Columbia council reviews plan to refresh 2021 strategic plan; staff seeks consultant proposals, $125,000 budgeted

Columbia Assistant City Manager Carol Rose told the City Council on Oct. 6 that staff are preparing to refresh the city's strategic plan, adopted in 2021, and are seeking council input on the scope of an RFP to hire a consultant to lead the work.

"Thank you. Stacy and I are here tonight to talk about, a refresh or an update to the current strategic plan, which was adopted by council in 2021," Carol Rose said. She said staff had provided council and the public with a PowerPoint, a proposed scope of work and a strategic-planning flowchart that aligns the city's other processes to the plan and that the intent is to begin work with a consultant in January after community-survey results are available.

Stacy (staff) summarized the prior planning process, saying the development work began in 2018; that the last process included eight focus groups (three open-to-the-public sessions and five targeted sessions) with "just under" 140 residents participating; and that staff engaged about 65 frontline employees. She described five proposed RFP scope elements: data gathering (including a SWOT analysis and compiling existing summit and survey data); assistance on vision, mission and values; development…