City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: OCTOBER 16, 2024
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: JAMES F. PARAJON, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Fall 2024 City Council Priorities Initiatives Updates
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ISSUE: Receipt of the Council Priorities Initiatives Updates and Quarterly Newsletter
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council receive updates on the five priorities.
BACKGROUND: On January 29, 2022, the Alexandria City Council held a retreat to develop expectations and priorities for the City work program. Council Members revised the priorities in November 2023, as follows, and directed staff to provide quarterly updates on initiatives that help the city achieve priority goals.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION: How do we widely connect all Alexandrians to City Government information, and that our services reflect the diverse lived experiences of our residents and businesses?
HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES: How do we increase quality housing and its availability at a range of price points?
EMPLOYEE ATTRACTION AND RETENTION: How do we attract and retain diverse talent in the public service sector and ensure our employees feel valued?
ELIMINATE COMMUNITY DISPARITIES: How can we better extend support to Alexandrians, especially our youth, in our efforts to eliminate social, health, and economic disparities within our communities?
ECONOMIC STRENGTH: How do we increase the economic strength of the city and its residents to ensure financial stability and attract quality jobs?
These priorities provide the framework for an interdepartmental approach to achieving city goals. In combination with key indicators, the goals and initiatives describe how the City will ensure each priority area is well run and the community receives quality services.
Each quarter, staff provides an update to Council Members on the initiatives. This also includes updated indicators and a newsletter that highlights specific initiatives with stories that demonstrate how initiatives directly impact the community and the city’s workforce.
City Council expressed that the priorities must be consistently viewed through the lenses of equity & environmental justice. In identifying and developing the initiatives for each goal, City staff and partners are asked to understand the historical injustices built into the problem statements and then ask,
1. Equity: How will this initiative identify and overcome intentional and unintentional barriers in our City’s systems and services?
2. Environmental justice: How does this initiative provide equitable access to a healthy environment and take proactive measures to mitigate and adapt to future climate change?
To ensure that these questions are being addressed, the Office of Race and Social Equity and Office of Climate Change have been training staff to 1) normalize concepts and conversations around race, 2) involve the Alexandria community in the development and execution of initiatives, 3) operationalize moving from theory to action, by using local data and equity tools, and 4) assess how well conversations around race and climate action are becoming normalized, organizational capacity is being organized, and new behaviors and policies are being operationalized. Using this knowledge, staff are empowered to do better and advance our policies through operationalizing from theory to action.
DISCUSSION: This City Council Priorities Update includes three parts: 1) updated indicators, 2) a quarterly newsletter, featuring stories from the initiatives, and 3) an update from each of the initiatives.
Updated Indicators
As part of the update of the five City Council priorities, the indicators associated with each priority were reviewed and several new indicators were added. Tracking of all indicators from the five City Council Priorities can be found on the City’s website here:
<https://www.alexandriava.gov/performance-analytics/city-managers-business-plan-indicator-dashboard>.
These indicators change infrequently from quarter to quarter, however, this quarter there are three data updates to specifically highlight:
In the Economic Strength Priority, the number of small businesses counseled and the number of job placements by the Workforce Development Center have seen noticeable increases in the most recent updates. During the final quarter of FY24, AEDP counseled 98 small businesses, which was an increase of 31 businesses from the previous quarter and the most businesses counseled in a quarter since the data started being tracked in FY23. In FY24, the Workforce Development Center reported a 52% increase in job placements with 623 placements made during the past fiscal year.
In the Eliminate Community Disparities Priority, the number of youth served in the Summer Youth Employment Program saw a noticeable increase over the past summer. The program experienced a five-year high in youth served with more youth receiving career experience and meaningful skill development this summer than the past four years.
Newsletter
Each quarter, staff develop a newsletter highlighting a story about an initiative in each priority area (Attachment #1). This quarter, the newsletter includes the following stories:
• Community Connection
Highlighted Initiative: Jr. City Academy
• Employee Attraction and Retention
Highlighted Initiative: Institute for Regional Excellence-Regional Executive Development Program
• Economic Strength
Highlighted Initiative: Small Business Resiliency Grant
• Eliminate Community Disparities
Highlighted Initiative: City Services Map
• Housing Opportunities
Highlighted Initiative: Eviction Prevention and Housing Support
Initiatives Updates
Attachment #2 provides an update on each of the initiatives for each priority. This update is also available on the City’s website, with a real-time display of the database, here:
<https://www.alexandriava.gov/city-council/city-council-2022-priorities>
FISCAL IMPACT: None
ATTACHMENT(S):
(1) Newsletter
(2) Initiatives Updates
(3) Presentation
STAFF:
Dana Wedeles, Strategic Initiatives Officer, City Manager’s Office
Josh Ferguson, Performance Analyst, Office of Performance Analytics