Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Strategic Priorities topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Edmond council narrows strategic priorities, asks staff for measurable targets
Summary
At a two-day strategic planning workshop, Mayor Brian and the City Council reviewed project updates and agreed on a short list of high-level strategic themes — including fiscal diligence, long-term infrastructure, strategic economic growth, responsible development, and operational excellence — and asked staff to propose metrics and a dashboard to track progress.
Mayor Brian opened a two-day strategic planning workshop and asked the council to limit its near-term focus to a small set of measurable strategic initiatives.
"This isn't we're done or we're not done," the mayor said as he urged a different approach to measuring success and asked the council to narrow the list to a handful of priorities the city can track.
Why it matters: Council members and staff framed the exercise as an attempt to move away from a long laundry list of goals and toward 4–7 strategic vision statements that can be translated into short-term, quantifiable goals. That, they said, will make it easier for staff to align department work and for the public to see progress.
What the council proposed and agreed to refine: - Fiscal diligence and transparency: simplify public-facing budget information and codify fiscal practices; the mayor recommended starting from a conservative revenue baseline and targeting a reserve goal (discussion included a 10% reserve target). (Mayor Brian) - Long-term comprehensive infrastructure and maintenance system: create a five-year streets/roads and utility capital plan with clear deliverables and percent-complete measures. (Staff/Steve Lawrence) - Strategic economic growth: develop a comprehensive economic development strategy led by EEDA with clarified policies and procedures for incentives and developer engagement. (Council discussion) - Planned, responsible development (East Edmond emphasis): adopt explicit controls and a staged approach to growth east of I‑35 to avoid overloading utilities and public safety services. (Council discussion) - Maintain foundation of excellence / operational efficiency: continue support for police, fire, utilities and core services while pursuing process improvements and clearer departmental budget ownership. (Council members)
Council asked staff to do three things next: produce a concise prioritized list of goals that fit under those vision statements, propose one or two measurable indicators for each strategic statement, and prepare an online dashboard so the public can see updates.
What the council asked staff to assume: the mayor suggested staff plan from a conservative budget baseline ("no new revenue") while working toward a higher reserve target; council members said staff should identify which priorities require new money versus those achievable within existing budgets.
The council recessed for the evening and will continue crafting measures and implementation steps in the follow-up session tomorrow.
Ending: Staff were directed to return with draft metrics and implementation tasks; the council reconvened at 09:30 the next morning to continue the workshop.
