***UPDATED*** | City Strategic Planning Efforts Continue

The Marco Island City Council recently engaged in a process of setting goals and objectives for not only themselves regarding policy objectives, but for the management staff regarding what they should accomplish.

This was all part of a Leadership and Strategic Planning exercise being run by Lyle Sumek, of Lyle Sumek Associates, in an effort to provide the city with a vision for the future and what should be done if the island is to maintain its charm and quality of life for its present inhabitants and those in the future.

The process began in early April when a group of citizens, appointed by council were gathered at the Rose Historical Auditorium on the campus of the Marco Island Historical Society. They would give their input on a number of subjects. Those thoughts would be categorized and presented to council when they would meet during two separate sessions to work with those ideas, along with their own.

At the May 28 meeting, all of those ideas were prioritized into a document which will set in place a roadmap for both council and staff. Although there was some confusion at the outset as to how some of the items made it into the documents that were before council, they would eventually work through those concerns and focus on both policy and management goals, with target dates for completion of those wish lists.

Council Attempts to Prioritize Goals

Twenty-four targets for action were listed on the menu for Policy issues. Councilors were requested to list their top seven targets. Those receiving the top votes in that category were:

• Building Permit Process and Audit Review
• Five-year Financial Plan /with General Fund Projections
• Police Department Organizational Review
• Proactive City Communications/Public Engagement Policy, Plan and Program
• Water Quality Testing
• Stormwater Policy and Management
• Comprehensive Plan Update

Councilors were then requested to list the next seven highest items for action, and they were;

• Strategic Plan Development and Institutionalization
• Reuse Water Policy/ Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade
• Environmental Specialist: Direction
• Swale Assessment and Problem Analysis
• Annual Road Improvements: Service Level and Funding
• Code Enforcement/Compliance
• Park Master Plan/Park Development

The next series of ratings for “Management Action” had a total of fifteen items for consideration. Councilors were requested to list their top five items as their priorities and chose the following:

• Collier County One-cent Sales Tax funds allocation
• Fire Station 50: Direction
• City Employee Compensation and Benefits
• MS-4/Status and Direction
• Veterans Community Park Design Review
• Councilors were then requested to list the next five highest items for action, and they were:
• Comprehensive Infrastructure and Facilities Assessment and Plan/with Funding
• Community Survey
• City Department Comprehensive Review
• City Building and Facilities Plan
• Vehicle Management and Inventory

Moving Forward

Copies of the workbooks which council worked from can be found by following these links Section 10 Summary , Action Agenda , and Strategic Plan Draft.  These documents will provide readers with all of the information which was assembled by Lyle Sumek Associates. That information was assembled from his one citizens’ workshop, the two workshops done previously with council, and other meetings with city staff.

In addition to these workshops, other objectives and completion dates for in-house projects underway have been assembled for council which show the enormity of the workload before staff and councilors.

Newly hired City Manager Michael McNees has attended at least one of those workshops with the staff and Mr. Sumek, observing the process before he becomes the person in charge on July 1.

Council will hold one additional meeting with Mr. Sumek and a number of these priorities will have budget impacts, as they may require additional personnel or will affect the budgeting process.