Davenport City Council Strategic Planning Retreat - March 1, 2026
Davenport City Council Strategic Planning Retreat - March 1, 2026
The Davenport City Council held a strategic planning retreat on March 1, 2026, facilitated by a professional facilitator. The goal was to define the city's top strategic priorities for the next 2-3 years. Council members, the mayor, and city staff participated in breakout sessions to identify and refine priorities, followed by discussions on specific milestones for each priority. The meeting opened with a leadership exercise emphasizing five key phrases: "How can I help you?", "I'm glad you're here," "I love you," "Thank you," and "We."
Discussion Items
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Strategic Priority Identification: The council divided into four groups to list their top five strategic priorities. Group 1 proposed: fix infrastructure, grow economy (smart growth), attract new talent, prioritize public safety, and create world-class destinations. Group 2 proposed: invest in infrastructure, create community, grow tax base, increase affordable housing, and expand development. After merging and discussion, the council agreed on five overarching priorities: Infrastructure, Economic Development, Create Community, Affordable Housing, and Public Safety.
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Infrastructure (Group 1): The group focused on neighborhood local roadways, noting that arterials and collectors have seen progress. Councilmember Rick argued infrastructure must be number one because without it other priorities falter. He cited the need for sustained funding beyond ARPA and railroad money. Kyle stressed that any new development should utilize existing infrastructure to avoid adding maintenance burdens. The group agreed on the need for better communication about street projects. The city administrator noted he would explore increasing asphalt/concrete funding through multi-year contracts and private partnerships.
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Economic Development (Group 2): The group emphasized retention and attraction of talent and businesses, with a focus on quality jobs of all sizes. They highlighted the importance of filling vacant lots and buildings before greenfield development. Councilmember McGrip advocated for spreading prosperity across all city neighborhoods, including the West End and downtown. The group did not prioritize specific zones but agreed that any project making economic sense should be considered.
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Create Community (Group 3): This group defined “create community” as increased engagement with youth through parks and rec, investment in neighborhoods (including addressing abandoned homes), improving quality of life, and better storytelling to foster a sense of “we.” Councilmember Jay stressed the role of code enforcement in educating citizens about city programs. The homelessness challenge was mentioned but later tied to the affordable housing priority.
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Affordable Housing (Group 4): The group addressed both affordable housing and homelessness. Key suggestions included fully using the $5 million heritage fund for these issues, establishing public-private partnerships for down payment assistance and mortgage options, exploring tiny homes and zoning changes for duplexes/multiplexes, and taking a Quad City regional approach to homelessness. They emphasized understanding the problem first and requiring better property management accountability for landlords receiving city incentives.
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Public Safety (Group 5): The fire chief reported the group’s focus on “more”—more resources for police and fire, including staffing and technology. The fire department runs 5,000 more calls per year than Cedar Rapids (population 37,000 larger) despite running fewer companies (10 vs. 11 on a good day). Ideas included a drone first-responder program to reduce calls, exploring efficiencies across departments, and planning for gradual staffing increases to prepare for future development. Councilmember Kyle endorsed the drone technology based on experiences at a national planning conference.
Key Outcomes
- Agreement on Five Strategic Priorities: Infrastructure, Economic Development, Create Community, Affordable Housing, and Public Safety. These will be presented for formal adoption at a future council meeting as the city’s strategic vision for the next 2-3 years.
- Next Steps: The facilitator will produce a draft report for the city administrator within a week. The council will then vote on adopting the strategic vision. Staff will subsequently develop a detailed work plan with specific milestones and initiatives under each priority.
- Direction to Staff: The city administrator received clear guidance to increase investment in neighborhood streets, explore multi-year contracts to stretch funding, and incorporate public safety staffing needs into long-term planning. Specific inquiries were noted about using local option sales tax surplus (estimated $2 million over budget) for infrastructure without reducing other funds.
Meeting Transcript
Well, good morning, everybody. Before we get into the heavy lifting of um strategic planning, visioning, uh I want to share something with you that I I heard many years ago, and I find it helpful. And you know, I I don't know about a lot of things about how cities work. You know, I haven't worked for a city, I've been doing this a long time, but my craft is facilitation, not knowing how a city operates. But I have learned a few things through the years, because I'm old, about how you build a sense of community. And we talked about that a little bit yesterday. Everybody cares about that. I hear it all the time. And one of the things I've I've come to believe with all my heart is that building community, whether your city is, you know, growing rapidly or just growing kind of average, is really not, it's not a program. It's really not a program, it's all about leadership. And we said yesterday, everything rises or falls with leadership. And there's a book that that I wish I'd have written this book, or at least the title. It it's it is uh uh leadership is language. It's a really good book, but this doesn't come from that book, but it's true. What leaders say matter? What you say, what you say, what you say, it matters. And so I want to share something with you. Um it's not original with me, but it's five phrases that are the most powerful phrases you can say as a leader that build community, and we can use our hand to remember what they are. The first one is or going into sending order number five is how can I help you? That's a really important phrase for a leader to know. As you're talking with people, talking with each other, how can I help you? And then just fold your your their thumb down, and the next one is got in a contraction, but I'm glad you're here. That's really important words to say as a leader. I'm glad you're here. It's welcoming. The third one, I bet you can get three words. What are they? I love you. I'm sorry, I'll stop. You may not have to say it with words, but you gotta say it with your life. Whenever I started this work, I moved from being a full-time pastor, I'd always had one foot in leadership development and one in strategic training, planning, one foot in ministry, and so I just kind of swapped. And I I 15 years ago, I resigned from my church, um, became a chaplain for the fire department, unpaid, and started spending all my time doing leadership development. So I always say about myself, I used to get paid to be good, now I'm just good for nothing. So there you go. But I realize I gotta find a way to express for myself, this won't for anybody else's for me, what my life is about. And and I took some stuff from here and there, and I came up with a mission statement for my life that I use in every setting. Uh and here it is. My purpose is to enlarge the lives of others through encouragement, love, and truth. And those words are in the right order. So if you come at it with truth first, you may know a lot, but people don't care what how much you know unless they know how much you care, right? So you can't really lead with truth no matter how convinced you are that you know something. And to your point, if you lead with love, that's a little icky for us. Like that's a little bit too much too fast. But I found this out. Not being not using flattery, but concern, nobody cares, you know, that you give them encouragement. Nobody resents encouragement. Everybody needs encouragement. I've never heard anybody say, I get too much encouragement. You know, I don't want to, I mean, that's just not happening, you know. I mean, police in Davenport aren't pulling people over and saying, hey, I just want you to know.
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