Day-long workshop kicks off Poway’s strategic planning effort

A day-long Poway City Council workshop on development of a strategic plan produced seven areas of emphasis that will be refined in time for an April 7 initial plan review.

Working with a professional facilitator, the five councilmembers and a dozen or so department heads and other staff joined a handful of residents Friday in a process intended to help the council figure out where the city should be headed and how best to get there.

“You’re 35 years old, middle aged, not quite ready for a mid-life crisis,” consultant Kendall Flint told the group at the start of the session. “Where is the city going? What’s the road map?”

The group settled on seven topics that will be the focus of the strategic plan: economic development, efficient city management, quality of life, superior public safety, continuation of financial stability, maintenance of the high quality of staff, and water management.

Each topic was represented by a Post-It note placed on a large horizontal chart. Under each topic sticker were dozens of participant-suggested sub-topic stickers and possible methods by which the goals can be achieved.

It will be up to Flint to translate those notes into a draft strategic plan for initial council consideration on April 7. The draft plan will be posted online on the city’s website prior to the public meeting. Once the plan is adopted, the next step calls for Flint to help develop stratgies to assist city staff toward implementation of the goal.

Along with the plan Flint will also present more-refined versions of a city mission statement and “vision” that were also drafted during the workshop, held at Templar’s Hall in Old Poway Park.

The Friday meeting ended an hour earlier than anticipated with all five councilmembers praising the process.

“I got tons out of it,” Councilman Jim Cunningham said.

Councilman John Mullin said he appreciated the opportunity to discuss municipal topics with other councilmembers without being constrained by the state’s open meeting law, a sentiment shared by Councilman Barry Leonard.

Mayor Steve Vaus likened the session to “a family meeting” and said that while there were “no huge surprises” about how his fellow members felt about things, the session produced “some great conversation starters.”