Strategic

Planning and Management

A

good local government manager recognizes managing a city or county organization

is no different than managing a business in the private sector. The aim is to

maximize the utilization of resources, both revenue and people, to accomplish

the goals of the community as efficiently and effectively as possible. A

successful manager recognizes ongoing planning, strategic and long range

planning as well as operational planning, is necessary to the efficient and

effective delivery of quality services over the long term.

Strategic

planning, development of the community's vision, mission and goals, must be an

inclusive process involving elected officials, staff and the community to be

successful. Exclusion of any single stakeholder group can impact the positive

implementation of a community's strategic plan.

Because

the local government manager's playing field is fluid and political, annual

planning is essential to successful management. Typically, in business, the

board of directors for a successful corporation remains fairly static over the

years. In local government the board of directors changes at the whim of the

electorate. In business, revenues are clearly established based on number of

sales in the prior year and reasonable projections for the future based on

economic factors and other variables in the marketplace.

Questions

Communities Ask

In

local government the annual establishment of revenues bears little or no

relationship to the ‘successful selling’ of the service. While economic factors

do play a significant role, there is often no connection to the actual cost of

producing a service. Instead, revenue generation for local governments is based

on such variable factors as

What

services does the Community want to pay for?

Does

the community want and is it willing to pay for a given service, in particular

those services which might be considered by some as non-essential or non-core

services such as parks, recreation and libraries?

How

much is the community willing to pay for services which are considered

essential to public safety, such as water and sewer, infrastructure

maintenance, fire and police?

So,

strategic planning in local government while it incorporates all the standard

business planning components of establishing clear mission, vision and goals

statements is more politically driven and thus impacted more significantly by

the cultural mores of a given community.

While

mission and overall goals of the community may not change annually, working

annually with elected officials and the community to establish clear workable

objectives based on the current political environment and funding levels is

essential to the successful management of the local government

organization.

Strategic

Planning Process

Once

the strategic planning process is complete the manager is responsible for

implementation planning. At this point in the process, the planning process

reverts to the successful and proven management practices established in the

private sector.

Develop

a budget which reflects the agreed upon priorities and objectives focusing

organizational resources on the most strategic areas by using a staged

approach.

Allocate

adequate physical and personnel resources to accomplish the

objective.

Establish

both the formal and informal organizational structure necessary to accomplish

the objectives including delegating the authority and assigning primary

responsibility and/or shared responsibilities for accomplishing the annual

objectives.

Establish,

for each work unit, an action or work plan to implement the goals and

objectives identifying steps and timelines, policy or program development,

accountability measures etc.

Establish

clear appraisal methods for determining how each work unit is meeting the

goals and objectives and hold work units accountable for

producing.

Develop

clear individual measures of success linked to unit goals and objectives and

hold individuals accountable for producing.

Establish

regular review and reporting guidelines which outline the progress toward

achieving objectives including maintaining effective communications – with

monthly and quarterly updates to all stakeholders. Transparency is a key

component to success in local government management, in part due to public

distrust of government, but primarily due to our responsibility as public

managers to keep citizens informed.

Incorporate

long range ongoing planning, revising objectives as economic factors,

expectations and/or available resources affect or threaten to affect

outcomes.

Keys

to Success

In

conclusion, successful management and achievement of the local government

organization’s objectives and priorities depends on the same factors relevant to

the successful management of any private sector business.

Selecting,

motivating, training, and appraising staff;

Securing

and allocating funds and managing budgets;

Evaluating

accomplishments and incorporating long range planning and

Remaining

accountable to the primary stakeholders, elected officials and the

community.

Leadership

Requirements

Ultimately

the local government planning process, requires that the Manager provide

leadership that

Keeps

elected officials and the community focused on issues critical to the

community’s long term sustainability.

Creates

a work environment enabling employees to do their best work and feel pride in

producing a quality service for the community.