South Fulton officials present draft strategic plan after citywide surveys and citizen action committee work

City Manager Sharon D. Subadan and consultant Lionel Savage presented a draft update to South Fulton’s strategic plan at the City Council work session on Feb. 25, 2025, asking council members to review a final draft before the next meeting and to provide feedback for adoption.

Savage told the council the planning team ran a “Voice: Your Voice Matters” survey released June 13 and received about 2,500 completed responses. He described the work of a 16-member Citizen Action Committee that produced qualitative input and 12 hours of recorded conversations that staff used to shape four aspirational goals in the draft plan.

The consultant said the process included review of the 2020–23 survey data, four town halls, six community gatherings and six citizen action committee meetings. Savage recommended establishing district-level citizen committees, building a public-facing dashboard, and adopting departmental key performance indicators (KPIs) to track progress.

Council members pressed for specifics. Dr. Catherine Rao asked whether dashboard reporting and cadence would be public; Savage and the city manager said department-level KPIs will be produced and the ultimate goal is an outward-facing website dashboard. Councilmember Keosha B. Bell and others asked whether the survey could be reopened and whether it could be shortened; staff said the online survey remains open and the city plans continued outreach, including QR codes in newsletters and texting strategies.

Councilmember J.C. Sebastian and others recommended repeating the survey at a future, consistent interval to provide a time‑series baseline for measures such as citizen satisfaction. Several council members also urged the administration to consolidate demographic baselines so press releases and public materials use consistent population figures for the city.

City Manager Subadan said the draft plan will be returned for final adoption at the next council meeting; she emphasized that the strategic plan is an aspirational, living roadmap that departments will translate into projects and KPIs. Savage said the consultant team will finalize the draft and recommended expanding the Citizen Action Committee to include a committee per district for deeper engagement.

Council members suggested additional rollout activities and asked staff to provide a clear adoption timeline so initiatives can be aligned with the next budget cycle.

Ending: Subadan said the administration will collect council edits on the draft, return a revised plan at the next meeting and work on a community rollout and KPI framework after adoption.