A lesson in goal-setting

http://www.dailycourier.ca/
Scott Neufeld is the managing editor of the Vernon Daily Courier.

A quick scan of the city’s annual report released late last month shows that everything is on the rise. Financial assets are up, revenues are up, expenditures up. But one thing that council seems to be cutting back on is goal-setting. Back in 2005 the previous council set an ambitious 35 objectives to tackle. The new council cut that down to 19 for last year. This year, however, council has set just five goals for themselves. So are city councillors already running out of ideas? Have they lost some motivation?

Their objectives for the year include reviewing the Official Community Plan, addressing public safety concerns, improving road infrastructure, improving NORD/Coldstream relations and improving transit service. Given the lack of goals, the city appears close to achieving some of them. The OCP review is well underway and the city is finishing up its major roads projects for the year which included 25th Avenue, the Bella Vista Road intersection and the Middleton Way extension. They’ve achieved part of their public safety objective by hiring more bylaw officers. But their goal to initiate a pilot program “using private security personnel in public areas” is puzzling. It appears they allowed the Downtown Vernon Association to spearhead the program but are now refusing to pay for it. That’s one way of completing your goals. Get someone else to do them for you.

As for their goal of improving relations with surrounding municipalities it’s difficult to assess if they’ve made any progress on that front. Given all the turmoil over governance changes, regional district remuneration and the ongoing service review, Vernon has done little to endear itself to its neighbours. By aiming low, however, the city will likely reach its goals. But before council pats themselves on the back for a job well done, they should consider all of the work left to do.

There’s still no clear plan to deal with affordable housing, development continues to be haphazard, there are no new parks in the city, transit service has not been improved, the issue of the library/art gallery/civic complex has not been dealt with. Add to that list the need for cleaning up the north entrance to the city, the lack of a homeless shelter for women and there’s a long list of objectives for council to undertake. Instead, they seem to have decided to shy away from the big issues, preferring to tackle the easy ones.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s fine for council to show a lack of innovation and a lack of grit when it comes to taking on the big issues in the city. But for a council whose identity is currently defined by their decision to bypass the referendum process, they might want to add more objectives. This is not to say that council is taking it easy. By all accounts they put in long hours and are active in the community. However, councillors are judged by what they accomplish not by the volume of studies they add to the city’s archives. So far this council’s worth will be weighed in paper, not in their actual impact on the city.

Perhaps council is making serious headway in all of their in camera meetings – maybe not. Maybe what they need is an infusion of ingenuity from the public. They seem to have run out of things to accomplish so it’s up to the voters to contact their council and give them a few ideas of what to do. It’s not too late. The next election is still more than a year away and council can still set more lofty objectives. They need to start setting the bar higher because Vernon deserves better than another five-goal year.