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Item No. 17 <br />memo�andum <br />TO: Mayor & City Council <br />FROM: John Godwin, City Manager <br />SUBJECT: STRATEGIC PLAN <br />DATE: January 3, 2013 <br />BACKGROLJND: Working with various staff inembers, using previous survey data, studying <br />various published plans and documents, and reviewing feedback from council members and <br />others in the latter half of 2012, I developed a draft strategic plan. The draft was distributed to <br />the council in rough form in October, and two iterations have been reviewed in great detail with <br />city staff. <br />STATUS OF ISSUE: The product to be presented to the council on January 14 is meant to be a <br />starting point towards helping Paris move forward. Paris is an excellent community with great <br />potential, and we are blessed with many fine, conscientious employees. But Paris seems to have <br />allowed itself to feel too comfortable with the status quo, and as a result, our organization has <br />been static for some number of years, doing many of the same things the same way yeaz after <br />year. A strategic plan is designed to be more forward thinking, to challenge staff and others to <br />think outside the box about how things could be done differently and how good they might be, <br />and ultimately to hold us all accountable towards achieving the organization's full potential. <br />The attached strategic plan is divided into 16 chapters, covering each of our major departments, <br />plus additional chapters for the airport, downtown, HR, animal control, economic development, <br />and management/miscellaneous. I have attempted to introduce each chapter with a broad goal, in <br />most cases trying to set a bold direction. For example, in describing our fire departrnent, I do not <br />want us to just think about being good, or even excellent, but to set our sights on being the best <br />fire department in all of Northeast Texas. I do not want our downtown just to be nice or quaint, <br />but I want it to be "the place" to go to from miles around. I want Paris as a whole to get and <br />deserve a reputation for excellence. <br />A few of the objectives and tasks in the plan are preriy simple, and some have already been <br />addressed. Others are in the works right now. Some are very expensive; some may be <br />controversial and require additional council meetings on which to make decisions. Many have <br />