REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
Thursday, January 20, 2000
Present: Council Members: Dando, Diaz, Diquisto, Chavez, Fiscalini, LeZotte, Powers, Shirakawa, Woody; Gonzales.
Absent: Council Members: Matthews (excused).
Staff: City Manager Del Borgsdorf, Assistant City Manager Debra Figone, Assistant City Attorney Bill Hughes, Mayor’s Budget and Public Policy Director, Joe Guerra, Mayor’s Budget Analysts Julie Shioshita and James Webb, Assistant to the City Manager Pamela Jacobs, Senior Executive Assistant Deanna Santana, Assistant City Clerk Nancy Alford, and Legislative Secretary Doris Casey.
Documents filed: (1) Memorandum from City Manager, Del D. Borgsdorf, dated January 12, 2000, summarizing the themes of the City Council’s feedback from the December 15th and 16th Committee of the Whole and the City staff’s follow-up to the feedback, and presenting a framework for discussion of the City Council’s goals and priorities for City service areas at the January 20th study session. (2) Memorandum from Pamela Jacobs, dated January 12, 2000, providing logistical details for the January 20, 2000 Council study session. (3) Investing in Results, Preliminary Inventory of City Service Areas. (4) City of San José Alignment Model Chart. (5) Investing in Results (IiR) Policy Priority Questions. (6) Agenda for the January 20, 2000 Investing in Results study session.
INVESTING
IN RESULTS
City Council Study Session on Follow-Up to Investing in Results
Mayor Gonzales convened the study session at 9:15 a.m. at the Mexican Heritage Plaza. Mayor Gonzales stated the purpose of today’s meeting is to focus on City service areas, identifying important key areas and areas where the City is the lead agency, and areas of support to other jurisdictions, with the ultimate goal of providing clear direction to the organization and facilitating internal horizontal alignments.
City Manager Del Borgsdorf stated staff had distilled Council’s comments from the December 1999 meetings into these four themes for follow-up discussions: Setting strategic direction and making investment decisions that drive service delivery at the core service level and below; Ensuring that City services are delivered from a customer perspective regardless of organizational structure; Refining core services to achieve clarity and consistency, and Continuing the commitment to employee involvement. He stated previous discussions focused on the mission, core services and operational services of departments and today’s discussion will focus on the City Service Areas which result in community benefit as reflected on the Alignment Model chart. He introduced Craig Holt, President, Managing Total Performance, to serve as facilitator of the Council’s study session.
COUNCIL DISCUSSION
Guided by Facilitator Craig Holt, Council focused on the Policy Priority Questions of what is Council’s vision for City service areas, what factors indicate successful implementation, what the community needs and expects, and what Council wants to accomplish in the community. Council’s comments pertaining to the facilitation of one-stop customer service, identifying mandated and essential services, accessibility and consistency of services, integration across jurisdictional boundaries, defining retail and sustainability strategies, leveraging City resources, partnering with non-profit and community-based organizations and diversity and outreach issues were noted for incorporation into a framework for the next step in the IiR process. The discussion concluded with defining quality of life issues as being the creation of a place that residents are proud of and where people want to live, fostering a sense of community safety and economic viability; a place where people can live, work, play and worship together in harmony.
City Manager Del Borgsdorf stated Staff will formulate guidelines for continuing the process leading to the development of performance measures and bring back for Council considerations.
The Committee of the Whole study session adjourned at 11:50 a.m.
NANCY ALFORD
ASSISTANT CITY CLERK