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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020.03.03 - Minutes - Study SessionCITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION MARCH 3, 2020 STUDY SESSION: M/Tye called the Study Session to order at 5:45 p.m. in Room CC -8 of the South Coast Air Quality Management District/Government Center, 21865 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. ROLL CALL: Council Members Andrew Chou, Jennifer "Fred" Mahlke, Ruth Low, Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Lyons, Mayor Steve Tye Staff Present: Dan Fox, City Manager; Ryan McLean, Assistant City Manager; David DeBerry, City Attorney; David Liu, Public Works Director; Ken Desforges, Information Systems Director; Anthony Santos, Assistant to the City Manager; Greg Gubman, Community Development Director; Dianna Honeywell, Finance Director; Cecilia Arellano, Public Information Coordinator; Amy Haug, Human Resources Manager; Dannette Allen, Senior Management Analyst; Christy Murphey, Recreation Superintendent; Kristina Santana, City Clerk IN. STRATEGIC PLAN 2021-2024 ACM/McLean stated that the City's first Strategic Plan adopted by the City Council three years ago was a transition from a Goals & Objectives process that was conducted on an annual basis and was the first step in a more global higher-level focus which set forth the work plan for staff and Council's vision for that three-year period. The Strategic Plan adopted by the City Council in 2017 contained more than 90 items, 95 percent of which have either been completed, are underway, or in transition to an ongoing process, all of which are part of the many things that are funded in the budget via departmental work plans and initiatives staff carries out on a daily basis at the department level. Staff is proposing a slightly different approach to the Strategic Plan to seek continuous improvement, recognize changing conditions, people and priorities overtime and not lock the City in when things could change during a three year period. The process of creating a new Strategic Plan began in September and moved forward with the executive team's strategic plan retreat in October of 2019. ACM/McLean explained that three key initiatives for each strategy are included in the document. Staff will be tracking these priorities and making sure that the quarterly reports share this information. The core elements of the Strategic Plan start with the Goals, the very high-level outcomes and aspirational items. Key Initiatives are the work plan items that support both Goals and Strategies. MARCH 4, 2020 PAGE 2 CC STUDY SESSION In addition, departments will be tasked with developing meaningful Performance Measures. Goals contained within the new plan are the Goals that were contained within the previous Strategic Plan serving to provide a good foundation for the new plan: 1. Responsible Stewardship of Public Resources 2. Open, Engaged and Responsive Government 3. Safe, Sustainable and Healthy Community Strategies: Strategies are the policy directives established in support of the Goals. Three Strategies have been identified for each Goal. Strategy 1 is to Secure Long -Term Financial Sustainability and how it will be done. Key Initiatives: Key Initiatives highlight some of the specific work plan items undertaken to achieve the Goals and Strategies. Additional Initiatives will be developed and implemented through the City's annual budget and in conjunction with departmental business plans to further advance the Vision of the Strategic Plan. CM/Fox responded to Council questions regarding public input and discussed the process for engaging all of City staff to contribute to the plan. MTP/Lyons said that if the plan says to reduce subsidies in LLD's 39 and 41, perhaps when this is finished it will say reduce subsidies by a certain percentage so that it is actual more measurable. ACM/McLean explained that this would be a policy decision for the Council to make. CM/Fox said that a certain percentage reduction could be a reportable performance measure i.e. the City was able to reduce subsidies by 50 percent or X number of dollars or, the City was able to return one of the LLD's to the property owners. So this offers a lot of flexibility rather than the current structure which requires completion of tasks. It is a to-do list. It may get checked off as completed, but there is no record of how or why, whereas, the proposed plan would offer more detail in addition to recording the reduction of subsidies by saying that not only was the City able to reduce subsidies, it was able to improve the service, or reduce water or, save here or there or somewhere else. And that tells a better story on how that strategy was achieved. C/Chou asked that once the plan was implemented, how often would the Council be updated on the progress. ACM/McLean reiterated that currently, staff puts out a quarterly report. In this case, he believes that the first item would be to determine what measures are being monitored and what an appropriate interval would be. Currently, it is quarterly which is what staff is proposing to continue going forward. M/Tye said he did not want to be driven by having to complete a three-month report. At the end of three years if 95 percent of 90 objectives have been completed, he thinks it is most important to give good information when it is available rather than require a report when there may be little or nothing to report. ACM/McLean said MARCH 4, 2020 PAGE 3 CC STUDY SESSION that with a transition to this model there are likely to be more updates. A lot of things on the current list are very long-term projects and this would provide flexibility to focus on items in detail as opposed to adding slight changes to 95 different items. ACM/McLean further stated that part of the reason staff needs time to develop performance measures is to make sure that those measures are meaningful. He agrees with M/Tye that he does not believe the City would want to be putting a measure out every quarter that talks about adding one business with another business closing. Many items such as the SR57/60 Big Fix are out of the hands of Diamond Bar, so the performance measures have to be developed that have value. M/Tye agreed with ACM/McLean. ACM/McLean concentrated on key Goals and Strategies items in his Power Point presentation to explain the new format. C/Low asked if strategies would be revised annually and ACM/McLean responded that if there is an initiative that is no longer relevant in future years, staff would make an update to that item. M/Tye asked if business practices would apply to businesses as well as, residents, and ACM/McLean said it would apply to both. ACM/McLean stated that staff is currently working on a cleanup revision to the records retention policy which will be vetted by Counsel and brought forward to the City Council for discussion. C/Low said she could see that based on something about the new rate the Sheriff's Department are charging the City next year and because those numbers go in one direction, it might be that based on costs, and the City might say some charges were too high and some things should be eliminated. If that happens, it would fall to one of the staff members to take on and that means this has now moved from Public Safety to Employee funds which is something the Council and staff should be aware of. The other point is that residents can be prepared and to M/Tye's point, what about the businesses and do they get to be part of this. ACM/McLean reiterated that anyone who does business in Diamond Bar can participate in the programs the City provides. All programs are open to the public which includes businesses. This is an item that the Public Relations Deputy works on. He goes to different shopping centers and interfaces with business owners and provides them with additional tips for their particular situation. Diamond Bar's Public Relations Deputy is very active in the business community. M/Tye said the report was outstanding and excellent and he looked forward to the quarterly reports. C/Low and MPT/Lyons agreed. C/Chou said he has worked in the private sector his entire work life and this is the stuff that companies make millions of dollars consulting on with the final report changing the entire culture of a company. He does not know how staff does this kind of work and he is very impressed. MARCH 4, 2020 PAGE 4 CC STUDY SESSION MPT/Lyons said she really liked the way it tied together with things accomplished. ACM/McLean said the next step would be to schedule this for adoption as the budget process proceeds similar to how the Goals and Objectives and previous Strategic Plans were done. The budget process begins next week and will be on future agendas prior to FY budget adoption. CM/Fox thanked Council for their support and the team and staff for their participation. M/Tye said it excites him that staff was included in this process. Public Comments: None ADJOURNMENT: With no further business to come before the City Council, M/Tye recessed the Study Session at 6:26 p.m. to the Regular Meeting. Respectfully submitted: Kristina Santana, City Clerk The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 17th day of March, 2020. Steve Tye, Mayor