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City manager outlines progress on strategic priorities and FY26 planning
Summary
City manager presented the annual performance update highlighting strategic priorities, performance-management metrics (~76% on track/completed), successes on housing, brownfields and safety, and next steps feeding into the FY26 budget process and a November retreat.
City leadership presented an annual performance briefing on Sept. 24 that the manager framed as foundational for an upcoming retreat and the FY26 budget. The presentation summarized accomplishments, implementation status and near-term priorities across six strategic areas: governmental excellence, economic prosperity and affordability, engaged community, health and environment, mobility and safety.
Key highlights: - Implementation status: Staff reported roughly 76% of tracked activities are completed or on track; some items were delayed by dependencies or extended engagement. - Economic development and housing: The presentation flagged zoning reforms that helped permit nearly 200 ground-floor residential units and drew a multi-source financing stack for brownfield projects. Staff noted FY24 construction activity valued at roughly $40M with projections to triple next year, creating capacity and contractor-supply considerations. - Public safety and fire: Police staffing improved with recent recruit classes (staffing ~291 with target >300), 95% of dispatch calls answered within 15 seconds, and the fire department benefited from state and federal funding to support station construction and early staffing at a new Kalamazoo-area station. - Sustainability: Staff completed a community greenhouse-gas inventory and launched a climate risk assessment; the city advanced solar-connection work and continued organics/yard-waste pilots and lead-hazard initiatives. - Mobility and services: Work continued on vital-streets projects, parking system asset planning, elevator replacement and micro-mobility safety measures; the city reported applying grant and program resources to safety and accessibility upgrades.
Officials stressed that many items feed into the FY26 budget timeline and that newly elected commissioners will be briefed and able to participate in upcoming workshops. City staff said more detailed metric-level reporting and follow-up on particular items (inclusion-plan targets, community master plan timeline, and participatory budgeting rollouts) will be returned to the commission in the coming months.
Why it matters: The briefing aggregates completed and in-progress work across the city's operations and sets the stage for resource prioritization in the annual budget. Commissioners used the session to ask follow-up questions about specific program timelines and funding sustainability for initiatives started with one-time funds.
