photo by: Nick Krug

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on May 3, 2016.

Members of the Lawrence City Commission will soon be deciding what they want the city to look like in the future and then coming up with a strategic plan to get there. City leaders said those decisions will have a broad impact.

“What this commission decides our strategic plan is will drive this entire operation from top to bottom,” City Manager Tom Markus told commissioners at their work session Tuesday.

As part of the work session, commissioners received a presentation that outlines what a strategic plan is and how is it used. The presentation defines strategic planning as a systematic process for developing a vision for a community’s future by creating specific, interrelated steps to arrive at that future. Those steps are part of budgeting and business plans, and a regular report will measure and evaluate progress made on the plan.

The strategic planning process will also include multiple opportunities for community input, but Markus said that decisions ultimately come down to commissioners’ judgment.

“In terms of a representative democracy, what this is really all about is commissioners deciding on an individual basis — after hearing all the testimony, all the public input, all the survey, all the environmental information — what in each of your opinions you believe to be in the best interest for the community as a whole,” Markus said. “That’s how a representative democracy works.”

Markus came to Lawrence in March after serving as the city manager of Iowa City. One of the tasks listed in the city’s advertisement of the position was for the new manager to help with the creation of a strategic plan. The strategic plan will be reviewed and voted on by the commission every two years following commission elections, and is not meant to replace the city’s comprehensive plan, Horizon 2020. Markus said Horizon 2020’s policies will help inform the strategic plan.

The strategic plan process will use an outside facilitator, which Markus said he hopes will by selected by mid-October. He said that an independent facilitator is critical to the process, and will be better than him or another city staff member acting as facilitator.

“I think it’s really helpful to have somebody that’s independent, that can kind of push back on us, so that I don’t dominate the conversation or a member of the commission doesn’t dominate the conversation or one of the staff members,” Markus said.

It’s recommended that the City Commission create the strategic plan over a period of six meetings, with the goal of completing it by mid-March 2017 so it can inform the next budget process. Markus said the intent is that the commission then revisit the plan in November 2017 and every two years thereafter.

The structure of the commission allows the majority of the commission to change every two years, and Markus said he thinks that creates a tension toward long-range planning and thinking. In order to provide more continuity, Markus said he wants the strategic plan to be discussed after each election with incumbent, new and outgoing members of the commission.

“I want them all in the same room having this discussion and the people that are the incumbents and those who are going off explaining why we did what we did in terms of our strategic plan,” Markus said. “…I think you’ll see that it gives you the process of a longer-term kind of agenda that you’re always heading toward.”

The commission identified its broad priorities as part of 2017 budget planning. Those goal areas included six categories: public safety, mental health, infrastructure, non-motorized transportation/transit, affordable housing and economic development. After the work session, Vice Mayor Leslie Soden said better integrating those priorities into the budget process will allow a concrete way to assess progress.

“Once we get the strategic plan and all of our priorities in there in more of a budgetary fashion, then we can have quarterly reports saying this is what has been accomplished in the past quarter related to affordable housing,” Soden said.

Soden also said she hopes the strategic planning process, particularly the progress report, will make it more clear to residents how different departments contribute to the overall management of the city.

“City Hall is very bureaucratic,” Soden said. “We have all these processes and departments and formalities, and hopefully strategic planning will help let the average citizen see how City Hall is working for them.”

The first opportunity for public input on the strategic plan will be next week. Markus will be offering a series of listening posts to facilitate one-on-one communication with the community to talk about the upcoming strategic planning process, the community’s vision and to discuss challenges and opportunities facing Lawrence. The first listening post will be held Sept. 23 at 7:30 a.m. at the Union Depot in North Lawrence, 402 N. Second St.