City of Powell River councillors have put off adoption of the draft strategic plan until there can be further discussion.
At the September 14 city council meeting, interim chief administrative officer Chris Jackson said the draft plan was based on previous workshops, lots of discussion and deliberations.
“What we are looking for is approval and this will allow staff to implement some actions aligned with your strategic priorities,” said Jackson. “Tentatively, you could bring it back to a future committee of the whole meeting and have additional workshop time with the new chief administrative officer (CAO).”
Councillor Cindy Elliott said she wanted to make a motion that council take the document back to committee of the whole for further discussion.
“My feeling is the wording still did not reflect my understanding of what we wanted the strategic plan to say and I felt there were some key items missing that were really important,” said Elliott. “We should have a discussion about that, refine some of that, and bring it back.”
Councillor George Doubt said he agreed with Elliott. He said there had been a lot of work to get the strategic plan this far.
“We’re getting somewhere but have not taken it to a place where I would be prepared to adopt it,” said Doubt. “There’s a lot of things we could do about the language in the draft strategic plan.”
Doubt said he was looking at the appendix to the strategic plan that specified goals and objectives and it appeared to him that it is basically a list of the sticky notes that were put up on a wall by anyone who had an idea.
“It’s not organized into priorities or narrowed down to select a real focus of where our strategic plan should be,” said Doubt. “I’d like to see that happen. I’d like to see these items prioritized and whittled down to a number we can reasonably expect to get done in the next three years. I’m in favour of holding a future discussion at committee of the whole.”
Doubt said the process will probably need a workshop to go through the appendix, prioritize, and maybe consolidate some of the statements.
“There is more work to do but we’re getting somewhere,” added Doubt.
Councillor Trina Isakson said she concurred with Elliott’s motion.
“We’ve had a number of conversations in open and closed sessions,” said Isakson. “I don’t feel it reflects the conversations. One of the difficult things that I would like the strategic plan to do is give staff very clear direction on things that are just not business as usual, so staff has clear direction on what to prioritize and understand the will of council. I don’t think this document does that yet.
“I feel it is important for the public to be able to comment and provide input on the draft. Bringing it directly to council doesn’t provide that same amount of time. It can be shared in a future committee of the whole and we can workshop it.”
Councillor Jim Palm said further refinement is required so staff knows what council’s priorities are.
“Getting those priorities in line to satisfy council’s wishes is not an easy task but we will work at it,” said Palm. “The one piece missing for me is our new CAO needs to weigh in and help us redefine our objectives.”
The committee voted unanimously to take the strategic plan back to committee of the whole. Jackson said he anticipates bringing the strategic plan to the committee of the whole meeting on October 3.
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