Staff is seeking direction from the City Council on developing and launching a new strategic planning process to prioritize the goals and strategies that are of strategic importance to the City today and in the future.

In 2004, the City engaged Sherry Lund Associates to provide consultation, facilitation and development of a Strategic Plan for the City. Sherry Lund Associates coordinated with then City Manager, Larry Cheeves and the Senior Management Team on the process and conducted extensive interviews with the City Council. In January 2005, an all-day work session was conducted, which led to the development of the City’s strategic plan. The strategic plan incorporates our current mission statement, a statement of vision and values and citywide strategies.

The City’s strategic plan is now 13 years old and does not reflect the strategic priorities of today nor those of the future. The City is at a critical time in its history with a challenging financial outlook, and many factors have changed over the past decade.  A new strategic plan reflecting current needs and priorities can serve to align the City Council and City staff on a focused path forward to address key challenges and opportunities.  This is needed to position the City of Union City for the future.

Management Partners is currently conducting a management audit of the organization and the launch of a new strategic planning process would complement this process. The information currently being gathered and analysis being conducted through the management audit, and the recommendations for change and improvement that will be prepared will all be important foundational elements of a strategic plan.  As the City’s current local government consultant, staff has engaged Management Partners in the preparation of this report.

About Strategic Planning

Strategic planning and performance management are key to efficient and effective local government service delivery.  A strategic plan conveys a clear direction forward for the organization, which can facilitate better decision making and promote accountability at all levels.  Performance management is the execution of the strategic plan as well as in measuring effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery.

Strategic planning is a fundamental leadership and management tool for organizations.  Among the reasons strategic plans are created are the following.

• Enables the leaders – both elected and staff – to establish an aligned vision and set of goals that everyone will work toward;

• Conveys the Council’s direction to the public so as to instill confidence in the future of the City;

• Helps the Council and staff match resources with the established priorities;

• Creates clear strategies to pursue and achieve goals;

• Defines essential outcomes and performance expectations; and,

• Helps our employees see themselves as part of creating the City’s future, and to help them to see the organization as a great place to work.

• Facilitates setting budget priorities.

Strategic planning is noted as one of the 14 core areas that is critical to effective local government management by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). A good strategic plan provides a framework for linking identified priorities to the budget process, capital improvement program, important policy considerations, economic development initiatives, UCPD’s strategic plan and the organization’s desire for continuous improvement. A good strategic plan can also compliment the City’s General Plan, which sets long-range vision.

Summary of Strategic Plan Components

Vision, Mission and Values

• Vision: The development of a strategic plan begins with a process of updating or developing a new shared vision for the City of Union City. A vision is a statement of where the Council wishes to take the City in the future. 

• Mission: A mission statement conveys the purpose of the City of Union City – why does it exist? Early in the process, either confirming or revising the City’s mission statement would be important as a framework to convey what the city organization stands for and what it will do.

• Values: A set of clearly articulated values guide the behaviors of everyone associated with the City of Union City and drive the organization’s culture.

Multi-Year Goals and Strategies

Subsequently through the strategic planning process, several multi-year goals would be created, along with strategies for achieving the goals.  The strategies would be specific, realistic and measurable.  Appropriate time frames for each of the strategies would be established, and annual budgeting would reflect the strategic plan. We would plan on creating a performance management system so that staff can routinely track and report progress on a scheduled basis to the City Council on the City’s efforts to implement the strategic plan.

Keeping the Strategic Plan Current

Once adopted, a strategic plan is most effective when the City Council and executive team revisit the goals annually to ensure they are still relevant and address the challenges and needs of today and the future.

Examples of Effective City Strategic Plans

The City of El Cerrito initiated a strategic plan process in 2012, adopted a strategic plan in 2013 and updated their plan in 2015. The process was facilitated by Management Partners and city staff manages the routine implementation of strategies and reporting on performances measurements. You can read more about their plan at https://www.el-cerrito.org/DocumentCenter/View/2760/El-Cerrito-Strategic-Plan-updated-April-2015?bidId=

The City of Hayward has had the long-standing guiding priorities of Safe, Clean, Green and Thrive for several years and met recently for a priority setting retreat to develop a two year plan over implementing three strategic initiatives. Progress is reported to the City Council on a biannual basis. More about this can be found at https://www.hayward-ca.gov/your-government/city-council/complete-communities-strategic-initiative

Next Steps

If the City Council is amenable to the process of establishing a new City Strategic Plan, staff is prepared to work with Management Partners on a proposal for the City Council to consider at a future meeting. The proposal will include a more detailed outline of a strategic planning process and describe the timeframe for preparing and implementing the Strategic Plan.

There is no fiscal impact in providing this report.  The cost of consultant services to be provided by Management Partners is not yet known and will be brought back to the City Council once a proposal has been received and reviewed by staff. 

Staff recommends that the City Council consider and provide direction to staff on developing and launching a new strategic planning process.