How city council work session on January 31st of 2026 to order Elaine?

Please call the role.

Leave Carlson.

Here.

Tom Count.

Here.

Carlos Crawford is not present.

Tyler Herman is absent.

Heather Carp here.

David Lester.

Kurt and Kurt Ransom.

Here.

All right.

The first thing on our agenda, um, and the only thing today is our goal setting session for 2026-2027.

Um, first of all, thank you all for getting up early on this very cold day and coming in.

Um, this is something we do every two years.

Um we have a work session, set the goals for all of us for the next two years, and it's meant to be instructive to staff as to the direction that council is going.

Um this is more of an informal session, so um, everyone should be sharing their thoughts.

Um, but um glad you're all here.

We're going to start um with a review um from all of staff, and then we'll start to dig into the goals.

And then I was just gonna try to provide a little bit of context for everybody.

Um, this is several such exercises I've had the opportunity to work on here with the city.

It's a little bit of a different approach.

Um, in the past, we we've done it like this internally.

We brought an outside facilitators, and we've come up with a wide birth of different things to do.

Um we're different right now in our approach than that.

I think the city is at kind of crossroads in terms of the opportunities moving forward.

We've got so much actions in the current plan that just expired at the end of 25 that are coming into 26-27.

Um, we thought we kind of do a level set with council um and make sure that we're on the right track and that there's a clear understanding of uh where everything sits at right now to reaffirm the goals.

Um, obviously, our main objective is to make the lives of our residents and our businesses easier or better.

Um, I think that's a good objective.

I don't think there's really any necessary need to change, and the six goals that we've got primary and secondary are still relevant.

Um, so we wanted to review the actions that staff is committed to to that point.

There's also uh an exercise we wanted to go through prior to this meeting.

Um, just for the record, I I had reached out to Heather and Tom to help me kind of set the table for today.

Um, in addition to the goals and actions that we have taken place at this point in time, we also wanted to think about thematic objectives moving forward in this next two year period that were more aspirational, if you will, um, than concrete, but we're gonna ask council to to talk about those themes and how they apply to the current actions that are in play, um, and then ask for input on a fifth.

Um, so probably around the time we go to the completion of uh a review of the 2024-2025 goals.

We'd ask council to sit down and think about that fifth bucket, and we'll introduce the four.

But um, yeah, just for everyone's perspective, that's what I had asked Tom and Heather the Council level set the table for you guys.

But the other thing I wanted to point out that I don't have an expectation of a walkout today with a blueprint of specific steps that we'll take tomorrow, next week, next month.

Um, I think where we're at as an organization with the resources the city council has put within the administration.

We have a lot of talent on board right now to do a lot of things that divide legislative policy setting away from administrative action steps, and I think that's a good thing in our evolution.

Um, it allows council to work with the constituents to hear those goals, and those things are up here.

Um, you know, like recreation community center or you know, more sidewalks.

You have your own purview on that, and then kick that back to staff and ask them to come up with real specific deliverables.

Um, so that's kind of the administration's take on staff's available to have a robust conversation with you.

And I think that this we're in a formal setting, but I can't underscore enough uh the need for this to be also an open informal discussion.

Um, and then I'm more than comfortable know how there is if we need to stop at any point in time and discuss any particular issue.

Let's do that, and uh let's commit to after today.

We'll pick this back up on Tuesday.

We've got a council meeting, and we can refine the conversation if we need to sit down like this again in the future.

But there's so much ongoing right now within the next two year cycle.

Um, I think we gotta start thinking out ahead at a much higher level in terms of the city's position in central Ohio, the issues that are affecting us from external challenges, the opportunities that exist.

Um, you know, it's it's it's a really exciting time to be part of the organization, and I think that's what I wanted to set with everyone in terms of moving forward.

This is very uh fumbling to be a part of the opportunity we have in front of us.

So I think with that um we could kind of get right into the review uh at a high level.

Everyone has their packet, I think, of information.

Um I was gonna start at a very high general level for Chief Sallows, who could be here today.

Um, but it's almost the easiest one's the most complex department we have, but the investments that the city's made within the public safety operations over the last two years has really put us on a completely different path.

Um I know in talking to Chief Salows, um, he's very comfortable where we're at right now as an organization to work with we have.