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DeSoto council approves up to $80,000 for 10-year strategic plan with Baker Tilly
Summary
Council authorized the city manager to finalize an agreement with Baker Tilly Advisory Group LP to develop a 10-year strategic plan; consultants outlined a four-phase, data-driven engagement and said they will incorporate prior city plans and extensive community outreach.
The DeSoto City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute an agreement, not to exceed $80,000, with Baker Tilly Advisory Group LP to develop a 10-year strategic plan for the city.
Baker Tilly consultant Woody Battle told the council the firm will pursue a four-phase approach — define, discover, develop and deploy — that combines data analysis, stakeholder workshops, public engagement and implementation planning. Battle said the firm will review prior city planning materials and comprehensive studies so the new plan builds on existing work rather than duplicating it.
“We will host public engagement sessions, surveys and workshops for council and staff and synthesize those inputs into goals and key performance indicators,” Battle said during the presentation. He described the 10-year horizon as allowing the city to be more aspirational about longer-term investments while still producing a clear near-term implementation roadmap.
Councilmember Perrette Parker asked about community engagement, whether the firm’s outreach would duplicate a survey the city had already conducted and whether the price would change. Baker Tilly and City Manager Majid Algaffrey told council the firm will use the city’s existing external survey results, add its own targeted survey instruments and that Baker Tilly had negotiated the engagement fee to $77,000; the agenda item was written as “not to exceed $80,000.”
Councilmember Parker also asked for interim deliverables and whether work would follow a waterfall schedule; Battle said the process is collaborative and iterative and that council and staff would be engaged early and throughout so there would be no surprise at the end of the engagement. City staff said they expect checkpoints and periodic reassessments during the 10-year term so the plan can be revisited and updated as conditions change.
A motion to authorize the contract was made and approved unanimously. Battle and staff said the engagement will include internal staff surveys, external community outreach, two council workshops and an implementation dashboard to help the city track progress against goals.
The contract language approved by the council directs city staff to finalize scope and schedule with Baker Tilly and return executed documents to the city manager for implementation.
