City Commission Strategic Plan Finalization Workshop - October 30, 2025
City Commission Strategic Plan Finalization Workshop
On October 30, 2025, from 1:00 PM to 3:40 PM, the Sarasota City Commission held a workshop to finalize the City's Strategic Plan. Facilitator Marty Hurwitz led the discussion, focusing on the mission, vision, guiding principles, and project list. The Commission reached consensus on several key elements and identified 14 projects for further consideration.
Discussion Items
- Mission Statement: After reviewing the February 2025 draft, the Commission agreed on the following mission: "Our mission is to partner with our community to provide high quality, responsive services to our residents, businesses, and visitors, while safeguarding our natural resources, preserving our cultural heritage, and building a prosperous, inclusive community."
- Vision Statement: The Commission adopted: "A city with enduring natural beauty, charm, diversity, and vibrancy that is rooted in equity and committed to sustainability where all can thrive while pursuing a variety of interests."
- Guiding Principles: Seven principles were finalized with minor wording changes. Notable changes: Principle 1 became "Foster a Safe, Welcoming, and Strong Community" (replacing "resilient" with "strong"); Principle 2 replaced "green infrastructure" with "integrate renewable technologies"; Principle 3 removed "green alternatives" and now reads "Invest in reliable, modern infrastructure and promote multimodal alternatives that connect people and places throughout the city"; Principle 4 changed "resilient" to "adaptable"; Principle 7 became "Enhance transparency and foster data-driven governance." No numbers were assigned to the principles to avoid implying priority.
- Project List: The Commission reviewed the initial 10-project list and debated which projects to include. They decided to keep 14 projects for further review, including several already underway (e.g., Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall hardening, Newtown economic development, First Street workforce housing, St. Armands update, Rosemary District parking) and new priorities (e.g., Fruitville Road redesign, Whitaker Bayou bridge, enhanced community input to development, downtown master plan, MLK Park improvements, 3D imaging update, and a circulator trolley/tram). Projects removed included the tree fund plan, underground utilities, and a disaster communication program. The final list comprises 14 items to be wordsmithed and prioritized.
Key Outcomes
- Consensus on Mission, Vision, and Guiding Principles: The Commission approved the final language for all three elements, with the understanding that guiding principles would not be numbered.
- Project List Refinement: The Commission agreed to a list of 14 projects for inclusion in the Strategic Plan. These projects will be further refined and prioritized at a future meeting.
- Next Steps: Marty Hurwitz will revise the project list and circulate it to the Commission. Staff will provide updates on ongoing projects (e.g., Van Wezel, Newtown) at a regular meeting. The Commission will hold a final vote on the Strategic Plan at the first meeting in December 2025, with the goal of submitting it to the Financial Administration Department by mid-December for inclusion in the budget books.
Meeting Transcript
All right, good afternoon, everyone. It is Thursday, October 30th, 2025, and this is a workshop for the City Commission. And so I'm calling the meeting to order, and we'll go to our one and only agenda item, which is a discussion regarding the finalization of the City Commission Strategic Plan. And I will turn it over to Marty Hurwitz to lead the discussion. Welcome, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners, thank you for coming here. First, let me note that staff is here. The purpose for staff being here is that as you evaluate your projects and language you may want to change, may not want to change, and information you need that you don't have that you would like, they're here to inform you to help you with that process. Second thing I would like to do is apologize to you all for being a bit inarticulate, which I usually pride myself on not being. However, I did notice that when I label the projects final projects, that doesn't mean they have to be the final projects. That is for all of you to decide upon. And hopefully in our conversation today, we can come to some sort of consensus. We can't vote, but it would be nice we could come to some sort of consensus. So staff is also here to help with that. But again, this project is yours to determine what you want it to be, what language you're comfortable with, not comfortable with. So it is more than a list of projects. And the final thing to remember is there are a number of constituencies that will be looking at this plan. Some of what's in there is to better explain the process and the effort that you all have put into constructing this plan. And that's for the residents. And it is an instrument where you all can hold yourselves accountable by looking and seeing. Mr. Horwitz, I don't mean interrupt. Mayor, can I say I need to make a statement? Um so everybody here is aware in case somebody gets emailed. Um we are having technical difficulties, so Granic is not working right now, so we're not streaming. So just in case somebody gets the email or a text or saying why they can't see it, we're having technical difficulties. I just wanted to make everybody here aware. Okay. I was saying they're not hearing that because they're waiting. You might hear about it or something. We might hear about it, yes. So if Granicus isn't working, does that mean we're also not streaming on Facebook? No, Facebook Live is working. It's just Granitus, but we'll upload the video after the fact. We will videotape it and we'll upload it, but we're good. I just wanted to make sure everybody's aware. Thank you. Sorry. Sorry, Mark. Thank you. My hope is this won't take too long. So I have for all of you the city of Sarasota's vision and mission. And I also have one on a blank piece of paper so that I can set that out for you, Marie. Because you need to get to the mic. Okay. So give me two of those and one of the different what than what was in the backup? But yeah, it is. The backup was a place. The the backup was a placeholder, and this is not. So you said two of these? Yeah.
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