City staff preview next Raleigh strategic plan; council to set priorities at January retreat

Heather McDougall, head of the City of Raleigh Office of Strategy and Innovation, and Christina Laios, the office’s strategy and impact manager, briefed the Raleigh City Council at an afternoon work session on the process and timeline for updating the city’s strategic plan.

McDougall said the strategic plan is a council-adopted policy that translates the council’s vision into a three- to four-year implementation framework. "This plan guides our organization's focus, our work, our resources," she said, adding the city assigns cross-departmental teams to implement initiatives and treats the plan as a "living, breathing framework." Laios described a multi-step evaluation and community engagement process the office used to review the current plan and surface priorities for the next plan.

The briefing previewed evaluation findings and resident engagement used to shape priorities. Laios said the Office of Strategy and Innovation conducted a six-month evaluation that involved "over 250 staff and expert voices," and a second engagement phase that drew on more than 350 residents, 45 staff across 22 departments and the more than 1,000 respondents to the 2022 community survey. "We heard from over 350 residents, 45 staff members across 22 departments," she said.

The presentation summarized recurring…