My 2.20.24 Meeting Summary

On Tuesday the Council met to discuss two significant items:

- From our last meeting, there were nine strategic goals that were identified:

1. Public Safety, Infrastructure, and accessibility (roads, sidewalks, and ADA)
2. Community Parks and Recreation
3. Economic Development- promoting available spaces, growing number of families into community, improved downtown activity
4. Maintain vibrant police force, maintaining community policing model
5. Balancing the budget
6. Maintain the aesthetic of the City of Clayton (LMD)
7. Disaster Preparedness and Fire Prevention
8. Preserving the historical nature of the town
9. Environmental Sustainability

From there, we formed a mix of two person ad hoc committees among Councilmembers to discuss and present the strategic objective of each.  The intent of this would be discuss and narrow the nine goals down to five.  While all are important issues, like all organizations the City has limited resources and needs to focus and prioritize those most important right now.  After discussion, the Council chose the following five goals to prioritize (not in any specific order):

- Public Safety, Infrastructure, and accessibility (roads, sidewalks, and ADA)
- Community Parks and Recreation
- Economic Development- promoting available spaces, growing number of families into community, improved downtown activity

- Balancing the budget
- Maintain the aesthetic of the City of Clayton (LMD)

These goals will serve as guidance as staff prepares more information regarding financial projections and mid year budget discussions that will occur at our next meeting on March 5.  One thing to note about #4 above regarding the police force.  While I consider our police one of the City's most valuable assets, most Councilmembers felt that we addressed many of the needs of the police at our last meeting when we approved a renewed 3 year agreement with both the Clayton Police Officers Association and the Chief.  

The ad hoc committees among Councilmembers was an opportunity for us to collaborate on our shared visions, especially for those Councilmembers who haven't worked together very frequently.  Unfortunately there were slide presentations created as if they were authored by the committees, but during discussion it was clear that these presentation materials were never seen by either Vice Mayor Trupiano or myself and also attributed to us views that we did not agree with.  This misrepresentation undercut the ostensibly collaborative purpose of the committees.

- We formed an ad hoc committee consisting of myself and Councilmember Tillman to discuss potential solutions or actions that the Council could take regarding the impact excessive parking may create downtown.