Road Map to the Future Set Forward with Strategic plan

By David Collinsworth, City Manager

There is an old saying that people don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.

It was with that philosophy that Westerville City Council and administration set forward in late 2011 to establish the City’s road map to the future – an updated and re-visioned strategic plan, the first in about a decade.

The City of Westerville has a long history of good planning, and community leaders over time were diligent in looking out on the horizon to identify opportunities, as well as threats, and developing programs and initiatives around them to best leverage our preferred future state. This process was undertaken to formalize sets of plans and centralize our key directives in moving into the next several years.

As part of that planning process, the City set out to establish its mission, vision and core values for the first time. After the deployment of our citizen satisfaction survey and a series of resident and stakeholder focus groups, staff and Council pored over outcomes and matched them to the most relevant strategic topics facing our community.

We looked at hundreds of ideas, opinions and comments on existing and prospective programs, which provided invaluable intelligence into both opportunities on our horizon and expectations from our community.

The vision centers on what we desire as our future state, or our preferred con- dition of being. It was important for us to state that no matter our growth and how we evolve in generations to come, we understand and embrace how deeply our residents appreciate the small-town feel of accessible, reliable city services and programs.

Westerville will be a safe, friendly, vibrant, attractive and diverse community, where people and families live, learn, work and play, and where a small-town feel and quality of life are valued.

Westerville will have a community-oriented government that is committed to innovation, affordability and the health, safety and welfare of its residents, business community, visitors and employees.

The mission statement came to define our daily commitment to delivering exemplary public services and caring for the physical assets of the community. It includes a clearly stated commitment to excellence in conducting the business of the city and preparing for our future, while at the same time embracing our distinct and rich community history.

The City of Westerville is dedicated to providing exemplary municipal services to our community and fostering prosperity while embracing our unique heritage and character.

Additionally, our core values were defined to guide and inspire organizational performance. For elected officials and staff, they are the principles of or- ganizational life that become the foundation of our future-forward path.

Innovation

Stewardship

Excellence

Accountability

Integrity and Trust

Public Safety

Community Engagement

Employee Enrichment

One of the most prominent features of the strategic plan is its orientation around four key themes. Each theme carries a number of goals that support it, along with a detailed action plan and the tactical steps to carry it forward. These four areas are no less than the pillars of the plan.

Citizen Service and Relationships

Economic Development

Infrastructure

Financial Stability

Every important, strategic initiative for the City’s long-term success and vitality falls into one of the four areas by design. From the implementation of emerging technology to comprehensive development plans to securing long-term financial stability, the initiatives sketch what action steps will create the momentum needed in order to realize and fulfill our major goals and vision for the future.

This is the foundation of the plan. Everything we recognized as critical for our future health and success is embedded in these thematic areas. Throughout these strategic themes, there are measurable objectives, detailed action plans and accountability measures to help us build upon our momentum going forward.

For more information on the strategic plan, please visit www.westerville.org.