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Carpinteria council adopts three-year goals, governance norms and principles to guide FY25–27 work
Summary
Council approved four overarching goals — outreach/education, preserve small beachside character, enhance quality of life, and fiscal sustainability — and a set of norms, values and governance principles to guide implementation and budgeting.
CARPINTERIA, Calif. — On March 24 the Carpinteria City Council adopted a set of city-wide goals and priorities to guide work across departments through fiscal years 2025–27, along with council norms, values and principles of governance to direct how council and staff interact.
The adopted goals are: 1) enhance public outreach, education and transparency; 2) maintain Carpinteria’s small beachside-town character; 3) enhance quality of life for residents; and 4) maintain fiscal sustainability. Each goal includes specific priorities (for example, the outreach goal includes improving communications and expanded resident-centered engagement; the quality‑of‑life goal lists senior services and public facility improvements among its priorities). Council materials show the goals were developed from interviews with council members, three community workshops, and a January council retreat.
Council also adopted a document of norms, values and principles of governance intended to guide council‑to‑council, council‑to‑staff, and council‑to‑community interactions. The document calls for well‑informed, balanced decision‑making; professionalism and adherence to shared and adopted goals; and prioritizing community communication and transparency. Staff emphasized these council priorities will be translated into department‑level strategic objectives and costed actions during the upcoming budget cycle.
The meeting did not finalize mission and vision statements; staff presented working drafts and said they will continue to refine those texts before returning to council. Council direction tonight instructs staff to create specific department objectives and associated cost estimates tied to the adopted goals for consideration in the FY 2025–26 budget process.
Why it matters: The council’s adopted priorities form the basis for staff work planning and the budget. Departments will return with costed actions and timelines to implement the council’s goals, enabling council review and budgetary trade‑offs during the next fiscal cycle.
