Council to Meet on City's Vision and Values

As part of its effort to create a "Strategic Plan" for El Cerrito, the City Council will hold a special meeting Saturday to discuss two key components of the plan – the city's vision and values.

The workshop meeting, scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at City Hall, is open to the public.

The process began May 1 when the council voted spend up to $45,000 on the effort, including at least $39,000 for a consulting firm, Management Partners, to work with the city in developing a Strategic Plan to provide a shared community vision or blueprint for the city's future for the next decade or two or longer.

The plan is expected to be far more extensive than the city's official "mission statement," which the council hammered out last year. And it's also supposed to be broader in scope and values than the nuts-and-bolts details found in the city's general plan.

Management Partners, which helped organize a series of focus groups and public meetings last month to gather community input, produced a report for the Saturday meeting that lists three draft vision statements and a tentative list of values.

"These drafts are intended to serve as a starting point for the El Cerrito City Council," says the report, which is attached to this article.

Vision

The three options for a city vision presented in the report are:

1. The City of El Cerrito is a thriving community with vibrant neighborhoods, engaged residents, a respect for the environment and a focus on a sustainable future.
    
2. The City of El Cerrito is a vibrant and sustainable community where people are connected to each other, local businesses and the environment.
    
3. The City of El Cerrito is a safe, friendly, unique and thriving community. 

Values

Here's the set of seven values drafted by Management Partners:

1. Ethical
2. Leadership
3. Responsiveness
4. Innovation and Creativity
5. Professional Excellence
6. Fiscal Responsibility
7. Transparency and Open Communication

The report provides detail about each of the values and the process.

The City Council will hold a second study session at a future date to discuss the other two key elements of the Strategic Plan: goals and strategies.

After the second council workshop, city staff and the consultants will produce a draft strategic plan, according to the city's Strategic Plan webpage.

Once the draft plan is developed, the public will have further opportunity to comment before it's adopted by the council, the city says.