How did the Northfield City Council perform on its goals for 2006 and 2007?

Northfield City Council 2008
Item #12 on tonight’s City Council agenda is a discussion of Council Goals for 2008.  Oddly, there’s nothing in the agenda packet about the 2008 Goals so I dug around and found these from 06, 07, and 08.

CITY COUNCIL AND CITY STAFF 2006 – 2007 GOALS AND ACTION PLAN 

  • Goal 1: To adopt and successfully implement the City’s Economic Development Plan and to broaden the City’s tax base
  • Goal 2: Retain the character and identity of downtown Northfield
  • Goal 3: Address City’s Continued Growth
  • Goal 4: To develop a policy that relates to the City’s collaboration with other public entities.
  • Goal 5: To design and implement a long-term (5-10) year financial plan and vision for the City.
  • Goal 6: To update and implement the City’s Comprehensive Plan

CITY COUNCIL AND CITY STAFF 2007 GOALS

  • Goal 1: To adopt and successfully implement the city’s economic development plan and to broaden the city’s tax base
  • Goal 2: To design and implement a long-term (5-10 year) financial plan and common vision
  • Goal 3: To update and implement the city’s comprehensive plan
  • Goal 4: To improve the city’s transportation and infrastructure
  • Goal 5: To address the city’s aging buildings and facilities
  • Goal 6: To retain the character and identity of downtown Northfield
  • Goal 7: To improve communication both internally and externally
  • Goal 8: To improve communication and collaboration with other public jurisdictions
  • Goal 9: To address the city’s continued growth
  • Goal 10: To take a leadership role in preserving and protecting the environment
  • Goal 11: To broaden citizen involvement

Council Goals 2008

  • Goal #1: To successfully implement the City’s Economic Development plan and to broaden the City’s tax base by assisting current business owners in expanding and attracting new business to the community.
  • Goal #2: Complete the design and implementation of the long-term (5-10 year) financial plan for the City.
  • Goal # 3: Complete the Update, Adoption and Implementation of the Comprehensive Plan
  • Goal #4: Protect and improve the City’s infrastructure networks to extend the City’s investments, provide a higher level of service to the community and to support orderly development and economic growth
  • Goal #5: Improve the conditions of the city’s aging buildings and facilities and park infrastructure.
  • Goal #6: Retain the character and identity of downtown Northfield

Does the Council evaluate how it has performed on its goals for the previous year at the same time that sets goals for the upcoming year? If so, are those evaluations available anywhere? If not, why not?

5 Comments

  1. kiffi summa said:

    Note: In the time between the 2006/7 goals and the 2008 goals The downtown has slipped from #2 to #6… In the meantime the taxes continued to rise for DT commercial ( although they leveled out this year) ; there are few improvements and those that are occurring are also burdening some businesses with sizable assessments.

    I would like to hear from the council why the DT was #2 on their lists of goals and is now # 6. I do not see the DT’s economic viability as being so secure, or in fact increasing over the past two years, to justify that slippage.

    June 2, 2008
  2. Jane McWilliams said:

    Griff:

    My impression is that the council’s goal setting is not as formal as your questions would suggest.

    I missed the first goal setting meeting in early 2008 when the council took the first step in setting this year’s goals. There are no minutes taken at meetings like the goal-setting sessions, so I don’t know whether the council built upon last year’s as you suggested. At the second meeting, the discussion veered away from the discussing the goals and focused more on governance. For what it is worth, I reported my impressions of that February 27 meeting in my LWV observer report.

    June 2, 2008
  3. kiffi summa said:

    I went to both nights of the Jan2007 city council retreat to report on it for the League of Women Voters, and reported on that retreat on the LWV website. At that time the “downtown ” and its economic health was placeholder #2 on the council’s goals list.

    Jane: do you have any idea how the Downtown slipped to # 6 0n the goals for this year. Economically; empty stores, rising taxes, rental rate resistance, lack of qualified financially secure tenants, etc., etc., all point to a less secure DT. So what’s with the declining place in the council’s goals?
    Any ideas, from what you heard?

    June 7, 2008

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