MARYSVILLE PLANNING RETREAT

 

CITY ADMINISTRATION / CITY COUNCIL

 

MAY 12-13, 2006

 

May 12, 2006

 

The meeting was called to order by President Gore at 1:00 p.m.

 

PRESENT:  Mr. Gore, Mr. Burke, Mr. Fogt, Mr. Reams, Ms. Sellers, Mr. Marshall, Mayor Kruse, Director of Administration House, Police Chief Golden, City Engineer Roush, Public Services Director Davies, Fire Chief Johnson, Human Resource Manager Dostanko, Finance Director Morehart, Economic Development Director Phillips, Law Director Aslaner, Clerk Patterson     Excused:  Ed Pleasant

 

OTHERS PRESENT:  Karl Runser, Facilitator, Robert Gorden, Project Manager

 

Mr. Runser welcomed meeting participants. Introductions were made.  Mr. Runser asked everyone to go around the room, introduce themselves and tell a little bit about themselves.

 

Goals of the Retreat:

·        Bring Administration and Council together to discuss growth issues.

·        Identify challenges and opportunities facing the City.

·        Develop a common vision.

·        Draft initial objectives and action steps to help achieve that vision.

·        Lay foundation for future discussion and cooperation on matters of mutual importance.

 

Ground Rules:

·        Encourage an open and uncensored dialogue.

**  Mr. Runser realizes this is a public meeting with minutes, but encouraged open discussion nonetheless.

·        Seek to understand, be direct and find connections between ideas

·        Be open to considering new and approaches

·        Contribute to the process.  We want ideas from every participant.

 

 

Participants will identify opportunities that lie ahead.  Ideas will be used to create a vision for the future of the City.  From that vision, craft specific to general goals and objectives you want to try to achieve in the near future then actual steps to be taken to achieve those.  A vision statement will be created from the information gathered.

 

Responsibilities/goals:

·        Help move the City forward.

·        Help reach a common goal.

·        Conduit between the City and the Chamber.

·        Bring everyone together, business and city, for the common interest for the good of Marysville.

·        Believe there are common interests, but we just don’t realize it.  Need to define what our interests are and articulate in some fashion that we all understand that we have these common interests and we’re all working in the same direction.

·        Improve quality of life for the people of Marysville.eiH

·        Articulate plan on how to move forward and still keep long-time residents and new residents happy and make Marysville a nice place to live.  

·        Heighten sense of camaraderie.

·        More interaction between Administration and City Council.

·        Realize the impact we have on each other. Impact and actions impact all of us.   We need to understand and respect each other and the citizens’ feelings and exactly what they do and what impact we have on the citizens when we react.  We can then concentrate on our common goals.

·        Agree on priorities and move forward.

·        Improve communication.

·        Common vision between Administration and Council.

·        Need to focus on direction and what it takes to accomplish it.

·        Be proactive so that we’re not constantly solving problems, but ready to accept the growth that is inevitable.

·        Goals may be the same for everyone as far as end result; not sure everyone has the same vision to accomplish the goals.

 

Identify Opportunities and Challenges:

 

Opportunities/Assets

·        Growth

·        Infrastructure planning

o       Wastewater Plant

·        Small town USA

·        Rural community

·        Strong corporate base

·        City employees

·        Cultural activities

·        Great park system

·        Good school system

·        Full service city

·        Low crime rate

·        Great location

·        Good highway system

·        Good tax system

·        Stable economic climate

o       Good financial base

o       Good jobs

o       Low unemployment

·        Good City/County relationship

·        Own utilities

·        New residents

·        Well-planned, well-managed development

·        Effort to brand the community

·        Uptown Renewal Team

·        Strong religious base

·        Strong conservative family values

·        Strong work ethics

 

Challenges

·        Growth – Inadequate infrastructure

o       Transportation area

·        Retain Marysville’s identity through this growth

·        Location

·        Transportation thru the system

·        Need to diversify

o       50% of workforce is manufacturing

o       Not a diverse economic employee base

·        Planning – How to manage growth

·        Adequate staffing

·        Reaching agreement on how to plan for growth

o       There is a difference in opinion between Administration and Council regarding growth.  Administration believes Council is against growth.  Council is not opposed to growth.  They are in favor of controlled growth.

·        Revenue

·        Industrial Parkway Development

o       Zoning is the only option left to control development and the only way to do that is through annexation.

o       City entered into an agreement with the County to take over their sewer and water in that area.   One area was identified as the area the City wants to grow along that corridor (area parallels Industrial Parkway Rt. 33 down the corridor to Rt. 42) by providing utilities to the growth, reserving the right to annex those properties.  The other part of the growth area, City agreed we wouldn’t provide utilities for growth without annexation requirement.   Mayor does not want residential development in that area.  City will refuse to provide sewer and water to residential development.

o       Rt. 33 Corridor Large Group is meeting at the end of the month to discuss the creation of a development over an accord agreement (planning document) along that area and to come to an agreement on how this area will develop.  This accord agreement may be an alternative to annexation.  This agreement will most likely take about a year to finalize.  May need force to work with townships.

·        Public support

·        New residents

o       Brings new expectations and more demand for services which City has not been provided in the past.

·        State government

o       Actions taken at the State level impact municipalities.

 

Parking Lot

·        Growth – a unified plan

 

Day-to-day issues are dependent on growth.

 

 

Survey Response Summary

 

 

Survey responses were broken down into five broad categories:

·        Infrastructure

·        Economic Development & Funding/Financial Issues

·        Planning

·        Human Resources

·        City Organization

 

Group suggested adding the following categories:

·        Communication & Education

o       Lack of communication or awareness within our community

·        Quality of Life

·        City’s identity

·        Relationship w/other governmental entities

·        City finances (essential city services & maintenance operations)

 

Topics may need to be broken down further into definable objectives.

 

Think about how you see Marysville ten years from now.  Take all these into consideration when writing a vision statement.  Vision statement should be fairly general.

 

Consensus of the group is that the following three items are top priorities which need to be  addressed first:

 

1)     Infrastructure

2)     Planning

3)     Economic Development

 

Breakout groups work on slogans that describe Marysville.

 

Group #1 – Marysville, Ohio – A great location where hometown values and enterprises grow together

 

Group #2 – A caring community, a business opportunity

 

Group #3 – Marysville – Your quality of life is our priority

 

Group #4 – Marysville – The safe, friendly, family hometown

 

Group #5 – Opportunity + Safety + Prosperity = Marysville

 

 

May 13, 2006

 

Recap of information previously gathered.

 

Group began writing and refining a vision statement.

 

A vision statement is not be confused with a mission statement.  A vision statement is the image of where you want to be or go.  A mission statement is more practical and states a purpose and function.

 

          “A vision statement is a concise statement that defines the mid- to long-term goals of an organization or community.  Visioning is the first step in the strategic planning process.  It is an image of a desired future.  The vision is external and should express a “visionary” idea of how the community is seen by the world.  It may also describe the community’s uniqueness.”

 

Quality of life has to be #1.  Business opportunity should contribute to their quality of life.  There are different levels of quality of life.

 

Suggested vision statement:  Marysville, Ohio is and will be a community where small town values and enterprise opportunities make for a preferred quality of life.

 

A vision statement needs to be a guide for everything you do.

 

The public must be able to relate to the statement.

 

Ways of relaying the vision statement.  Put it on City’s website, print it on water bills.

 

All decisions must fit the profile.

 

Refined and finalized the vision statement:

 

“Marysville, Ohio – The safe, friendly hometown where families and economic opportunity grow together… we are committed to community pride, healthy families, well-planned neighborhoods and a vibrant economy.”

 

Objectives and action steps:

 

Infrastructure, planning and economic development are all driven by finances.

 

If City were to propose a tax increase, plan must be presented to people and include:     1) This is what we want to do; 2) it will cost this much and 3) this is what has been done with the money.

 

There must be a consensus between Council and Administration.

 

Administration must know what Council wants. 

Council must ask questions. 

Should not question the trust of Administrative responsibilities. 

Council should be involved in more development decisions.

 

City needs a process to communicate.

 

It was stated Council used to set goals, then Administration would know what was important to Council.

 

Council needs information early on regarding developments.  The Code is part of the problem.

 

Operational vs. legislative issues.  Needs to be defined.

 

Communication:

§        Trust building

§        Information sharing

§        Structure “How to’s”

§        Forum for exchange of information

§        Celebrate successes

 

What do department heads need from Council.

 

Council needs to understand the many services provided to residents.  They need to stop by sometime just to check in.

 

Some of Council would like to focus on capital needs.  Capital needs can be addressed once there is a strategic plan.

 

As far as financial information provided to Council, is it adequate?  Finance information is adequate and helpful.  Department/Division heads are to be credited for taking care of their own budgets.  Finance oversees the budgets.  It’s a team effort.

 

Next steps:

§        Continue at home

§        Find a facilitator for comprehensive plan

§        Update comprehensive plan

§        Do a strategic plan

§        Framework for strategic plan

§        Infrastructure

§        Planning

§        Economic Development

§        City Finances

 

§        Communication is a priority.

§        How to inform the public?

§        Web site

§        Weekly publications

§        Council and Administration decides how they want to receive information from each other

 

Sub-committees were assigned to continue work at home on priorities.

 

Communication     John Gore

                             John Marshall

                             Brian Dostanko

                             Kathy House  *

 

Infrastructure                  Phil Roush *

                             Gary Johnson

                             Floyd Golden       

                             Mark Reams

                             Dan Fogt

 

Planning                Leah Sellers

                             Eric Phillips

                             John Marshall

                             Tom Kruse *

                             Tracie Davies

 

Economic

    Development     Eric Phillips *       

                             John Morehart

                             David Burke

                             Ed Pleasant

                             Tim Aslaner

 

Finance                 David Burke *

                             Dan Fogt

                             John Gore

                             John Morehart

                             Kathy House

 

Sub-committees must meet prior to June 15th and set a regular schedule.  Each committee should set objectives and purposes for strategic plan.

 

Full group will meet no later than July 15th to discuss objectives from each group.

 

Meet adjourned at 2:30 p.m.