Willows City Council adopts 2025 strategic priorities after amending business outreach language

The Willows City Council voted 5-0 on July 8 to adopt the council’s 2025 strategic priorities, after amending the economic development goal that initially called for a “single point of contact” for business outreach.

Giovanni Triceri, who facilitated the council’s May workshop, presented a report that distilled the council’s earlier work and recommended priorities staff should convert into a two- to three-year work plan. Triceri said the report reaffirmed the city’s long-term vision adopted in 2024 and recommended a shorter list of priorities staff could pursue within the next several years.

The document ranked several priorities using a points system the council used at the May session. Financial stability — including funding a general fund reserve, an apparatus-replacement plan and investment in deferred maintenance, plus seeking cost savings and revenue-generation opportunities — received the most points and remained the top priority. Other high-ranked items included starting the Willows Police Department, a business support/ outreach initiative, infrastructure improvements and quality-of-life programs such as expanded youth and adult activities.

Council discussion focused on how to implement the top-ranked business outreach goal, which had been framed in the draft report as establishing a single staff “point of contact” or a business support center. Council members and the city manager raised concerns about the cost and feasibility of creating a new dedicated staff position given current budget constraints. Several council members said they still considered the goal a top priority but wanted language that left flexibility for how staff would carry it out.

Councilmember Gary (last name not specified in the record) moved to amend the motion to remove priority No. 1; after debate council adopted a compromise amendment that retained the priority but changed its wording. The approved amendment rephrased economic development goal No. 1 from “develop a single point of contact for business outreach and a business support center” to “develop a strategy to offer a clear methodology for business outreach and a business support center,” leaving specific staffing or budget decisions to the subsequent staff work plan.

Following the amendment, the council voted to adopt the report as amended. City Manager Marty Brown (referred to in the record as “Marty”) will direct staff to prepare a work plan that evaluates feasibility, estimated costs and implementation milestones and then return to the council with proposed steps and timelines.

The council also directed staff to provide regular progress reports and to include community engagement practices as part of implementation. Councilmember comments during debate emphasized that the ranking exercise conducted in May showed the council still prioritizes business outreach highly; the amendment was intended to avoid committing the city to immediate hiring or a single-person solution without the work-plan analysis.

Ending: The adopted priority framework will guide staff’s near-term work plan. Marty Brown said staff would begin work on the plan and return with cost estimates and implementation proposals; the council asked that the report be shared broadly, including with the planning commission and library board.