I guess I will call the role again myself.

Counselor Kimmy?

Here.

Counselor Teeter.

Here.

Counselor Duggar.

Here.

Counselor Hartmeyer Prigg.

Here.

Counselor Hussen.

Here.

And Counselor Tivnon is joining us remotely.

Do we have her?

All right, we got her.

She said talking.

Okay.

We are on continuation of our retreat from yet.

Are you telling me to hold on?

Well, I'm just going to wonder what's I don't often get people shishing me, but I'll just uh go ahead and allow it.

I mean, to be clear, my eight-year-old does it at least 14 times a day, so okay.

All right.

Well, we are together for four hours.

None of us will complain if we get done early.

Um I would say my hopes is that we ended yesterday in a really good note.

It felt really good.

We had a lot of uh staff input, and even though Counselor Tivnon was missed, uh her contribution was the exact same as the council, which really felt great from alignment.

So I know today we're gonna go over some challenges and commitments and next steps, and I hope that today feels as great as yesterday.

So no prance uh pressure, Nancy, but um hope you can deliver.

So while we're accepting and getting the thoughts.

Um to get going.

So but I wanted to start off by just asking in the room if there are any reflections, any reactions, takeaways from last night from yesterday uh that you want to share.

Uh we will go back and take fresh eyes to the priorities uh just to kind of reset, uh not to backpedal, but just to kind of remind ourselves and and see with fresh eyes if it still fits.

Uh, and then I'll walk through the full agenda of what we're gonna cover uh during our time care this evening, but really it's it shifts gears towards strategic planning, and so we're gonna get that that component started.

So starting off, um reactions, thoughts from last night from yesterday?

Gonna keep saying last night because it's the night now.

Oh thank you.

So I know we came out of yesterday, many of us sharing the the word of alignment and feeling very aligned with our conversation.

I think that feels really good.

One of the things I appreciated about the process is that uh we weren't all always saying the exact same thing, but we were asking questions to clarify our understanding what people were saying and pushing back sometimes.

And um I think we don't always agree on the process, but we are kind of trying to point the same direction.

I appreciate the the way that we came to our landing spot there at the end.

Excellent.

Appreciate that.

Um speaking specifically about the priorities, presumably.

Okay, good.

Patricia, we got you right over here.

Anybody else?

And no pressure, you don't have to say, and just giving opportunity for reflections.

I'll just add it's no surprise to me that there was a lot of alignment.

I've I've worked with not only my colleagues, but the the staff for a while, and like it's not surprising to me.

What what what I'm excited about both tonight and going forward is not the value alignment, but it's the prioritization work and it's the risk tolerance.

It's it's sort of these the how how you operationalize some of the uh aligned things that might cause differences, but like I feel like we have a we're in a really good place where we are value aligned on these things.

And that's a that feels really good.

And I I echo with counselor um Counselor Teeter said that's that's a it's a lot safer and better place to start um when we talk about difficulty and prioritization and and risk and all these other various parts to operationalize.

So I'm very excited and optimistic.

Awesome.

Yeah, definitely starting at a at a shared at a shared place as you're navigating all this.

We will be zooming out and and kind of thinking more um big picture around next steps and direction for the city for the community.

Uh we had some conversation, some sidebar conversations, some larger conversation yesterday about um kind of the bigger framing, right?

Around strategic planning and and sharding that longer term course, what does that look like?

And so therefore, how do you define priorities within that?

We had some conversation uh during a break.

That's what we want to start thinking about today.

Um and so the the priorities that we looked at yesterday really are a bridge to uh to the future of of the strategic planning work that we're gonna be going on.

And I'm still looking to Jesse to see how I get this up on the screen so I can share the screen.

All right.

I think we're now really on track, so now I feel much better.

Thank you for my all of the technical assistance and the guidance.

Uh so we had our reflections from yesterday.

Um but as we get started, I wanted to have something that kind of brings us together.

One of the the um hopes for our time together that was expressed yesterday by a few people was spending time together, right?

We we're gonna do intentional work tonight, just as we did yesterday.

Um, but just ending a little bit of light like levity to start for an evening uh to get us started.

So I have a question here uh up on the screen that I'm gonna ask you to think about and just kind of a quick share, quick icebreaker.

The question is what is one memorable holiday tradition treat or decoration from your childhood?

Just a little bit of um levity and softness as we start the day and do a little bit of sharing.

Ask volunteer to get us.

We left here is put up all the I have two Christmas trees, one that's like the pretty formal Christmas tree, but the other one that's just all of the family or my mom used to do that.

Oh gosh, and my mom used to do that, and there's like seriously ones from like 1975 that I have in some of those, so it's just fun to put those up with the kids and remember when we went to Cabo or remember in Hawaii or those kind of things that we always pick one up, even though they always complain because I always had to stop and get an ornament.

So you have a dedicated tree for those those memories.

Nice, very nice.

Okay, Ashley, you want to go?

Sure.

Um so we actually put up our tree last night because I needed some festive some festive things, and it was it's already like mid-December somehow, so it was like now or never.

Um but one of my favorite memories is actually just from last year.

My husband's been learning to play the ukulele, and he was playing jingle bells, and all three of our dogs were sitting with him on the sofa and just like watching, and it was just the cutest thing.

And it's just this little like 20-second video, but I could just like watch it over and over and then like see like you know, an ear move differently, or like my deaf dog that doesn't she can't hear it, but is still just watching intently.

So that's one of my new favorite holiday things.

So that's good.

So new holiday memories, old holiday memories.

Tap into the one that resonates for you.

Um I think for me, it's probably um the most recent holiday uh Thanksgiving, not necessarily um we don't celebrate Christmas, so it's uh it's more just the uh opportunity to kind of test out recipes and and to you know have a big meal together, and I think it's just fun now, you know, m as my kids have gotten older to like watch them just gorge a little bit and just teenage boys and you know kind of what they're uh they're interested in and what they're able to participate in, and you know, the uh my younger son being able to contribute uh something that he was both interested in eating and actually making it himself.

So it was just fun to watch.

I forget who who said it.

Maybe Jocelyn, you said it about seeing things through your kids' eyes and how it changes things so much.

I'm gonna come over here just because I saw Nadia raise her hand so I don't want her to have to be last now after we go all the way through here.

Did that's okay go ahead Kenya we'll keep it we'll keep moving.

Uh so um we I don't we don't celebrate Christmas but we have a holiday called Eid and uh my memory and this is more from the the east coast where I grew up was um you would start the morning going to a prayer or like a sermon and then after prayer um everyone in our community would go from house to house to house to house and we'd eat all day 'cause it was usually after Ramadan.

And you wouldn't have to go in your parents' car because every car was ending up at all the houses.

So we'd probably hit like 10 houses in a day.

And it's we've never really brought it back to life here in Oregon but we've we've tried with the kids and it's just it's just so fun to eat all day and then to go to ten different homes and then to not have to be in your car and just be in a car of your friends.

So it was really good one.

Oh what a great memory that's fun.

Travis go with an easy one which is just my mother she passed away a few years ago but she always used to make something she called winter.

Thick sometimes chewy, sometimes break your teeth peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate, nuts, berries, twigs from the plants that the berries were picked from I think sometimes you'd freeze them then they're even like harder to eat but more of an experience.

It was a member of the family was these cookies.

I have the recipe or a recipe I haven't been able to recreate quite the magic but I'm gonna try again this year.

Along the same lines as you my mother is a master candy maker.

So um she's eighty-nine and so that that is uh a harder thing to accomplish nowadays but still doing it uh all the traditional candies divinity pinocci fudge and somehow I think the tradition's uh going to leave our family because I can't replicate the work and I've tried that surprises me about you because you're so Betty homemaker that you can't make fudge so I'll try your next version.

I'll be your guinea peg.

My mom was not a baker she was an athlete and she never cooked anything but on Christmas for as long as I could remember in our stockings were the uh life saver holiday packs for all four of us kids.

All of us hated them like super hated them but every year they were like the family thing and a few months later we'd throw them out and so a few years ago my mom stopped doing it and to which all of us absolutely revolted about waking up on Christmas and not having these years buying them for my kids this really shitty holiday candy that no one's gonna eat but it is the the memory that matters probably like the cookies people can't really crunch down on the when we um I have two brothers and when there's a pretty big age gap.

So for Christmas my mom would do joke stock stockings so like everything in your stocking um would like come to the from the dollar store or something.

So like my brother got a paint your own donkey um or um we got fake lottery tickets one year but it was always the the goal was to make you laugh and to maybe say something about your personality that um they only got to say on Christmas day.

So it was always joke stockings.

And looking up and I sure I saw the but apparently uh I was trying hard to think about Christmas in my life.

Um I I I was born in South Korea.

I remember walking down the street when it's cold and with uh snowing and you hear this Christmas songs coming out of this record stores, and all of a sudden a few years later it's all gone.

You don't hear anything because of strict uh copyright loss that you couldn't play music outside, oh you gotta pay.

So but I miss those.

I miss the Christmas music, walking down the street, eye shopping and going to stores, enjoy a cup of you know hot chocolate.

Uh so I wouldn't really have a tradition because I grew up in Korea and then quite there's no Christmas.

You come here, uh immigrant family, so you don't really have a family around.

So but then I tried to um create my own tradition by meeting my kids in Las Vegas every year.

So we'll see how it happens.

Before Christmas.

Um Easter is my favorite holiday because you don't have a lot of pressure around it.

And in Jamaica, it's it starts Holy Thursday and it ends on Monday, and those are holiday days.

But on Sunday, you take a basket of everything that you're grateful for, and you take it and you offer it.

And my mother was a seamstress.

She made wedding dresses, did our own beating, and so she would take shoe boxes, and she would make um baskets for every and anybody.

And um, so she would pack them.

We would get to pack them with our favorite things that we wanted to give away.

And um, they have to be good things that you wanted, but you had to sacrifice happily, and um, so it was always fun filling your baskets because they were so pretty, and um taking them to church on Sunday and giving them away.

So that's a tradition that we had as a child.

Thank you.

Yeah, uh, you know, one of the things I remember is uh we didn't have a lot of money growing up, but um on Christmas Eve, my brothers and I would always save up our money, and there was a kid in the neighborhood that had a lot of comic books, and we would go down and we would buy comic books for pennies on the dollar and stay up all night long and read comic books together.

So before the meeting the mayor made fun of me for my car heart jacket, and so my memory kind of ties in with the carhart jackets because they are more of my childhood and upbringing in rural North Carolina.

We used to go on the side of a mountain and cut down Christmas trees.

It was always really fun and probably a little dangerous.

And then afterwards, after Christmas, we would take the tree down and then throw it out for our goats.

Um so carhart is was part of the tradition we put on our car heart jackets and go.

In fairness, I wasn't making fun of Kevin.

I asked whose coat it was because it's a working man's coat.

Um I I'm gonna bet you're how to say this, so um hopefully my husband's not watching.

Um so when the kids were little, um in in a lot of Asian countries uh for New Year's you get uh money, and so you put them in on these for for uh Japanese, it's uh Pochikoru uh Bukoro, and so it they're really really pretty and they're very ornate and stuff, and so we always liked getting those for the kids, and of course they like the money, and I like the envelopes.

So yeah, I think I think for me when I was maybe 10, my both my parents and my grandparents uh never had put up Christmas lights or holiday lights outside their house, and I just insisted that was what I wanted to do.

And so every single year, including as an adult, including as a college student, I've always done lights and we haven't put ours up this year because I'm having shoulder injuries, but I will get something up, but it's like it's just been kind of my thing, and every year um my husband not the biggest fan of it originally, but now he's getting into it.

Like it's like this thing that we're every year we buy a little bit more after the holidays when they're on sale.

Kind of a thing.

Doing it.

I'll try to say this respectfully as a term of endearment.

Um I grew up in rural Missouri in Carhartt country, and I'll but uh I miss snow a lot.

No one has said snow, but for my childhood I miss it a lot.

There is no snow left in Missouri really anymore these days.

But we would always do something uh at night on Christmas, and you don't do sledding, you do what's called hooding, and you just take an old hood from an old car and you turn it over and you chain that to the back of a truck, and my dad would just drive all of us kids in the neighborhood around on the gravel roads, and the amount of injuries that came out of that that built character, I'll never forget though.

That's a hard one to follow.

Um so when my kids were young, my mother-in-law gave us um the elf on the shelf.

And at the time um I was perhaps a little annoyed because I had very young kids, and those of you that have kids know that the holiday season is a lot, and so to have to take the elf every night and hide him and put him in a new spot, and then the kids couldn't touch him.

But the kids loved the elf, and then they would go um up to wherever he was sitting that day and like tell him uh their Christmas list, and then they would make little presents for him.

And he became this really fun tradition, and now that they are older and um know that I'm the one that moves the elf.

I said that it's their turn uh to move the elf.

So my oldest son uh the other day um positioned him with uh a couple of uh alcohol cans around him and like a little note that says no one believes in me.

And so I feel like we have evolved it into a new tradition where we're just gonna have like fun with all the crazy places he can go.

The transition for the elf and for the whole family.

Yeah, I am so grateful that the elf came after my kids were a little bit older.

I would not have I would have failed that process.

Well, thank you.

Okay, that's fun.

I just it's a nice to share a little bit of something personal, understand.

Uh Kenya, did you want to share something you wanted to just pass?

Okay, good.

All right, so let's go and take a look now.

Um I skip right over the agenda quickly.

There we go.

So here's our agenda for this evening, just to kind of get us uh a little bit uh grounded and oriented.

Uh so we'll do a little bit of an overview on strategic planning, uh kind of what it is, you know, why it matters, and kind of an overview, uh make sure we're all sort of speaking the same language about expectations.

Uh then we'll have some conversation around what is that, what is a successful process gonna look like from your perspective.

We wanna use this time uh hear about you know what are your goals for the the plan itself, also for the process, what does that look like, um, the roles of council versus staff uh and then who should be engaged.

So we'll just get some ideas in the room.

Really tonight is about starting to get grounded in harvesting where you want to go with this with this process.

And so that's the intent there.

Uh and then we're gonna do a couple of fun activities.

I think you guys will really enjoy them.

Uh one is really kind of big picture sort of visioning around what are those things that are true today about Beaverton that uh that you appreciate, you value, you don't want to change.

And what are those things that are not true today that if you fast forward 10 years from now you'd like to see happen?

What are those things you want to make happen?

So what do we want to preserve and what do we want to create?

So we're gonna do an activity that allows us to kind of brainstorm explore each of those different ideas uh and see what themes start to emerge.

And again, we can we'll put all of this content into the summary report so you can use this then as you're moving forward and your strategic planning process.

Uh and then the last part that we will spend our time together on this evening is really just doing some brainstorms, and we'll do this at table groups around strengths, challenges, and opportunities.

And so I guess trying to get grounded on some of the things that are important for the current context and gives you something to work from when you start to move into your strategic planning efforts.

Uh that's that's our our agenda and our approach for this evening.

Uh and we'll wrap up and questions or concerns.

No, no, you can't be yawning already, Travis.

Come on.

Okay, that's fair.

Oh, that's fair.

Exactly.

Uh so here are I want to bring us back first of all to where we concluded last night, or yeah, last night, yesterday evening.

I wanted to bring them back in the room just to see how they're still feeling, how they're landing.

And keep in mind, as we I think talked about um and clarified uh in yesterday wrapping up.

This is the jumping off point.

And so obviously there'll be a work plan that's developed, opportunity to foreign touch teas in a further way, but in terms of the broad breaststrokes, we have five fiscal sustainability, affordable housing, um, enhanced mobility.

That was the safe streets.

Uh economic development, but particularly a focus on small.

And then community safety.

And we talked about how that incorporates incorporates a lot, not just broadly defined.

And we also talked about the overarching need and priority to do community engagement effectively to support afternoon around the importance and the that effectively related to the budget and related to your levy process.

But this is so that's where we landed with this.

And I know that we have Alison listening in too, and hopefully she can see herself in here because we shared some of her uh priorities for our final report.

Um but any reactions, reflections on this?

Do they still feel like they represent the things that are uh highest need highest?

Yeah.

The moment talk about those things that it's like on fiscal sustainability to put levy and fees up there seems very transactional and something that's going to be implemented at the very beginning of the year, where it seems as though it should be more that is one piece of the fiscal sustainability puzzle, but that we should be discussing fiscal sustainability in general as a priority, and the levy and fees are one aspect of that.

No, I think that's a good comment, and I think that for each of those where we have sort of those elements in parentheses, it was some of the context that got us there, and so how you navigate that.

But I I share, I appreciate the opportunity the mention and you know, doing continuous improvements, some of those other efforts, efficiencies also contribute there to be sure.

Yes, it's it's on this blue sideways, just the communication and engagement, and I want to make sure, however, the iteration we pass this, that staff really hear that that is a key, what the council is saying out loud.

And so I know we have Nicole in the room, but like when this document's created, the community and the staff should understand where we are.

And so it's there, it's in a different color, it's clear it transcends everything, but I think we'll have some work to do on communicating it.

Absolutely.

And and yeah, I this is does not have to be the end version.

This is our capture from yesterday.

I think the intent was to illustrate that it overarches everything in terms of an important element.

Um we present that ultimately back in your report and any final deliverables.

Right.

Any other and this is the beginning of the journey, so obviously we'll have other opportunities to okay.

So let's talk a little bit about strategic planning again.

This is a just a little bit of an overview to try to to see the the conversation, get us get us warmed up so that you are prepared as you're moving forward with this effort later.

Um I'm failing my techno my technology pieces in all areas.

Is that gonna work okay?

That should be good.

Okay.

All right, stay tuned.

We'll see.

Maybe turn it up.

All right, so strategic planning, uh, you know, and it's basic core, uh, really looks to answer three basic questions, and so it's not complicated, you don't want to overthink it, um, but we want to be intentional about how you how you have these conversations.

And so um three questions are um kind of what is the current contest, you know, what how how are things today?

We want to understand um the the organization, the community, the current context.

So we start off with the sorry.

Um what do we I'm losing my my thought to the that threw me off a little bit.

Uh what do we know to be true today?

Uh and that can be uh those things that are working well, we're gonna brainstorm some of these ideas this evening.

Uh and then the next question is what do we hope will be true in the future?

This is our vision, uh, what we're shooting for, what we're aiming for.

These can be strategic goals, this can be your vision statement.

Uh, and then importantly, the third question is how are we gonna get there?

And that really starts to point you in the direction of clear and crisp goals and strategies, the language that you use, you'll have to decide what works for you.

Um, but that becomes then your roadmap.

Uh it drive it drives a lot of the work of the organization.

It helps you both in terms of allocating and defining what you're gonna spend your resources on, but also tracking and monitoring and communicating your progress along the way.

So this graphic, which is a lot on a screen, I recognize uh, and you might recognize the um the look and feel.

This is one of one of Julie's pieces, provides an overview of the process.

Establish your clear goals, and then how do we get there?

This can move from broad goals and objectives into work plans at the department level.

And so there's a nice alignment and link throughout those pieces so that you can have a comprehensive approach to how you're moving forward.

So a lot on the screen, but an overview of strategic planning at the highest level.

How does this fit in?

We get this question a lot with uh strategic planning.

Uh it's a longer term plan.

We want to make sure that we're focused on uh three or five year horizons so you have time to work through issues, challenges, opportunities that are in front of you.

It's not a one-year set of priorities.

Um, but it's also different from your long-term comp plan uh or longer term strategies you may have in place, even your CIP.

Uh so it nests within those, it needs to be aligned and informed by those elements.

Uh so it sort of falls in the three to five year stage in the middle, but it provides that overarching framework for all the work you do.

From there, annual priority setting from council within the strategic plan, uh departmental strategic plans and work plans, budget allocation, these all stem from the strategic plan.

So they all nest together comfortably when they're done intentionally.

Uh so that's a little bit of an overview, you know, kind of the the language.

Um I wanted to have some conversation in the room for all of you to think about what is going to constitute success from your perspective, and this will be helpful for those who are working on the strategic planning effort going forward, um, defining that.

So when you think about the final plan, what is the goal?

What is going to be successful?

Uh additionally, what is a successful process look like from you?

What is what are the ingredients that you want to make sure are incorporated into your process?

Uh so we'll talk about success, and then also want to have some conversation around roles, uh, the role of council, the role of staff, uh and how those two fit together complementary.

Um talk about those and then engagement, who all needs to be at the table in one form.

And so this is a little bit of early chart.

Um project chartering for your starting off with that first part, um, and we'll just do this as a large group, we'll have other opportunities to work in small groups.

But what must the what must the final plan accomplish?

What is success look like from your perspective?

Shingar comments over there.

Um I know one of the things I've always been a little like uh anxious about a strategic plan because I feel like we have so many departments kind of doing their own strategic plan.

So I think a thing a final plan really needs to accomplish is weaving the work of the different departments, which is not to say that would guide it, but I just because I see like an economic strategic plan.

I see you know each group kind of working on there.

So I think weaving that will be really important for me.

Really critical that you have all those pieces nesting together and that they're complementary, and the strategic plan charts the course, and you have the pieces whether it's a library strategic plan.

We heard about that underway with the library or a broader economic development plan that they're contributing to the strategic plan.

What else?

Mayor Sorry.

Good to keep your eye on your your upstanding.

That is okay.

Um I think the the kind of mission vision uh part of it, the the why.

Um we are a body that meets a few times a month.

Um, always have a packed agenda.

We can rarely weigh in on every single thing.

So I think that will help us establish the context and the context and why we're doing what we're doing to allow staff to have better understanding beyond just, you know, I I think about like the the uh enhanced mobility, right?

Does that mean we want to build a tin-lane freeway through the middle of Beaverton?

Or does that mean we want complete streets?

And and and I think those ha uh um those why statements and the the mission and vision and really clarifying to that will give staff that additional context to understand what that actually th those priorities prioritization uh sorry, those priorities, you know, will give them a context and meaning in a way that that allows us to weigh in where we need to, but not to be a roadblock constantly.

Right if that makes sense.

Well, yeah, absolutely, and it makes a lot of um back and forth conversation easier because you're having a same conversation, right?

Exactly.

Exactly.

Mayor Um, I kind of look at the strategic plan like an investment strategy and why now, and I think it's really important now that the council's instituted term limits, we're gonna have elected officials moving uh through the system a lot more.

You know, when I joined the council many years ago, I had been the only one to join in a really long time.

I I joined colleagues that all almost served over a decade when I joined, and so their historic knowledge of the city was really in depth.

Um all the long-term staff was there, but what we have seen now is immense turnover in executive staff and elected leadership.

And in that kind of space, it's really easy to um be responsive to the elected officials that are trying to get something done right now, which is important for all of us.

And I I point to this building all the time.

The past council had immense reserves, they were strategic in water investments.

The reason we don't have to worry about water is too, you know, 20 or 30 years of uh investment in a water strategy that was if you live in Beaverton, you get Beaverton's water, and we can control the rate in our future.

And so my my fear of not having a strategic plan is that we're very subjected to the crisis of the moment.

And just like your long-term investment for retirement, when you have a off-year or a crisis, you still keep investing and you keep still keep looking forward to that ultimate goal of retirement.

And so I think the best thing we could give our children is this kind of plan that transcends us.

And the plan should not, I know what you want in it, what it should do.

It should not be about today's crisis.

It should be about the long-term health of the city and a pl to allow us the time to think about what do we want Beaverton 10 or 20 years absent of the crisis right now, whether it's COVID or an ice storm, but it's gonna give us that ability to really think about the long-term health of the city.

And another just shorter um example of why we're good at this is Bira and urban redevelopment.

And really, you know, 14 years ago, and we asked voters to change it, we had the vision that is just now starting to come to life.

So, what is this council's mark gonna be for the future?

And it's setting that foundation and steadiness for staff to be able to work towards something long term.

It gives you an opportunity to to think forward and be aspirational about what do we want to create and what's it gonna take to get there.

Uh I do think that the the um the value of understanding the current context allows you to then prioritize within the plan about how you're gonna get there.

Um, but you absolutely don't want to miss the opportunity to to think about what is that future we want to create.

Uh and defining it in a way that people can connect to.

We talked yesterday about storytelling and how you connect to things, it's the same idea.

You want to be able to create something that people see themselves in and can be excited about.

Uh, and then you can start to align the elements within that.

Uh-oh, did I just say what you were gonna say?

You can please please.

Okay.

Okay, all right.

All right, so are there other uh goals of the process?

What is success look like from your perspective?

I mean, thinking about the process, you know, because it's the end plan, right?

And having something that um is provides stability and vision all bundled together.

Um but to get there, what the process, what does that look like to you?

What would make for um a process that is successful and vibrant?

Staff will be able to understand the why and they will be able to get behind it.

Um they will learn how to get behind it.

And then to the mayor's point, it won't be about what's in front of us, but the vision will be very clear.

Um as we OSLs are growing towards that vision.

Um I'm thinking about even in HR, it will affect professional development, it will affect organizational development, it will affect how we interview, it will affect how we recruit, how we even write our recruitment plans.

behind it and then to to the mayor's point it won't be about what's in front of us but the vision will be very clear um as we OSOs are growing towards that vision um I'm thinking about even in HR it will affect professional development it will affect organizational development it will affect how we interview it will affect how we recruit how we even write our recruitment plans um so I I believe it will actually shape what we want to be in order to change what we have now you you raised a good point in terms of um the interconnectedness between the community that you want to have and the environment you want to create and how the organization needs to shape and adapt in order to be able to get there that's an important part of am I still messing up oh good okay good um and as a part of the process right and that's that's a key Alison are you there Counselor Tipnon we can't hear you now we see it says you're talking on the top but we just can't hear you and once you know he could just sense that you were talking to impress our table over here all right if you can hear us we're gonna continue to work on making sure that it connects in a way that we can actually hear we want to hear your words we might have to come back and just check on that.

Yeah if you want to put in the chat maybe we can read out your comments if the huh oh I just said I want to hear her voice so I know she's okay.

Yeah we miss you Counselor Tipnoton.

I will say from the process for me I like and I know you say who should be engaged but I think engagement is actually a huge part of the process being a success for me and having a little bit of space to dream because I think that does kind of help when you're you're looking towards your future but also like taking learnings from what has worked and it has to be grounded in reality of of budget constraints or of just the the the services we want to provide right and so thinking about what does our city look like what are the services that we want to be able to provide in the long term is part of the process like I I think a lot of the activities we spoke about yesterday are things that are an important part of the process for me to feel like this strategy is like well um just is very like the intention behind it is like grounded in those things and that conversation that we've been having another question too and and this gets a little bit to the process and also to um uh the goal is to think about um the the primary audience you know for your strategic plan is it is it really focused on um the organization and how the organization is going to deliver and move towards uh your goals or is it more of a community oriented plan and so that's something maybe also to provide some thought on because who you engage what that looks like and the the focus of your vision and your goals might be changed might be altered depending on that orientation thoughts on that my first reaction is that I would prefer to have it be more internally focused on the city as an organization because we have other plans for community and for neighborhoods but I think that I would like more clarity on internal workings of the organization and how we I'm open to other thoughts but that's my first reaction you have your comprehensive plan you have other you know broader focused plans that you're mentioning that may address that broader vision potentially reactions on that thoughts on kind of being an organizationally focused yeah I I agree with counselor teeter I think we have immense input and I and you know I think almost all of us in this room got our start to politics on a border commission serving and and helping create a vision that way what I always find challenging about that is we're asking people uh to have input into something that's really challenging that they might not see all the pieces even the budget committee has a hard time seeing all the pieces and um we are the people's representative in the building people elected us because we're do it to do a strategic plan is going to require strategic level work and a really understanding of everything that a city does and I think a lot of times in this role I already feel like it's an inch deep and a mile wide I don't even know I can't even explain half the stuff we do to the person I live with.

And I think a lot of times in this role, I already feel like it's an inch deep and a mile wide.

I don't even know, I can't even explain half the stuff we do to the person I live with.

I don't know how we would do it in a way to get input that would be extremely meaningful for us to contribute that process, but I do think it needs to be heavily focused on the city, our infrastructure, uh, and what that looks like yeah.

I mean I I can't see the chat from what on my view here.

Hi, I'm gonna read Allison's comment in the chat.

She says, I'll just put in a comment here that what's most important to me in crafting a strategic plan is that we carefully balance aspirations with what's feasible, and that we come out of this with something that's implementable, understanding that future counselors will have opinions that might run counter to what we craft right now, building in some flexibility, implyability so that this planning document stays relevant and resonant will be important.

Thank you, Alison.

We got your your in absolutely, and that's that is um really important consideration as you are developing your plan and how you are a how you are using it both internally as an organization through implementation plans and reporting and tracking, um, but also the framework that you have.

And if you have a a clear and crisp set of goals and framework that transcends you know a year-to-year approach, uh oftentimes they are sustainable.

The flexibility and adaptability uh is critical dependent on the resources you have available, uh, the opportunities that are immediately in front of you, you want to be able to navigate.

That's why the annual priority setting, budget decisions are all really instrumental in how you are implementing forward on your plan.

Yeah, I I mean I just want to echo what Councillor Tivon says.

Hi, Counselor Tivnan.

Um I I was thinking about like how do you build some flexibility into the plan.

I want to also comment on some of the other statements that were made, and it goes back to what I originally said was, you know, I remember when I first started reading every strategic plan that the city stopped, like you know, if it was like your climate action plan or your um there was like an equity.

I mean, like, so I remember all these plans, and I just I don't think that we need external engagement, but I would hope that we're inventorying all those plans and really pulling from there things because I think we have over probably asked on some of these things in the community, and then I don't know what that delivery of what we've asked is.

So just going back into like a lot of the plans that we've crafted across departments and really looking for commonalities, I think feels really important with staff and and also ensuring that that council is is sort of touching it as well.

Tapping into the knowledge uh of those that are in the organization with those plans too, to be sure.

All right, other other thoughts or comments?

Yeah, oh gosh.

That's okay.

No, I was I was just gonna I I think it should be uh two things reflective of the community, which is what we brought yesterday with the prioritization.

So I think that's that's the aspect that that represents the community values through through our discussions in it, but it should be operationally uh applied to the city staff, right?

Like it should be a document for them to be able to.

So I would say both, but we've already done the community part, and now we as we craft the strategic plan part of that, it should be directed for city internal city staff.

Helpful, I think for the conversation to happen in the room, and just to get clarity, I I hear I'm hearing a consistency and alignment in terms of the need, the expectation.

Um, but I think it's valuable to have those things said out loud to be able to make sure that you're aiming in the same direction with the same objective.

Um roles.

Uh thoughts or comments on the you know in the strategic planning process and the use between council is the um policy setting board and staff in terms of the process and the flow.

Comments on that um I think that the maybe the council's role is more of to kind of set those the priorities and like the types of conversations that we've been having.

Um, like we've had consistency, but like adjustments over the years that we've all been together, and that those priorities and maybe some of the goals should influence a strategy, but that I think that a lot of this strategy work would be driven by staff in the sense that they bring all the expertise in their in their areas.

Um that that's kind of my thinking.

But the vision set the strategic goals and go from there.

What about um you know, participation launching, you know, early on later in the process once information has been gathered?

Thoughts on on that in terms of the role of council for driving or engaging in the process?

Trying to get the ideas in the room.

I I mean, I think part of this evening in my mind is is uh allowing us, because I think I said this in my interview, like I know us and we want to like touch kind of probably from the beginning and then let staff and and folks do the work.

I think sometimes we've been at the receiving end of something that started with not necessarily without us, but just by staff, and so it's oh it's been more reactive, and so I see the next couple of hours as sort of starting and then leaving staff to sort of um permeate and and with city leadership to come back to us and let us know what the rest looks like.

Build a plan to bring back for adoption by council.

I think I would I would agree with my colleagues on crafting the plan.

I think that's accurate.

What what I'm still unsure of, and I think an internal processor, I need a little bit of time to think about this, but like will be those moments on the dais over the next four to five years.

Like, how do we operationalize this, not just for staff, but for us, so we're not stepping on it or inadvertently creating new pathways or new new complications, right?

Like how do we check each other?

How do we check staff?

How does staff check us?

Like like those kind of things I haven't figured out, and I think that's almost more important than the creation of this.

It's the maintenance and the updating and all of that sort of stuff.

And I I just want to think about that.

Yeah, no, how it's used.

I think that's an important question, important conversation.

Uh, you know, while it's every organization has our own um energy approach, you know, typically you see the vision and the goals, you know, developed and owned by council, right?

That's setting policies, setting direction, uh, informed, of course, by all the input and the plans that are in place and and any kind of engagement activities you do internal, external.

Uh, but those two elements often are those that that council really owns, and it's a little more aspirational, provides that future direction.

Uh the mission of the organization, the values, those things that really tie to organizational culture are oftentimes things that are more internally focused because it's how are we going to work together to drive?

Um, with of course, council ultimately blessing and kind of weighing in, but that's typically owned by the organization.

The strategies and elements um are developed by staff and brought to council as well.

Okay, I've got two.

I'm not sure who was first.

Stacey.

Uh just have some thoughts around our roles, executive team and and certainly Jenny's role is uh the ability to kind of break down silos within our departments and be integrated and not competing and how we're trying to move forward with a strategic plan to execute.

Um I think a little bit uh well, I agree with counselor Hussen, but uh maybe put an example behind not just some of the plans that councils have been involved in created.

I think a lot about the facilities master plan.

One, it was a really hard process for us for many reasons around consultants and other things, but that plan requires a long-term vision that we've not set.

We know that public works needs more space that are outgrowing it.

We know that the court building is antiquated, we know that the courts likely need a new space.

We know that as the city grows, we have no operations in the southern part of the city.

You know, our special district park is putting um a bond out to maintain their buildings.

That I mean, that is a government luxury that most of us don't have, but we without a strategic plan, we know these buildings are crumbling.

The crisis of the financial situation we're in is always gonna keep us from diverting today's resources that direction.

And so how do we do that?

And then I think there's other things in there that aren't um building related, they're tactical.

How many police officers do we want operating in the city?

We've gone back and forth.

Is it a ratio of per thousand?

Is it um how we're gonna how we're gonna accomplish that?

We signed an agreement with THPRD years ago that they are our primary parks provider.

We're about to create a whole new um in our North Cooper Mountain.

Do we want to continue that?

What about the urban growth boundary?

If we were to annex all the property that existed, Beaverton would be the second largest city in the state.

What is our strategic plan around annexation?

So I think this gives us a place to put these things that we've not really talked about.

And the plan might say, you know, Beaverton wants to align with the urban growth boundary.

And then everything underneath that is staff expertise in how we do that.

So I think the council does have a role because a lot of what we're talking about is policy, but we don't do the tactical work of day-to-day.

But we don't know, you know, we need the chief to inform us on what is the best patrol of the future, what is technology investment look like.

Technology in a in a strategic plan is scary to me because it outdates itself so quickly.

So is this really a place for us to talk about wanting to be a city that has technology in it without naming it?

So I think for me, it almost needs to have chapters, and then the council give a lot of strategic input, or maybe we say funds and it matches the budget, but it we need some ability to focus where input from us is really required.

And then it kind of has to go back to staff for a bit of revisit revision.

Um I think it would also be helpful for the council to have strategic plans of other cities.

So we get a feel of what it looks like.

I've already I've looked at other strategic plans of other cities.

Some have similar government structures to us, some that don't.

And then I would also say, as somebody that studied history in college, um, I I particularly have studied the Department of Defense.

If you look at the Department of Defense uh plan and stripped away who the president of the time was, it would be really hard for you to say, was it a Democrat?

Was it a Republican?

Because the national defense strategy stays pretty similar.

So I guess all to say the council needs early input and then often input.

And I would imagine if we're gonna pass a strategic plan that I would either through the budget process or through our annual retreat, want us to look at it every single year.

Similar, you know, we meet with our financial advisor every year to go over basically the same information to say that yep, we still, yep, that's how we're gonna do it.

We're gonna put this much in the kids' college funds.

And then they change.

So do we have a baby, for example?

Have a baby, they throw everything off.

Um, but I think that piece is really important to me.

We do need staff to tell us what we don't know.

And are there parts of the organization from their professional experience that we're completely neglecting?

Well, and I think some of what you're describing that's important is um some of the current context that needs to be evaluated in order to understand where are we going, what do we want to do?

One of the things that will be um helpful is to distinguish between your comp plan and a long-term kind of land use vision that you have, and then kind of the roadmap that might be articulated in that plan, um, which dives in a lot deeper and does a lot more and has a longer term horizon.

But the strategic plan informed by that, uh, then ought to talk about how are we how and in what way and and in um what time periods are we going to start making progress?

And so that's where the linkage, the tie back is really important.

Um, but I also think important it's important to not um confuse the two uh because you can end up with a strategic plan that makes it a little bit too um, it's not easy to operationalize.

Well, and I would just say with the comp plan that um it's really great, but it has no strategy or no way to fund it.

And when we're giving the city manager goals like this, how does she implement the comp plan under a constrained budget?

And so the plans are really great, but they don't point towards anything, and then we update the comp plan or we end up that we're doing it with the TSP right now.

We're updating it absent of like how we're gonna fund it.

It's it's gonna be a really great plan that sits on a shelf.

Yeah, that is not the goal.

Stacey.

Oh, I thought we were gonna be great.

That's the chair of counterpoint.

I'll be the counterpoint.

Oh, of course.

I just moved.

Um you know, I think actually you made great points, so I'm not gonna counter them.

I'm just gonna maybe put a little bit of um you know a nuance to what we were talking about yesterday, and and I think um, you know, the list of five things, the idea of the projects versus the strategy, you know, and I think that aspect of you know, if if I'm looking at the um the transportation thing, I'm looking at it thinking we want to be connected, we want to be uh safe, we want to make sure that we have a lot of different uh modes prioritized.

Um, we want to we want to, you know, we want from you as staff those kinds of things, and then we want to be able to bring forward you uh funding plans like TSP arguably is a funding plan, right?

Because it it then we can go out for grants, we can go out and do other things, and and so we want to layer in um those strategies of how how are we gonna do it and spend more of our time on those things rather than necessarily like each project being a new uh strategy, you know, because each one right now is set up to be that almost because we don't have the strategic plan.

We don't have that thread throughout that's saying mobility is super important to us, and so let's look at all the ways we can you know connect.

So like let's look at all the ways if we're thinking about that um long-term four-letter word of annexation, like let's think about how do we want that to go down and and what what would it look like and what are service levels like what what's appropriate service levels?

Let's let's talk about that, and then we can build funding plans and you know think about it differently.

Well, and then just the tactics generally, right?

Yeah.

Right.

Other thoughts on uh kind of expectations or hopes related to roles through this.

Um I think that it's it's very typical, the kind of the way you've described it, and I think the importance of operationalizing it from a council perspective, how you look at that annually, uh, keeps the plan alive.

I know that that's the plan you want to have is something that is nimble, adaptable, and used, right?

I mean, ultimately it needs to guide and inform.

Uh and if council doesn't buy in and use it as a discussion tool and staff doesn't align and bring things in line, you know, how they align to strategic plan, you've missed the opportunity to do so.

So really critically important.

Okay.

Um so the last one was just around engagement, and what I what I'm hearing uh is really you know, using starting from what do we know?

What are the plans we have, what are the resources, the the types of inputs we have the community uh survey that was just completed uh that you'll get your presentation on like there are a lot of inputs to start from.

Uh so I guess the question beyond that, are there key stakeholder groups, internal or external, that um are essential to a successful plan, both in the development but also in the buy-in and support going forward.

I think um Councilor Teter and and the mayor talked a bit about just like how much that staff input on this is important, and I think that that's all levels of staff would be really interesting to because um maybe our entry-level folks are the future city managers, right?

And so just making sure that we have all levels of staff able to give input and from all departments, right?

I I do think it's important to have representation from across the organization because they each experience work differently.

There have been some conversations, I think, you know, among um managers and others about how to go about doing that.

That's important.

I think that it could be helpful to have uh some funded partner input or the partners who we provide funding to provide input.

Um because they often implementing the work of the city.

Good.

All right.

Sorry, can you elaborate?

Do you mean like county or uh I mean like we provide funding for the for the nonprofit incubator to do a lot of outreach or other organizations like that, and just making sure that um they understand the strategic plan process that we're going through and if they see anything that we're missing in it that could be really valuable, I just don't want to wouldn't want to miss anything there.

I don't think it's as important to me as staff input, but it's so adjacent to a lot of the work that we do.

I mentioned it.

That makes sense.

Yeah, it when you said it, I thought of the county, and I was trying to process that, and now I'm just processing that.

Sure, sure.

Well, and you have uh a whole uh whole uh host of boards and commissioners too.

I mean, is that a group that would you would want to engage uh in this process?

Yes, and timing really matters.

And the boarding commissions often are really good at the one task that we've asked them to do, and we're going through iterative change with them.

Um reservation is that it either kind of needs to be really early, but like the more we go along and the more technical it becomes, it's hard to have input.

And so I think timing will really matter on the groups.

And I think to counselor Hassan's earlier point, we go to the community and ask a lot of things.

Like, is this one when we have so much input to land use, they've had so much input into the comp plan, they've had so much input into our they'll have input in the TSP.

Like at what point do the people they elect really get in the weeds?

Because this plan requires detail knowledge.

I think we need kind of like red, green, yellow.

Like, are we headed the right direction?

Is this the vision you see?

But I think how we ask for it is gonna be really important on whether it is meaningful or not.

Yeah, and the the timing also I think influences the types of questions you're able to ask, right?

And and what what you're seeking from them and having a clear strategy around what that's gonna look like, I think is is really it.

Um, you know, is it at the front end kind of you know, clear, you know, indicator ideas around what's going to be important, or is it on the back end around what this is gonna look like in action, right?

And those are different points of make one more point that um, you know, like in land use, there's like 10 principles of land use, and we overprioritize community input over everything else regulation, the idea, and a lot of times, and we've seen it happen in two cities uh in the city that um our CDD director just came from, where they overturned a plan that they had to do per the regulation of the region, and then we saw a mayor in King City get voted out for implementing a similar plan because they felt like community input wasn't heard.

Well, the the input was heard, but we still have all this regulation we have to uh compile with.

And so when we ask people, do you want uh you know the city to grow double the population?

The answer is probably always gonna be no.

That's not the right question.

We have to do this per this other regulation.

So there is a lot to plans, community involvement is one of them, but I don't think it overpowers the staff expertise or the council's knowledge of the budget and foresight or those kind of things, and so how we use the feedback, timing's really important, but also how much we weigh versus all these other things we have to do.

Well, and especially when you're mentioning before about the importance of having this be a strategic plan for the organization, right?

And so you really want to make sure that you are bringing the right voices into the room for that.

Nadia.

I I want to echo a little bit of mayor Beatty's.

I I don't know if it's like a yes and, but as we have asked the community a lot.

Um if we're doing a levy and all this other stuff, like I just want to be thoughtful, like timing will also really matter with how we engage with board and commission members.

Um, you know, this year we paused on a couple boards, and you know, as a council liaison for one of those boards, like there's a lot of feelings about that that uh I've had to hear, and so walking hand in hand with each other as we go through the process of board and commission input.

I mean, I'm not saying I I don't want their input, but it really has to be like intentional and thoughtful because there's been a lot of I think just like unintentional consequences of decisions that we've made, and so I just I get very like, how are we doing it?

What does it look like?

Can we show up together at the meeting?

Um, you know, how are we bringing them along?

Because if we're saying, hey, we want your input on the strategic plan, by the way, please pass this levy with us, like it, you know, so just just figuring out how we um find a way to do it all while being really thoughtful of these folks who truly are like dedicated volunteers.

Well, and and thinking about the role that you see for them, right?

And if you have a role for them, I mean maybe it's maybe it's keeping them informed and educated about what's going on, and you know, you have because you have a lot of moving um parts with the levy and other things underway, it's gonna require that extra level of intention between making sure that people aren't getting confused because that can happen.

Um, and so you really have to timing matters, the messaging, the approach.

I mean, I think it's helpful.

I just want to make sure that you're all kind of having these sorts of ideas and and conversations to think through the yes or no.

Like there's no single answer, it's what's gonna work for all of you.

Oh, something we don't know because it feels like you're asking like a particular question.

Not at all.

Okay, just making sure.

No, I and that's my point.

I'm not trying to, I just want to make sure that you're thinking no, no, I don't, I don't there's no secret agenda at all.

I just think that having clarity and I'm hearing agreement in the room, and that's what I'm thinking for to make sure that um you're all moving the same page because there's nuance and people interpret things with anything in different ways.

You know, what what does this mean?

And I'm not hearing any big deviation.

I mean, I I since we're trying to talk about a thing, um, like when I heard the mayor say annexation and facilities needs, I think those are 100% things we want to know about.

Is that a thing that goes in the strategic plan, or is that just something we're making sure we touch on?

I think it's a I guess my point was like we need that to shape how we're doing it, right?

Because if we're making a plan for 20 years from now, we probably need to include the areas that is in the urban growth boundary that are going to come in, and that's going to be influenced by whether or not we annex.

So we are being told this is the future.

And you, you know, you look at the map.

This is the future shape of what Beaverton is supposed to be per the urban growth boundary.

Will we end up there will be based on decisions we make today?

But I think we need to have that in the plan in the future to know where we're headed, because if we're like absolutely not annexation, no way, then maybe it doesn't belong in the plan.

But we continue to have conversations about annexation because there's another level of government saying that is the size your city's gonna be in the future.

So I do think it's really important for a plan that is gonna outlive this council because what have we done around annexation?

Virtually nothing.

And I'm not advocating that we do it.

I'm just saying our the city could literally be double the square or double the population we are right now in 15 to 20 years.

And are we equipped to do that?

The city hall building, the police department, the other building.

So I think everything that we do is gonna be dependent on that.

Um, and I I mean, over the years we've talked a bit about wanting to create an annexation strategy, and I think it's something that gets pushed aside with all the other um things that we ask to get done, right?

It's it gets pushed on the priority list, which I think it's fair.

Uh, but perhaps that is part of the long-term strategy is like there's an annexation strategy as part of the strategic plan.

You know, I I am I think we have to maybe build that into the strategy, right?

To say, like, oh, we we should do that, and not because we plan for what it looks like in 20 years so much is that we want to know how we will handle it, I guess, when we when it comes, right?

And so that we're not caught um on the back foot, unable to react, you know.

And I I think the other thing about a strategic plan that can be kind of hard with like such a huge organization in terms of like the breadth and depth of things that we do is that I think that's where maybe all those different plans have come in, you know, like, oh well, we need something specific in this area, you know.

And so, how do you then use all those as inputs into building this larger plan without reinventing the wheel, without re-asking the same question, right?

So I think it'll be a really interesting exercise to see how the all those plans that do exist come in to inform the strategic plan.

And how do you also because I like I struggle with this at work too is like I'm trying to build a strategy for three to five years, but every day a new fire happens.

I shouldn't use fire because people in the city might actually deal with a real fire.

I don't, I build software.

So, but you know, like you have to also build contingency into the strategy, right?

So that we can meet the moment to to the you know conversation in the room that we can make sure that we can pivot that when there's a pandemic or overstepping federal government that the city has the flexibility to adjust, but that we also know that we're driven by our priorities and our values, you know, that like there's the level of expectation on how the city of Beaverton shows up because we've said these things matter to us year after year after year, right?

And the strategy kind of helps us continue to get to that place of us looking not the same in the future, right?

But that we all recognize Beaverton 10, 20, 30 years from now, too.

And that and that's the that the balance that is here.

So you want to be thinking for the future, but your strategic plan oftentimes and you have to decide the duration is a five-year plan, right?

And so what are you going to work on to try to accomplish uh to move forward within a five-year horizon?

And so uh you don't want to lose sight of what can be longer, uh, and you have other plans that signal that, but the operational plan is typically, you know, kind of three to five years with regular review and update so that it's realistic, so that you can budget for it, so that you can drive it in a way that actually gets results.

All right.

Other thoughts.

Let's let's um pivot a little bit and start to think a little bit now about um what does this look like?

But it like to think about that long-term vision, what do you want to make true for the future?

So to do that, uh, we have an activity um that I'm gonna ask you to work on leading up to, and then we have dinner.

So similar to what we did um yesterday, you know, we're gonna put make some notes uh and share them, and then you can have a dinner.

We're gonna do some organizing around that while you eat and enjoy your time.

Um but we have two questions.

Uh, everybody should have two sets of three post-its, three blue, three pink.

If you have a different number, then let me know.

If you have more, that's up to you to decide.

If you have fewer, let me know.

Um, but on each post it.

So starting with the blue ones, and you can see we've got blue and pink up on the screen too.

The first uh prompt, the first question I'm asking you to think about is what are those things that are true today about Beaverton?

Uh that can be organizationally, that can be about the community, those things that are true today that you value and you want to continue to be true as you look to the future.

Those things that you want to preserve uh and hold on to.

So one one idea per post it note, uh, three in total, things that are true today that you want to have true still uh ten years from now.

The pink one, I'll give you the separate second set of instructions here, uh, are those things that are not true today.

Um, but that you would like to see true ten years from now.

That's the aspirational we're working toward.

So as you have those written down, one idea per post-it.

Um you can uh put them over here on.

Do we have it?

Julie, do we have the true today?

We're gonna do over on this flip chart here.

We'll we'll put a header that says true today and one that says true in ten years.

Uh stick your post-its up there.

We're gonna organize them and see what kind of themes start to emerge.

Uh so once you've done your postage, you can grab some dinner.

Every yes, everybody gets three and three.

That's right.

Yep.

I gave you post-its.

I mean that's a good sign.

Okay, well, everybody gets to play the sandbox today.

You only got two?

Oh.

What color are you missing?

All right.

What do we what do we're three and three?

No.

Yesterday you got nothing, and today you got shorted.

Wow.

Yesterday I was doing that.

Does everybody else have three and three?

Three and three, three and three.

To the left.

Yep.

Yeah, exactly.

I'm scared that one.

Yeah, exactly.

Yep, yep.

Pink blue.

Like 24 hour run the clock, but 18 hours around the clock.

Yeah, better.

Okay.

Yeah, perfect.

Thanks.

Right up on the front of the sheet.

You want to grab one up there?

Thanks.

Anywhere's fine, and we can organize.

The risk of hiding myself in the corner over here with all of your posters.

I'm going to.

If you want to stand up and come over and kind of look, we can take a look.

But I want to walk through what emerged from your activity.

I think do we are we still we're still missing a few people, so we'll do a slow roll to this.

Right here.

She's super close.

She's right here.

Okay.

So what's that?

That's blended.

That's perfect.

Okay.

So I want to do a just a little bit.

We did some theming.

These are you know, loose themes, and so I'm gonna give me share some of the highlights.

Um, but it it starts to give you a flavor for some of the things that you might start to uncover as you're thinking about the future.

Uh so just to kind of wet your appetite a little bit.

So we asked the first question around what's true today in Beaver 10 that you want to make sure continues to be uh true for the or for the community.

And so um I'll read some of these.

I won't read every single post-it, but give you a flavor for some of the words that are on here.

So for up here, this is a theme sort of around the environmental resources.

Um beaver tin has clean and reliable water, safe, plentiful water, um, also beautiful natural spaces, and so that's why we kind of bundled those together.

This whole collection here uh relates to safety, and so safe, safe community, safe travel option, safe city, oops, restaurant destination, maybe that one goes someplace else.

People were slipping things in here, so we'll put that down here.

Um we are a safe city, so you know lots of energy around safety, which makes sense.

We talked about that yesterday.

All of these are uh individual in nature, but all sort of touch the idea of quality of life for Beaverton.

Uh so high quality of life, people are proud to live here, desirable place, feels like a small town, it's the it spot.

Uh hub for the west side, a fun place to visit, flower baskets gives a little flavor extra flair.

No one's gonna claim it.

I think it's great.

Jenny wrote it.

I think follow rocky.

Okay.

We can all agree we love the flower baskets because it gives quality of life.

It has a sense of place.

All right.

Okay.

Talk amongst yourselves later.

Okay, good.

Um people are proud to live here.

Known for its innovation.

I wasn't sure if this was related to the broad known, you know, Beaverton known for innovation or if it was about the organization.

Um it could go, you know, obviously it could go either place depending on the intent.

Um, but we we put it over quality of life thinking that that was you know, uh reputational element.

Here, vibrant downtown, so um thriving restaurant community, dynamic downtown, vibrant downtown, restaurant destination, thriving downtown and awesome restaurants.

So you can see there's a lot of consistency here.

These are all related to the delivery of services and government.

So we called it effective government just for purposes of my understanding where we're going.

Accessibility, so accessible city government, dedicated, committed council and leadership team, great staff.

Um pragmatic, non-performative government.

Um let's see, consistent, reliable uh support for residents, individuals can spend their um careers at the city, so the the staff again, and then um some vulnerable populations have access to support and resources.

And so this is a little adjacent, maybe quality of life effective government, but we put it here for now.

These two relate to the business community, so being a welcoming community environment, business growth that attracts businesses to the city, um, housing, only one posted, but it says strides in housing.

So we're we're headed in the right direction.

All of this speaks to diversity, inclusion, belonging, uh, welcoming, so that all of lots of lots of great um words and post-its here that reflect the value that you place on this, and we want to sustain this.

So those were the themes that sort of jumped out for the what's true today that we want to hold on to.

Any surprises or aside from the flower basket that comes from this side you want to emphasize?

Okay, sorry.

Uh okay, so things that are not true, but that we want to work on, we want to make happen uh 10 years from now.

And so a whole lot of even buried post-its here around financial health.

And so, you know, we're obviously this is a big focus.

We've talked a lot about it yesterday, but financial stability and sustainability, financially sustainable general fund.

Um we're receiving uh revenue from Nike.

Um that was from jobs.

Some things are name that post it.

There we go.

Um value that the electrical, right?

Yeah, exactly.

No more deficit.

We can all agree on that, right?

Uh long-term strong fiscal health, the city that's more financially healthy, uh, financially healthy with a healthy reserve, um, financial surplus.

So all of these related to financial health.

I mean 10 years, here we go.

Oh gosh.

Oh, nice.

Wow.

The beaver coin.

Affordable portal.

The portal could help with that.

That's true.

The portal and the Bitcoin do I have to go together.

All right, bringing it back together.

All right, so here we have a lot of things.

We called it in thriving or we called it thriving organization because there's a lot of things related to uh how the work's done and also staff, so appropriate growth is uh appropriate growth and staff for service levels, full confidence so we can meet future service demands, competitive pay for employees, high performance government tools that we can afford.

Uh the city has set the standard for excellence among its peers nationwide.

Uh and city systems are fully integrated.

Is that yours, Travis?

Yeah, cheap.

Okay.

So, but this is all sort of speaks to the organization and making sure to focus on this.

And what this tells me uh in the context of a strategic plan, uh, both in the terms of the things that we want to hold on to.

This whole bit here relates to roads and infrastructure mobility.

So it starts off with kind of planning and funding roads.

We have uh goals related to the CPI, we have safe crosswalks, we have a solid infrastructure and operations maintenance plan, um we have infrastructure facilities built to last, and then we have city infrastructure to support growth as a tidy and walkable uh community.

Tidy.

Nicely written too, so nice to easy to read.

So thank you.

Uh and then we start to get into the mobility piece.

And so we have a lot down here around pedestrian friendly, uh then we have less cars, um, safe and well distributed bike and pedestrian facilities.

We have the TSP and through and a thoughtfully connected trail network.

Um we have a trolley, we have public transit.

Have a trolley yourself.

Yeah.

Nadia.

If you want trolley, how would that I can dream?

Yeah, you can.

Dreaming is good.

Dreaming is good, absolutely.

Um but what this says is like just like the organization, and not surprising given the conversation yesterday, infrastructure, roads, mobility, big focus for what you want to move toward.

So you can really see how this might find its way into your strategic plan.

That looks like a big did you pay everybody off with that that beaver coin thing, right?

Okay.

Uh so down here we had this is these were all related to kind of alignment, having alliance strategic plan and values.

Beaverton has a clear identity that is unique.

Uh employees see them, so that the city has the city that that dreams big and delivers big results, and then this is that everybody can see themselves in the Disney.

This speaks to jobs, jobs, job, jobs, employment, more larger employers.

I will say when I first read that, no offense to whoever wrote it.

I wrote more large employees.

I was like, wow, interesting.

That's surprising.

Just like the trolley and the flowers, surprising, but large employers made a little more sense.

Uh it makes sense to start a small business here.

So again, we reflecting on some of the things we heard yesterday.

Uh, here we have more about affordable housing.

Everyone has an affordable place to live, more affordable housing.

Uh, these are sort of related to the environment loosely.

So Beavertons Creeks are day lit and full of life.

Uh and Beaverton has a carbon is carbon neutral and running on clean energy.

Did I missed read that one?

Oh no, I just knew Kevin.

Oh.

Crick.

All right, and then down here, speaking to downtown, um, we have 24-hour city core, uh, active downtown, well connected downtown to trails and areas, so we could have that sort of related to each other, and then connectivity to downtown.

Uh so again, that sort of crosses over between downtown and mobility.

Um mentioned the mobility.

This is industrial presence.

So uh we talked yesterday about economic development.

You know, there's interest in small business, but maybe more broad also, and we've got evidence of that up here.

Well, we want to make sure we're also um have more industrial area annexed to the um city and then strong industrial presence, and so diversifying there.

Uh, what have I missed?

Thoughtful growth, and so perhaps reflective of the annexation conversation we're having a little bit ago.

So fewer county islands and a map that makes sense.

Um these are sort of standalone, I'm not sure where to bundle them sort of ideas.

Um we have multiple neighborhoods that are mixed use and have their own thriving identities.

That fits in.

Uh, and then a plan for Griffin property.

Griffith Party, where court building, okay.

Ah, okay.

Uh, and then vulnerable vulnerable groups have access to support.

That's the immigrants, refugees, multi-racial.

Um, all of them ultimately have final homes.

But any surprises on the thing aside from the trolley.

There it is, right?

Exactly.

Um, no surprises from what we talked about yesterday, I would say, in terms of sort of the big areas of interest, um, at least at this point in time.

So reactions?

I'm not shocked by any of it, but I do think like the industrial presence, some of the maps that make sense are more reflective about uh taxing inequity, and it follows the, I mean they're not mine, but and they follow fiscal health.

And so I think you know, would I want a large industrial presence in the city?

No, I would not.

I understand why we need one because it helps pay the bills, but if we are creating a perfect community, we wouldn't want industrial in the middle of our thriving community.

We would want it in Hillsborough.

Um but we need that.

But you want the dollars.

But we want the dollars, right?

But I'm just saying, like that is a reflection of where we are.

Gotcha.

Well, and that's where as you're doing your strategic planning and you're coming up with the things you're looking for, having the conversations around why, right, John.

Uh what to what end?

What are we trying to accomplish and what for what purpose?

These are important questions to ask, because it helps to shape, uh, particularly at the strategy level.

What are the things you want to incorporate?

And maybe there's a business strategy around um economic development for health, financial health.

I would just say all of these feel optimistic and attainable to me.

They do not feel doom, we're not in a doom loop, and we're not in a these are like wild ideas that we can't do.

These all feel we got our stuff together and we you know we were able to make some meaningful progress, these feel achievable to me.

And like 10 years ago, there was not even a downtown.

Yeah.

I actually think we can put Griffith with thriving organization.

Because it's just reflective of like the the plan that we need to, you know, like that.

We we got a plan for it.

Maybe there's something really cool that is there.

Nice.

I don't know if it's part of the courthouse.

Obviously, that's sort of adjacent to the cool.

Anyone else?

All right.

Well, we'll we'll leave this and let this just percolate.

And we again I'll put this in our our summary report so this gives a little bit of a boost uh for some of the strategic planning work that you will be.

So all right.

Can we find our seats?

And we'll continue.

I like that you can bring your bring your mic with you.

BYOM.

I know that.

Super smart.

Yeah.

All right.

So from here, we want to again kind of use this time to start to think, think about the or about the community, about the organization, about you know, where you want to go.

So the next next set of discussions we want to have are elements of what is a traditional sort of uh SWOT analysis abridged, if you will.

Uh so we want to think about um when you think about Beaver 10, you know, you know, capital B, you can be the organization, can be the community.

What are the strengths?

Some of which we may have started to see through the true today portion.

What are the strengths?

What are the challenges and what are the opportunities on the horizon?

So again, just kind of doing some brainstorming, getting stimulated around opportunity.

Uh and this is information that can start to feed your strategic planning process as you're moving forward.

Okay, so how we're how are we going to do this, Nancy?

Well, oops, we're not taking dinner break.

We did that.

Um we're gonna do this in groups.

Um so you can brainstorm, and so we'll do two table groups of strengths, two table groups of challenges, two table groups of opportunities, um, and then we'll do some report out so everybody will have an opportunity to provide additional thoughts or ideas.

And so you can touch each of them, but we'll do some intentional brainstorming on these topics at different groups.

And so um because you may have specific things you want to brainstorm, let's just open it up.

So, first come first, sir.

What are two tables that would like to talk about strengths?

Well, I will assign.

Okay, strengths one.

Strengths two.

Is this what?

Oh, gosh, because I was thinking to do the government.

I was like, whoa, that's the same thing.

You want to talk about the strength?

We can talk about I'm thinking broadly, both.

You can talk about both because one leads to the other.

Um, but we don't want to lose the organization.

I think the organization is important.

Okay.

So you guys good with strengths?

There's no there's no right and wrong answers here.

This is just kind of free-flowing.

So strength, strengths.

All right.

Challenges, all right.

Do I hear another challenges?

Oh, there we go.

Okay.

I don't think I've had a lot of people.

I don't think you are either.

Challenges, challenges.

All right.

You guys marrier on opportunities table.

Jenny, you guys, Kevin, you're on opportunities as well.

So let's take the next fifteen twenty minutes.

Just kind of brainstorm.

Make sure you're capture your ideas because I'm going to ask you to report out, and Julie's going to capture those for us, and then we can lie in.

We checked in with her.

So she'll she'll weigh in afterwards and she's gonna listen to the report out conversation for now.

Also, I'm just gonna point out that Julie's doing some theming over there, so you have we'll have a little visual that reflects that conversation too.

Okay, so we're gonna report out from each of the groups.

We'll go through each of them.

Uh and if you have additional ideas or comments, then we will take those as well.

Um, and then we'll I mean this is my gift to all of you, because I can tell people are you know we had a yesterday.

We'll wind down this, we'll then wrap up kind of next steps and um and we will say until we meet again sort of thing.

So strengths.

Um guys want to go first.

Okay, well, we had a lot.

Um so we had um past investments um are paying off.

The mayor referenced that earlier, some of the investments we've made in the past with water, for example.

Um we talked about we have um some stability and some tenure on on council now, um, folks have been here for a couple years.

Um we talked about a good um leadership team that um is value aligned with the organization, um, which also leads to some good chemistry and trust between leadership and council.

And we talked about for the most part, we have pretty healthy relationships with our unions, um, and that we have good relationships with the community.

We don't really have like super strong factions necessarily lined up in opposition.

Um we talked about our neighborhood um association structure is productive.

Um we are fiscal realists, and so we're willing to have hard conversations about our financial situation and lots of conversations.

Um we talked about there may be some organizational silos that exist, but they aren't really there due to any um ill will or you know that people want them to be there.

There's just some maybe some structures or just lack of collaborative practices and people are willing to work on that.

We talked that we have some good volunteer engagement through boards and commissions, um, that our turnover rates have decreased over the last year.

Um then we talked a little bit about that we um are not ones to foster drama.

Um when our council have disagreements, they're talking about them um professionally, they're not going after each other on social media, for example, like some other jurisdictions, um, and that we're generally um have good collaboration, so even when there's tension with our fellow government organizations or special districts, that we we're we keep the conversation open and we try to um collaborate.

Is there anything that I missed from either of these?

That's fine.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, and all those dynamics are really important, and you described a lot about culture actually, uh, and what helps to make the organization productive is that culture.

So that's great.

All right, what did we take a similar tact or different tact over here?

We took a different approach.

That's fine.

So the things that we talked a lot about are um our strengths being our community diversity.

We think our location is a strength.

And we talked about how we're close to commerce, we're close to the mountain, we're close to the beach, but we're in just kind of this perfect little spot of beautiful Beaverton.

We also have a very welcoming community.

We were kind of talking about just kind of even like a little bit of the small town feel, even though we're not really small town anymore.

And we talked about the tree lighting as just like kind of being one of those types of events where the community just like comes together and it feels like just really connected, and yeah, connected.

I was gonna say precious, but that might be too too tender, huh?

Um we also think we have a pretty strong foundation of economic development, and and so that's the recognition of where we are, but also where we can go, and that we've we talked a lot about you know that there used to not be a downtown Beaverton.

There was like a neighborhood designation of downtown Beaverton, but nobody could have told you where it was.

And there's so much there that um like creates identity, but that we can keep building on and like continue to invest in.

Um, and that we also think we have kind of a growing cultural scene, and we can just kind of see that the this strong economic development foundation and this um budding cultural scene can help kind of accelerate even like Beaverton's future.

Well, and the the unique qualities that it creates too.

I mean, I feel like it it's very defined Beaverton too, right?

It is reflective of the community and the diversity and all of the different ingredients.

Uh so in each case, both for the organization and for the community, these are things to leverage, right?

Things to build on as you're thinking about where do we want to go, how are we gonna get there?

So great.

See, it's complimentary.

So we had the organization.

Exactly.

Even when it's not planned.

See, that's great.

All right, very good.

All right, so let's uh talk about some challenges now.

Some challenges.

All right, Travis.

All right.

One is the financial situation, money in general.

Other uh uncertainty and external factors such as climate.

That was the big ones.

They got into big technology conversation over here.

Yeah, larger conversations about things like showing so that for instance if we are going to be doubling in size.

Decisions we're making now, and those are not that's not a part of it.

Not looking to double our capacity.

So uh that would be really helpful.

Yeah.

Just uh we had a conversation about in needing to invest in the efficiently, which kind of at odds with reducing budgets, but like that's a that's a hard part of that conversation to have too.

If if we're needing to structure sometimes we need to modernize things first.

There needs to be some strategic investment in order to be more effective or more efficient.

Right, like manual processes, very very inefficient, but to replace that with something more automated and less manual would these are conversations that you're gonna all want to have to have as you're navigating the budget choices too.

All right, let's hear the other challenges conversation.

We'll do opportunities and then I'm gonna ask to go through them again.

And if you have additional thoughts or ideas, things you want to weigh in on, then we can do that.

Challenges?

Okay, I'll just go through the list uh federal and state laws which are a threat to the city, such as development laws, measure 550 tax laws, financial liabilities such as purse, um workforce reduction outside of the city's control, which lead to property losses, slow growth, which could threaten property taxes and business support, landlock, need annexation, heavily dependent on large employers, need medium-sized businesses, uh raising revenue and identifying the way to raise revenue for first-time success.

Uh should be here.

Okay.

Okay, I'll go louder.

Okay.

Okay.

Um difficult to build uh downtown due to highways being built through the town.

Impact of immigration policies and uncertainty of long-term impacts on economic development of the city, impact of special districts.

It could be good and bad.

To move things along.

Uh threats connecting.

Wait, wait, good and bad in what way?

Sorry.

Move things along.

Special districts in terms of partners that can help, or they can get in the way.

Yeah, so they can get in the way or help, but it's inefficient when you when you want things to be done.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh city development and infrastructure.

Uh archaic technology systems in city government, slow staff response to technological efficiencies.

That's the list.

All right.

Yeah.

Julie, do you think you got most of those over there?

Okay, we'll we'll double check your list and so we can make sure we capture all those Edward.

Okay, very good.

Uh all right.

Well, so challenges obviously are uh hurdles to overcome, right?

That you have to work through and address and uh opportunities.

So what are some of our opportunities?

Okay.

Um we have uh create new funding streams, uh, future financial flexibility given some of the steps that we're taking uh with the levy and the TUF and the fee.

Um I also wrote down um there's future reform opportunities at the state level.

Uh the TSP update, we have an opportunity to strengthen our transportation network um and invest in safer streets.

Uh access to water supply, um W W S S, which will be done in 26, um, that we can leverage that for growth.

Uh the state is extremely supportive of housing, so again, that's another opportunity for us to leverage, which we're doing now.

Um Bureau also has the opportunity to issue um a final tranche of debt, so there's investment there.

Uh so the urban renewal.

B-U-R-A, yeah, acronym.

Um Cooper Mountain Planning, so there's future housing neighborhood and commercial investments.

Uh there's an opportunity to leverage Allen Boulevard plan um for future growth and also a Bureau 2.0 in the future.

Uh pedestrian downtown activation through some of the housing that we talked about with what's happening right now in terms of current initiatives that creates more um pedestrian activity in downtown and supports business uh stability and growth.

Um, the build grants and the loop funding, that's going to position us well for uh multimodal opportunities.

Uh partnerships with the development community.

We want to be the opportunity to be the city of choice, and so through our process improvement between CDD and public works, uh, we can step into that space.

Um the expansion and enhancing of our existing partners, particularly with um groups like Metro, Chamber, County, and THPRD.

There's much alignment there, so we can pursue joint um endeavors.

Uh placemaking um through our street murals, traffic calming is another opportunity.

Uh we also feel like that we have um the trust of the community, so we're poised for change and to evolve.

Uh we have strong advocacy right now at the legislative level, and we're able to build a stronger framework so that we can retain, expand, and maintain our assets and also prevent losses.

Um we have the opportunity to modernize our internal technology and maximize efficiencies.

And we have really strong regional partnerships, so think WWSS, JWC, uh disaster planning, um, and a side note is the infrastructure investments that we're making into safe water and supply um in case there's an emergency.

Is that it?

That's it.

When you asked us to do something, we really do it.

Well he was not joking.

He was like, we got a lot written down here.

Oddly, they took every one of our answers.

Um so not everyone, but we'll double down on technology and seizing a moment right now all over to kind of walk into some efficiencies that we've never seen before.

So that was one of them.

And then um momentum momentum and economic development.

And then the 12 or 15 other ones.

I I had those too.

Um I just want to like add a little bit uh to their point on government relations, though.

I would say arguably you could ask most people in Salem, Beaver 10 Punch is way above its weight class, and they're often shocked it's done by a very small team.

Um and so our ability to get things done outside the city is really uh the special sauce of government relations, which is not so secret, it's just relationships.

And Jocelyn does it really, really well, and we're very lucky to have her.

So I think um that gives us like a an uh outreach far greater, although I think the majority of our job is making things just a little bit less shitty.

That's a hundred percent of the job, actually, at the moment.

So that's an example then, of course, of it being a strength that you have and you are able to take advantage of that provides space for opportunity.

And so, you know, all of these pieces fit together, which is really um but no no shortages, I think, of ways to navigate into the future, right?

And you know, addressing challenges leaning on the strengths of the community.

Um yeah, that's a lot.

All right, so for those who weren't in the strengths groups, did you have other things that you didn't hurt here that you want to bring into the room or just reaction generally on the thoughts around strengths?

I apologize, I should have asked you as we finish these specifics.

Right into like I'll add one.

And I have not done a statistical.

In my experience, and I'm curious if it's true for others who work within the city.

Higher here than most big enterprises I've worked.

That's great.

That's there's been a I think a lot of investment and work to try to make that so.

So that's great.

Housing is moving forward, the ability to change is involved.

All right, other strengths.

Yeah, Jocelyn.

The amount of institutional knowledge within the city and the amount of people that we've had here that have decades and have been through the seasons and had we weathered a lot of seasons and have come out the other side and have that experience.

But to Travis's point, are also still willing to look at new things, um, brings a lot of value.

Yeah, I mean I think the degree of commitment that you see also kind of that really is going to convince us.

Do you have something you wanted?

Yep.

It kind of a counterpoint to that is like I also think yeah.

Uh it's the chair.

It's the chair is like while there is that institutional knowledge.

I also think um like this team in particular, there's some new faces, fresh eyes, different platforms of experience that has woven into the fabric of what's going on now, and I think that's a huge strength for the direction of the city.

Yeah, it's when you can get the right blend and be able to tap into the historical knowledge, but also the fresh ideas and the willingness to try different things, it's can be really powerful.

Right.

So much about culture, I think, which is really interesting and really I think key to long-term success.

All right, any other strengths we want to do.

I'm I'm proud of this.

Um strength.

Oh, with city benefits.

Okay.

Are really good.

Okay.

And I'd like to add that there.

All right.

Um we have one of the best set of benefit benefits among all the peers.

Okay.

Because we have a challenge that we spoke about, which is the ability to pay.

So our benefits are really a you know a toolbox in the ability to attract.

All right, what about challenges?

Those that didn't sit in challenge groups, things that are on your mind to document.

It was kind of hinted about on some of the special districts, but uh um there we go.

But but government is complicated.

And I think about that from our community members accessing a lot of really great programs that most of them don't know about.

Like it's just complicated.

I hear that probably, I don't know if my other colleagues hear that a lot.

I it just navigating this.

Uh and I think part of it is special districts, part of it is knowing, you know, just just what the cities do versus the counties, the special districts, you know, who to talk to in government, like all that sort of stuff.

I think that's a challenge that we like from a perspective of user experience.

I think that there's that's a challenge and an opportunity.

Yeah, I think just the aw aware to be aware of that.

It is complicated.

And I will add uh also I mean, doing a strategic plan or operating a municipal organization on its own, you know, set aside the others, it's complicated because you're not doing you know a widget.

You're not doing a thing, you're doing a lot of very diverse things.

Uh and so that is a complicated environment to be able to get a cohesive set of leaders to understand and be able to work you know together when you have subcultures and you have different um drivers and opportunities and challenges, it's a complex environment.

And just the other thing I would add is like probably half the emails we get now as elected officials are asking us to do things that other layers of government are causing for us, right?

Or or solve this federal issue or like stop the federal government from being dumbasses, right?

And like we we can't do that, but like it like it's it it indicates to me that there's confusion about our role, but that we're also in I think the mayor says the best, we're also very accessible, right?

So we're people want us to solve these things, even even when we can't.

Could could we add misinformation to challenges?

Because that felt like what you just said.

That's so everywhere right now.

Yeah, I'll add one more that in addition to how complex some of the things are that we're working through, is that a lot of the change that we want to make just takes a long time to actually make.

And so communicating that to the public is really important, but we also have to say like patience.

It does take patience.

It takes patience, perseverance, and you know, stay in the course, because things do take a long time.

That is that's an excellent challenge.

And also one of the benefits of having a strategic plan so that you can really see the progress along the way and have the vision of what you want to create in view, so that you can, you know, like the housing, right?

And the the accomplishments from last year this year to be able to say we've got focused here and we have made progress.

Housing, we have all of these new developments in the pipeline.

Uh celebrating the milestones along the way.

Um, you know, I don't want to rip open an old wound here, but having served in different forms of government.

There's a lot of pros to a city manager form of government, but one of the very big cons is there's no one the buck stops with.

And so it's really challenging for seven people to manage cooperatively together, and the byproduct of that is speed, and everything slows way down.

Like there's not the city manager can't wake up one morning and be like, you know what we want to do today?

Bus rapid transit and execute it and move the organization.

She's got to come to the seven of us, or staff got to make a presentation, and for us to make change, it requires immense amount of time.

And we lose quickness in that.

And is it good for the long run?

Yes.

Is it really hurt us in the short run of trying to get seven people, very different people that share values on the same path?

Like that is the Lord's work for the seven elected leaders to agree, come to a conclusion, direct the city manager, and then we have to do it over multiple meetings, and we can't do anything behind closed doors.

We have to do it all in public.

So people want us to be fast, they want us to be approachable, they want us to do things, and it's just it's not a reality, and we're a government that is uh intended to be long-term.

And so, how do we communicate that and back don't want to go back to communication, but we didn't communicate very well how we changed the government and now what how the levers of power are pulled are very different.

Right.

Well, uh so there are challenges and there are advantages, you know, with anything.

And so part of it is being able to see the full landscape and being able to that in a way that is productive and and recognizes um the the value of of what you have.

So that really cool charter change added position six.

To be determined if that's a value or a um I put it out there.

Uh problem.

We shall know later.

All right.

Any other um challenges we were talking about.

But I do just want to say as a reminder, we could have added another council position and the other form of government as well.

Okay.

Opportunities.

Opportunities that we haven't already covered it, which is maybe challenging, I'm just gonna say.

This was not a critique on the city management team, it's just a reality.

Well, we could go into whole thing about the benefits uh benefit exactly so um opportunities.

I mean, we have a pretty good long list there.

Uh and I think we've reflected on some of those things already too.

Yeah, John.

Communication, right?

Like telling our story, and I'm I'm surprised we didn't put that up because that's that outlines everything that we will do and everything we but just telling our story.

Love it.

It's like critical.

Yeah.

And also telling our story to not the same 200 people that hear it through every, you know, through our existing channels.

Like we need to reach people that don't think about government, right?

Because they need to hear it too.

You got a high five over here virtually right there.

All right.

Anything, yes, Nadia.

I I I do just want to add to the mayor's point, and I just I have to say this.

Like, there are people who literally live in cities where mayors are doing all these things or counselors are doing all these things, and that's like literally not possible here.

And so uh for staff to just hear what as you work on communication and these kinds of things, like yes, we're in this new form of government, even though it's been five years.

Like, how do we help people understand that the council can't respond in that way?

It's just something that is really I mean, I have so many people right now who are like, oh, this mayor did this, and I'm like, it's we're not doing that.

I mean, like, I thank you, and that's not how it works, and so just kind of putting that out there, probably, especially with the current climate, because it's we are I think all of us are potentially bearing the brunt of that right now.

Tough job.

Um, okay.

Anything anybody wants to add, reflect on, comment on.

How are you feeling about the nature of these conversations and how that can potentially efforts into 2010s to me like the yeah, Kevin, go, yay.

So coming from the group that wrote a page and a half notes of notes for opportunities.

Um that is very exciting for me.

I know we are working in some really challenging times with some really challenging budget issues.

But it is exciting to see one, the strengths that we can build on.

Um, but then the challenge or the opportunities that just are some open doors or some doors that might be cracked open that we can just explore a little bit what the path might be like down that route.

There are some options for us to be able to move forward with some really exciting work and some really good work that the cities are already doing.

Uh so budget stuff can feel like doom and gloom all the time, but uh there is more, there is more going on than that.

It's open the aperture a little bit and and look at all of the possibilities that it can be very inspiring.

And that's that's the value of in bringing along employees and bringing along you know, keys it can be really inspiring to feel connected.

Yeah, I still think about um what the mayor said earlier.

Like the our strategic plan once it's built cannot just sit on the shelf.

So not only do we have to build it correctly, we have to socialize it amongst staff and elected officials, and then we have to, I don't know if it's one of these things or something, like something from the dice be able to engage with it and interact with it and think about it and let it infuse our policy decision so it doesn't, so it's not a tool of confusion or further confusion, right?

Like it's it's going to be what it was meant to be, which is a guide, you know, like a guy a long-term guide for us.

Roadmap.

Right, right.

And we can't like like that's something I'm I'm I'm really curious to see how we we and my colleagues on the council, like and the mayor, like how we can operation operationalize our part of this by not creating confusion.

And I'm you know, I'm thinking about that myself, but TBD on that, I guess.

But I think that's I mean, because it is, it is there's there's we have elections next year.

There's there's potential for new council members to be in this room.

How are they gonna buy into it?

Like, how are they gonna learn to be counselors?

Like it took us a while to do that, you know, and it's takes a while to find a new groove.

But if you have hopefully a framework and a roadmap that you can orient your new team members that gives you something to start from.

There's gonna be an adjustment period, but at least if you can anchor them in all of the work that has accomplished that will be accomplished these.

I mean, the commitment in this room is you know, right where it needs to be.

And so it's just a matter of maintaining that hand or a waiver.

Okay.

Well, that's that's what we have for this evening.

I oh I I have more.

I mean counterpoint.

Um I think it just it it just occurs to me like what was said yesterday, actually by me, of uh the inside baseball versus insider outsider thing.

And you know, I would like to commend myself for such for such smart comments yesterday.

It's late.

Um, the insider outsider piece of you know, the folks in this room are the the most inside of all of the the organization of arguably the community about what's happening in in the city, what the city is doing and can do, and I just think that aspect of communication, like like let's get out there and and truth this with uh residents and with the staff, right?

Like, see if we've got the right mix the observation.

I heard a commitment from the executive team to go out during the levy conversations and be giving presentations in the evening.

So I appreciate your willingness to help with that.

Okay.

All right.

Well, then if there are people, he's already on the list.

What's that?

Putting it on the list.

It's an opportunity for you, Jenny.

Yeah.

Uh next steps.

Uh I've said it a dozen times, I think.

So we will take all of the the input and the conversations that have happened over the last day and an evening uh and put it into a summary report so that we have documentation so that you have this as a tool and a resource uh as you're moving into the budget conversations.

Just a reminder, we covered a lot of territory over the last couple days.

And so there's a draft framework for how to approach the budget and some guidelines that can be instructive internally, but also in the communication with council.

As you're navigating that, we spent time and developed a set of priorities that will also inform that process, but also give a roadmap and something at touch point as the budget's being developed and as you are making decisions about this or that.

This or that back and forth.

We have choices.

We'll bring that back to you.

And I thought we would just do kind of a quick optional.

Not everybody has to do it.

But I kind of a quick reflection and kind of a fun way to do it.

I don't remember if we did this previously, but we like to call it uh six word slam.

And so how you feeling about where we are in six words.

So as an example, we can do great things together.

We can do great things together.

That would be an example.

Anybody have some how you're feeling in six words.

Yes.

Before we're gonna show us back?

I I was so excited to close this out yesterday.

I just I do want to just uh I want to just echo what I just said because I know we're about to say goodbye.

Like I know that the city and everyone's working really hard on what we're doing in our community right now, but really asking for like uh partnership that we can communicate out what we can and can't do because it is really starting to impact, I think, all of us, and so I just want to take a moment to say that.

And then we can do great things together.

Oh, a thief, yay!

All right, let's hear a couple more.

Just come on, give me just a little bit of energy boot, then we can let you go.

I can't subscribe to the six words, but since we have a Japanese sister cities, I'm gonna do it in a form of haiku.

Small steps, big vision, we rise with every bold move.

Greatness grows right here.

Oh wow.

All right, mic drop.

Huh?

That's okay.

No, I'm not going to be able to do that.

All right.

All right, okay.

There were great words.

You guys can debate that later.

Okay.

Anybody else have a haiku or a six six word slam?

How are we feeling?

Come on.

Captain's got one.

We can't make any promises.

Flower pots.

I was gonna channel my inner Steve Ballmer and his developers chant with aligned aligned, aligned, aligned aligned aligned.

That's that's an easy way to make sure you get it right that way too.

Okay.

Align to line to line to line to line to line.

One more.

Oh no.

Okay.

All right.

Okay, Dan, Dan got got some help here, but I liked this one.

Rainfalls, ideas rise, Beaverton thrives.

Oh.

And not Chat GPT, right?

I heard that earlier.

All right, you guys.

Well, that's all.

That's all we have.

Uh thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me be part of the conversation.

Um appreciate you guys.

Have a great evening.

See you hopefully again soon.