REPORT Modesto Council Workshop 2013 · City!Council!Priority!Setting!Workshop! Summary!of!Discussions! ! Management!Partners!!! 4! The!items!receiving!3!dots!were!as!follow:! •

February 2013

City of Modesto, California City Council Priority Setting Workshop

City Council Priority Setting Workshop Table of Contents Management Partners

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Table of Contents Summary of Discussions ......................................................................................................................... 1

Agenda ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Workshop Ground Rules ................................................................................................................. 2 Workshop Preparation ..................................................................................................................... 2 Public Comments .............................................................................................................................. 3 Accomplishments ............................................................................................................................. 3 Priorities for 2013 .............................................................................................................................. 3 Wrap Up and Next Steps ................................................................................................................. 8

Attachment A – Consolidated List of Council Members’ Priorities ................................................ 9 Attachment B – Executive Team Suggestions about Priorities ....................................................... 12 Attachment C – Summary of Evaluation Comments ........................................................................ 16

City Council Priority Setting Workshop Summary of Discussions Management Partners

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Summary of Discussions

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else!”

Yogi Berra

The City of Modesto City Council, City Manager and staff held a priority setting workshop on February 22, 2013. The purpose of the workshop was to set the City Council’s priorities, which will serve as the basis for the City’s strategic plan. These priorities will set the direction for staff in preparing its business plan and the upcoming budget. The meeting was held from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the King-‐‑Kennedy Memorial Center, located at 601 South Martin Luther King Drive in Modesto.

Participants in the meeting were:

• Mayor Garrad Marsh • Council Member John Gunderson (District 1) • Council Member David Geer (District 2) • Council Member Dave Lopez (absent) (District 3) • Council Member Joe Muratore (District 4) • Council Member Stephanie Burnside (District 5) • Council Member Dave Cogdill (District 6) • City Manager Greg Nyhoff • City Attorney Susana Wood • City Clerk Stephanie Lopez • Deputy City Manager Dee Williams-‐‑Ridley • Galen Carroll, Chief of Police • Brent Sinclair, Community and Economic Development Director • Dennis Turner, Public Works Director • Gary Hinshaw, Interim Fire Chief • Bryan Sastokas, Chief Information Officer


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• Gloriette Genereux, Finance Director • Joe Lopez, Human Resources Director • Julie Hannon, Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods Director • Rich Ulm, Utility, Planning and Projects Director

The facilitators for the workshop were Jan Perkins and Linda Barton of Management Partners.

Agenda The agenda for the meeting included the following items:

• Welcome and comments by the Mayor • Comments by the City Manager • Public comments • Review of recent accomplishments • Discuss priorities for 2013 • Review next steps

Workshop Ground Rules Several ground rules were suggested by the facilitators as ways to help the workshop be most productive.

• Listen to each other • Seek to understand • Be respectful • Facilitators will keep things on track • Enjoy the day

Workshop Preparation To prepare for the workshop, the facilitators interviewed the Mayor and each Council Member to hear their comments about accomplishments, challenges and priorities. The priorities they noted were consolidated into a document, by categories (Attachment A). Additionally, the City Manager and department heads prepared a list of suggested priorities and strategic initiatives for the Council’s consideration (Attachment B).


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Public Comments Several members of the public offered their comments at the start of the workshop about priorities they have for Modesto, as follow:

• Downtown • Jobs • Safety (include prevention, alternative solutions) • Stronger economic conditions • Extend the enterprise zone • Services for seniors and working with youth • Encourage entrepreneurship • Transportation, bike paths • Maximize use of river • Neighborhood engagement • Education partnerships

Accomplishments Council highlighted several important accomplishments that had occurred during the year, as follow:

• Beautifying Downtown (such as at 10th and J Street) • Fee Task Force • Wastewater treatment plant upgrades • Synergy with staff and Council, effective in working together • Fiscally sound City • Modesto Regional Fire Authority • Extended Virginia Corridor • Bicycle Advocacy Committee • Low income housing (9th and Carver) • Soccer fields at Grogan Park • Habitat for Humanity project • Facility for emancipated foster and homeless youth • Neighborhood Stabilization Funds project finishing up • As an organization, finding ways to say “yes” – customer service

Priorities for 2013 The items listed on Attachment A were the basis for posters which were created by the City and then placed on the wall to serve as the focal point of discussions at the workshop. At the start of the discussion of priorities, each member of the Council was given seven dots to help prioritize what would be discussed out of the 49 items listed.


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The items receiving 3 dots were as follow:

• Annex Salida, resolve the problems with County Islands within City Limits; create Plan B for economic development if Salida is not annexed

• Create development incentives to attract commercial and industrial companies to Modesto

• Explore new approaches to public safety such as using private security

• Gang intervention and prevention • Increase efforts in neighborhoods for private security and

neighborhood cleanup activities • Work with the school district on projects and services • Engage our youth by providing opportunities for work experience

The items receiving 2 dots were as follow:

• Add staffing for marketing and other economic development work

• Sales tax increase • Reduce crime

The items receiving 3 dots were discussed. Many of the other items with 2 or fewer dots were folded into discussions of the ones receiving 3 dots.

The result of the discussion was that five key priorities were identified as a consensus of the Council. They are listed below, along with a summary of the comments made by Council and staff.

A. Priority: Annex Salida, resolve the problems with County islands within City limits; create a Plan B for economic development if Salida is not annexed.

Comments

• Project is on track and by the end of the year we will have a decision about whether it will proceed or not

• Will help us meet our economic development objectives • Would provide large sites for business • Would provide job opportunities for local people • Salida annexation is important to preserve prime farmland • We need to be able to show Salida residents how it will be

advantageous to them (e.g., Stanislaus County has major financial constraints to provide services to Salida neighborhoods)

• County islands detract from city but take revenue (we need to work with County officials; this is a quality of life issue)


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• Study is complete (fiscal impact analysis) • Need to bring partners together (County, business community)

Resources needed: Sufficient resources are available to proceed with the current phase.

B. Priority: Increase our proactive economic development efforts in order to strengthen our business and economic base and local jobs.

Comments

• A key approach needed is to create development incentives to attract commercial and industrial companies to Modesto

o Incentive for bulk petroleum providers (sales tax incentive) was very successful – did not require City funds

o Sales tax sharing with retail is possible o Property tax incentives would not be enough to attract

businesses o Need to be clear about what types of businesses should be

attracted that will move Modesto forward • Downtown is an important focus of our economic development

efforts • Marketing study could be helpful in tying the information

together for prospective companies • We need to bring the efforts of other local groups working on

economic development together • Market the results of the Fee Task Force • It is important to understand the real estate market and that the

City has something to offer potential companies • City gives too many business licenses for massage parlors

(avenues of prostitution) Resources needed: New resources will be needed to carry out this priority. Resources would go for additional City staff or consultants/firms to market Modesto, conduct market studies, institute incentives, and/or other specific tasks identified.

C. Priority: Explore new approaches to public safety to reduce crime.

Comments

• The number one public safety issue is crime and we need to find ways to move the needle; success will be when crime is reduced

• Cost of public safety is at issue • Consider using technology to stretch our resources


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• Use private security, as more cost effective than police officers; but this will increase the calls for service and with insufficient numbers of officers, this will lead to frustration

• Not enough police officers to protect all schools; schools should be responsible for this

• Schools should add public service to curriculum – could add resources (kids) to help with community issues – they will be engaged and productive – will reduce crime

• Crime Analysts are valuable; they provide crime mapping to help neighborhoods help themselves but capacity has been reduced

• Private security may further overload Police Department • Need to explore as many options as possible • Neighborhood groups not sustainable

o Depends on volunteers • Explore use of retirees – eyes on their neighborhood – call in

significant issues to Police Department

Resources needed: Additional police officers will be needed to address the public safety concerns and needs of the community. The Chief’s priority is patrol. Some vacancies are currently being filled. Other comments included:

• Need new financial resources for police/public safety (e.g., half cent sales tax as a possible source)

• Technology is expensive; may be able to get grants for some technology

• Neighborhood partnerships with policing is important • Private security should be paid for by neighborhoods but not with

public dollars

D. Priority: Increase gang intervention and prevention.

Comments

• While this was highlighted as important, the Police Chief noted that special unit officers (including gang unit) have been reassigned to patrol because that is the fundamental priority of the Police Department

• Consider instituting penalties to households harboring gang members

• Need to keep constant pressure on gangs • Prevention through afterschool programs • School district focusing on early intervention • Look at what other cities that have had success are doing


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Resources needed: Due to low staffing levels, adding officers for this is not currently possible.

E. Priority: Increase collaborations with neighborhoods and the schools district to achieve quality of life improvements.

Comments

• Increase collaborations with neighborhoods for safety and neighborhood improvement/cleanup activities

• Engage volunteers to clean their own neighborhoods, with the City providing bags and dumpsters on clean up days

• Collaborate with the school district on projects and services, such as having students clean up parks near their schools

• Engage our youth by providing opportunities for work experience • Mentoring, afterschool programs are worthwhile in enhancing the

success of our youth; City has afterschool programs in about a dozen schools but there are other schools that could use these programs

• Need to turn around “wanna be” gang culture in schools • Involve youth in improving our community • Boys & Girls Club coming to the community which will be a great

asset for our youth

Resources needed: Accomplishing these activities will require expanding our support to neighborhoods, for which additional staff and funding will be needed.

After the discussions about priorities, a short overview of three additional areas was provided by staff, as follow:

• Parks/trees: If there were more resources, the City could do more tree trimming.

• Streets/roads: Currently, insufficient money to maintain our road infrastructure and will need significantly more money to make a different; only allocating $3 million a year for road maintenance now.

• Fire: Staffing levels are at 1968 levels while calls for service are much higher; look for funding sources that do not compete with general fund sources; future development of Salida will benefit the Fire District.


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Wrap Up and Next Steps City Manager Greg Nyhoff made some wrap up comments. He noted that the City has taken many steps to reduce costs. New approaches to services are now needed. Staff will be bringing back to the Council a number of non-‐‑status quo recommendations, approaches that are different from the past. He said that what is needed now is to build the foundation to be different in the future.

The Council and staff all indicated they felt the discussions were valuable. Staff will return to the Council on the various items noted in this report. The Mayor, Council Members and the City Manager each listed one “takeaway” for them from the workshop. The comments provided are as follow:

• Was an opportunity to get together to talk about issues and plan for the future

• Good to meet with staff and understand our challenges • We set priorities • Public understands our issues • Useful to have priorities and know where we should focus • People expressed passion, good focus of discussions • Format was good: identify priorities, talk about them, discuss

resources • Changed my mind on economic development and public safety

after hearing from staff • Format was good with the Council and staff sharing ideas and

information An evaluation form was completed on the workshop. The results are shown in Attachment C. Next Steps Staff will be holding a community forum to receive input on the Council’s priorities before they are finalized. Staff will be returning to the Council with a business plan to implement the agreed upon priorities.

City Council Priority Setting Workshop Attachment A – Consolidated List of Council Members’ Priorities Management Partners

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Attachment A – Consolidated List of Council Members’ Priorities The following contains the list of priorities identified by the Mayor and Councilmembers during their interviews with the facilitators. Additionally, the following contains the top priority items identified by the community through the Public Safety Forums. They are listed in green font. These were combined into this document for convenience of discussion at the February 22, 2013 Council workshop. There are a total of 49 items listed below.

(Note: The priorities from the Public Safety Forums are placed into the categories identified by the participants in those forums.)

Category: Economic Development

Mayor/Councilmembers’ List:

a. Annex Salida, resolve the problems with County Islands within City Limits b. Create Plan B for economic development if Salida is not annexed c. Establish a cohesive economic development plan without jeopardizing prime farmlands d. Add staffing for marketing and other economic development work e. Create development incentives to attract commercial and industrial companies to Modesto f. Coordinate efforts of those involved in business promotions

Public Safety Forum List:

1. Sales tax increase 2. Cost recovery for services 3. Seek reimbursement for medical services (EMS) 4. Benchmarking successful communities

Category: Public Safety


a. Restore police officer positions b. Reduce crime c. Continue implementation of Modesto Regional Fire Authority d. Consider a half-‐‑cent sales tax to increase public safety staffing e. Explore new approaches to public safety such as using private security


1. Increase staffing 2. Revamp first responder priorities 3. Gang intervention and prevention 4. Predictive policing technologies


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Category: Transportation and Infrastructure


a. Pelandale Exit Project b. North County Corridor plan c. City beautification (e.g., landscaping public spaces) d. Carry out street improvements e. Obtain funding to reconstruct the 7th St bridge

Category: Quality of Life, Community Engagement and Partnerships


a. Increase efforts in neighborhoods for private security and neighborhood cleanup activities b. Increase volunteerism c. Address homeless issues d. Streamline ways for enforcement staff to deal with blighted homes e. Work with social service agencies to eliminate overlap and increase efficiency for those that

receive City funding


1. Invest in successful neighborhood models 2. Community education forums 3. Coordinate non-profits, government, faith-based, service organizations (unify, summit,

meeting) 4. Maximize community capacity building (i.e., “Love Our Neighborhoods”)

Category: Effective City Government


a. Continue to improve customer service b. Reduce costs of retiree medical c. Strengthen (rejuvenate) culture change to allow for new ideas that can help carry out

important goals d. Identify and implement actions related to our core values e. Increase our share of property tax revenue from the state to reflect a fair allocation f. Maintain our focus on being financially stable

Public Safety Forum List (for the category “Regionalization, Privatization, Restructuring”):

1. Increase regionalization of all departments 2. Consolidate emergency services 3. Improve City efficiency through privatization of non-core services


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Category: Education


a. Resolve the conflict with the school district b. Work with the school district on projects and services c. Coordinate with school district for mentoring and after school programs d. Engage our youth by providing opportunities for work experience


1. Community engagement 2. Early intervention strategy 3. Educating the public

City Council Priority Setting Workshop Attachment B – Executive Team Suggestions About Priorities Management Partners

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Attachment B – Executive Team Suggestions About Priorities In preparation for Council’s priority setting session, the Senior Executive Team held a roundtable discussion on January 23, 2013 to focus on specific initiatives or possible priorities for the Council to consider. Below is a list that includes a general citywide focus, priorities identified by the City Manager and a departmental list of suggested initiatives.

This list of priorities/strategic initiatives is provided only as a resource for Council as they develop the overall priorities for the City’s strategic plan.

General Citywide Focus Areas

• Economic Development • Revenue Development • Public Safety • Quality of Life

City Manager’s Priorities

1. Neighborhood partnerships: Strengthen our neighborhoods associations through facilitating investment and structuring criteria that enhance existing neighborhood groups and grow new groups. Accomplish this with neighborhood watch, crime statistics and notifications, our churches, and numerous other criteria that will insure success.

2. Crime prevention and reduction: Increase the number of Police Officers responding to citizen calls and patrolling our community.

3. Economic development 4. Innovation and technology driven efficiency to be placed as a high priority for the

organization and the community. 5. Continue path to bringing customer service, with citizens and internally, to higher

levels. Grow and advance the EMBRACE IT culture. "ʺEveryday for every Customer!"ʺ 6. Enhance our organization and communities image through greater outreach and

communication. 7. Partner with education: Our youth need a community wide effort to increase there

opportunities for success. Mentoring. After School Programs. Connections with kids, etc.

Community and Economic Development

• Draft General Plan Amendment • Pelandale overcrossing under construction • Online building permits implemented • Downtown form base code revised • RTIF completed • Court site approved


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• ADA compliance plan completed • Salida fiscal impact study • PACE program implemented • 10th and 11th street closure/opening plan • Clean energy contract issued • Regional transportation plan completed • Downtown infrastructure plan • AG preservation policy • SR108 corridor study

Modesto Regional Fire Authority (MRFA)

• Restore staffing to engines/trucks/duty battalion to stop the erosion of City established response times as outlined in the Strategic Objectives for the Fire Department (Single company response within 6 minutes 90% and effective work force on structure fires within 10 minutes 90%)

• Prepare for ISO (Insurance Service Rating) review in FY13/14. Determine impact on fire insurance rates.

• SAFER Grant expires in Spring of 2014, grant funding supports nine firefighter positions • Opportunity to develop public/private partnerships with ambulance providers as a

condition of on-‐‑going negotiations with ambulance provider agreements • Establish funding support for Hazardous Materials program. Current county-‐‑wide

contract expired last year • Establish funding support to Technical Rescue/Confined Space program. Both of these

programs received significant financial support through the expiring Homeland Security Grant Programs

• Modesto Fire Station #1 -‐‑ structural integrity issues • Transition to Fire District overlay to provide stand-‐‑alone system

Finance • Remodel customer service counter • New phone system for customer service • Implement GovNow software • Select new bank provider • Refinance 1998 MID bonds • 14/15 Strategic Plan into budget

IT • Enhance city fiber network • Data center modernization • Disaster recovery plan for IT


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Police Department • Technology updates and incorporation of new technology • Private security contracts evaluation • PD organization/Staffing

City Attorney • Staffing levels • Code enforcement • Revise Administrative hearing process

Clerk’s office • Elections (council, School board, measures) • Public Records Request handling • Records Management guidelines

Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods (PRN) • Mary Grogan Park online and promoted • Develop Park partnership for three (3) parks • Online facility reservation system • Deferred maintenance recovery plan • Enhanced mistletoe abatement program • Swimming open at Modesto High • Security Patrols for parks and facilities • Golf program evaluation

Human Resources • Digitize personnel records and transactions • Streamline personnel evaluations • Standard Supervisory training • MOU cleanup • Policy (s) cleanup • New disciplinary manual

Public Works

• Infrastructure 1. Deferred Street maintenance 2. Right of way maintenance program 3. Utility Cut impact mitigation 4. Security of facilities 5. Infrastructure Replacement/improvement

• Service 1. Parking program study 2. After hour customer services 3. Coordination of city services


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4. Air service development • Regulatory

1. Permits and Licenses 2. Environmental compliance 3. ADA Compliance 4. Airport Safety

a. TRRP/Trees b. Fire Service c. Security issues

Utility Projects and Planning • Supporting regional collaboration for Water, Wastewater and recycled water programs • Ensuring that adequate infrastructure is in place for economic development • Update Wastewater master plan • Complete integrated Regional water management plan • Complete Water and Storm drain master plans • Continue to pursue the Regional surface water supply project (TID)

City Council Priority Setting Workshop Attachment C – Summary of Evaluation Comments Management Partners

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Attachment C – Summary of Evaluation Comments At the end of the workshop, an evaluation form was distributed, inviting comments from the Council and staff. Comments offered are listed below.

The best thing about this workshop was... • Open dialogue • Defining priorities to move forward • Council members talking to each other and working toward common solutions • Hearing Council input in an informal setting • Council members attitudes; really appreciated their commitment • Open communication/setting priorities • The approach; identifying priorities with stickers, hearing council feedback and then the

discussion references • Good time management • Ability to interact with Council over issues of importance • A chance to discuss with Council, staff and public the problems we face in making our city an

attractive place to live, work and spend leisure time • Letting the public become aware of how this Council prioritizes issues • Hearing Council comments and thinking on what is important • Ability to help provide direction to staff • Interaction/discussion between council (they don’t do that too often) • Liked setting Council’s priorities

Some thing(s) which could have been better... • Being able to speak freely without public • Need to have follow-‐‑up session with more interaction with staff • Pass out hand outs • Configuration of tables divided group; u-‐‑shape could have added to it • Not sure; good work • More public participation, more publicity about the importance of workshops • Council members leaving early; missed Council member Lopez

Overall usefulness of the workshop 1 (0 responses) 2 (0 responses) 3 (2 responses) 4 (6 responses) 5 (3 responses) Not Useful Very Useful Overall quality of the workshop 1 (0 responses) 2 (0 responses) 3 (2 responses) 4 (6 responses) 5 (3 responses) Poor Quality High Quality Other Comments

• Council was able to speak freely for real debate amongst them selves • Good work, but how will we ensure that it has impact

Documents

REPORT Modesto Council Workshop 2013 · City!Council!Priority!Setting!Workshop! Summary!of!Discussions! ! Management!Partners!!! 4! The!items!receiving!3!dots!were!as!follow:! •