Council’s strategic plan put on back burner

Erin Neff

Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2001 | 10:53 a.m.

The city of Las Vegas has a strategic plan to help staff understand the council's vision and to adequately shape the budget around that objective.

But somewhere in the course of this year's annual strategic plan adoption, the board decided instead to shelve 142 of the strategies staff spent the past two months preparing as ways to accomplish the city's objectives.

With very few specific questions, some council members seemed to focus more on whether they liked the city seal on the cover of the strategic plan than on its contents.

Mayor Oscar Goodman, who said the council had been "briefed and briefed" on the strategic plan, said the board's "lack of inquisition is certainly not a lack of interest."

But when Councilman Larry Brown asked why the city's "vision" statement was the last page of the document, the mayor chimed in about the seal.

"I think it may be outmoded if it ever was in mode," Goodman said, referring to the circular seal used on all city documents, business cards and letterhead.

The seal includes the sun rising over a mountain with a jet flying overhead. In the center, a large skyscraper rises from what appears to be the Colorado River at the base of the Hoover Dam. A Joshua tree is in the right foreground of the seal.

The airport is in Clark County, Hoover Dam is near Boulder City and Las Vegas has no skyscrapers like the one in the seal. Goodman said the Joshua tree looks "like something out of 'The Simpsons,' " and he didn't understand why the image was applicable in 2001.

"I would really like to have someone think in terms of having a logo that's representative of the city," Goodman added.

Councilman Gary Reese also asked to look into a new seal, saying, "I've never liked that logo."

Meanwhile city department heads are left trying to assume what the council wants as they begin preparing their budgets. One staffer sarcastically doodled a new design for the city seal during Monday's brief strategic plan meeting.

Brown said he wanted the strategies outlined in the plan to be separated from the five areas of emphasis the council has previously defined. Otherwise, he said, the plan becomes too burdensome.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald voted along with her colleagues to scrap the strategies for now even though she said they help her.

"I like seeing the strategies because I would like to know the tactical approach we're using to achieve the goals," she said.

The strategic plan emphasizes growth, quality of life, re-urbanization, fiscal responsibility and customer service. Under growth, different goals are outlined and accompanied by strategies to achieve them.

For example, one goal is to "alleviate traffic problems and address related transportation needs."

The council approved that goal, but did not OK the strategies such as implementing the Regional Transportation Commission's master plan, increasing local control of roadways through legislation and mitigating neighborhood impacts resulting from the widening of U.S. 95.

"The vision statement should drive the whole process," Brown said. "There's just too much. If we're going to create this strategic plan it has to be tight."

Originally, the council was supposed to direct staff on which strategies the board wanted included in the plan. The plan was then to be incorporated with the budget process and ultimately brought back to the board for final adoption in June. Then in the fall, the council was supposed to have a retreat to discuss its vision and goals for the city.

"It seems like we may be doing this backwards," Goodman said.

Now the council plans a retreat sometime next month or early in March. The goals in the strategic plan, which were approved by the council, will be used to guide the department heads when they plan their budgets.

But some new ideas, like increasing the number of medical transports the fire department conducts, are now in a gray area, leaving that department to budget for the coming year without knowing if it will have the increased revenue from additional transports.

Meanwhile, Assistant City Manager Betsy Fretwell said she was unsure how much it might cost the city to create a new seal.