By Staff
April 27, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
Getting people to tell you what they think before decisions are made seems to be harder than listening to people who are unhappy with decisions that have been made.
City Council is about to begin the process of setting out the Strategic Plan they will use as a guide for the decisions they make for the next three years.
Ideas and concepts were written up on sheets of paper and put up wherever there was space. It all got debated and boiled down to the Strategic Plan the city is now working with – that plan is to be reviewed and revised now.
The Strategic Plan created in 2011 was an excellent document. It did have some limitations but given that prior to 2011 the city tended to publish a booklet with a lot of nice picture and precious little in the way of content. 2011 was great.
The Plan adopted by Council was a long time in coming – staff and council took eleven half days to discuss and debate what the priorities should be – what they wanted to focus on and achieve in the term they were getting into.
They settled on three Strategic Directions:
Vibrant Neighbourhoods
Prosperity
Excellence in Government
The body language tells it all – there was some,e vigorous debate during the creation of the best Strategic Plan the city has had in some time. Here Frank McKeown, current Executive Director of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff at the time and Paul Sharman city Councillor and a member of the Board of the BEDC
Whenever a staff report was prepared for Council the writers of the report were expected to show how the recommendation was related to those three directions
As part of public engagement, which hasn’t been all that good so far, the city is asking the public to download a copy of a Workbook that has been put together for any individual who wants to express an opinion. The Workbook is an opportunity to provide input into planning Burlington’s future.
The deadline for submissions has been extended until end of day May 4, 2015.
In its media release the city said: “To help set priorities, each Burlington City Council creates a strategic plan to match with the four-year term of council. The 2015-18 City of Burlington strategic plan will result in changes to the 2011-14 strategic plan, based on community feedback and changing needs.”
The Strategic Plan was facilitated by Georgina Black; they couldn’t have done the job they did without her.
Prior to extending the deadline for comment the city had received less than 50 responses.
The workbook is available online or in hard copy and can be mailed on request. Strategic plan facilitators are on standby to help groups complete the workbook. Please contact strategicplan@burlington.ca, call 905-335-7600, ext 7378, or visit www.burlington.ca/strategicplan for details.
