I spent much of this week assembling updates from all City departments to report where things stand on our Citywide workplan priorities for 2019. We typically report out on status at both midyear (as of June 30) and at year-end (December 31). This helps us to monitor our efforts, share progress with City Council and the community, and understand what challenges have emerged since our workplans were launched. I'll be presenting this report to Council next week and will speak in more detail to our results at that time.

In terms of structure, there are two improvements we are adding to our reporting process. First, we will provide the workplan report in two formats. One is the usual format with all our tasks sorted by department (Finance, Public Works, etc.). This format helps us to track status and capacity internally. This year we will also provide the workplan report in a format where each task is sorted into a high-level "goal." These goals are: Safety, Environment, Livability, Community, and Accountability. This perspective helps us to share the "why" behind the work that we are doing. The hope is that this format may be more meaningful to other, external readers since it groups the City's efforts according to areas of focus rather than according to who within staff is responsible.

The second improvement in reporting is the publication of a midyear report on progress to implement the actions identified within the Comprehensive Plan. When the current Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2017, it identified 54 "implementing actions" that were envisioned as necessary to meet the objectives described in the Comprehensive Plan. These actions are wide-ranging, and many actions will themselves require multiple steps to achieve completion. The City's set of implementing actions represents an ambitious level of effort, and implementation of these tasks will guide our work for the next 5-10 years.

The Council and staff worked together throughout 2018 to understand how the City could effectively connect our day-to-day workplans, legislation, and projects to the sometimes-aspirational vision presented by the 54 implementing actions. The result is a commitment to develop - and use - a platform to track progress on this work and to communicate routinely about how this effort is moving forward. To meet this commitment, City staff will report out on Comprehensive Plan Implementation twice a year, in conjunction with the established midyear and year-end reporting on annual workplans. The reporting that Council will receive next week will be our first iteration of this process. The 2019 midyear reports are now posted to a new webpage on the City's website. 

 

In the next six months, we will be working to transition this information to the same reporting format that we use for the annual workplan. We expect this will create a more readable, user-friendly result, and will also help to solidify the connection between the vision of the Comprehensive Plan and the day-to-day operations of the City. Please look for that enhancement to arrive when the year-end update is provided.

At the study session this week, the Council discussed a request from Friends of the Farms for ongoing funding to support their management of public farmland, continued work to revise rules for sandwich boards and other signs, and considered options related to an existing shade covenant that may require tree removal on the City's Crawford farmland parcel.

At the business meeting next week, the Council will consider several significant topics, including continued discussion on changes related to Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), tiny homes and RVs, new rules for subdivisions, the administrative review of the Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO), the upcoming funding cycle for cultural activities in 2020-2021, and additional discussion on potential changes to the Ethics Program.