City Council goals with March and April target dates are up for
review as part of the Morgan Hill Times Accountability in Community
Leadership Project, but it’s up to readers, public servants and the
newspaper’s editorial board to decide their level of
achievement.
Morgan Hill – City Council goals with March and April target dates are up for review as part of the Morgan Hill Times Accountability in Community Leadership Project, but it’s up to readers, public servants and the newspaper’s editorial board to decide their level of achievement.
So far in 2007, the five council members – Greg Sellers, Marby Lee, Larry Carr, Mark Grzan and Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate – have made good on promises to hold workshops to discuss the future of aging facilities and review a list of public-infrastructure projects to the tune of $20 million.
On the economic front, the council’s Community and Economic Development Committee, manned by council members Sellers and Lee, has met goals of evaluating options for redeveloping the Granada Theater and providing a written review of the city’s economic-development plan for the council to consider.
This week the council’s Public Safety and Community Services Committee will deliver its evaluation on the Morgan Hill Police Department’s service levels and options for investing in public safety. The council set a target date of May 2 for this goal.
One goal the council has not completed by its target date is the preparation of workplans by each of its five policy advisory committees that need the government body’s formal approval. The workplans are supposed to outline what the committees need to work on during the calendar year. The committees help the council set policy in the areas public safety, economic development, regional planning and transportation, utilities and environment and finances.
Additionally, the committees are supposed to submit quarterly written reports to the council – also something that hasn’t happened. The groups did not turn in March reports.
Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate said the committees – which each have two council members – would submit their workplans soon.
On balance, Tate said he feels good about the progress made on March and April goals.
“I think we’re on track,” he said. “We don’t have all the magic answers yet but I think we’ve made a good start.”
The council drafted its 2007 goals at its annual retreat last January at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center. In February The Times launched its accountability project to track school and city officials’ progress on goals they set.
City officials seemed ambitious in setting their objectives as they adopted more than 20 goals for this calendar year, which include evaluating police and fire service, balancing the budget, planning new infrastructure projects funded by the Morgan Hill Redevelopment Agency and developing strategies to encourage an environmentally friendly government and community.
Some council-adopted goals are set for Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes, such as the task of balancing the city’s budget. Other goals are directed at the council’s committees.
This month, the Times is printing a report card (available on page 8 of this issue and at www.morganhilltimes.com) so that readers and members of the public can grade city officials on the March and April goals.
Additionally, all five city council members will have the opportunity to grade themselves as well as members of the Morgan Hill Times Editorial Board chaired by Mainstreet Media Group Publisher Steve Staloch, Morgan Hill Times Editor Sheila Sanchez, local newspaper columnist Lisa Pampuch, independent speech writer David Cohen, realtor Chris Bryant, local veterinarian John Quick, former city employee Laura Gonzalez-Escoto and retired educator Don Kruse.
