City Council Retreat Report
Held February 19, 2024
City of Santa
Maria , CA
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
The City of Santa Maria, California, held a City Council Retreat on February 19, 2024. The retreat was planned and facilitated by Raftelis. The focus of the retreat was on establishing broad goals and two-year priorities, as well as strengthening teamwork among the Council and with the senior staff.
Participants
The following members of City Council and the City’s Leadership team participated in the workshop:
• Alica Patino, Mayor
• Carlos Escobedo, Council member
• Mike Cordero, Council member
• Gloria Soto, Council member
• Maribel Aguilera-Hernandez, Council member
• Alex Posada, Interim City Manager
• Chuen Wu, Interim Assistant City
Manager/Director of Community Development
Department
• Thomas Watson, City Attorney
• Jeff Marecic, Chief Information Officer
• Dawn Jackson, Interim Chief Human Resources Officer/Library Director • Xenia Bradford, Interim Director of Finance Department • Marc Schneider, Chief of Police
• Brett Fulgoni, Director of Public Works Department
• Angela Oslund, Interim Director of Recreation and Parks • Shad Springer, Director of Utilities Department
• Bradley Dandridge, Fire Chief
Facilitators: Jan Perkins and Julie Gieseke of Raftelis
Workshop Objectives
• Hear and understand Council’s interests and staff perspectives • Share visions for Santa Maria’s future
• Achieve consensus on broad multi-year goals and three or four two-year priorities • Strengthen teamwork with Council and staff
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
Workshop Agenda
• Icebreaker
• Share visions for the future
• Review accomplishments and challenges
• Discuss and establish goals and priorities
• Discuss ways to strengthen teamwork
• Wrap-up
Opening Remarks and
Icebreaker
Mayor Alice Patino opened the workshop by welcoming staff and Council. Interim City Manager Alex Posada also provided opening comments to the group. An opportunity for public comment was provided.
The session then began with an icebreaker activity for participants. Staff were asked to line up according to where they grew up in relation to Santa Maria. The image below captures the locations around the world where staff and Council grew up.
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
Visions for the Future
The Council and senior staff were a sked to share up to two responses for each of the following questions:
• What is true about Santa Maria today that you hope will still be true in 10 years? • What is not true about Santa Maria today that you hope will be true in 10 years?
Each individual was asked to write their responses to each question. All responses are captured in the following table.
True Today –
Hope It Will Still Be True in 10 Years
Not True Today –
Hope It Will Be True in 10 Years
• Small-town flavor
• An eye on the future and what could be
• Traditions are important
• Military economy component
• Agriculture economy component
• Agriculture influence
• Regional influence
• Values
• We hire locally and this creates a community
connected workforce
• Desirable place to live
• Continues good economy
• Financially stable
• Growth
• Fast-growing population, development, and services
• Community atmosphere
• Close-knit community (x2)
• Cohesive Council
• Sense of community (x4)
• Community/family oriented
• Community participation
• Family town
• Collaborative businesses
• Pro-growth
• Family-friendly community
• Good service to residents
• Sense of community and neighborly spirit
• Business focused
• Wanting to grow effectively
• Family-friendly
• Growing pains
• Safey
• Land of opportunity
• PCI of 80
• Have a wonderful downtown
• Preferred destination location of Central Coast
• Revitalized downtown with restaurants, plazas, and
other cultural amenities
• Safety
• Family-friendly
• Sense of community
• Grown well
• Firm economy
• Desirable place to live
• City financially able to sustain services
• More community involvement
• Open lands
• High income per capita
• High paying head of household jobs in tech/robotics
• Youth and families are thriving with improved access to affordable housing, better higher education, outcomes,
and more widespread availability of living wages
• Diversified economy
• Good economy
• Economically sustainable
• Increased standing for professional/executive jobs in the region
• Unified vision
• City government center where all staff can be together • Housing to accommodate the population
• Grow
• Housing and business growth
• Sustainable city finances
• Annexations of property on east side of 101
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
Themes from the Hopes for the Future
The themes from these “hopes” are displayed visually in the following image.
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City Council Retreat
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Accomplishments and Challenges
The group reviewed major accomplishments and areas that have presented challenges for the City .
The facilitator led the group in a discussion focused on what contributed to these successes and what will help to address the challenges, which are captured in the images below.
Establishing Goals and Priorities
As part of the interviews with members of Council and meetings with staff the facilitator conducted prior to the retreat, four broad goals were identified for discussion in the workshop . The Council concurred with these broad goals. A number of comments were made about them, which are reflected visually in the graphic.
The four goals are:
• Long-Term Financial Sustainability
• Community Quality of Life
• Planning and Infrastructure
• Organization Well-Being
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
The City currently does not have such Citywide goals These can be useful “umbrellas” under which all departments can relate their departmental goals and work plans. Additionally, the two -year priorities will fit under these broad categories.
Staff provided a status update to Council on the 2022 Goals, which was attached to the workbook for the day.
The Council and staff also discussed a variety of City needs. They are captured in the following graphic.
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
Among the many books that the
noted author Stephen Covey wrote
was The Seven Habits of Highly Effective
People.
In that book, he included his “Big
Rocks” metaphor. His point is that if
a team wants to get really big things
done, time needs to be allocated for
those items f irst, t hen fill in the
remaining space with the small stuff.
If starting with the small stuff, there
won’t be time for the big things.
The Council and staff worked in
small groups to discuss what the “big
rocks” are that need focused
attention over the next two years.
The results are shown in the graphic
to the right.
Two-Year Priorities
After that discussion, each Council member was provided with four dots to use in identifying their top priorities for the next two years from among a list of items.
The top four priorities are:
• New approach to economic development
• Provide youth opportunities
• Provide public safety resources
• Establish a staffing plan
The results are presented in the images below.
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
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City Council Retreat
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Comments during the priorities discussion are captured in the following visual images. Highlights are listed below.
• Financial health should be more than re-establishing the savings fund; it should be having an appropriate level of resources and reserves
• Facilitate housing development should also include working with other cities to address State mandates
• Homelessness is about creating a path forward; it is not new but having a plan will be important
• Understanding how each department fits into the issues and what each department needs is important
• The list of items does not include all of the ongoing work of the city that is budgeted and provided for in city departments
• Having a stable workforce and providing for succession planning is important • We cannot do it all, so focusing on a few priorities is essential • Council wants the staff to be direct and say what needs to be said
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
Strengthening Teamwork
City services, programs, Council priorities, and initiatives can best be implemented through positive teamwork among members of Council and with City staff. Council members all expressed their appreciation to City staff for their professionalism and hard work on behalf of the City.
As part of maintaining effective Council-Staff relationships, it’s important to foster trust, respect, collaboration, and understanding. The group discussed attributes of well-functioning teams and what strategies promote open communication and constructive dialogue. A visual representation of this conversation is captured in the image below.
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
Review of the City Council’s Adopted Norms
The Council and staff reviewed the current norms for working relationships between Council and staff, and between members of Council. Through discussion, minor changes were made. The resulting norms are:
Revised Norms:
For relationships between Council and Staff:
• Be respectful
• Agree to disagree at times
• Engage in two-way communication
• Provide all viable alternatives and information
• Be respectful toward and about staff – and mindful about how we talk about staff
For relationships between members of Council:
• Be respectful
• Agree to disagree at times
• Respect that we all want to effectuate positive change • Encourage positive communication and dialogue
• Support decisions once made, whether voted for it or not • Show up for one another
Comments about the norms are shown in the following graphic.
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City Council Retreat
Trusted Advisors Transforming Communities
Wrap-Up
As part of the “Bike Rack” items to discuss at another time, the group expressed a desire for additional meetings with department heads regarding service levels they would like to provide and what they will need.
As the retreat came to a close, participants were asked to share their thoughts and takeaways and what was useful in today’s session, which has been captured in the image below.