City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 3 of 4)

This is the third part of my thoughts on the City of Richardson's Goal setting meeting. I'm finally getting to the Goals. The Council reviewed the existing goals:

Goals

To effectively, efficiently, and transparently manage city resources while maintaining and enhancing city services

To have residents and all stakeholders choose Richardson as the best place to locate, contribute, and engage

To have clear, effective, efficient, continuously improved, and consistently applied processes and policies that make it easy for residents, employees, and all stakeholders to interact with the City

To have well-trained, engaged, and innovative employees who deliver an exceptional customer experience while working in a safe, inclusive, and equitable environment

Source: City of Richardson.

City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 2 of 4)

The City of Richardson's City Council spends a day at the beginning of each term developing its Goals, Strategies, and Tactics. For the last several years, this was facilitated by Rick Robinson of Ramsey Consulting Group. He explained the terminology involved in strategic planning that would be used in this exercise. He started with Mission. He explained why he doesn't do mission statements for cities: "because every city has 99% the same mission — to create a clean, save place for people to eat, work, stay, play, visit, blah, blah, blah, alright?" Exactly. So let's move on.

City Council Goals 2025-2027 (Part 1 of 4)

My business management training came an eon ago at Texas Instruments. TI called its management system "Objectives, Strategies, and Tactics" (OST). An example of an Objective is to improve profitability. An example of a supporting Strategy is to focus on high growth markets. An example of a Tactic is a specific product development initiative. TI aligns its corporate goals with day-to-day operations throughout the company with a process called Policy Deployment.

POTD: Interior Design of a Lost Age

"City of canals
built its dreams in travertine.
Why not Richardson?"
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 09 11 Venice

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Doge's Palace in Venice, Italy.

"The Doge's Palace is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace included government offices, a jail, and the residence of the Doge of Venice, the elected authority of the former Republic of Venice. It was originally built in 810, rebuilt in 1340 and extended and modified in the following centuries."

Imagine if the new City Hall being built by the City of Richardson had an interior design resembling this. Imagine if the new City Hall being built by the City of Richardson was being built to last a millennium. The last City Hall didn't last 50 years. We live in a throwaway society. That includes our architecture.

POTD: Bridge of Sighs

"Bridges often join,
but this one parts soul from sun.
Venice once wept here."
— h/t ChatGPT

From 2024 09 11 Venice

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Venice, Italy. It shows the famous Bridge of Sighs connecting "the New Prison (Prigioni Nuove) to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace...It was built in 1600...The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge's English name was bestowed by Lord Byron in the 19th century as a translation from the Italian "Ponte dei sospiri", from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice through the window before being taken down to their cells."