City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: FEBRUARY 5, 2020
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Consideration of the City Council Work Program for Calendar Year 2020.
BODY
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ISSUE: City Council Work Program for 2020.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council:
(1) Adopt the proposed 2020 Work Program as detailed on Attachments 3 and 4; and
(2) Direct the City Manager to docket these items generally within the timeframes noted, acknowledging that some scheduling changes may occur throughout the course of 2020.
BACKGROUND: As a pre-cursor to 2020, on November 2, 2018, The Alexandria City Council held a retreat to discuss the upcoming budget and CIP and develop the components of the annual City Council Work Program (Work Program) for 2020. The Work Program portion of the retreat was professionally facilitated by EJP Consulting Group, LLC, who conducted the inaugural year’s Work Program and included a staff presentation on the implementation of the 2019 Work Program.
As part of the facilitated discussion, Council conducted a review of the previous year’s work program implementation, providing staff with guidance for process improvements to develop the 2020 Work Program. EJP facilitated a series of exercises to identify goals and priorities and assist Council in prioritizing initiatives for the 2020 Work Program. As a result, City Council identified 9 new policy and priority areas/policy work sessions to include in the 2020 Work Program, as well as, identified individual member priorities. Each Councilmember was asked to rank his/her top three priorities. These exercises culminated in a prioritization based on weighted averages among the members around the various topics. The prioritization results of the retreat Work Program are shown in Attachment #1.
DISCUSSION: The City Council 2020 Work Program (Attachment #2) identifies the policies and priorities of expressed interest by the Council during the retreat and includes the following elements:
I. Schedule and receipt of Master Plan updates and major policy studies and initiatives (as proposed by the Multi-Departmental Long-Range Work Plan (LRWP));
II. Schedule of recurrent Council obligations (BFRO); and
III. Identification and schedule for policy work session and/or department strategic reviews. (CPW)
Following the retreat, staff has worked to refine and further develop the Work Program based on the discussion and prioritization results produced during the retreat. Additionally, staff incorporated the outstanding 2019 Work Program items to ensure Council was able to complete the carryover items from the previous year. The proposed 2020 Work Program was developed to ensure the Council priorities were scheduled and distributed within the calendar year in a manner that is manageable for both the Council as well as staff. The 2020 Work Program identifies the policy work sessions and/or department strategic reviews that would occur during City Council Legislative Meetings. As no Legislative Meetings are scheduled during July and August, these months are blacked out on the calendar. A monthly calendar of the Work Program is also provided to depict the distribution of items throughout the year (Attachment #3).
Upon approval, the proposed Work Program will serve as a roadmap to guide Council and staff work and be a “living document” subject to periodic amendment.
Timing of Work Program Topics: The proposed Work Program has been assembled melding a combination of Council priorities with the timing of when particular topics could be ready to schedule for Council discussion driving the proposed calendar (Attachments 2 and 3). Since the timing of the Council docket topics is sometimes driven by outside forces, or issues unforeseen at the time of the Work Program’s development, there may be at times a need to shift the timing of when some of these topics are docketed.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. City Council Work Program Prioritization Results
2. Alexandria City Council 2019 Work Program Draft 2.6.2020
3. Alexandria City Council 2019 Work Program Draft 2.6.2020 (By Month)
STAFF: Richard Lawrence, AICP, Special Assistant to the City Manager