Stanton council refines six strategic goals and prioritizes homelessness response, business outreach

STA NTON — The Stanton City Council met in a special workshop March 3 to refine six strategic objectives and narrow a long list of staff strategies into a short set of priorities for the coming year.

Consultant Carol Jacobs led the session, which opened with introductions from department heads and an exercise to surface a 10‑year vision for the city. Jacobs told the council the workshop’s purpose was to "help define and clarify what those words mean to you as a council" and to focus staff on the highest‑priority initiatives.

The council spent an extended portion of the evening word‑smithing the city’s public‑safety objective. After debating three candidate definitions, council members agreed on the phrasing: "Ensure a safe community to protect our residents, visitors, and businesses." Mayor Schaubert stressed the priority: "Public safety is always our number 1 priority," he said during the discussion.

City Manager Hannah emphasized the limits of staff capacity and the need for council clarity when setting priorities. "It's hard when we get alphabet soup and when we get too many words, it dilutes the message to us," Hannah said, urging succinct objectives that staff can operationalize.

Staff also walked the council through proposed strategies under each goal. The public‑safety tactics included continuing the safe‑streets campaign, identifying strategies to address service‑resistant individuals experiencing homelessness, adding blue‑light cameras, a private parking enforcement program and an LED lighting plan for City Hall. Economic strategies included updating the permitting system to meet state online‑permit requirements, developing objective planning/design standards, creating a business‑connect program and updating the general plan.

During the prioritization exercise — each councilmember picked five items from roughly 30 strategies — three items emerged as tier‑1 priorities (each received three of four votes): continuing strategies to address service‑resistant individuals experiencing homelessness; developing a business‑connect/business‑alliance program; and developing a vacant commercial property fee. Consultant Jacobs said the group would produce a tiered report so staff could translate council direction into a workplan.

Staff cautioned that some items on the list are already in the capital improvement program or required by state law. Hannah flagged one area of concern: objective planning and design standards, which staff said could affect the city’s leverage over future developments. "If the council doesn't make it a priority, we may not be able to hold incoming projects to a higher aesthetic standard," Hannah said, noting potential long‑term consequences.

Michelle Banigan, the finance director, and public works staff gave brief updates on several in‑progress infrastructure projects, including tennis‑court and community‑center work currently in design and early construction phases.

Carol Jacobs and staff told council members they would return a consolidated report that separates (1) legally required or already in‑progress items, (2) tier‑1 priorities for the coming year and (3) secondary items that could move forward as capacity permits. Hannah said she would use that report to align staff workplans and to present funding options during the upcoming May budget workshop.

The meeting closed with the mayor and council thanking staff and the consultant for the work. No formal ordinance or binding vote was adopted at the workshop; the session produced prioritized direction and a staff report to follow.