12-13-2013 Minutes-Special MeetingMINUTES
REGULAR MEETING
December 13, -2013
A Special Council Training Meeting was held by the Schertz City Council of the City of Schertz,
Texas, on December 13, 2013, at 1:30 p.m., in the Conference Hall of the Schertz Civic Center, 1400
Schertz Parkway Building #5, Schertz, Texas 78154. The following members present to -wit:
Mayor Pro -Tem Jim Fowler
Councilmember Matthew Duke
Councilmember David Scagliola
Councilmember Cedric Edwards
Mayor Michael Carpenter and Councilmember Daryl John were absent
Staff Present:
City Manager John C. Kessel
Chief of Staff Bob Cantu
Executive Director of Support David Harris
Executive Director of Development Brian James
City Secretary Brenda Dennis
Councilmember Edwards arrived at 2:15 p.m.
CALL TO ORDER:
Mayor Pro-Tern Fowler called the Special Meeting to order at 2:18 p.m.
Discussion and appropriate action on a preliminary City Council vision statement for the City
of Schertz. (Mayor & City Manager)
City Manager John Kessel reviewed with Council the City's Core Values reaffirming them:
• Do the right thing
Do the best you can
Treat others the way you would want to be treated
Work together cooperatively as a team
Councilmember Matthew Duke arrived at 2:34 p.m.
Mr. Kessel stated the Core Values are meant to be self - evident and to guide our daily
operational decisions in conjunction with our established policies and procedures.
Mr. Kessel reviewed and reaffirmed the six (6) Guiding Principals. (Benchmarking Standards)
Mr. Kessel stated that in November 2012, the City established six benchmarks of individual
and organizational leadership:
• Work ethic
• Work ownership
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• Clear understanding
• Real communication
• Process Improvement
• Future Vision
Mr. Kessel stated even though we see these behaviors from staff at all levels, we have
incorporated these six principles into our department head level evaluation criteria. These
principles are what is expected of our leadership team. The City Council reaffirmed the
leadership principles on February 15, 2013.
• Vision Discussion
Mr. Kessel read the following:
"A vision is the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination or wisdom."
"A vision statement may apply to an entire company or to a single division of that company.
Whether for all or part of an organization, the vision statement answers the question, `Where
do we want to go ? "' — Quoted by Susan Ward, Small Business Canada
Councilmembers discussed the following providing their comments:
• Who are our main customers today?
• Who will be our main customers tomorrow?
• If we are successful in building a great city of 75,000, how will our main customers
have changed from today?
• If you could look twenty years into the future and saw that we were wildly successful in
creating the city of our dreams, what three words would you use to describe our city's
"personality" in order to achieve such success?
• What one word is the most important in order for us to achieve this wildly successful
city of 75,000?
• Group discussion
After vision: Alignment and Execution
Discussion on the impacts from creating a new vision on the workforce:
1. Change is harder than you think: it takes time to develop /train the team. New ideas
must be learned, new practices must be developed. We must take the time needed to
grow our staff.
2. What does "keeping up with demand" in a growing city really mean? Status quo is
falling behind.
3. Expecting "better" performance... how? The "Triple Constraint" model from project
management provides that cost, quality, and speed form a triple constraint when
picking any two causes the third to suffer. The competing constraints of effective,
efficient & customer service often function in a similar manner in that two may be
achieved but often at the expense of the third.
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Council discussed in detail the fundamental proposition of if (when) our workforce can't afford
to work here, then the City has not prioritized our greatest asset appropriately. One example
that was discussed was a staff member making $25,000 a year that had a baby and had to add
family medical to their health care for $10,000 a year could no longer afford to work at the
City, even if they were one of our best employees. Many of our essential services public works
positions fall into this salary range, for example.
Council discussed the current City vision: Community, Service, and Opportunity. Council
discussed what each meant and how we measure them in practice. As a result, Council
developed the following policy values to help make policy decisions consistent with our vision.
The ten "Policy Values" are:
• Economic prosperity
• Fiscally sustainable
• Essential services
• High quality of life
• Safe community
• Attractive community
• Friendly city
• Family friendly for all ages
• Service oriented
• Innovation and proactive
These ten "Policy Values" would be in addition to the four "Core Values" already established.
• Breakout Session
Councilmembers viewed all departments' vision statements and provided comments.
• Group discussion continued...
Council discussed the City's important customers: residents, businesses, visitors, employees,
and other surrounding cities. Council discussed challenges the City is facing, i.e., continued
Economic Development needs, South Schertz area development, 111 35 development, our
communications and transparency to our citizens.
Chief of Staff Bob Cantu and Executive Director of Support David Harris left at 5:37 p.m.
• New Budget Structure discussion
In March 2013, the City established a new paradigm for looking at our municipal budget
structure:
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1. Core Business: the minimum municipal services without which we are not a "city"
(public health, safety and necessary conveniences plus internal support for those
services).
2. Economic Drivers (Development): growth in the commercial tax base is the most
sustainable fiscal model for growing cities (as is a balanced, diversified commercial tax
base for built cities).
3. Quality of Life: these areas create identity, provide meaningful services, and generate
greater value to residents and businesses.
hi September 2013, City Council adopted a new five -year financial forecast as part of our new
budget structure. The first five -year budget prioritized unfunded past requests and critical core
business projects. The number of these urgent requests far outweighed the ability to project
funding even in a five year window.
This year we will add a new "fifth year" that should do more than look backwards. Instead, it
should also consider some measure of future projects not yet identified. Because funding is so
scarce, these future projects must be directionally correct in advancing our vision.
Adjournment
As there was no further discussion, Mayor Pro -Tem Fowler adjourned the special meeting at 6:32 p.m.
ayor Pr
o -Tem Jim Fowle
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Brenda Dennis TRMC, MMC, CPM, City Secretary
12- 13- 2013Minutes