Lincoln 2020 – A clear vision of the future
Strategic Planning: building Smart-goals and Action plans

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[March 13, 2015]  LINCOLN - When members of the Lincoln City Council, city administrators, and department heads met Saturday to create the city’s first ever Strategic Plan, it was a fast paced day. In the course of the day dozens of topics were discussed, and aldermen took a hard look at several issues within the city of Lincoln. Katie Davison of the Northwestern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies was the moderator of the event. Her job was to guide the workshop and help the city drill down to a few core issues that they wanted to address in the strategic plan.

A strategic plan is a measurable guide that spells out and prioritizes certain issues the city wants to address within a specific time frame. It is important to note that it is not an exclusive nor all inclusive document. Many of the ideas that came out during the day of discussion did not make it into the plan. That does not prohibit the city from looking at those thoughts individually and acting on those as well.

In the last 90 minutes of the day, Davison split the attendees up into sub-groups and sent them off to different rooms. Their assigned task was to take their goals for the plan and turn it into “smart-goals.” The smart goal was to be concise but also precise, identifying the task, how it would be addressed, and a timeline for when the goal would be accomplished.



City Administrator Clay Johnson was not assigned to a group. Instead, his task was to go room to room and touch base with each group as it worked on its goal and action plan.

The group met back together to share their smart-goals, and then went back into their separate sections again. Their second task was to create the steps that would be taken to achieve the goal.

Smart Goals and Action Plans

Infrastructure


Alderwoman Marty Neitzel and Waste Treatment Manager Tim Ferguson


Smart Goal – “Within two years the city of Lincoln will educate the general public on the implementation of a multi-phase road and sewer infrastructure project to develop a safe and reliable utility system to be completed within 20 years.”

Action Steps

1. Identify the phases of the various construction projects as well as project costs.

2. Hold public outreach programs with the citizens of Lincoln to discuss what the projects are and how to go forth with improvements.

3. Determine funding mechanism for the projects (bonds, capital improvement dollars, grants, rate increase, loans, etc.).

4. A secondary public information meeting to advise constituents of how the city will go forward.

5. Award construction bids and begin implementation.

6. Review the project success with the general public, talking about how the projects benefited the community.


Economic Development


Alderwoman Kathy Horn and Building and Safety Officer John Lebegue

Smart-goal: “The city of Lincoln will identify and address the barriers of Economic Development within Lincoln.”


The initial goal was: “To facilitate economic development by creating a cohesive city boundary over the next year, through the annexation of vacant, developable lands that are directly abut and in some cases surrounded by the city limits.”

Lebegue expanded saying he was talking about areas of Woodlawn Road, Fifth Street, and north on Kickapoo to Interstate 55. He said doing the annexation now would speed the process for industries that are looking to come to Lincoln by eliminating one step in the development process.

Johnson said he liked what Horn and Lebegue had come up with, but he felt that their statement was more of an action step than a goal. He said what they had should be kept as an action step, but he wanted the goal to be broader.

The goal then became: “Within four years, the city will identify and address the barriers and obstacles of economic development within our community and will seek the addition of three new businesses and 15 new jobs.”

After another review, the goal was established with a broader definition. It was then changed to read: “The city of Lincoln will identify and address the barriers of Economic Development within Lincoln.”

It was then noted the action plan would include retention plans and an attraction plan, and a job numbers goal.

Action steps

1. Identify all properties and owners that could be subject to future annexation.

2. Estimate the extent and the cost of infrastructure that would be required for potential areas of annexation.

3. Develop and implement design and appearance standards for the corridor and new development.

4. Retention and possible extension of the Enterprise Zone, and also look at other development incentives that could be utilized.

5. Develop and fully utilize local talents to enhance and encourage development.

Another action step was added to the list by the group that would address the property tax in the city. It was suggested that the tactic could be to bring all taxing bodies together to discuss the situation and look for possible solutions.

Quality of Life


Alderman Jeff Hoinacki and Fire Chief Mark Miller

Smart goal: “To provide support for recreation and tourism opportunities that impact the quality of life for our residents.”


The goal began as: “A three-year (plan) to bring the community together at the Apex to provide local government goals and communicate with our constituents.”

Miller said the idea was to create a big event that would include all factions of the city, offering information about who they are and what they do. This would be an expansion of the current community nights being held. The program would include open discussion about what goes on in the city and what the city offers its constituents.

The two men noted that their topic was broad and had initially included tourism and festivals, which are not city functions. Davison noted though that what they were looking for is to engage the people in their city. Johnson said that the task is “How do we engage our citizens?”

The group talked about the issues of walkability, bike paths, and dog parks and wondered if they could be folded into the smart goal in some fashion.

Johnson suggested a broader goal that the group agreed was more appropriate. The goal was changed to: “Identify five new recreational opportunities and implement the initiatives that have the greatest impact.”

When the group broke up for the second time, Davison accompanied Hoinacki and Miller. When they returned, the three had authored a new, broader goal that included recreation and tourism. “To provide support for recreation and tourism opportunities that impact the quality of life for our residents.”

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Action Steps

1. Identify five new recreational opportunities and implement initiatives with the greatest potential of impacting the quality of life.

2. Support existing recreational events.

3. Support the new festival series.

The group talked about the many other organizations that would be involved. Mentioned was the soccer program, sporting events and tournaments, working with the Logan County Alliance and being sure that the city is offering high-quality services to the citizens. Davison said some of these could make their way into the Mission Statement. Hoinacki also said that they didn’t name names because they wanted to leave it open to all groups by not specifying anyone in particular.

Operation Improvements


Aldermen Scott Cooper (not pictured),  Todd Mourning with City Clerk Susan Gehlbach and Street Department Superintendant Walt Landers

Smart goal: “Implement a monthly city initiated contact with our residents.”


The goal began as: “Develop and implement a procedure for aldermanic/constituent communication and implement with 100 percent alderman compliance by April of 2015.”

Mourning said he felt yhe wording could be better on the goal. He explained the objective was to improve the cycle of communication between constituents, aldermen, department heads and city administration. What he wanted to see is an established communication path so that everyone is included in constituent issues.

Davison suggested: “Develop and implement a process for communication between constituents, council and staff, and implement with full compliance by April 2015.” Johnson added to that saying, “The goal should be an efficient and timely responses to citizen requests and complaints.”

The smart goal was then re-worded to read: “Develop a formalized response process and procedure to ensure efficient and timely responses to citizen requests and complaints.”

Davison still felt like what they had authored was more of an action than a goal. She said the real goal is to improve communication.

Johnson said then maybe the goal should be to: “Implement a monthly city initiated contact with our residents.”


He said the action steps could then be the procedure for call backs, and more.

This topic involved quite a bit of discussion, but in the end, everyone agreed that keeping this particular goal vague was a good idea as it would permit a wider variety of initiatives. The group decided to go with Johnson's suggested goal.

The discussion turned then briefly to how would that goal be measurable. Among the suggestions was a customer satisfaction survey after the city addresses a constituent concern. Johnson said the process was used in Aurora, and it was successful. Other thoughts included a newsletter to constituents.

Action Steps

1. Develop and implement an aldermanic/constituent/administration communication process by April 1, 2015.

2. Implement a board of education program by May 1, 2015.

3. Issuing contacts with constituents by newsletters by December 31st, 2015.

4. Customer service feedback form on the web by June 1, 2015.

5. Conduct annual customer service surveys in the sewer bills in the first billing cycle of each year.

6. Quarterly Lincoln 2020 tactic reviews to measure achievements. The first to be held during the first committee of the whole meeting in August, 2015.

7. An annual board retreat to review the Lincoln 2020 plan and its tactics.

Education


Mayor Keith Snyder and Assistant Police Chief Paul Adams

Alderman Steve Parrott also volunteered to be in this sub-group, but was unable to participate because he was called to leave before the day concluded.


Smart goal: “To elevate the numbers and levels of educable, employable and engaged citizens by the year 2020.”

The goal was first written to read: “Increase the number educable, employable, and engaged citizens by convening a series of meetings among educators, employers, and young people in partnership with the Logan County Alliance by December 1, 2015 with a goal of increasing those numbers by 2020

After some discussion, it was decided that the goal included an action step. It was re-written to be more concise, with the last part of it being reserved as an action step.
 


Action steps

1. Collaborate with the Logan County Alliance in their education efforts.

2. Convene a series of meetings with educators, employers and young people. Charge that group to create a community education task force that would own and implement a project to measure education and take steps to improve that for the citizens of Lincoln.

Snyder mentioned that one thing this group could do would be to communicate and work with the four areas where adult education programs are currently underway. Currently, there is the LTEC program for high school students in Logan County. The Logan County Development Partnership is involved with the ATIM program, educating prospective workers in manufacturing. The Lincolnland CEO program is set to kick off this fall. The Community Action Partnership of Central Illinois and Home Sweet Home Ministries are getting ready to initiate a new program to educate clients on how to successfully seek out employment opportunities. Snyder said all these programs were working independently but with the same goal. The new task force could be a collaborator between the four.

What comes now?

With this portion of the work being completed, Davison will take all the information gathered at the Saturday meeting and fine tune it into a single document. The end result will be a draft Strategic Plan that the city officials will review and approve or change as needed.

The plan, when finished may not be exactly the wording used at the meeting. Davison will be responsible for keeping the integrity of the vision intact while polishing it into a more concise and professional format.

[Nila Smith]

Lincoln 2020 - A clear vision of the future

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