Thread by @adamadonaldson

Get ready for another great #Guelph city council workshop, this one about updating the Strategic Plan. guelphpolitico.ca/2023/01/12/cit…

Mayor Guthrie calls this workshop to order.

Before beginning, Guthrie wants to take a moment to recognise the loss of Bob Bell last week. Guthrie said it was a big shock after he decided to retire last year to spend more time with his family. Guthrie publicly offers his best wishes to his family.

Guthrie explains that Bell as in Chile in an area called "Bell's Bay" which was named for him. It was an area he fell in love with 40 years and he was eager to go back there with retirement. Guthrie said Bell did a lot of behind the scenes stuff to help people.

Here's a picture of Bell in Chile 40 years ago.

With that, we kick off the workshop with CAO Stewart who says that this next SP will be highly dependent on council input, and there's going to be lots to talk about in this transition year.

Stewart says that the SP is the guiding star, guiding the work of staff and council and guiding conversations with the community. The answer from any one on staff or council to any member of the public with a question should be the same answer.

Daniel Beemsigne, Acting GM of Strategy, Innovation and Intergovernmental Services takes over and starts with a story:

Back in May 1961 JFK said the U.S. should land a man on the moon, 2 NASA scientists saw a janitor working late and they ask why he's working so late. He say, "Putting a man on the moon, of course."

Message: This is the power of a strategic plan.

The goal with this project is to refresh the SP and bring it back for approval in July 2023. There have been a lot of changes in the municipal sector in the last few years, so how must Guelph change to face them?

No SP = No idea the priorities = No Direction.

We're halfway through the refresh process.

Reminder: This is how the City is strategically aligned.

How does the SP guide the multiyear budget (MYB)? Shanna O’Dwyer, Acting GM Finance and City Treasurer will now tell us. This is usually where the budget as metaphor to gas and brake pedals comes in.

The current five pillars:

We now turn things over to Sabine Matheson, Principal, StrategyCorp Inc. and Stacy Hushion, Director, StrategyCorp Inc who are the consultants on this project.

The agenda. We're now on point #3:

Matheson notes that the purpose of the SWOT check with councillors one-on-one, which was already done, it takes away the scariness of coming into this venue with a blank piece of paper.

What's SWOT? Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Insights from council on current strategic plan. 1) The Positive:

2) The Negatives.

3) The weaknesses:

Matheson does note that the plan was formulated in a pre-COVID world, and despite those challenges the City came off pretty good. They also say that this is an improvement process; the new plan should be better than the last and build on successes while cutting the fat.

Matheson paraphrases JFK: "We govern Guelph not because it is easy, but because it is hard."

"Stay in your lane"? Some one council noted that the SP deals with stuff that outside the City's ability to control. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Matheson says that's a good SP discussion, but there's hardly anyone at Queen's Park that knows what's good for Guelph.

4) General Observations:

Matheson says they want to get a sense of council's comfort level about how much is laid out in the SP. Is it about saying we're going to the moon, is about costing and schedules to make it happen? How granular do we get?

Guthrie asks if anyone on council wants to point out anything that this presentation has missed so far, and it doesn't look like it.

We continue...

Moving on to the SWOT exercise, we look first at the strengths of the administration and the strengths of the community:

O'Rourke says it was surprising to see no mention of the City as one of the best employers in many polls. Downer points out that she's skeptical about calling the administration "nimble", at least as a constant.

Next, weaknesses:

Downer notes that council is spending a lot of time talking about mental health, and that's technically about healthcare and a lack of action that's technically outside of a city's jurisdiction. It's a weakness we can't control.

Klassen asks about the meaning of "Focus of services in the downtown". Matheson it means the concentration of services. Klassen says we need to find another way to say that b/c there are a lot of ratepayers in the core, but we do need to talk about spreading it around.

Caton says that the review of how council and staff interacts with committees should be listed as a weakness or something that needs to be worked on.

Gibson says it's important to have SP, but he's a realist and recognises the trickle down effect on local gov't. The SP is important, but there has to be room to accommodate changes in gov't. That's not a weakness, but a risk.

Gibson notes that on quality of life issues like new infrastructure, and wonders how we're measuring up with comparator municipalities. Thinks that needs to be more of a priority in the SP.

O'Rourke says there's still a perception that it's still difficult to do business here and there's also a sense that it's too expensive to live here. As a strength, she says there's big diversity in terms of economic drivers and a variety of businesses.

Still, O'Rourke is concerned that we're not talking about all the great and emerging businesses (the focus on downtown again).

Klassen notes the impact on the arts community of high housing costs, so that's another potential concern.

Guthrie says that there are other communities that seem to be able to adapt at a much quicker speed. That's not a slam on the admin, but it's becoming an "irritant", need to find a way to be more responsive.

Next, Opportunities:

On "More focused retreats and policy discussions between Council and staff" Busuttil says that we need more flexibility in governance to create tasks forces or working groups.

Caton says that he had the opportunity to go further on issues of accessibility, and we didn't so that's something that's worth re-visiting.

On "staying in our lane", Guthrie says we have to be committed to it whether we're staying or not. He also says we need to learn to say "no", whether that's to him, council or even the community, and part of that is adhering to the plan.

Klassen says that they should add "business" to the line "Build stronger relationships with development community". Matheson adds that there's a general feeling that the City needs to work more with the construction community and not just the developers.

O'Rourke says that the City needs to do a better job in being more entrepreneurial and it needs to get better at telling stories of its own success.

Finally, the threats:

Matheson says there was a high degree of consensus about the threats to the City, but with some nuance. Still, there's not a lot of fundamental conflict.

Goller says that there's concern about how we're falling behind on green-spaces and thinks that it will be a casualty as we rush to get more housing built. Busuttil notes that climate change didn't rank as a threat in these slides.

Klassen says she sees the fractured media landscape 😳 as a potential threat. People don't know where to go to get information, and if they do, they may not trust the source.

Next section: Setting priorities.

Council's thoughts on the current five pillars:

Matheson said that there was a real tension between some on council that want to start looking at regional transit, and others who are pointing out that there's a lot of work left to do about local transit.

EDITORIAL:

Matheson says that they heard from many councillors about how good the budget process was. You don't hear that everywhere. There were also some concerns about the amount and quality of community engagement.

Next steps: We've got think about what we want to do as the end thing? It's got to be more than a one-line vision. Council needs to think about how they want the SP to involve; what should we continue doing? Are there things we've asserted that can be considered a value now?

Staff suggestions for update the pillars:

Under "Building", O'Rourke notes that "Promote community well- being and safety" is something council should be doing anyway, and well-being is also broad. Should definite priorities next 4 yrs on infrastructure: SECC, Baker, and Parks Master Plan.

Also suggests that voter turnout should be an issue that needs addressed. If we don't have a solid democracy it's hard to do the other things.

Gibson points out that facilities are important, look at the Guelph Dome, one of the most well-used facilities in Guelph. Lyon Park diamond is also well used for baseball games and tournaments. Can reinvest in these small assets as youth are being re-enrolled post-COVID.

Caton again calls out for accessibility in the housing plan, and while we have a lot of great facilities they're not all of them accessible either. We can go beyond the minimum standards set by upper levels of government.

Busuttil says equity of access is a value for council. Parks and multiuse facilities should be considered for people who have access in limited number of resources.

Downer says we need to think about parks beyond youth, and that we should recognise that open spaces are meant for all people, young and old and all points in between.

Klassen asks about the aspirational statements, how do we be a "world class city" in terms of fighting climate change? Matheson loves that question, because it reminds us that claims need to be actionable and measurable.

Guthrie says he feels like we've fallen behind in provided services at a level that people expect. Yes, we need to invest in the new, but we also have to make sure that people are using their mowers to cut the grass in their neighbourhood park.

Guthrie says that he also feels like the "how" is missing, and that may come with the new KPIs. He also doesn't like the word promote in "Promote community well- being and safety". We need to invest.

On Navigating, O'Rourke says we have a 10-year plan so "implement" not "Improve" Guelph’s public transit system. Trans Master Plan is done, Cycling Plan is coming, let's get that stuff done.

Guthrie says pace and prioritisation is important. Cities that decide to five years of active transportation planning in one, the modal shift changes b/c you get it down as quick as possible. Do we stick to the 10-year plan? (This is a convo for later.)

On "Make Guelph the national epicenter for the growth of an innovative circular economy", O'Rourke says its surprising that this is being pushed to the fore, and not sure how that fits relative to everything else. Matheson says its obvious staff have passion for their projects.

Matheson describes the fine art of coming up with a Strategic Plan. You've got to be aspirational in the heading, get enough fine detail and then prioritise. It's a hard thing to promote and explain because it's aspirational and instructive at the same time.

"Somewhere between all the extremes, we have to find a way to work toward something better," Matheson adds.

Guthrie asks how the approval of new SP fit in with the disconnect of four year plan, people get elected and then they have to wait a year to start putting ideas into effect because the next plan/budget goes 2024-27. That's a take away.

Next steps:

Guthrie asks about procedure to the send the consultant future thoughts. Stewart recommends going through Beemsigne.

Cllr Billings ask about getting together the financial impacts of the things being talked about in the SP. Stewart says the next meeting may be a bit too soon for that insight, but staff is already pulling that together and there will be some reporting before July.

That seems to be a wrap for tonight's workshop. There's still more council fun bright and early tomorrow at 9:30 am for the budge confirmation meeting.

@threadreaderapp, unroll please!