Cotati council reviews draft strategic plan; members debate mission wording and project priorities

Cotati City Council reviewed a draft strategic planning summary and accompanying two-year project and program tables during a special meeting, discussing wording for the mission statement and priorities for projects such as the Putnam dog park, library options, business-license audits and a potential tobacco-retailer license.

City staff told the council the documents reflect prior facilitated sessions and the Feb. 18 strategic meeting and that the draft splits projects into items expected to be completed in fiscal year 2024–25 and items proposed for 2025–26 and 2026–27. Staff said they added objectives to fill perceived gaps and proposed a rewritten mission to be more operationally focused rather than duplicative of the vision.

The council discussed the mission’s tone and scope, with several members saying the draft mission felt either too short or too different in wording from the adopted vision. Council members suggested alternatives that would emphasize service delivery and infrastructure for “residents, businesses and visitors,” and debated whether terms such as “thrive,” “connected,” or “engaged” would be most useful for guiding staff operations. Council members agreed to take another draft up at a future study session rather than adopting the mission at this meeting.

On projects, staff said some items had been misfiled between the “complete by 2024–25” table and the future years table and that staff will correct those placements before finalizing the materials. Council discussion and staff clarifications included:

- Putnam dog park: staff said construction should be complete by summer 2025 once soil dries, and council members asked that park rules for dogs be moved up in priority to coincide with the park opening.

- Library options: council members asked to accelerate exploration of book lockers or similar pickup options; staff said the table currently lists a summer 2025 estimated completion for preliminary work and that a library-system commissioner will update the council at a future meeting.

- Business-license audits and outreach: council members pushed to move business-license audit work higher because better business listings support economic outreach and help address fairness between businesses; staff said the work is estimated at about 0.08 FTE and is intended to reduce noncompliance and “leakage” of revenue.

- Community engagement and generative AI: staff reported consolidation of several engagement and generative-AI items and that an outside consultant is evaluating internal processes for potential AI efficiency gains; staff emphasized they are looking at return on investment before recommending further expenditure.

- Land-use and climate-related items: staff said community decarbonization awareness efforts were reprioritized and a potential building-electrification ordinance was listed as a future project contingent on clearer state law.

Council members also raised implementation and phrasing issues for the goals and objectives (for example, whether objective subitems should consistently start with verbs) and asked staff to finalize metrics that will accompany projects so council and staff can track progress across the vision, mission, goals and objectives.

Staff repeated that the strategic plan tables will be integrated into the budget document and revisited at the midpoint of the two-year budget cycle. The council did not adopt the mission or the plan at this meeting and directed staff to return with revised wording and corrected tables at a subsequent study session.