a cabinet-level Enterprise Board to oversee all new initiatives with representation from the city's major stakeholders (ie. business, consumers, labor, neighborhood associations, public employees, etc.).
* Evaluate deregulation, ordinance reduction, contracting-out and other methods of cost reduction in every spending proposal.
* Provide expenditure data and best practice information from comparable cities and medium-sized private corporations.
* Institute biennial budgets and appropriations with broad outcome-oriented priorities for allocating funds.
* Provide cost-benefit analysis with each proposal as well as for the leading policy alternatives.
6) Establish a comprehensive plan for the city's management information department.
* Institutionalize information provision, accountability and responsiveness by implementing many of the previously mentioned measures.
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 3:07 PM
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