Roswell officials work to identify goals for future

By DELANEY TARR delaney@appenmedia.com

OPELIKA, Al. — Roswell elected officials and staff spent last week poring over goals and finances for the coming year at a strategic planning retreat at the Auburn Marriott Opelika Resort and Spa.

The group of about 27 senior staffers and officials met from Feb. 8-12 to talk big-picture issues.

City officials focused on the foundations of Roswell, like the “vision statement,” economic goals and the history of resolutions passed by the council. The group reflected on 2022 and looked across the past decade to chart the future of the city.

Prior to the retreat, the city posted an agenda online that listed the councilmembers attending and the general dates and times of the retreat. Upon arrival in Opelika, everyone was presented with a two-page agenda with a breakdown of all the topics.

Many discussions veered from the set agenda, though and into broader ideas about Roswell, with Mayor Kurt Wilson leading the conversation and consultant Peter Sorckoff facilitating.

The challenge of Roswell Inc Roswell Inc, the city’s economic development organization, kicked off the retreat with a presentation on economic activity and strategy. The nonprofit organization has partnered with Roswell since 2012.

Executive director Steve Stroud listed Roswell’s economic strengths –like education and a historic downtown – and its weaknesses – like a lack of comprehensive economic development strategy.

Stroud named key redevelopment locations, like the Kohl’s at Centennial Village or Roswell Town Center. The presentation focused on creating a “roadmap for long-term vitality” that would create specific goals and objectives for the organization. Stroud also touched on environmental goals, as well as several other measures.

“I still don’t think there’s complete clarity on what type of projects, what type of business and what type of uses Roswell Inc is focusing on,” City Councilman Mike Palermo said after the presentation.

Palermo said the major issue with Roswell Inc is a lack of defined goals, which makes him concerned about the use of taxpayer dollars to fund the work.

The nonprofit is funded on a split model, with 60 percent of its money coming from the private sector and 40 percent from tax dollars. Palermo called for more transparency from the organization, adding that taxpayers may not have a clear picture of their investment in Roswell Inc.

Mayor Wilson said the City Council is partially to blame.

“We’re very critical of Roswell Inc, but we’re not very clear about what we want them to do,” Wilson said. “That is setting up an organization for failure.”

City Councilman Peter Vanstrom addressed the task for Roswell Inc. as it moves into the next year.

“The challenge of Roswell Inc is that we identified a vision of being the number one family community in America, so how do you build redevelopment and business around that?” Vanstrom said.

Becoming number one

Roswell City Attorney David Davidson later held a presentation on “roadblocks” for the city, recapping all the resolutions the council has passed in the past decade. He also talked about existing plans and certifications across city departments.

As Davidson went through the various operational and strategic plans, the mayor interrupted to ask how many plans an organization should have. He emphasized there should be one unifying plan.

The conversation moved into organizational structures and whether the city’s departments should have one vision, or their own plans.

Instead, Wilson said everyone in the city should follow the “vision,” to be the number one family community in the country. The so-called “vision statement” has been a hallmark of Wilson’s term as mayor.

Polling the room, Wilson asked

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Continued from Page 5 whether participants “loved the vision.” With their eyes closed, 20 people raised their hands to affirm they did. Six indicated they “hated” it.

Councilwoman Sarah Beeson asked how they were supposed to define “number one family community in America,” which prompted several staffers to say they needed clarity on the meaning of the phrase.

Another poll showed that 18 people said they did not understand the statement. Eight said they did.

Meeting facilitator Sorckoff said clarity on the vision statement is vital if plans are to be implemented.

Beeson agreed, saying there needs to be a clearly identified goal based on benchmarks, so people can know whether they are following the vision statement.

City administrator Randy Knighton disagreed, though, saying the point of the vision statement is “aspirational” and subjective. Mayor Wilson agreed, then said the conversation is not about the vision statement itself, but how best the city can achieve it.

Wilson also said the people who didn’t understand the vision statement were “liars in a nice sense,” who actually did understand the goal but simply disagreed.

A new budgeting system

The mayor also led a presentation on zero-based budgeting as a possible new practice to finance city operations. Zero-based budgeting is a method that allocates all of the money to expenses, debt payments and savings, leaving the final budget balance at zero. Proponents say the system encourages cost control. By not using the previous year’s budgets as a baseline, expenditure can be better monitored.

“It is me requesting for you to transform your organization,” Wilson told staff.

He said the budget should be a policy discussion, and that when departments propose their budgets, the city should be able to link them to established policy goals.

Roswell Fire Chief Joe Pennino agreed with a policy-forward budgeting process, but he asked for better communication on budgeting priorities because the department does not have “clear policy direction.”

“I’m expecting you to attack your organization and say, ‘How can I build this thing?’” Wilson said.

The mayor said he will take the professional expertise of each department and focus on the resources and assets employees need to succeed.