Carson City public’s strategic planning input in hand

Carson City government strategic planning got a bigger burst of interest from the public than it did last week as open houses for citizen input ended on Monday.

Though it was a burst by comparison with last Thursday’s few residents at noon and 5 p.m. sessions in the Fuji Park exhibit hall, Monday’s pair of meetings in the Community Center included 18 participants during the lunch hour and at least a dozen in the first hour after work.

City Manager Nick Marano made short presentations at both Monday’s noon and night open houses regarding the plan being forged. During the noon session he received direct input on both business and the arts.

Businesses should be encouraged to understand its a two-way street with city government doing what it can for companies but such firms seeing in the plan verbiage urging that they do their part for the community as well, said Donna Curtis, a resident and long-term volunteer on the Parks and Recreation Commission.

“They also need to help the city,” she said, noting language in the plan calling for city government to be business-friendly.

Marano agreed and said such two-way street cooperation can be found in larger communities where business-related foundations and even companies pitch in. “It would be great if we got to that point,” said Marano.

A couple of participants said including the arts along with culture should be an addition in language promoting both enhanced quality of life and as an integral part of economic development. Marano invited a dialogue among those present to suggest changing the plan’s language to make that commitment clear.

He also was asked about the city’s LEAN management initiative, something he instigated after coming here as city manager in the middle of 2014. It is now under way and Marano said the goal is working smarter and more efficiently to do as more without adding city employees.

Marano during his presentation said city strategic planning began after the November election and city staff, along with the Board of Supervisors, met earlier this year with the help of Moss Adams LLC, internal audit consultants, to forge the draft language on vision, values and mission, along with the strategies to achieve goals and measure success.

He said the plan will be finalized after these open houses but won’t be done soon enough to directly impact this coming fiscal year’s budget. He said, however, it will be in place as Carson City moves to fashion a Fiscal Year 2016-17 spending guide. Marano encouraged those present to get other residents to go online and take a survey, as well as leave comments, to swell the total input. He said about 50 had done so by a couple of days ago.