City leadership presented a near‑final framing of the city strategic plan at the April 22 work session, including a vision the board previously adopted — “America’s finest hometown, driven by excellence, balancing preservation and progress” — and a concise mission phrased as four action words: “Serve. Connect. Lead. Deliver.”

Michael Walters Young, the city’s Chief Budget and Performance Officer, walked aldermen through the planning timeline and explained the mission was developed by a leadership team after workshops and community outreach. Michael said the four words were chosen to be “approachable from all of our staff” and to anchor subsequent performance indicators and budget priorities.

Board discussion focused on practical utility

Members praised the clarity of the vision and mission while probing how the plan will help make hard budget and capital decisions. City Administrator Eric Stukin and Michael both said the next steps are to define measurable performance indicators and integrate the plan into the annual budget document. Eric emphasized that the strategic plan should “help us make choices” about competing capital projects and programs.

Several aldermen encouraged the plan’s brevity so staff and employees can adopt it easily. One alderman said the vision statement supplies the “why” for the mission and noted staff should provide the “meat on the bones” — the specific measures and targets — before the board adopts the full plan later this summer.

Next steps

Staff said they will refine performance indicators and return with a final plan and supporting metrics for the board to consider for summer approval. The mission and goals are expected to guide prioritization in future budget and bond discussions; staff will present operational metrics as part of the forthcoming budget documents so the board can apply the plan when weighing difficult tradeoffs.