Subject:
Title
8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Strategic Plan Work Session #2: Review of Draft Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Focus Areas
Body
BACKGROUND SUMMARY:
On April 29, 2019, the Town Council adopted the Town of Vienna 2019 Strategic Plan: Honing Excellence in an Exceptional Hometown. The adoption was the culmination of a process that had begun in late 2017, when a consultant was hired to lead the strategic planning process.
The document established a vision statement that was intended to last for two decades, but more centrally established a nearer-term time frame for a set of goals, strategies and action steps that were to be undertaken over the following five years - through 2023.
With the new year (2024), Town Council indicated its desire to review and update the Strategic Plan. To assist in this process, the Town has hired James Patteson, Principal of Blue Heron Leadership Group, who will work with the Council and staff to manage this process and help to produce a final document.
More details on both the prior Strategic Plan and Mr. Patteson were provided in the agenda packet for the March 7, 2024, work session.
As a reminder, the Strategic Plan occupies a particular medium-term position among the vision and strategy documents that the Town Council has approved or are in progress in recent years. Such documents include:
Ø Comprehensive Plan - Required by State and with the longest planning horizon of 20+ years.
Ø Strategic Plan - Adopted by Town Council for a period of 4-6 years.
Ø Annual Priorities - Adopted by Town Council for each of the past two years, to be implemented in that calendar year with a completion date that may or may not extend beyond that respective calendar year.
Ø Operating and Capital Budgets, which are reviewed and adopted annually, though the capital budget has a longer-term planning horizon.
Ø Special-topic plans (Parks, Economic Development Strategy, Annex property, etc.), which are conducted and adopted as the Town Council sees fit.
OVERVIEW:
Current Strategic Plan Process To Date
This Strategic Plan process began with Mr. Patteson conducting interviews and surveys of Town Council and senior staff. Mr. Patteson took that information, reviewed the prior Strategic Plan, and produced a draft Mission statement and a set of draft Strategy statements.
On March 7, 2024, at the Vienna Community Center, Mr. Patteson provided a presentation on strategic planning, after which these statements were the main subject of the work session. At the session, the Town Council and senior staff provided comments on the draft Mission and Strategies.
Mr. Patteson collected and organized all the comments from the work session, which are shown as Attachment 1.
The input led to Mr. Patteson recommending a change to the structure of the Strategic Plan. After interacting with Senior Staff, the updated document (Attachment 2) is now organized with the following layers:
2024 Strategic Plan
Ø Vision
Ø Mission
Ø Values (the Vienna Way)
Ø Strategic Focus Areas
Ø Strategies
This structure would represent an amendment to the approach of the 2019 Strategic Plan, whose layers were:
2019 Strategic Plan
Ø Vision Statement
Ø Goals
Ø Strategies (Objectives)
Ø Action Steps
The 2019 Strategic Plan was provided in the prior reports, but can also be found on the Town’s Web site, at <https://www.viennava.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/1422/637433245809370000>.
April 14, 2024 Work Session
The topic for the April 15, 2024, Town Council work session will be to review and provide comments on Attachment 2.
SUMMARY/STAFF IMPRESSIONS:
A working group of Directors and Deputy Directors participated in reviewing drafts from Mr. Patteson and has had the opportunity to make comments, which resulted in amendments. Attachment 2 reflects the result of that process.
Staff and Mr. Patteson look forward to the Town Council discussion and is prepared to provide input as requested from Town Council.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the Town Council review Attachment 2 and provide comments and guidance on any changes that should be made to the draft.
NEXT STEPS AND COMPLETION TIME FRAME:
If the Town Council has reached agreement on the Attachment 2 document, including any edits, the next step will be for Mr. Patteson to work with staff on developing a set of draft strategies that implement the themes of the Strategic Focus Areas.
A draft of those strategies would be brought back to the Town Council for review. This process will likely take a series of months, with a return to the Council not later than soon after the summer break.
At this point, staff anticipates that the updated Strategic Plan will be adopted in Fall 2024.