City Council - Special Meeting

Okay, Ms. Kristen, let's get this one going. I guess we can recognize ourselves for a quorum here today. Go ahead and open this so the formalities are out of the way. A couple rules here. So Kevin, KJ, can't hear us unless we are speaking into our microphone. So he's not picking up the audio. So if you are speaking, turn your microphone on. And then we really have a couple main goals that we need to accomplish by 11. Everybody good from 9 to 11? Okay. Kevin, we're going to hand it over to you. Let you drive, bud. Thanks for being here, sir.

It's good to see everyone. Just give me a thumbs up, council members, if you're hearing me loud and clear. Excellent. Okay. We'll dive right in. A few key takeaways from our last session that I want to highlight. One was the council recognized Without the goal of finding blame, but just observing where the city is, the council said, hey, as a council, we need to elevate our governance capacity. That was a key identification. The executive team also identified, hey, we've got to grow in our executive capabilities. And then from an operational service delivery standpoint, there is a recognition we've got to improve there. And so our goal today is really to look at taking a step forward in governance capacity. And one of those steps is getting clarity on what we're trying to achieve. And I kind of want to break that down to a more bite-sized goal. And that is the Council, as it is currently constructed, has 10 months left. And then, you know, people may rerun, may not, you know, but the odds are the Council may look a little different 10 months from now. And so I think a question for this current Council, one key question we want to ask today is, What does success look like for this council over the next 10 months? Secondly, we already identified areas of focus, which I will recite here in just a moment. But I'd like for the council to start today to start taking a stab at putting a little more teeth on that. So more, you know, specific objectives for the city that the executive and operational teams have to then go and walk out. And then the third thing is we're not going to accomplish today, but I want to keep it in the forefront of our minds because I think it impacts number one, which is what does success look like? It is how does this council work? lay the groundwork to set the next council up for success. So that we're trying to build that habit moving forward that each council operates knowing that there's another council coming. And I'm making myself a note. So three things. number one what does success look like for this council over the next 10 months number two specific objectives to to give marching orders to the organization as a whole and then number three setting the next council up for success i would like because i think it's the most practical for us to start with number two specific objectives so let me read for you my notes from our last meeting, the council said there are four areas of focus that I heard the council communicate. Number one was public safety. Number two, infrastructure. Number three, customer service. And included in that is the concept of doing business with the city. And then number four was quality of life. And I want to add a fifth that we did talk about. I don't know if we articulated as a quote unquote focus, but we did talk about it as a reality. And that is how will the council or to what degree will the council shape the way the city is growing? So I want to add a fifth piece there, which is intentional growth. So I will open the floor back to you all. We have those five categories. So now we're getting into a little bit more of the nitty gritty of a strategic direction. And y'all can pick any one of those five to start with. And let's start a discussion on what does success look like over the next three to five years in that area? That's not gonna be an easy answer. We're gonna spend some time talking about it.

Yeah, so you're waiting on us to give you some input, correct?

Yeah, so now, yep, we are, I'm done with my intro and framework. Those five categories, the task before us over the next 30, 45 minutes is to start putting teeth to some of those categories.

You know, I think about this, that looking at it, I mean, public safety, if we look at this as an organization or an operational unit, public safety, that's a prime deliverable that the city has to provide, regardless of who the five individuals sitting up here are. Infrastructure, we have to provide infrastructure regardless of who the five individuals are up here. Customer service, I mean, that should be a pillar of any well-run organization. Quality of life, what is the definition? I think that is very vague because the quality of life for me is different than someone else, which could be totally different than another citizen. So we have 204,000 individuals that are, what is the definition of quality of life? That is a very hard deliverable. You're never going to make everyone happy on that. I think number five is really where leadership comes in. And as opposed to intentional growth, I think it should be called vision. What is the vision for this city? Where are we going? Because that's where the, as we build that foundation or as we continue to build on the foundation, good or bad of every group that's come before us for however many, how many years has the city been here? I mean, what's that? 1898. 1898. 125 years of growth, vision. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but consistently we grow. And I think that the vision is where a leadership team when we're not working in the business but we're working on the business, when we're not working in the nuts and bolts of those first four deliverables, that's really where the rubber meets the road and what people elect us for is to be strategic leaders, strategic visionaries, and how do we make this place better and how do we stay relevant.

You know, and David, I don't disagree with you at all. Sorry. You know, like you said, we have to provide, I mean, something that's made it towards public safety and infrastructure and, you know, those things. But the nuances of that is what we're about to get into is like budget, right? I mean, because you're right. I wish we could be hands off and say, well, I mean, public safety, yeah, we got to do it. Infrastructure, we got to do it. The issue is, you know, just like any organization, it comes down to budget, right? I mean, it's like, okay, how do we allocate the funds that we have towards the priorities? And then we have to say, okay, well, what are true priorities? Well, we can't just say, well, public safety, we got to do. Well, we saw what happened when council was hands off of public safety. It was happening, but we're losing men and women that were providing the public safety because the pay wasn't, you know, they kept getting promised to pay and to get, you know, somewhat competitive to existing markets. So, I mean, that, to me, that's the tough thing. And I would agree with you. It's like, yeah, those things are a must. We have to do that. But then when we come to, you know, what we have are resources, How do we bring that together? Because if we just let those two things go of infrastructure, we have to prioritize that as well. I think Donnie's told us, gosh, I mean, floyd told us you know it'd take a billion dollars just to get us up to where we need to be for to upgrade our water lines and our sewer lines just to get them up to where we need to be we just don't have that kind of money i think it's a billion maybe more than that um so we're so we're being really reactive with that stuff so i think this what you said is exactly correct but we got to throw that nuance in of okay but we have limited resources just like every organization or or every household so we have to throw that in and go all right here's a whole other balancing act because we can talk about this and I agree with you with vision we've got to the vision of the city is the most important I mean we have to do but part of that is how do we allocate the limited resources we have and how are we stewards of the resources that are coming in that we can do all these things within those confines I think that's that's spot on Don how do we do that

With 40 hours, 60 hours, 80 hours a week, we have to rely on Grayson. We have to rely on the staff members. Budgets are set. Budgets are at X. Grayson reports back. Chief reports back. And if we have to make adjustments, but where are our hours delivered? Are we in the weeds constantly? If we're in the weeds of any organization, then we don't have the right people at those lower layers. Does the general go out and man the machine gun on the front line? No, he doesn't. Do CEOs, are they actually on the deliverable at the front line? If they are, you don't have the right front line. You don't have the right management. You don't have the right structure. Are we going to be strategic leaders, what I think we signed up for? Is that what we're going to do, or are we going to be in the weeds so much that we can't ever see? Are we at five feet, or are we at 60,000 feet, guys?

Yeah, I agree with you. I think that that's the challenge is we've got to figure that out of – Maybe we come back to, Kevin, what is our directive? What are we elected to do? You know, what are we elected to do? Is that very definition of, you know, do we let Grayson and his team just run things? Or were we elected and are we listening to the citizens to say, well... What is important? What are you telling us to do? Because technically that's our job. We're the representatives of the citizens to carry that out. We don't have time to run an organization. That's not our job. We are the board. We need to be at that 60,000 foot level all the time. And I think we dip down. I think each one of us does dip down every once in a while to the five foot and say, hey, let me take care of this. Like, I'll do this, you know, and it's not good. But I think that by nature, that's who is elected to these positions is doers. And so it goes against our typical nature to do that. But you are correct. We've got to stay at that 60,000, hold each other accountable and do that. But again. Maybe we start with the definition of what is our duty? What is our job?

Do we listen to the citizens? Let me chime in there, Don. Good. These are all good questions and you're all thinking in the right lines. This is going to be a process. And what I mean by that is finding the groove of providing the high level direction, but with enough specificity that it means something. Because to your point, Don, The Council does want to give direction on when we say public safety is a priority, what does that mean, right? What does that look like for the City of Amarillo? And yes, the Council wants to weigh in and give some specificity. You're not going to provide that specificity in a vacuum. It's going to require the feedback from leadership, public safety leadership, But you are going to weigh in on the specificity in light of all the other plates that you know the whole city has to spend, right? So this is going to be a process. We won't answer every question today. So the short answer is to your question, Don, is you do weigh in and you give certain specifics, but they are direction and outcome focused. So for example... You could say, I'm not saying this is a good one. This is just a simple example. As we start to unpack these areas, we could say, I know that you all did a big wage adjustment in the right direction for public safety here in the last few years, is that correct? Okay, let's say before that, If y'all were creating a strategic plan, we could say, okay, in the next three to five years, we want to improve public safety pay to be more competitive in the region or something like that, right? That's a strategic direction. It may be accomplished in six months. It may take a two-year cycle to get there, but that's direction. And so what I want us to do is in these five categories, public safety, infrastructure, customer service, quality of life, intentional growth slash vision. Let's just pick one. And let's start talking about what success looks like in that category over the next three to five years. And again, you're going to be able to answer some of that. But to give a full definition, there's going to need to be homework done by Grayson at all to give data and information. So building this strategic plan is going to take a few cycles of digestion. But that is how we're going to start to get teeth to this. So I would say the first thing to do is let's just pick one of those five to start having a conversation about.

I'd like to just kind of maybe focus a little bit on customer service for just a bit because we've got it in there. And I guess the question is, What do we want to accomplish out of good customer service? One of the things we talked about in the last conversation is that citizens are able to get their problem solved without calling a council member to have to intervene to get the problem solved. But overall, we want to provide good customer service. So what does good customer service mean? But to me, more importantly, I don't know how you can tell whether you're providing good customer service or not without measuring it. Okay. I don't think, you know, because I think it's, you know, and there are many ways to measure customer service or how well you're doing as an organization. In the business world, the main tool that's used is what's called a net promoter score, which is how likely are you to recommend doing business with this business to someone else? And it's kind of like the gold standard, and it's a way to be able to do that. To me, on the customer service, are we satisfying the needs of the customers that we deal with in a variety of ways? But I can't tell you right now, maybe we think we're providing good customer service right now, or maybe we think, wow, we're providing terrible customer service because our phone rings. Well, I don't think we really know what type of customer service that we're providing. throughout our organization and I think what we want to do is solve someone's problems so they you know now I don't know if we could use net promoter score that they're recommended us as a business but some way that we're measuring it and that we're identifying where are we what's our base and how are we going to improve this for customers and all the areas where we interact with the public

And I think, Les, Rich, and I think he's going to continue that, and it's a great point, and I don't think we've ever had that way to measure, but he was developing KPIs for every single department exactly for them to measure, are we achieving our job, which especially the front-facing stuff and customer service, we'll have measurables. That we set, you know, these guys can come to us and we can dial those in to say, is that truly an indicator of customer service? Like what you're saying? So those are in the works and talking to rich, we're not letting that thing go. I think Grayson can speak to this, that every department is now going to have an and a dashboard. eventually a dashboard that the citizens can actually see so they're going to be able to see that and they're going to see how they are you know achieving or failing those KPIs and we can get input because I think you're right we have no measurability like how do we know that we're doing well I don't know they said they're doing great you know is it wait times is it fill out a survey when you're done, whatever. But I think that you're right, but I think that that is coming. I don't know how far off we are, but that is coming.

I would like to ask a question, Kevin. Perhaps you can help. How do you have a net promoter score? And I love net promoter scores less. I think that's the best indicator. Somebody's going to use you again. But how do you quantify... Say it again.

David, say it again. I'm sorry. For some reason, I'm having trouble hearing every word, David. I'm sorry. I don't know why.

Can you hear me? I'm just messing with you now. I can't. I'm just messing with you. Oh, okay. So, hey, how do you measure success in an organization that does not have any competition? Okay, I'm not going to use the city of Amarillo anymore. Okay, where are you going to get your water? Where are you going to get your sewer? How do you measure when there's only one deal in town? Because everybody's going to be mad, or they're really going to love you. How do you measure it?

Well, I use Net Promoter Score as an example, but I would think... One thing I would like to see on this is... I don't know what we're talking about, because this is kind of the first time. I mean, I don't know what Rich has been doing or whatever, because I guess it's never come before council. But, I mean, I don't think it's that hard to determine how are we doing on customer service by asking our customers to give us a score on that. What I would not like to see is... When I hear KPIs, I hear lots. I hear complexity. I hear, I mean, I think it's a pretty simple, are we doing a good job with our customers, and what do our customers think of us? So I don't know if we need to get into key performance indicators, because I don't think it's that hard of a question to ask customers to kind of grade us on maybe how we're doing. I don't think net promoter score is a great example for the city, because they're not going to recommend us, but something similar to us to that that just grades us on customer service to establish a baseline of where we are, and then how are we going to improve, and then are we improving?

Yeah. So, David, to answer your question, it's a satisfaction score, right? It's a way to gauge satisfaction. And it's not going to be a perfect science, but The fact that whatever method is employed, the fact that you're asking, there's a psychological impact even that we care about customer service around here, right? So the goal is not an exact science, but I do think that there are ways across your service lines, various service lines, to have a way to capture the satisfaction level. So that, like Les is saying, and then Les, as far as like KPIs and like you're saying, you don't want to get too complex when it comes to the customer or citizen facing. Yes, I agree. I think you got two realities that you work simultaneously. One is the internal operations of the department, the efficiency, the execution of the department, which is where KPIs come into play. And that's an internal facing thing. But then you might have the external facing part, right? So let me say what I've heard so far. Well, one, we're talking about customer service. Do we just want to camp here for a minute and try to define a few things? Are we good with that? Yes. Okay. Okay, so... If I'm putting my strategic thinking hat on and strategic, you know, facilitator hat, what I'm hearing is the council is setting and communicating to the organization. When I say organization, I mean Grayson and then the whole organization. You're saying, hey, good customer service is a priority for this city. All right. We need a way to measure that. and the council doesn't need to figure that out right that that is the operations and so that's a homework assignment right is um i would say we're kind of the reason i wanted to start on this with defining things because it's going to help answer what does success look like for this council over the next 10 months and just to use this as a microcosm if the council gives the the direction to the organization that says moving forward Customer service is a top priority. One of the things we need you to do as an organization is to figure out how are you going to measure that? And what standard are you going to set for yourselves? And they're going to take a couple of months and they're going to come back and present that data to you that information. And you're going to wait and say we like that standard or no, we want that standard to be a little higher. And it sounds like the methods you've come up with are great. And then we kind of ink that strategic pillar with those specifics. But I don't think we're done with customer service. So we're saying customer service is a priority. We're saying we need a way to measure it, and we need to set a standard for What else about customer service? What else is important about it?

Kevin, if I could, let me go back just a half a step to our role in defining operations separately from policy, right? So here's an example. We're all saying that customer service relates to lots of different things in the city because we have customers that pay us for us to provide a service for them. But then we also have entities that get to choose Amarillo, whether they're going to do business here or not. Right. And so there is a high, there's a pretty high level business aspect, economic growth, sales tax, everything has to do with that. So You know, in our direction, what I find to be most helpful is not that we just point and say we want that, right? I think what's good is if we say we want that, we want better customer service, we want customer service that can be tracked and metriced. What we need to say then is, yes, you get to go figure that out, but let's create kind of a policy initiative. So here's a bad example, but a really good one. So contact my sup policy, right? So this is a policy that we see implemented in private business. So at the end of my email as an employee, it says, if you haven't been satisfied with your interaction here with me today, please feel free to contact my supervisor. And it has his name and number on it or her name and number on it. And so at that point, what we're doing as a an entity is we are saying we care so much about customer service and getting your need met that we are voluntarily giving you the next step to go up the chain so that it does keep you moving to the point of. You know, if I called Grayson and I said, Grayson, my trash didn't get empty today. You know, okay, well, I'll get on that. You know, and then the next day nobody shows up, right? So I call Grayson again. It's day two, Grayson. Oh, man, I apologize. I didn't get to that one. You know, it's only one more day until we get there on your second pickup, so you'll just have to wait, right? Well, then where do I go from there? I mean, I already exercised my one, so I just sit as a dissatisfied customer. If, when I call Grayson, I have the opportunity in that interaction, email, text message, whatever, to know that next step, then that would be an example of us trying to help with what we can control, which is policy. Now, in, you know, how to measure that, that's up to Grayson to say, well, okay, well, we're going to track all those. We're going to see how many calls our directors are getting. And then I'm going to formulate those and be able to tell you which departments are evaled very well and which departments are evaled very poorly. And I'm going to bring those back on a quarterly basis. That's his operational command. But for us, I think we've got to do more in initiating than just saying we'd like better. So what are your thoughts on like a policy initiative?

I like it. I think that that – I like it. I think that's on the fence, and that's not dodging anything. I think it's truly on the fence because when I'm saying – let's say on this side of the fence over here, when I say we're going to tell the leadership team – the executive team, this is a priority, go do homework on it. It's not saying this is important, figure it out. No, you're giving direction for them to do research to present back to you ideas and methods that then the council will vote on or codify. Okay. Over on this side, As you give that direction on this side of the fence, as you give that direction, if there's a strong stance you all have on a certain method, that's fine. And it's on the fence on whether you say, Grayson, customer service is important. We want you to research how to do it, what the standard is going to be, how to measure it, and we want you to present that. And we want to make sure this is a piece of it. That's fine. That's fine. And that's a call y'all make. So that is my thought on that. And I think zooming out of just that example, you're not going to know as a council when it comes to all five of those categories to put teeth on the strategic plan. You're not going to have within your brain a lot of those initiatives. You might have a few ideas here and there. But that is where the executive team and department directors and subject matter experts, they do the research and they come back and they present to you multiple ways to achieve the goal. And then you as a council look at that and you say, okay, we want you to do it this way for these reasons. Does that make sense, Cole?

Yes, sir.

Okay. So it's y'all's call if you, when you give that directive here over the next several months for them to do the research, it's y'all's call if you want to say, hey, make sure X is a part of it. Because y'all might have a certain knowledge and intel and a history that you want to make sure is involved. That's great. Put that in there.

So, Kevin, on on the handoff, right? You got 9 months roughly. You'll have the potential of all 5 back or all 5 new. Right? But then the majority of staff still operating. So. let's let's build that out where okay so we want to spend a couple months getting some things put together and we want this homework assignment back you know in the fall and then we would like something set up in a way where it's easy to communicate to future council members as a top tier priority that's going to be a top tier in any business right and And the vision there is, you know, there are aspects to running a city where you run the city like a business, right? You have to. So I think in communicating that, what we would ask from your expertise in is how do you keep something like this from dying on a shelf?

Good, good, good question. So that there's a couple of different answers. I'm going to try to keep it succinct. I don't want to be long winded on it. Let's wave a magical wand and let's say just with customer service, they've done their homework. Y'all have vetted it, weighed it, and we come up with this nice, clean approach and vision and strategy for customer service and expectation. And that's represented right here in this little circle I'm making. Nice little package. How do we keep that from dying on a shelf and being like, that was a fun exercise? A couple different ways, several different ways. Number one, which we'll get into this more later on, not today, but later in time, how this council, this current council, passes that baton to the next council. Going over these priorities and the specifics therein is very important. Now, could the next council say, screw all that and rip it up? They could. They could. It won't be a good look for them. It won't be wise. But we don't want to try to safeguard against radicalism. And I would call that radical behavior. Who wants to rip up a customer service plan? But one is, how does this council hand that to the next council? Right? That's one thing. Also, as the council functions as a boss, so to speak, to Grayson, these things that are going to be defined with customer service as one of them, it's something that's just always on the radar. Maybe every other council meeting, one of these areas is addressed to say, how are things going? Maybe different directors throughout the department, throughout the organization presents on customer service focus in their area. You want to keep these there. So there are ways once this is all spelled out, there are ways to keep it very forefront with the fact that you have a council meeting every two weeks. You keep it in the forefront of this council and you keep it in the forefront of the leadership of the city among everything else you're doing. You keep it forefront and you keep talking about it. Not in a negative way, but in a, this is important, how are we doing? I think it's normal practice. I don't know what Grayson does. Does he send y'all some type of email update every week, every two weeks? Right? So in those email updates, maybe there's an executive summary in the first page on these key areas that he's commenting on. And then y'all can ask about in your one-on-one meetings with him and your email responses. So there are ways to keep this forefront. When you do an evaluation of the city manager, these topics, this is maybe among a few other things, but this document is what you're evaluating him on. And, you know, in work I do with Grayson and his team, it's going to be, These are areas you're holding accountable and evaluating directors and managers and supervisors on. Everyone's looking at the same top priorities. Everyone's going to have some germane, unique areas as well. That is how you keep this front and center and very much a part of the DNA of what the city focuses on. That's the most, I guess, succinct way I could put it. Kevin, thoughts or questions on that?

No, I agree. And as I think about what we want to accomplish in the next 10 months, I mean, even in these pillars right here, determining, I mean, we're talking about which one they are. We spent about 30 minutes here on customer service. Maybe we're making a little bit of headway, but it seems like over the course of the next 10 months, putting these into place is going to be something that I would hope to be able to achieve so that we can hand them out. And I think the continuity between that, I mean, my goal would be THE WAY THAT WE GET SET UP ON A COUNCIL WHEN YOU COME IN TO TAKE OFFICE AND YOU'RE ONLY SERVING TEN YEARS, YOU HAVE TO RAMP UP PRETTY QUICKLY TO BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND. MY GOAL WOULD BE WHAT CAN THIS COUNCIL DO, WHAT CAN THE STAFF DO, EVEN PERHAPS WHAT YOU CAN DO AS A CONTINUITY AS WE GO ON THIS SO THAT WE DON'T LOSE GROUND WHEN WE HAVE A NEW COUNCIL COMING IN. It may be all new. It may be some may be the same. So I think that would be something that I'd hope to accomplish. One question I want to ask, because I think the discussion and you and I had a conversation about this because it's kind of come up today. In our form of government, which is a pretty common form of government across the state of Texas, where as opposed to counties where. The county judge is running the day-to-day of the operation, and then they have the commissioners that are with them. The municipal form of government is different. We have a city manager running the day-to-day, and we're here in an advisory board. You said something one time, and I think it goes back to even our discussion today, that the council is about the what do we want to achieve and the why do we want to achieve it. And the staff's responsibility is to execute the how we're going to do that. Is that a fair assessment?

That's correct. You're the what and why they're the how and y'all and together y'all decide to win.

And I guess my question is, because as I see it, and you probably see it as well, as Don said, we like to, you know, we're doers. We come from doers. We like to make, you know, our personalities probably to make things happen. So it's a tendency sometimes for, and when you're elected, you know, when you campaign, you say, here's what I'm going to do. You're campaigning on the how. a lot of times to give the specifics or what I want to accomplish. What is a key takeaway from you as you've seen this in other places? What's the key thing for council and the staff to know to maintain us doing the what and the why and the staff doing the how?

I think what we're doing right now is documenting it. Right? And it takes work. It takes some mental and heavy lifting. It takes time as we're seeing. I think... that the council takes puts in the work which is what you're doing you are putting in the work to define that what and why and i think we've got these five categories um to unpack the what and the why and once that's defined um then it's about handing it over and saying okay you got to go execute now I said earlier, I'll say it again, you don't define the what and why in a vacuum. You do get the input of leadership because they have more intimate awareness of reality. But once you've defined the what and why, it's about accountability from there.

Thank you. Do you want to jump off into accountability from there?

I don't think we're to that point. I mean, I think we're still in the essence of trying to kind of define, I guess, what we're each of these areas because I've got to quit.

Yeah, I would say I would say how we effectively do accountability as a governing body. I don't think we want to get into that right now. I think that's important, but. I think defining some things is gonna be more important right here in the short term.

Yeah, I agree. So just trying not to get over into those areas, but then keeping ourselves on kind of that policy initiative goal, right? So do we have an interest for council to direct City manager to look at accountability internally, like, where, how does the staff hold itself accountable? How are we holding ourselves accountable? Like, is that something you want Kevin to look into in the future? Not well, I think.

Yeah, I think I think we've already established that we talked about that last time. Grayson raised his hand and said, as an executive team. We need to improve that throughout the organization. So, yes, that is. I don't even think we need to spend time on it. I think that was established last time.

So what we're going back to.

There are plans to do that. Grace and I have talked about that, and I think he's going to be submitting information on engaging some help on how to do that throughout the organization.

I think what we're going back to is governance capacity, right, trying to maximize the few hours that we get to give this, you know, on a weekly basis. And then isolate those things that need to be operational and executive. And so that is being housed in the executive meetings that you guys are going to walk through. But then on our side, customer service, just to maybe wrap this one up and then move on to the next one, We have consensus that we need to improve in this area, and we need to measure and track it, and then we need something that we can hold ourselves accountable to. We're going to hand that over to the executive side. They've got direction now. What we heard previously is that some of the issue between executive and governance was a lack of clarity that you kind of opened up to. So, Kevin, just as the coach on the sideline, you feel like we've called that play and that that's clear enough? Or do we need to add something else to this as far as customer service?

I think we need to add one more piece. And as far as clarity, it's a clear next step it's not the final piece of clarity. Are we clear on that?

Yeah, next step.

You're with me on that, Cole?

Yes, sir.

Okay, good. Yeah. We're giving direction. There's going to be work to do on the city side to come back with data, information, options. And then from there, the council tries to give some finality to the direction. okay but but i do have one more piece you mentioned that so far we've established customer service is important we need to set a standard we need a way to measure that standard but then you brought up cole that maybe there's two camps or two buckets of of customer service one is when we provide a service to taxpayers that are that's built into their their the taxes they pay But then there's also this optional customer that can or cannot interact with Amarillo. It might be important to say we want a vision around, we want an approach to both. Y'all talk to that. Is that important to distinguish?

Well, I think an interesting thing, and I think this is something for all of us to figure out, because I don't think none of us have really been in this industry. Some comments have been made about have to. The thing is, this organization doesn't have to run on business principles. Because most people don't have an option. Like, I don't have an option if I want water, right? I mean, I've only got one source. I mean, I've got, we don't have an option. So it's an interesting entity on when we drive customer service because, you know, like we're saying, it's like, well, would you do business or would you recommend us? Well, I don't. I don't know who else I can tell you to go to. You've got no option. So I think that that's interesting when we do delve into this customer service issue of just defining that, that all of us live in the public sector, that we know if we don't do a good job, They will go somewhere else. They will choose somewhere else. So the accountability and the teeth and all of those type things, because I think our frontline people are doing a great job for the most part, but is there room for improvement? Probably. I would guess so, but I don't think I'm in a position to say yes or no because I don't know. Again, we're supposed to be at the 60,000-foot level. I'm not at the 5-foot level behind the counter listening to conversations. So anyway, I think as we get into customer service, we've got to really –

figure that out as well so yeah define it yep i think at the end kevin don had a a really good question earlier what does or what is the responsibility and what have you seen historically what does a an a team look like for a city council that some of us might only be here two years Some of us will be here four, six years. We don't know. What does a really good team look like and how do they interact with staff? How do they interact? What does a win look like? Are we driving the vehicle or are we holding on to the bumper or is the car just left us? Where are we at and what should we be doing?

All right, so I'll answer that briefly that this kind of does get into a whole nother topic of what is an A team governance capacity look like? It's multifactorial. One of those is giving clear direction, which is our primary goal today is to define some of that. But David, if I had to describe like councils that I've seen that are A team, so to speak, One is they have a good relationship with the city manager. And by good relationship, it means they give clear direction and expectations to the city manager at that 10,000-foot view. And then they do what they can to provide the resources and support and environment for that city manager to go execute and thrive. Number two, they stay in their lanes. and let that city manager go and execute. Number three, they, again, emphasizing number one, they support and they do everything they can to put that city manager in a place to succeed. Another thing is they, city councils, keep the main thing the main thing. And If you have a council with a little continuity in it, meaning people who are on the council, over a five- to seven-year period, you should see meaningful change, meaningful progress in what they said the main thing was. So that's what I would describe. Another thing is – I could keep going. Another thing is the council – though they may disagree, which is healthy, when they say ready, set, break out of a meeting, they speak with one unified voice to the community. They're not bad-mouthing the other council member. They're saying, hey, there were multiple ways to approach this. As a council, the council adopted option B, and so our job now as citizens is to Make be successful. They speak with one unified voice. Those are a couple of examples of what an 18 Council looks like. And then what do you do when when failures happen with the city manager isn't executing? Well, that's a whole separate thing, but. That's what an 18 Council looks like in a quick sketch.

With the city of Amarillo, what is the main thing?

What's that?

What is the main thing? You say keep the main thing the main thing. What is the main thing? Because we chase a lot of things. We do.

So what is the main thing? That's what we're talking about today. Yeah, but I mean, we've come up with five main things here.

I know, public safety, but I mean, what is the main thing? I mean, I'd like to know what the main thing is so I can keep the main thing the main thing. Because I know what my things are. You got things, Cole. You got things, Don. Tim, you got things. Les, you got things. What is the thing that we're all behind?

Yeah, so when you say what's the main thing, since we're elected officials, we should know what our citizens want. And I think it comes down to some basic things in life. They want a safe city. They want a clean city. They want, when they turn their faucet on and flush their toilet, that the water works properly. Those are the three basic things that a city needs. And if we're not paying attention to those three things first, everything else doesn't matter.

I agree with that.

I think those are the main things.

But I think those are the given things. Those are the expectations. I mean, those have to occur regardless. But what is our intent for this city? I think that's what we're – I mean, if we don't get the water there, we're out. I mean, the city doesn't operate.

David, let me jump in here. Let me jump in here. I appreciate what you're saying, and I'm tracking with you. I think that – I don't think that this council or this city organization, whatever, Emerald as a whole – and this isn't a bad thing and it's not a criticism. But Emerald as a whole, I would say you're not quite at a place to define that yet. Yeah. I think that – and I mentioned this, and we realized this together as a group, as a whole group last time, is that we've got to get some fundamentals established first, shored up. So I know what you're saying, David, like, yeah, we've got to do public safety, we've got to do water, but – We can't take for granted that those things are being done the right way. And that's a good foundation.

Can I weigh in here just in kind of an overall? I think governance capacity in the way in which we're talking about it is really good. What you will see here is, you know, my brother has an engineering mindset. And it's a strength. And engineers focus on that gear that turns and that one thing, right? What I would like to say is what's difficult for that engineer when they sit on council is they have to become an architect. they really have to look at the entire thing all together. And so like as a council, the one thing that we have to keep mindful of is our role is so diverse in so many things that are all priorities all the time and everything is a 911 emergency for someone. But to keep a vision and to keep a focus, you have to remain, you know, in the identity of our job is the overall function of the entire community and how it relates within and to itself. And so an architect, though there may be different rooms that are specified for different purposes when they're designing like the the building or the project. But that architect has to keep in mind that it's function of the overall household, of the overall building or the overall project. It's not just the mechanical. It's not just the electrical. It's not just the plumbing. So we get to utilize those departments, right, that kind of are represented in those engineering firms. But council has to be the architect in order to say, okay, is this a healthy organization and are we growing? And there's 30 departments that all have 30 different main things, right? But we, at that viewpoint of policy and governance capacity, I believe we need to be mindful, and it's very difficult to stay focused on it, but we've gotta be mindful that at the end of every day, it's about the total function of the whole community. And there's so many parts and pieces that are moving constantly. if we allow ourselves to try to define, okay, what's our one main thing going to be, now we've become myopic and we're just going to focus kind of as that engineer on that one thing, and that's all we're going to get to accomplish. But then in priority, prioritization of three or four main areas of functionality, I think we can still give direction and balance that, but at the same time, the purpose is We love the community to the point to where we will civic service and lead, and it's servant leadership that requires you to come back at the end of every day and say, did I leave it better than the way I found it? And that's a totality. That's the whole viewpoint. So I know that's not necessarily the answer, but that is the focus that you've got to keep shooting at all the time and not allow the distractions, so to speak, or the 911s to pull you into any one area. Kevin, you can go from there.

Yeah, I agree. So I think, David, the short answer is I think the council has identified the main things here in the short term. These aren't ultimate things, but for right now, these are the main things that and that as this council as the organization executes over time the horizon opens up to start dreaming and prioritizing other things but this is where we are right now so the main thing is to start providing greater clarity and direction to the organization and that's the goal today so Let's go back to customer service and let me ask this question. Should we, when you think about defining customer service as a priority, should there be a distinction between those tax-based funded services and code businesses doing business with the city, et cetera? Should there be a distinction between those two?

I would say no. I mean, whether somebody has a choice to go somewhere else or not, good customer service is good customer service. So I don't understand why there would be a, I mean, and technically, I mean, you could say people have a choice to live inside the city limits or outside the city limits. And maybe they get frustrated because of dealing with something that is quote unquote a monopoly that we have. But so I don't, I mean, Good customer service is helping problems get solved or helping problems not arise in the first place, and that could apply to anything, not just something that either we have competition with or we don't, in my mind.

I appreciate that comment, but then I would say at the governance level, I'm very much in line with Les. The answer is no. We want to implement the same standard all the way across the board that the goal is to treat everybody the way we'd want to be treated, and if you're that customer, how would you want to be treated? addressed and dealt with with whatever your need is. But then you take it through the executive branch and you put it into operations and the answer becomes yes. So yes, things are different operationally because you have two main forms of interaction with our organization. One is a business like form where you are paying for a service. There's something being delivered to you. And the other one is regulatory. So like it's the difference between police and fire, you know, so the red truck rolls up and you're thankful to see them. Um, you know, the red and blue flashing lights pop up behind you, you're not quite so thankful to see them. And so, like, there is a difference in the way we communicate to staff that we understand there are areas in the city that you can run with a business principle and a business mentality, and then there are other regulatory controls that are forced upon the citizenry at large, right, for the good of the overall, public safety being one of those. And we need to measure that different. So I would just try to draw that distinction down at that level, not necessarily try to make that distinction here on governance.

No, I think that's good. I think that's good. Okay, let's, which one do we want to talk about next? Public safety, infrastructure, quality of life, growth. I'm going to recommend infrastructure development. Because there's a lot to weigh there, if I recall correctly. There's a lot of things to think about. Is that true? We don't have to. We probably won't get them all done today.

Yeah, so we agree, though, in the order that we've ranked these, before we go into infrastructure, we got 51 minutes on the clock here, right? So let's just take one small step. Is public safety our number one priority because of need? Is infrastructure our number two priority because of, let's say, overwhelming potential, right? Like there's growth potential, but there's also failures, and they're enormous in cost, and they can be detrimental, right? Customer service, is that our number three priority to focus on right now? Because we're identifying that's a weak area overall in our deliverables. And then quality of life and growth. Let's just say we separate those, but we keep them both together in that list of priorities. Because yes, quality of life comes with some of these other things. And then we can be task deployed operationally on some of those down there because those better ideas are going to come through some nonprofits, some staff, you know, different community outreach, things like that. So can we as a council communicate clear direction and then come back to infrastructure in more of the weeds? Who wants to move those around?

Well, I think, and we've discussed this before, I think core services, as Tim brought up, people want a safe place. They want their trash emptied and they want their water to work. I think if you don't have, and again, we could debate that of like, well, those just have to happen. So they don't need to be priorities because they just have to happen. I think that as core services, they've got to be top. I mean, if they're not being done well, you don't have a citizenry that's happy. We're not doing a good job of leading the city. So I don't know how you would. I think those last three, you can probably move them around, in my opinion. But I think the top two, public safety and infrastructure, just simply because core services are. Okay. Agreed.

I agree totally with that. Okay.

Agreed. I'm just questioning, why are we having to rank them?

Well, I think that what we're going for here is more clarity, right, and greater specificity to our executives, right? So in everything being important, go ahead, Kim.

Cole, let me jump in. Let me jump in. I think I like and applaud the push for clarity. I do think, though, that let's say those first three public safety infrastructure customers, I don't think it's necessary to put a one, two, or three by them. Like, those can simultaneously occupy spot number one.

Okay. Like it. Good enough then. Yeah. So as long as we can focus on three balls at the same time, which we have to, right, then I agree with you. If we, and here's why, Les, In being critical of myself in our last meeting and trying to go back and digest some of that. And I think even at the end of the meeting, trying to be vulnerable to the point of like, I want you to see how hard this is from this side. You know, I want you to understand, like, this is not an easy job. You know, for anybody, it's not easy for Grayson. So, like, I mean, to get to that level, what I heard was, man, you guys change your priorities around. You show up on Monday and it's public safety. We got to get over here. And then you come back on Wednesday and you're like, why are the parks not watered? And so, like, what I was driving for is I heard the staff communicate that they want a one, two, three. So from the relationship, from executive capacity to governance capacity, not from the relationship of Mrs. Smith to council member. I mean, I get that to the overall, the overall health of the organization is our priority. The overall health of the community is our priority. But do we have a need to communicate more specifically to our executives? And if not, I think if we're good, I'm great with backing up. I was only pushing on that because I felt like that was the call.

No, I know. I know. And I would say no. These three areas of focus, there's so much in each one. They can all three exist, but it is about spelling it out. And there's no option on these three. The executive and the operational world has to do well in all three of these. So...

Okay.

Good enough. Yeah. The only thing I would add is, I mean, and I won't speak for anyone else, I feel like as a council, we have pretty good clarity on public safety infrastructure. I even think We know customer service is a priority. It's something that we want to have. And I think the shaping the future growth, I think, is something that lays all this. I would say, to me, the biggest fuzzy part on this is the quality of life. I think that is...

Okay, hold on. Hold on. Just a second. Just a second, Les. I want to say... I don't... Let's say this. It is not clearly articulated what that... What the priority is or what the outcomes should be in the next three to five years for those public safety infrastructure and customer service. Sure. So I would say that's where we want to spend our time here. The little bit we have left is we've got to flesh that out.

Okay.

We've got to flush that out.

Well, I mean, I'll throw something out there to begin with. Okay, public safety. Again, what gets measured gets done. Is how safe our community is, how do we measure that? And I think there's two things. I think there's one is actually is where is crime? What type of crime is up? What type of crime is down? But also, there's a psychological part of whether we live in a safe place or not. That is... And if you look back in history, our violent crimes are pretty steady over the last couple of decades. But for whatever reason, sometimes people say, wow, it's much more violent now than it is. So I think those are two things that I think I would want to identify is how do we measure, if we're saying public safety is a priority, how do we measure violence? THAT WE ARE IMPROVING PUBLIC SAFETY, EITHER SOME OF THAT MAY BE ANECDOTALLY AND OBVIOUSLY SOME OF IT IS STATISTICAL. AND ON THE INFRASTRUCTURE, I MEAN, IF WE LOOK AT OUR INFRASTRUCTURE, THE AGING INFRASTRUCTURE, I MEAN, IS IT NOT, YOU KNOW, AND MAYBE WE TALKED ABOUT THIS, BUT How much of it do we need to improve each year? How do we know that we're making progress on catching up over decades of neglect when your water and sewer lines are 60, 70, 80 years old? What percentage of them are? And how much, what type of investment does it take to bring those back up to standard? So when I look at public safety and infrastructure, I think those can lend themselves to something that's pretty measurable or documentable that we would say in the next three to five years, here's what we're wanting to achieve.

Okay, Kevin, keep driving there. I know time is a consideration, so let's bite-size this a little bit. We don't have to be done today. We knew we wouldn't finish today, right? We'll come back, but... We're getting quite a bit accomplished here, I'd say, in communicating, you know, here's where we want to see. But then it's like, what do we want to see? So do you want to focus on the what? On these areas?

Let's do that. Let's take public safety, okay? For example, in three to five years, what? And it doesn't matter that you may or may not be on the council. That doesn't matter. Let's pretend that you are.

um what would you like to see in the city of amarillo regarding public safety what outcomes what does success look like for public safety i think two of the measurables i think the first one initially is that we have a fully staffed departments whether that's police fire animal welfare One that would follow that on the law enforcement end is our crime rate, is bringing down that crime rate.

I think it's very important that we leverage technology to the highest degree possible to keep our officers safe in all levels and keep the citizens safe.

i would add enforcement i mean we need to see we look we've looked at the results i guess we haven't seen the full results of summer shield but you can definitely tell it's making an impact so i think enforcement is a big deal uh through public safety um say that again don what's that point i'm sorry enforcement i think for public safety you know we can measure uh how many I guess not just citations, but I mean, how many violent crimes? Well, violent crimes, but I mean, that we're actually enforcing our laws and our ordinances, that they're being enforced so that we see people being held accountable. And I think that has an after effect of driving that crime rate and everything else down.

I think it's great that we're staying high level and we're hitting those things. And I would stay high level with this, but I want to drill into it just one level lower. So like leadership, right? So leadership matters very much so when you're talking about public safety. And so when you think about, we just have one small apparatus that we operate here out of the COA. It's our police department, right? and like what we think of in law enforcement. But then we also operate all of our emergency management. But then we also operate our 911 calls and we handle a great deal of how that gets dispatched. But on top of all that, there's a judicial system that matters. And so if you're not prosecuting, then you're not writing those citations or kicking in those doors. And then on top of that, there's intelligence. And then on top of that, there's state function, you know, our state police. And then on top of that, we have federal. So the one thing that I would love to see us expand to, and I'm going to try to stretch our viewpoint just a little bit. the city of amarillo has taken a greater leadership role in how we break down those silos that are locked in from the sheriff's department knew what was going on but the pd didn't the fbi had a task but but the dea wasn't told about it you know the the way we have And specifically to go another level, I would love to see in the next three to five years joint operational command center. So Amarillo is unique. Amarillo sits with the only Pantex plant like it in the nation. Amarillo is unique. It sits on I-40 and I-27. Amarillo is unique. We are seven hours away from Austin. We're forgotten about, you know. So if you look legislatively, we have to become stronger leaders that are pulling those state dollars up here for the functionality of we are the beacon you know we're the lighthouse of hope for all 26 counties up here and we're relied upon and that's that's very obvious when we have an emergency And so if we had something that we could speak to, like, hey, we want good, strong leadership that breaks down silos and creates communication lines. Okay, now the how, well, that's not necessarily our executive branch over there. That's more something that resides outside of council in between different, you know, agencies. And it is legislative. So I don't want us to just think as council you have a tendency to only think downward. Right now we're all talking about how do we at the top want to affect change down below us through all these, you've got to think upward. You have house reps, you have senators, and you have an entire state organization that's functioning. to combat crime at an organized level. And so we need to lead in that capacity, and that's what success could look like. If you look at violent crime, very rarely do we have a domestic violence case with lethality inside of that household. What we see is violent crime is typically organized crime and is perpetuated from one known person to another known person. And so really, if we wanted to create a safer city, what we do is we create a crime-fighting organization and we do that looking upward. So that's a really big expanded viewpoint. I'm we don't have to go that direction. I just want to wrap that up and saying, like, that's good leadership. Right. And so that's that's where we've got to continue to pull on our partners left and right.

I've got a couple of thoughts on that, but any other council members have a thought on that piece.

When it comes to public safety, how important and what we want to accomplish, not only is our crime rate down, our staff is full, but does it matter what our perception of public safety is in the community?

You're asking the council, correct, Les?

I'm just asking. Yeah, I'm just interested. Is that something that is important? to us is not only are we safe, but do people believe that they're safe?

Well, I think your perception is your reality. So I think it's incredibly important, but I don't know how we drive that unless it's a marketing type thing. And this is just me talking. I don't have an answer, but I think it's incredibly important, but I don't know how we drive perception or how we would help perception.

Can I jump back on, like, this is one of my favorite topics. So perception is everything, right, to a person who is just now getting a point of reference or, you know, a first impression. So as I drive down I-40, if I see four people walking who look like they're in the middle of a migration movement through town. And they're camped out under I-40, but they're standing right next to my window screaming at me. You know, help. I need help. I want your money. You know, like, I don't feel safe. My wife doesn't feel safe. We don't know this community. I don't know that I want to stay in that hotel. So, yes, man, the broken window philosophy has a lot to do with public safety. If we allow trash to build up, if we allow, you know, content to be strewn about, if we don't work through our city marshals, which is another very important aspect of, you know, kind of nuisance things, They become crimes and they become the perception of this is not a safe place. I don't want to do business here or live here. So, yeah, I think what Les is keying into there, I'll tie it back to good leadership, but it really comes down to doing the small things. Every little thing in public safety matters. That's why they muster. That's why the uniform matters. That's why everything that they wear has a reason that it's on them. And we out here in the civilian realm, we forget that importance. And we only notice it when it gets way out of hand. So, like, I think for us as leaders, we can do a much better job of setting that standard because it comes down to enforcement. It's just a lack of enforcement of, well, we'll tolerate that. We'll tolerate a larger group of people congregating until somebody gets hurt, right? And that's not a good tolerance.

I think you've hit a point there, both you and Don, that how we enforce, whether it's state laws or city ordinances, is a huge thing. And I'll use just a really basic example. When I was a police officer in a local town, if somebody parked on the wrong side of the street, they got two tickets, one for driving on the wrong side of the street and one for parking contrary to traffic. Those were neighborhoods. And you felt bad doing it because those were your neighbors. That was the city you were going to protect. But it sent a message that this little thing does make a difference. And I just use that as an example. And we see that as you drive around the city. We've gotten to be a big city, 200,000 people. How many cars are coming through this town every day? Our problem comes down to patrol. Police can't be everywhere. How many infractions have you seen on the road and say, you wish a cop was here? It's not feasible. But a lot of times those progressions of offenses increase because we don't enforce those little things. And I think as we look at just the law enforcement end, I think we've hired the right chief. I think we're in the right direction there because patrol is one of his main areas and he's trying to get that across to citizens. And a lot of times citizens aren't educated on what they're supposed to do as citizens, right? City management takes blame for stuff. The city council takes blame for stuff. But a lot of times our citizens don't look and say to themselves, oh, you know what? Maybe I've got to help the problem.

I would add one other thing just anecdotally is I would say. Right now, if you look at the change in strategy from our police department and what they're doing, and not only what they're doing, but I think they're communicating to the public what they're doing, which I think maybe is something that we kind of have missed before. You know, if we went out and did a survey right now, if people felt like it's safer, I don't know what the result would be out of that. But I think visibly and visually, I think people, to the point of some complaining that we have too many people out there at this point, I think the chief has done a really good job of not only executing in the six months he's been here of getting more people out on the streets and visible, and then, of course, there was the operation that we're doing this summer, but also communicating. I mean, when he puts out a report, his name is on every report. To me, that indicates, wow, the police chief of Amarillo is making sure that these violent crimes are getting solved. And so I just would say, anecdotally, kudos to the chief and the right leadership and us continuing to support that moving forward.

Y'all, you're coming up with some good stuff here. I've got six different components here. I'll rattle them off, but let's keep adding. If you have more to add, what does public safety success look like in three to five years? Fully staffed? Decreasing crime rate? We're leveraging technology? We're measuring enforcement? We are a leader in cross-agency collaboration, and the community feels safe. Anything else?

I think one of the and it may be wrapped up in all these that was mentioned was communications. If we're not communicating that message out.

Yeah, yeah, I think that it does go with community feel safe, but I'm going to make a note. That communication is a big piece of that.

I think that it's very important that the data proves that it's working. That we are safer.

What was that last part, Dave?

That the data proves that we are safer, you know?

Right.

I mean, it's got to. Perception, I mean, the communication, but is the program working and can we substantiate it?

Right. Yep. And I'm going to put that, I'm going to capture that concept with that second point of decreasing crime rate. Like, it's quantified. This is great, guys. So this is what I'm talking about. This is great direction. If you give this to Grayson and the police chief, they now can wrestle around with these concepts and start spelling out some of the deliverables and some of the how and kind of present that to you, right? And you can say, yeah, we like that, go, execute, or we like this, we don't like that, let's tweak this, or find out more about this. So this is great progress. Let's go to infrastructure.

So, Kevin, make it easy on us. Break it down, right? So we have...

Yeah, y'all are going to have to break it down for me. Let's keep it. And then I'll push you.

Because there's a lot of things that are equipment and infrastructure related, but let's be topical in where we want to target. So streets, right? Water, sewer lines. That would include wastewater treatment, water treatment plant, all of it. Deliverable, well-filled, you name it. What are our other infrastructures that we, the city, you know, want to break down topically, council? Or do we just want to focus on those two for now? Like that's just several billion dollars.

I think that we have to stay in front of new developments. I don't know if that's PIDs or, you know.

Well, growth mechanisms, you know, have to do with how you are allowing people to grow into your city like a mud and you know, produced an opportunity for growth in infrastructure to be paid from people outside city limits. So let's talk growth policies could be, you know, maybe part of that discussion.

Like streets and water, would that not incorporate? I mean, we're talking about streets and water in new developments.

I think you could bullet that underneath everything, but I'm curious if we want to take infrastructure in the way of... I wouldn't say we get too kind of conceptual when we say human infrastructure, right? Let's keep it out of that realm. But do we want to talk about another large component to any healthy community is trash. And so like, do we want to pull in our landfill and our equipment, that process into our infrastructure topic? Then we've hit water, sewer, streets, and trash. So if you want to boil down those key core services, right? Now, we could expand to, say, like airport, right? I mean, we want to have a really nice airport. But that is more underneath our business side philosophies for us as a council. We don't always think infrastructure when we're talking airport. Now, we also have drainage, right? Drainage. And that's another key in how the water gets away from property. But I think where I'm driving intentionally is we've been taken care of in a lot of ways with trash. And so we only remember the trash guy when something goes wrong. And so do we want to pull that back into this level because we've allowed it to stay a little bit lower until now? So I'm just I'm curious if we want to key that off on a bullet point. Well, I think trash is important.

I think when, you know, three years ago when we came in, it was a disaster. I mean, it was I mean, alleys were bad. Trash wasn't being picked up. And I think we tackled that. And like you said, it's been going well. We only hear about the trash man when things aren't going well. So I mean, I think it's definitely something we need to keep in infrastructure. And again, measurable. Just because it's going well doesn't mean that we shove it off to the side, because I think that's when it gets derailed.

OK. So let's put that in order, Kevin. What are you hearing us say? And can you help organize?

OK. Yeah. Let me show you something. Because you're right, infrastructure is a big, a big. Big category, right? I'm going to show my screen in just a second. OK. Let's see. I'm going to share my screen and show you something. You'll see that.

Can you blow it up?

It's not as important that you read. You can read every word. But can you just see the graphic?

Yes, sir.

And I can't really see y'all, because y'all have been minimizing my screen, if y'all are shaking your head.

OK. Kind of give us the sizzle on this. Like, what's the bottom line?

But you can see it, correct?

Yes.

OK. So this is a city I was working with and for them, where they are, they created these three main priorities. But you can see that under each one, they fleshed it out a little bit more. And then they even get down into these initiatives. Now, As a as a Council, the Council's defining this and what that means and weighing in on this and this. It's the executive and operational teams that have to flesh out these initiatives. You can weigh in on initiatives, but ultimately it's it's the executive and operational teams. The reason I'm just showing you this image is to hopefully encourage you that we could have something like infrastructure right here. And then we could have several different sub points to infrastructure. OK, imagine these aren't here for five. And then it's the task of the executive and operational teams to map out the key initiatives. for streets, for water, for drainage. So I just wanted to show this vision to you, this graphic, to give you a picture. So I don't want you to be discouraged that when we say infrastructure, that you can only pick two or three. Y'all pay millions and millions of dollars in personnel expense, right? So it is their, like, your job is to say infrastructure, and here are the seven lanes of infrastructure. What's the plan, right? And you've got a million, millions of dollars of assets that need to define that and make sure they're executed. So I just wanted to encourage you, don't feel like you've got to pick one over the other. Now, when it comes to budget allocation, yes, some of these may get more of a priority for you, and that's your call to make. So as we go through these, I've heard streets, water, sewer, drainage, trash, landfill, and then I do think it's a good idea to talk about development and growth as a separate category under infrastructure. So as you hear those six areas, what jumps out to the council that the needle needs to be moved in the next three to five years?

I don't know that the needle needs to be moved, but I think that we just need to be in that direction and heading that direction. So I don't know if that's a right. I think all these things are being tackled. I think we've had good direction. and i think we're headed in the right direction i think we just need to continue and continue to evaluate look at the street assessments you know talk about water look at the well field sewer and drainage same wastewater treatment plant trash my opinion is that we're doing these things we just need to evaluate see if they can be improved uh give direction again clear direction to staff to say hey again what less brought up i mean whether it's customer service or are these things being done well and let's just continue to move in that right direction but improve where where we can kevin i would i think that i agree with what everyone said but i i think without some

without some benchmarks, some goals, we don't, I mean, we can sit there and we can look at this stuff all day long, but if it's not an A, B, C, D, even, or a one to five, where are we at on moving the needle? How do we demand excellence? How do we know if we're achieving our goal? And what does the next three to five year You know, what are those benchmarks that we have to achieve so in five years that we're ready to give another five years worth of direction? And if we don't have the ability to measure and the ability to give the expectation of what success looks like, then we're just kind of rudderless.

I agree. Yeah, so that's exactly what we need to do. Now, the council may not have all of the data needed at this moment to weigh in, but that can be part of the project is I'm just picking one streets. Where are we? What is the expectation for the next three to five years? Exactly. This does need to be spelled out.

I think it's really important. It would have been really nice coming in to know exactly what, you know, a year ago when I came on council, where we are and what the expectation is. I mean, are we hitting these metrics instead of in nine months, ten months, whatever it is, whenever, you know, we could all be replaced. How does... an entity of almost $600 million continue to operate if every two years the playbook is completely rewritten? I mean, we have those basics, but how do we have some continuity? And as a citizen of this city and a city I love, How do I know that continuity is continuing? If I'm not here and I get the boot, okay, I did the best I could. But how do the citizens know that it is not a hard reboot, hard start, and that we have these goals and that there is continuity? Because I think you started it out. How was the baton passed? How do we make the baton pass better? And we do that with goals and metrics in setting that up.

Yeah, I would agree. I mean, to me, at the end of the day, what gets measured gets done. And I think we have made some headway on some certain things that we've looked at. But, you know, sometimes we've got so much going on, it's hard for me to remember, okay, what we did. And, you know, I think as a council to make sure that we clear the path so that we're focused on these things. The thing I like about water and sewer and roads is that that's easily measurable. I mean, we have X number of miles of roads that need to be repaired every water and sewer. Trash, I'd have to figure out, okay, what are we trying to do and how do we know when we make that? But I think those are things that are pretty easy and how do we put ourselves on a plan not only to achieve this in three to five years, but if we've got a good plan together, how long does it take us, again, realizing that anybody can change anything, but to say that we've got a good plan moving forward and we know if we're making progress on that plan or not.

I think that's well said. Can I break that down into a couple things, Kevin, that if we give them to you, maybe you can help us stay more organized, right? So, Councilman Prescott, you know, when you get onboarded, there's too much for you to digest. so whether or not somebody said hey we have a streets plan we're making progress overall streets are in good shape but we've got some really bad ones but it's funded but it's kind of not funded but we're okay for the next you know project but you know here's all that so that's probably what he heard right so let's break let's break this down for uh that's kind of a good playbook policy for the next onboarded councilman, right? Here's what we need to be able to identify. We can identify what most councils will continue to identify in, like what are our main priorities? What are our core services? And so most of the time, you're going to get down to streets and trash and things like that. But then what we didn't identify specifically at each one of those, we didn't have something that showed one question. Once that service or that priority is identified, the answer should be, is there a plan? So is there a plan in place for that department? Yes or no? And then where you really got to go next is, is it funded? And if yes, is it executed? So all of these, is it measured, what gets measured gets done, has to come after those things. So the reason a lot of stuff doesn't get measured and councilman doesn't know it is, well, it wasn't funded. And so if that's the thing that we really want to hand off is, did we put something in place where the next council has to unfund an active plan? That's hard to do. What really happens is people see the need and they reprioritize existing funding because they didn't have something funding. So the streets is a good example of, well, it was funded and it wasn't spent. They had money there. They didn't go put it into the community. So we had to uncover that in order to bring it back and then create a plan of funding. And now we have a plan of funding going forward. And so $12 million a year will get you this. And so that needs to be communicated better to the next set. But we got to do that on everything, right? So could you help us build somewhat of a system that would provide continuity at a more of a summary level? And so we're just going to have to be brutally honest. There are going to be some things where it's like, yeah, we don't have a plan. Like the plan is to take care of whatever breaks tomorrow. You know, and that is true in some areas.

So would we have like a one, three, five-year plan that each department, you know, we task staff with it and say, okay, what needs to be done? Come forward with a one, three, five-year plan on how this does, based on funding, existing funding, not just reactive. We know that there's some that will be reactionary that we will have to have, and there'll be some room in there.

but that way we can and it's revisited every year so that when new councils are on boarded they have the plan of like hey this is the one three and five year plan and then that next year we have a new one year plan and i'm saying if you keep it up on these high level right now we've got three areas that are all considered a top priority we're not even ranking them but like we're not down into quality of life where you're gonna have a lot of color and You're going to have a project. I'm just talking infrastructure. That's right. So if we just keep it to infrastructure and we say out of these areas of infrastructure, let's maintain at least a three to five year plan that does show funding and execution. then we have something that we can measure. But I think to a great deal, that's where we got lost when we got started. Because you said, Councilman Tibbs, like there wasn't a handoff. And so obviously, I think that's taken years to kind of grow back through. But if we want to do a good handoff, Kevin, what we would love is if you take your expertise, you help us build out that boilerplate on something that we can recognize moving forward.

And at least directionally, a plan that we can give staff to say, hey, this is what we want. to facilitate a great handoff to the next council, because we might not be here, but we want to help staff understand what are the goals, and then they can communicate that to new people as they get onboarded on council or as mayor. And if there's a big change, then they can revisit that and say, no, we don't want to, but at least there's a plan in place. And I would say that when you come on council, Hopefully you're going to go off the wisdom of those that were before, at least for a minute. And then if you want to change things, you can change things. But I think that facilitates exactly what you started this with of how can we set the future councils up for success. And I think this is a great way.

And I think, I mean, there seems to be, because we've had these things called pillars, and they've been in writing, and we've had them there. But I think what we've never done is articulated benchmarks and goals to meet. We just say, wow, this is really important. And then, you know, every time we come across something, well, we're doing this because it falls under the pillars. But we never had anything to measure. Okay, what do we want to, we want to accomplish X by Y. And that means we're successful. If we're not accomplishing X by Y, then we've got to change it. And I think that's one thing that's been missing before is the specifics to put on there to what does success look like, and then to determine whether we're achieving it or not.

So well done today, everyone. We've got 10 minutes here. We've put some definition to these things, and now Grayson and his broader team are going to have to start working on these subcomponents to put meaningful information to it that then they present back. And so it is a back and forth, and it will take, I don't know, a few months to really nail down kind of the strategic vision for the next three to five years with any kind of meaningful information on it but this is we're heading the right direction um well good work today and um yeah i think i think we we made good use of the time

Okay, Kevin, I agree. Let me ask a couple quick questions here. So Grayson is, you know, here and kind of listening in and following. And so, Grayson, what I understand, and we can redirect this, but what I understand is that we needed to take that first step in kind of a little bit of a dance, you know, where we need you and your executive team to take that next step back towards us. So, like, what we wanted to do here today was really – you know, discuss at a better level altogether what we've been saying in just generalities with more specifics. Did you hear those areas, like, and you feel good about those and have good, you know, material to take to your team to go work on?

Not yet. I think this is the beginning of a process. Obviously, we touched on a few topics today, but I think we are starting that direction. I think that I'll be bringing to you guys on August 25th a proposal that Kevin Johnson and I have been working on to continue this effort. And so in that proposal, there is a... There is continued work between council and the team and Mr. Johnson, between the team and Mr. Johnson and so forth, I think, to go towards this intended goal here. So I think we've got the starting of this. I don't have what I need today to bring back things to you just yet because I think there's a lot more we haven't covered yet as we touched on today. But I feel we're heading in that direction.

Okay. So my expectation was we were going to meet. then Kevin would meet with you and your team. Y'all would kind of discuss your side. What I'm hearing you say is we have met here, but you feel like it would be more productive if we meet again and go ahead and work through the other items here and then give you that deliverable before you take Kevin with you to the executive team.

No, not quite. I think the proposal, and Kevin, you can speak to this a little bit too. It's the proposal you prepared. Kevin, I'll just turn it over to you real quick. How did you envision this happening?

Well, I think this does give us enough of a framework for, Grayson, yes, for you and I to meet and start unpacking some of these things, along with other executive leadership, director leadership type things. But when it comes to the council relationship with the executive team, I think that this is a big first step. And as far as the council meeting again, before I meet with Grayson or before Grayson and his team starts to flesh some of these things out, I don't think that's needed at a high level. Grayson might have one-off questions and things like that, but that would be my take is that This gives us a starting point, Grayson, to start working behind the scenes. Do you agree with that, Grayson, or do you think a piece is missing?

I think we need to get together and make sure. I know there was a lot of areas talked about.

Say it again, Grayson. It's breaking up. I'm sorry.

I know we talked about public safety and infrastructure, and we talked about community service. And so if we feel that's it, then I think I have what I need. But I thought I took away if there was more things that the council wanted to dive into that we ran out of time for. So, Kevin, do you feel that you need to modify your proposal you've given to me?

No, no. I think that the proposal I've given to you has me working with you and your team and then me working with you and the council and the council.

Yeah.

And that still is the case. And you're right. There is more for the council to do. But I don't want to think about it. This isn't just for you, Grace. I'm talking to the whole room here. As we walk this out, building a strategic map, there are two cars we're driving simultaneously next to one another. One car is the council getting clear on its own vision and how it's communicating that to the organization. And the other car that we're driving at the same time is Grayson leading his team and fleshing and walking all that out there are steps to, we still have a lot of pavement in front of us for both of those lanes that we need to be walking down.

Yeah, that's the point I think I'm trying to make. And so I think that's what I'm trying to make. So I think, Kevin, with your guidance, I think we can start the process, definitely start working towards this. And so, yeah.

Okay. So I just wanted to make sure that the expectations were still the same. So, like, we've taken the first step. We're looking for you guys. Wanted to confirm, like, you're ready to take that step back towards us.

Yes.

I know it's a dance. It's going to go back and forth. But we would come back to meet again with Kevin after he meets with you guys next, right? So that's what I'm looking for.

Yeah, I think so, yes. I think, again, this is going to be kind of, it sounds like a back and forth, because I would encourage council to work with staff as you're developing the strategic plan. I know today it was just council only. I think staff has some value to add to these conversations going forward. And I would recommend that we not just do like a staff only, council only, staff only, council only. I think we should probably reconvene the future.

Could I ask, though, I think it's been very beneficial, right, for us to just have us in here.

Oh, yes.

This is what we needed, right? Yes. I think it would be beneficial for just you and your executive team to meet with Kevin without us, right?

I agree. I think there's work to be done. We can do offline work, and so, yes.

Then I would love to have the follow-up where everybody's back and we can really put some wheels on it.

Yeah, I think so. So yeah, I think, I think this, as I'm seeing this more with Kevin's helping me understand, I think this is getting back to what Kevin was guiding me with the proposal. So yeah, we'll, I'll bring this contract back because obviously I got to, Kevin wants to be paid. And so I'm going to bring the proposal back to you guys to, to ink that so we can, so we can start that engagement on August 25th. And we will start working with staff and Kevin and, and get back to you all and start this process towards developing a strategic plan. Councilman, you got something?

Yeah, let me just, I have real clarity on infrastructure, public safety, and customer service. I don't feel like I've got much clarity today out of the growth moving forward and then the quality of life.

Yeah, I agree. That was the point I was trying to make, and so I think there's more ground to be covered.

Well, and so far, we've kind of captured these three that we didn't number in value, but we did kind of put them all as a top priority. We're trying to kind of take that as a first step. I agree with you. Quality of life is a bigger topic that is subjective. It's not quite as, you know, objective. So can we start there? Do you have enough to get started?

Yeah, I think so. The point I was going to make about 45 minutes ago was, Mayor, to your point, you had asked about what was staff looking for. I mean, I, as a manager and on behalf of staff, I know we do juggle a lot of balls at one time. So I think it's good for staff and council to always remember that there are always simultaneous priorities. And so while sometimes we can get into a mindset that this is the priority today, it's helpful when all parties recognize that This is a burning issue, but there's always simultaneous balls we're juggling as well. So, again, I'm not necessarily looking for a priority one, priority two, because I know there's lots of things we have to be doing at the same time. I just want for council, staff, and citizens to remember that there's lots of balls juggling at one time. So while we may get focused today on one thing, we don't lose sight that there's lots of other things we've got to be doing at the same time.

Great. So I just want to say, like, I feel like I have a good expectation moving forward how we're working this out. Council, any other takeaways from anybody individually that we want to make sure we communicate? All good? Kevin, man, good job of driving.

Well, let me put one point on something. It's great. There's a lot of meat on the bone for the city of Amarillo. There's a lot to be done. And one of the things I'm focused on as I work with everyone is building good habits. If we want to bench press X amount of weight, I'm just trying to help us build the right habits that put us in a position to do that. And so, yes, to Grace's point, to your point, Les, there's a lot more we could talk about, needs to be talked about, we want to talk about. And that will always be the case. Today and in 10 years, I think what we want to start working on is building the right structures and habits and rhythms to be effective as an enterprise. So that's what we're trying to do. You know, when it comes to quality of life and other aspects of the city, one of the things I'm going to be working with Grayson on and his teams is, on one hand, imagine a city council didn't exist and didn't give you any priorities. What does success look like in your area, right? Council shouldn't have to define success in all these areas, right? And so the council comes in to show where areas of emphasis are. And, David, that's what you're trying to get at is what is that main thing? Well, we've got to get these healthy habits in place first. And I think this council is in a great opportunity to establish that over the next 10 months. And Grayson – has an opportunity in the way that he and his team leads the organization, has a good opportunity to put the whole team in a position so that we can make some of those more growth-oriented steps. So I hope some of that made sense.

Man, it did. I think we accomplished a lot in a short time. So, Kevin, thank you for your time. To the staff that had to set all this up and coordinate, thanks for taking your time out this morning. And then we look forward to hearing back from you. We know you're going to take that next step with management and then reach back out to us, Kevin, when you're ready.

It's good to see everybody.

Hey, thank you. You guys have a great day. Gentlemen, you're adjourned.