Maitland City Talk

Strategic planning guides our future

Strategic planning is a multi-year process that guides and directs a business or city such that long-term financial and organizational stability may be sustained. This week, Maitland's City Council and key members of staff met to discuss our current and long-term financial challenges.

The successes of past planning sessions can be seen all around us. From attracting new businesses to our community to succession planning to communicating more effectively with our residents, we have utilized strategic planning to become a more vibrant community.

And although our priorities for the coming year are no less important, the majority of our time and discussion this year centered on the expectation that our single greatest challenge would be how to address the coming fiscal year's budget shortfall.

Just like last year, mandates by government, a deteriorating economy, depleting resources and growth issues were all factors that entered greatly into our discussions. Reductions in taxes and other revenue sources, combined with skyrocketing costs have brought us to the stark reality that should our economy worsen, Maitland will have to do not more with less, but get by with less with less.

The stark reality for our city is that Maitland could face a budget deficit of nearly 5 percent of our overall budget, or about $1 million. Some say Chicken Little really does exist, and it is rumored he was even in the room, but on this day, given the talent in the room, nobody involved in planning Maitland's future would dare say the sky was falling.

We are using sound business practices have helped Maitland through tougher economic times, and this year will be no different. The key to addressing Maitland's short-term financial woes will be to leverage revenues and keep expenses in check. We discussed a renewed concentration on securing grants, securing event-related sponsors and focusing on new and existing public-private partnerships, all of which would result in driving new revenues to our city. But balancing the coming year's budget will not be accomplished by securing new revenues alone, but by keeping each and every expense in check. Each department was directed to analyze ways to reduce expenses, including but not limited to a critical review of staff in order to identify ways to consolidate duties and responsibilities in order to provide efficiencies in our greatest asset and expense — personnel.

I have every confidence that Maitland will meet our short-term financial objectives, but the key to a sustainable city lies in our ability to provide core services without an unnecessary financial burden to our taxpayers. Enhancing our resident's quality of life while keeping taxes low has been the watchword of strategic planning sessions of the past. Accomplishing this with the financial pressures of today will be nothing short of a miracle, yet I have every confidence with the talent and experience we have with staff and on Council, that all of our objectives will be met with flying colors.

Our priorities for the coming year will include the following:

• Complete a new downtown fire station

• Begin construction of City Hall

• Secure a new west side park

• Plan appropriately for downtown and Maitland's west side

• Maintain employee moral

• Increase volunteerism

• Promote green city initiatives

But as we approach the coming year, we cannot lose sight of our long-term goals of realizing the dreams of a pedestrian-friendly downtown, a rejuvenated west side, connectivity throughout our community, and the integration of culture and partners in everything we do as a community.

The good news is that the years to come will be met with a rebounding and more vibrant economy. Maitland's focus on keeping control of expenses, while incenting businesses to locate and grow in our city has helped us survive the worst of economic times. With the talent we have working toward a better future, I have every confidence Maitland will not only win our economic battle, but be much stronger financially and economically down the road.

So let's all do our part, stay involved and help make Maitland the best it can be — A Community For Life.

Our thanks to Marilyn Crotty with the UCF Institute of Government for her efforts in Maitland's strategic planning process.