REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
Overview of 2021 City Council Priority Setting Session
Report
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Once a year, the City Council convenes to discuss City priorities. It goes without saying that this year's session will be very different than past years, as we continue to combat the global pandemic and focus resources on essential services and COVID-19 response efforts. Simply stated, we are holding a policy priority setting session during multiple converging crises (e.g., pandemic, economic slowdown, and growing budget deficit/less resources) and after a year of already addressing unprecedented natural and health disasters. Our frame of mind must match the context of our organization's challenges.
Accordingly, the focus of this year's 2021 City Council Priority Setting Session is on the City's fiscal outlook, impact and efforts regarding COVID-19 response and recovery. Given the magnitude of work ahead to restore our economy and address COVID-19 induced impacts, our efforts to recover locally will not happen without intentional and connected decision-making.
Decisions on COVID-19 recovery programs must be examined within the context of what "urgent" or "important" initiatives also need to be addressed. Additionally, while the Council is in transition with its governance structure, having now achieved six district elected Councilmembers, the City's organization has also been under transformation. Unfortunately, Council directives must be evaluated in the context of losing approximately 500 part-time employees and an organization with a 16% vacancy rate (representing approximately hundreds of thousands of lost productivity hours for the organization). The organization that we were pre-pandemic is no longer the organization that we are now and, certainly, not the organization that we will be post-pandemic. We will have a changed governance structure that sets policy with citywide and district goals and an organization built for citywide service ...
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