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Columbia City Council holds budget workshop August 29, 2007
Operational strategic plan City council reviewed its four strategic goals: (1) To enhance the quality of life in the City of Columbia for all citizens, customers and visitors. (a) Provide quality customer service. (b) Improve internal and external communications. (2) To enhance and protect our natural and built infrastructure. (a) Provide resources to improve and maintain infrastructure. (b) Secure adequate tools and resources to support our employees in performing their duties. (3) To enhance Columbia's future role as the flagship municipality in South Carolina through the use of best practices for local government operations.
(b) Build stronger city council and staff relations. (c) Secure adequate tools and resources to support our employees in performing their duties. (d) Improve external and internal communications. (4) To grow the city's tax base by facilitating opportunities for citizens and future generations to reach their full economic, social, and cultural potential. (a) Maximize revenue opportunities (b) Provide resources to improve and maintain infrastructure. Council members' input Rickenmann asked for the retreat scheduled November 2- 3 to be a genuine retreat, an isolated conference set on reaching hard conclusions. He called for more efficiencies by exploiting on- line capabilities, particularly to help citizens pay their bills to the city. Rickenmann wondered how the city could retain its better employees, the desirable ones who get hired away. Davis reminded council the role of local government included filling in the gaps, the emptiness allowed by the private sector. Assistance to small businesses and an adequate supply of affordable housing were two roles for the city. Davis worried over areas in the city still not considered suitable for investment, places where people would not go. Cromar tie generalized by announcing council met to implement things citizens asked them to do. He warned council of the coming census and the potential for an unintended undercount. Every citizen must be counted, Cromartie declared, because every citizen was a target for federal largess. The city's pre- census count came to 105,000, and Cromartie assumed another 10,000 or so needed to be counted. Sinclair wanted to see a more efficient use of energy resources - cutting off computers at night, say. One of her main objectives, she said, was a growing tax base. She also wanted a closer look at water and sewer capacity. Overall, Sinclair was interested to hear from city staff where they thought Columbia could be in five years - what dreams they had. Devine shared fears of the city's ageing infrastructure resources, particularly after the steam tunnel blew in NYC, and the bridge fell in Minneapolis, two occurances reminding urban USA of its infrastructure weaknesses. Channel 2, Devine said, was underutilized. An instructive course, call it "Columbia 101," could be broadcast over Channel 2 to orient citizens on Columbia. Finlay asked for more staff input at the front end of any pending issue or action. A higher concentration of brains and wealth downtown made sense to Finlay for a number of reasons, but one was the concept of downtown's buildings where no additional fire station or personnel was really needed since the new buildings were sprinklered. Business license applications should be quicker, easier, and cheaper, Finlay said, to encourage more business startups in the city. City Manager Austin suggested council should consider a worst- case budget requirement to squeeze every department out of five percent, potentially, if the revenues fail to come in at the expected level. In the fall, there will be the results of an operational audit and an organizational audit, both from top to bottom, predicted Austin. Also, he said, expect technology to play a greater role in the city's external and internal communications. Next meeting Council meets again at 9 am, Wednesday September 5, on the third floor of City Hall, corner of Laurel and Main. |
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