City Of Kimberling City: Visioning

by Jerry Harman and Lee Langerock

City Of Kimberling City:

Visioning The Future

Within municipal government there is a complex balance between functional operations, customer service and community expectations. Not every community begins its strategic planning with consideration of a vision statement. For communities that do, providing service and setting the strategy for the future becomes more relevant and focused.

In a tourist community where guests outnumber the residential population, meeting customer demand and providing continuity of service while maintaining an aging infrastructure presents daily challenges. To help address these challenges, the city of Kimberling City is beginning a strategic planning process. The first stop is developing and adopting a vision statement.

Kimberling City boasts the largest marina on Table Rock Lake. Nestled on the water’s edge, Kimberling City is surrounded on three sides by water. Cruisers, pontoons and fishing boats sit in their slips creating an extended community of water dwellings, ready for the day’s adventure on Table Rock Lake. The fourth natural border is the rising cliffs of the Ozark mountains. The lush mountainside in Kimberling City hosts neighborhoods overlooking the lake.

The community of approximately 2,500 people doubles and triples in size during the height of the season as tourists come to enjoy the lake, Branson’s attractions, and the region’s other natural amenities. The annual migration to Kimberling City is generational. It is a great family-focused environment that invites visitors and residents to relax and return each year.

Highway 13 bisects the community and provides a gateway to Springfield and beyond. The highway corridor serves as a business district where new business dots the landscape while

The community of approximately 2,500 people doubles and triples in size during the height of the season as tourists come to enjoy the lake, Branson’s attractions, and the region’s other natural amenities. Photo Credit: JMS Photography Kimberling City is the premiere familyfriendly, residential and recreational lakeside community in the Midwest. Our City is dedicated to preserving a high-quality, relaxed, safe and natural environment for all to enjoy now and is committed to maintaining these values for future generations to come.

Kimberling City’s Value Statement

The city of Kimberling City pledges to provide high-quality customer service to residents, guests and businesses while maintaining a safe, family-friendly, vibrant community that celebrates its heritage and opens new opportunities.

other areas of the corridor are ripe for revitalization. Within the City, all roads lead to the water. It is evident from a drive through the town that people visit and live in the community because of the natural beauty of the area and to enjoy lake life.

About five years ago, the city of Kimberling City took the positive step to hire a full-time city administrator. Prior to that time, the community’s infrastructure evolved organically. While the first four years have been devoted to developing professional standards, building citizens trust and developing a customer-centric focus, now the city of Kimberling City is setting its sights on future sustainability and growth.

“Our community is going through transition,” states Jerry Harman, city administrator. “The City needs a statement reflective of our community’s current values and descriptive of our future aspirations. Taking the time to develop a vision statement to build toward the future is the first step in developing our organization’s strategic plan.”

Harman's background is executive operations in the private sector where he noted firsthand the power of a vision statement. Vision statements are common in the business community. Businesses utilize their statements to communicate their position in the marketplace and create a unified, aspirational pinpoint that defines their vision of success.

The City contracted a professional services firm, Prep the Page, to help facilitate the discussion and articulate its ultimate vision. The planning process involved the City’s staff, elected officials, community stakeholders and city management, and included meetings over a three-day period. At the end of the sessions, the consultant and city team had developed a draft of what would become the vision and value statements adopted by City Council. “Developing a vision statement takes discipline and the knack for keeping things simple,” says Lee Langerock, managing director for Prep the Page. “It’s one of the first, most important steps to defining comprehensive goals and designing a strategic plan. Having a clear vision and vision statement is the mantra of the organization. It shapes culture and becomes something to utilize in everyday operations and in communicating with the community.” Too often, well-meaning vision statements become a Christmas tree of words. There are hundreds of examples demonstrating a vision statement as a paragraph of several sentences that no one in the organization can recite or relate. Because of that, the vision statement itself loses its relevance. a winning comm unity needs: clear strategy focused marketing effective execution

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In a tourist community where guests outnumber the residential population, meeting customer demand and providing continuity of service while maintaining an aging infrastructure presents daily challenges. To help address those challenges, the city of Kimberling City is beginning a strategic planning process. The first stop is developing and adopting a vision statement. Photo Credit: JMS Photography

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Here are five useful keys to help define and align your city’s vision: 1. Define the Purpose: Are you defining a vision specifically for the city’s operation or is the statement intended to be used as a community vision? Separate the distinction. 2. It is Okay to be Vague: A vision statement is intended to be somewhat abstract to allow room for organizational development. 3. Keep it Simple: A vision statement is meant to be inspirational, aspirational, finite and simple. 4. Be Relevant: A vision can be somewhat lofty; that is how communities are transformed. However, the vision statement also needs to be relatable and relevant. 5. Be Accountable: Everyone should be able to remember it. This creates continuity and accountability.

During their vision statement planning, the city of Kimberling City defined the need for the statement to focus internally for city operations. The process segregated the vision and core values of the City that helped to articulate each statement. The result outlined an action plan to adopt and integrate their vision and values into the culture of city hall and its employees’ service to community.

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Photo Credit: JMS Photography “Going through a process to develop a vision is important because it gives us that guidepost upon which to measure and achieve,” Harman says. Setting a vision is an important first step that sets the bedrock for further improvement and development, as an organization and a community. The city of Kimberling City’s sights are now facing in a future direction. Jerry Harman has spent more than 30 years in the private sector directing several production facilities with staff ranging from 100-800 employees. Skills of change management, process documentation, strategic planning and leadership development learned over the years are used every day as he leads the city of Kimberling City, serving its citizens and striving for continuous improvement. Lee Langerock is an entrepreneur, consultant and business investor. For more than 20 years, she has worked with municipalities and communities to create and implement action-based strategies for community and economic development. Prep the Page, LLC, is a Missouri-based professional services firm focused on helping city managers and non-profit executives develop and implement positive solutions for the communities they serve. Predominately focused on improving rural economies, Prep the Page experts provide decades of experience in public and private-sector development.

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