Mount Pleasant City Council and staff held a goal‑setting workshop to identify top community priorities and to guide the budget process, focusing discussion on transparency, economic development, livability and infrastructure.

Council members, the mayor, city staff and outside facilitators listed items they want the city to emphasize over the next three to five years — including “complete transparency” in city information, stronger relationships with the county and economic development partners, downtown/Main Street revitalization, tourism and preserving small‑town character. A staff facilitator, Greg, summarized the group’s approach as creating high‑level goals first and allowing departments to convert those goals into work plans and action items: “We’re gonna have goals, there’ll be strategies, there’ll be action items,” he said.

Why it matters: Councilors tied the goal exercise directly to the budget, saying the priorities identified tonight should guide spending and staffing decisions in the coming fiscal year. The workshop deliberately stayed at a strategic level; staff will translate the council’s priorities into measurable action items and return a draft for additional council input and a likely September review.

What the council emphasized: Participants grouped dozens of suggestions into a few umbrella priorities: an organizational culture of trust, transparency and communication; intentional economic development (including diversification of jobs and growth at the airport); livability and beautification; infrastructure and utilities readiness to support new development; and improved interagency relationships (EDC, county and school district). Several council members urged making Mount Pleasant easier to do business with and to be “solutions‑based.”

Not all items were treated equally: facilitators warned against confusing top‑level goals with operational tasks. They asked council members to focus on overarching priorities while department heads develop the tactical work plans and timelines that will be presented later.

Next steps: Staff will synthesize the workshop notes into five to seven top priorities, map associated action items, and return the consolidated strategic goals to the council for review and refinement. The mayor and facilitators said they expect the work to continue across multiple meetings rather than be completed in a single session.