Novato to update ‘strategic plan’
Novato officials, facing the expiration of the city’s “strategic plan,” are preparing to craft a new one amid the strain of budget deficits and staff layoffs.
The current strategic plan, which outlines the city’s goals and priorities over several years, took effect in 2018 and expires in July. Its 63 goals vary widely, ranging from specific targets such as an electric trolley system in downtown, to broader goals such as creating programs to help at-risk youth.
With many items in the current plan not having been achieved, Councilmembers Susan Wernick and Mayor Pat Eklund are calling for goals to be whittled down to attainable actions the council can take in the next two years.
“When I look at this now I’m not sure whether or not we accomplish very much at all,” Eklund told the council at its meeting on Tuesday. “Part of it is COVID, but part of it is we had to let 50 positions go because of the budget constraints.”
“My concern is that we are actually able to accomplish what’s in the strategic plan,” Wernick said during the meeting.
In light of the layoffs and the city’s projected $2.5 million deficit, City Manager Adam McGill called on the council not to start from scratch on the upcoming two-year priority list. Instead, the council will consider removing items that are routine business or unachievable before adding in new priorities. The steps will be taken over several meetings in the coming months.
One topic environmental groups and advocates will be watching closely is whether the city includes actions related to its climate emergency declaration passed in November. The declaration mostly serves as a statement of intent and did not list any specific actions the council would take.
Novato resident Rachel Farac, who sits on the city’s Planning Commission, was one of the residents who convinced the council to adopt the declaration. With five months passed since then, Farac said, it’s time the council takes its pledge seriously by including “aggressive goals that are going to make a difference instead of taking the easy way out and doing easy measurable steps.”
“We want something that is going to challenge the city,” Farac said.
Novato resident Lily Cohen, who is a youth organizer for the environmental organization 350 Bay Area, said she has a hard time believing the city will take meaningful action given its approval of a Costco gas station earlier this month.
“When we were speaking with the Planning Commission and the City Council, we asked what the climate emergency resolution meant,” Cohen said. “Basically what they ended up saying is it was a hope and a long-term goal, but they didn’t have a means to an end.”