Council Recap: Goals

At a special Saturday meeting of the Richardson City Council on September 16, 2023, the Council deliberated its goals for the 2023-2025 term. I can't provide a link to the video because there is no video. The Council decided not to televise this meeting. But in attendance was Justin Neth. If you haven't been reading his reports from City Council meetings, you are missing the best way to follow what's going on. He usually keeps his opinions to a minimum (unlike yours truly) and covers the whole meeting (unlike yours truly). I couldn't attend in person, so my opinions on this goal-setting meeting are entirely drawn from Justin Neth's own report (in which he offers his own cogent opinions).

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Justin Neth reports that "Mayor Dubey states that they don’t record this meeting, not because they don’t want to, but because logistics prevent filming. He cites “breakout sessions” as the main reason. Neth calls B.S. on this reason. He estimates that no more than about 20 minutes of a four hour meeting consisted of "breakout sessions." That they didn't record their deliberations tells me they pay only lip service to "transparency."

You might ask why the Council waited until September to set its goals, given that the election was last May. Good question. The Council waited until *after* it passed a budget and tax rate for 2023-2024 to decide its goals, strategies, and tactics. To paraphrase Lewis Carroll's Queen of Hearts, "Budget first — Goals afterwards." I suspect that it probably doesn't really matter. The goals in this exercise were mainly rehashed from every prior Richardson City Council, which are similar to goals from city councils across the land (e.g., Richardson 2013? Or Peoria, Illinois?). The effort was mostly wordsmithing. When the goals are finally published, play "Spot the Differences" with last term's goals.

The moderator started the meeting by asking Council what they hoped to achieve. Mayor Dubey said, with unintended irony I presume, that he hopes to achieve transparency. The Mayor and this Council forfeited any right to claim support for transparency when they decided not to record the meeting. Councilmember Curtis Dorian wanted an infrastructure plan for each district. That was something specific. That wasn't just motherhood and apple pie. Naturally, the moderator said they won't get to an infrastructure plan in today's meeting.

The meeting moved on to wordsmithing the role of the Council. Councilmember Ken Hutchenrider asks for the word "transparent" to be included somewhere. There's that word again. Just include it somewhere, anywhere. Mayor Pro Tem Arefin said the importance of stakeholders (residents vs businesses) should reflect their budget contribution. Sorry Arefin, I'm with Justin Neth. The people who vote for Council matter most. In case of conflict, Council should represent the voters, not businesses.

After a short break, Council moved on to rules of engagement. Councilmember Joe Corcoran wants to see Council "support Council decisions and policies." Councilmember Jennifer Justice suggests Council should prioritize "efficiency" over "open-mindedness". Hutchenrider says Council should proritize "effective governance" over their own personal philosophy and beliefs. This is all taking teamwork too far. No wonder this Council appears to get rolled at every turn. They are so intent on suppressing differences of opinion, they are incapable of making real change. Maybe the break they took included Kool-Aid.

Next up was the Vision Statement. Maybe ten minutes on this. Maybe ten minutes too many.

Finally, two hours into the meeting, the Council got to the purpose of the meeting: Goals. There are four goals: Cultural, Internal Business Process, Customer, and Financial. As expected, most of the discussion was about wordsmithing the goals from last term. Apparently, Council never actually achieves any goals. They are evergreen. Each two years, they massage the goals, adding buzzwords du jour. The best slide of the day was the Council survey on the Business Process Goal. Three votes for "Perfect! I have no suggested changes." One vote for "Terrible! It needs a complete rewrite." There was a breakout session, so Justin Neth wasn't able to report how that difference was resolved. The Customer Goal and Financial Goal discussions took less than four minutes total. This suggests to me burnout. A bad process. A need to call it a day and come back refreshed another day. But they persisted.

The second last agenda item was Strategies. The reported conversation was all over the place. Hutchenrider doesn't want to hear any district-specific focus. Dorian doesn't want businesses to be too close to each other (again, something specific from Dorian). Mayor Dubey wants a name change: call it economic development. Councilmember Dan Barrios wants to add a water conservation strategy. The rest of the Council decide that's a tactic already covered under "protect city investments." Folding something specific into a higher level category risks losing it altogether.

The last agenda item was Tactics. Councilmembers were each asked for their suggested tactics. Those that receive Council support would be given to staff for their review. Justin Neth says that was the highlight of the meeting for him. Of course it was. Mine, too. It was the part of the meeting most likely to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based (i.e., S.M.A.R.T.).

• Dorian wants to see continued investment in Spring Valley Corridor. Yay!
• Dorian wants to continue attracting business, especially to Richardson Square. Yay!
• Dorian wants to equally distribute capital improvements across Richardson.
• Justice wants to establish a Community Engagement Board. Yay!
• Justice wants to establish a virtual attendance policy for Council.
• Barrios wants to discuss environmental initiatives Yay!
• Barrios wants to make diversity an economic driver. Yay!
• Barrios wants clear processes for Council training and committee placement. Yay!
• Corcoran wants to engage in regional homelessness initiatives. Yay!
• Corcoran wants to consider housing grant opportunities. Yay!
• Corcoran wants to see zoning changes that promote diversified housing. Yay!
• Corcoran wants to pursue Silver Level Bike-Friendly designation.
• Hutchenrider wants discussion of the placement of a new fire station.
• Hutchenrider wants to review roles of boards and commissions.
• Arefin wants a Diversity Board. Yay!
• Arefin wants a publicly accessible GIS product. Yay! Rest of Council isn't interested.
• Arefin wants a concrete repair strategy. Rest of Council isn't interested.
• Arefin wants more multicultural events. Rest of Council decides it's already covered.
• Mayor Dubey wants to advocate to state legislature for local control. Yay!
• Mayor Dubey wants more celebrations for City employees.

I have to admit, I'm encouraged by this last exercise. These tactics are S.M.A.R.T., at least compared to the Vision, Goals, and Strategies. There are some things in here that might have prompted some money shuffling when the budget was set, but, it's now too late for that. Tactics that don't cost money are the ones most likely to get attention, at least until next year's budget is set a year from now. Anyway, by my count, Corcoran and Barrios tie, with each getting three "Yays" from me; Dorian and Arefin get two; and Justice and Mayor Dubey each get one.

Barrios asks if the Council should do this again. City Manager Don Magner replies they should not. Excuse me? This is the Council's decision, not the City Manager's.

Justin Neth concludes with "I hope this is the last time this meeting isn't recorded for the public." Amen. Of course that depends on whether the City Council develops a real respect for transparency.

I conclude by repeating that I did no original reporting. I was out of the country. The City Council gave me no recording to review when I returned. Everything I know about the meeting comes from Justin Neth's great reporting. I urge everyone to follow Justin Neth.

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"September's reveal,
Goals unfurled like autumn leaves,
Late, but goals may sing."
—h/t ChatGPT