Common Council has decided on four major priorities to focus on throughout the remaining 3 and a half years of its term in office.
Mayor Don Darling calls growth and fiscal responsibility the two “bookends”.
He says growing the city is important because it leads to more people with a larger tax base, which creates more jobs.
Darling says the city’s financial situation is “very serious”, and says council needs to ensure they’re getting a return on every dollar they invest on behalf of the citizens.
Another priority is vibrancy and safety, which includes cleaning the city up and making it more attractive for people to come and live here.
The final priority involves the way services are delivered in the city and finding ways to do it differently and more efficiently to save money.
Darling says the city needs to continue making tough decisions, adding they cannot continue to say yes to everybody.
If it’s not related to one of the four main priorities, then Darling says council “shouldn’t be working on it”.
Darling says the plan is to add metrics on the city’s website to give citizens the ability to track the process of common council and see how they’re following up on their priorities.
