Monday, November 04, 2013
 
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Council to vote on creating a strategic plan for the city of Lincoln

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[November 04, 2013]  At the Monday voting session of the Lincoln City Council tonight, aldermen will be asked to vote on the matter of hiring the Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies to help create a strategic plan for the city of Lincoln.

The cost of the plan will be $5,000. The funding for this project will come from a windfall refund from Illinois American Water that the city received earlier this year.

When this topic came up several months ago, city administrator Sue McLaughlin encouraged the council to consider hiring an outside source and having a planning retreat.

McLaughlin introduced the topic in June, saying that the subject had come to the forefront based on a few things. "There had been quite a bit of discussion, whether it was at budget time or with sewer billing or other occasions, about the future operation of city departments," she said.

She said this had led to discussions between herself and Mayor Keith Snyder about the city having a strategic plan that would set goals for the future.

McLaughlin said then that a strategic plan would help the city identify issues, set goals and actions for staff, and give the aldermen an idea of the direction of the community and where they want it to go. She added that as aldermen this would be one of the best things they could do: to talk about setting policy for staff and following the actions of the policy.

She said the actual work session for the aldermen would be probably a day and a half. She suggested it could begin on a Friday afternoon and evening and go into an all-day event on Saturday.

The final product would include developing a community vision with core values; outline specific measurable goals and a clear timeline and action plan, with a clear way of communicating those goals and outcomes; identify a plan for implementation and follow-up; provide city departments and elected officials with a hard copy; and also create a digital version to be shared with the community.

She qualified the term "retreat," saying it didn't have to be something expensive. The meetings could be in town and at an inexpensive location such as the park district. The idea, though, was to get the council out of the formal setting of the council chambers and into a more relaxed environment where they could interact.

At that time, one of the primary objections to the idea came from Bruce Carmitchel, who was not opposed so much to the planning as the cost. He wondered why the city couldn't do this on its own under the leadership of the city administrator.

McLaughlin said then that one of the worst things the city could do was to have her lead the planning. She explained that it would not be good to have the administrator who is supposed to enforce the plan be the one to write it.

The topic came up again in October, when McLaughlin told the council she had received quotes from three firms who would come to Lincoln, conduct the retreat and write the plan. At that time she recommended Northern Illinois University.

During discussion, Carmitchel asked why a second firm on the quote list, a less expensive firm, was not being recommended. McLaughlin said she didn't have her notes in front of her, but she seemed to recall there was a difference in the way the firm quoted travel expense, and in the long run, they were not the least expensive.

After that discussion, the item was to be placed on the next voting session agenda. However, that didn't happen.

At last Tuesday night's committee of the whole meeting, McLaughlin explained why it had been removed. She said she had offered an incorrect explanation of why the other, less expensive firm was not being recommended. She said that when she went back to the quotes and her examination of them, the firm in question didn't seem to be the right fit for the city.

She said first their referrals were old; they hadn't provided examples of any work done in the last two years. In addition, she said their proposal called for approximately 700 hours of time invested by both themselves and the city. She told the council she felt like it would not be to their benefit to invest that much time in the project.

She once again said her recommendation was to go with NIU.

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Along that same line, Mayor Keith Snyder shared a quiz with the council that he had taken at the Illinois Municipal League Conference in Chicago at the end of September. He said that at the conference, he, Kathy Horn and Jeff Hoinacki had attended a workshop on strategic planning.

The speaker for the event had asked the attendees to evaluate the need for a strategic plan for their cities by taking a 10-question quiz.

Snyder passed out the quiz and asked the council to take it. Each question was a statement about the city. The council members were to mark whether or not they agreed with the statements.

If they agreed fully, they were to score the question with one point. If they weren't certain if they agreed, they were to score the question with two points, and if they disagreed with the statement, they were to score it with three points.

Snyder said the tally of the scores would tell them whether or not they need and are ready to create a strategic plan. The lower the score on the quiz, the less the plan was needed. The higher the score, the more it was needed.

The aldermen then took the quiz, answering the following 10 questions.

1. The organization has a clear vision of what it wants to achieve and there is consensus around this vision.

2. Value issues are often discussed in the organization and there is agreement on the values base of the organization.

3. The current mission statement of the organization reflects clearly what the organization does, for whom, and why it is important.

4. The organization regularly reflects on its strengths and weaknesses and on the opportunities and threats in the environment.

5. The organization has clear goals and objectives for what it wants to achieve, and these goals are Strategic, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic, & Time bound (SMART).

6. The organization finds it easy to prioritize, making a distinction between what it must do, what it should do, and what it would like to do.

7. The organization has clear indicators by which it measures the impact of its work.

8. The way in which the organization is structured internally makes sense in terms of efficiency and effectiveness.

9. The work done by the organization fits together coherently -- the different areas of work fit well with one another.

10. The external and internal contexts in which the organization operates are relatively stable, and there have been no major changes in the past year.

When the aldermen were finished, Snyder asked them to share their scores. Melody Anderson scored the quiz highest with a 28, indicating she believes there is a great need for developing a strategic plan. City treasurer Chuck Conzo scored the test with a 15, indicating he felt a plan was not needed at this time. Others who shared their scores aloud were David Wilmert with a score of 24, Kathy Horn with a score of 22 and Jonie Tibbs with a score of 18. Snyder also took the quiz and scored it at 27.

The request was made to put hiring NIU back on the agenda for the Monday voting session. Carmitchel requested that it not be included in the consent agenda, and said he would like to be able to discuss it and voice his objections prior to the vote.

The item is on the agenda for tonight to be voted upon. However, the council has the right to table any motion they feel they are not fully prepared to vote upon.

[By NILA SMITH]

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