City council is assessing its 2020 strategic plan’s goals to ensure they are being met.
The plan contains five key pillars — strong diversified economy within Williams Lake, strong community relationships, financial stability and sound asset management, strong positive community image and a healthy and inclusive workplace.
During the Tuesday, April 2, community of the whole meeting, Mayor Walt Cobb asked the newer elected councillors for feedback.
Coun. Marnie Brenner praised the previous council for doing a good job and being “fairly aligned” to the plan.
“It’s strong. I like the direction it is going,” she said.
Coun. Sheila Austin-Boehm said it is very well done,
She is working on a strategic plan for another organization and told council the facilitator has encouraged them to come up with a vision that is something to dream about.
“I don’t know if that’s quite there yet,” she added. “I would like to see a big dream that is almost impossible.”
Coun. Ivan Bonnell said the plan has set a clear direction that council has been working on and will continue that work this year and next year.
“I think we just need to drill down and dig deeper in some areas to get more definitiveness on our ability to access lot of these grant funds,” Bonnell said.
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Bonnell suggested council spend a day in May to work on the plan. Council agreed on May 13.
Coun. Jason Ryll described the five pillars as strong and achieving them will be “more project-based.”
“A strong diversified economy, well that’s going to will rely on the projects we encourage development in.”
Coun. Craig Smith said with the crime rate dropping “as dramatically as it has” in the last four years, is helping the direction of Williams Lake.
The city’s chief financial officer, Vitali Kozubenko, suggested the need for performance indicators.
“We should assess annually or semi-annually to see how we are doing,” he said.
Chief administrative officer Milo MacDonald said staff is also being encouraged to make sure its efforts are aligned with the strategic plan.
Director of development services Leah Hartley said a previous finance director had departments build their budgets early in September.
“That would fit in with some of the bench marks that Vitali is talking about,” Cobb said.
Wiliams Lake Strategic Plan 2020 by WL Tribune on Scribd
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