City Council - Regular Meeting

Councelor Nordike. Good evening everyone. I'm calling to order the um meeting for March 16th, 2026 for our work session. Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Tyen present. Councelor Nishioa here. Here. Councelor Matthews here. Councelor Gwyn here. Councelor Brown present. Councelor Vang here. Councelor Nordike

here. Councelor Vney, I'm here. And Mayor Julie Hoy here. Thank you. Um, will we all rise for the pledge of allegiance to the stands nation? I have asked councelor Tyen to u make the first motion.

Yes, madam president. I move to approve the agenda for our special meeting this evening. Second. It's been moved and seconded by um councelor Matthews. Any questions? Will the recorder please call the role? Councelor Tyen I. Councelor Nishioa. I councelor Matthews. I. Councelor Gwen. I. Councelor Brown. I. Councelor Vang. I. Councelor Nordike. I. Councelor Vney. I. Mayor Julie Hoy. I.

Thank you. Um we don't have any additions or deletions. Uh so we're right on to uh the discussion of our strategic plan and I believe we have our presenters from Baker Tilly here. Good evening and thank you so much for having me here today. My name is Jesse Lenhard. I'm a senior manager with Baker Tilly and part of the project team facilitating the city of Salem's 2025 strategic planning process. We are coming back to council uh following some November work sessions to give you an update on progress uh towards developing the strategic plan and to share some updates on the mission, vision, values, goal areas and then to talk a little bit about some outcomes as we look ahead at developing some outcome measures to include in the strategic plan itself. So we can skip the agenda because we just chatted a little bit about that already. So where we are in the process um this is an update to council as I mentioned uh after we gather feedback from council on the vision mission values goals and out potential outcomes we will work towards developing the full draft of the strategic plan and then we will issue a survey to all staff in the community to gather feedback before coming back to council at the end of April to propose um the plan for adoption.

to give you a little bit of additional detail about work that has taken place since the work session that we had in November. Uh the team has put together the elements of the strategic plan including the ones that we will chat about today. We've gathered input from the executive leadership team updated the plans elements based on that feedback. We also conducted an executive an executive leadership work session to pro get feedback on goals, objectives and then also to clarify the year one priorities and the role of the city in implementing those year one priorities. uh we issued a survey to a large manager group um to gather feedback like I said on the role of the city and that ran from the end of February into the beginning of March and we'll roll all of those updates into the strategic plan. So vision, mission, and values. As a refresher, since it's been a little bit of time since we had a chance to connect back in November, I want to go back over and revisit some of the major themes. um that came up during our last work session. So, in that work session, we reviewed the city of Salem's 2021 um core elements, including the vision, mission, values, and goal areas. We gathered feedback from council. And so, what we have here is the summary and a refresher of some of those key themes that came up that we're hoping you will see reflected in the updates that we have made to the vision, mission, values, and goal areas that we'll share with you tonight. So core feedback that we heard about the vision would love to see it be more inspiring. Um as it was currently it was okay um but was really missing the zing missing that aspirational missing something um that really made it exceptional and stand out and feel really compelling. Um also wanted to include notions in the vision around trusted leadership uh project leadership lots of notions around how we

can be innovative as a city and then also really embrace the capital city identity related to the mission similar. So the current wording was somewhat generic. it was just okay. Um, and really wanted to include additional notions around resiliency, future readiness, and then reconsider some specific wording like vitality. Um, especially related to some of those concepts around uh the city's involvement in being a driver of the economy. For values, um, there was some specific feedback around the definition of inclusive. So, the current language felt a little bit too narrow, maybe too specific. And there was um a desire to simplify what was included around the value of being inclusive. We wanted to clarify and refine language around being anti-racist. There was some mixed feedback wanting to make sure that it the notions were still considered and included in the value, but it felt a little bit incomplete if not paired alongside some other commitments. And then we also wanted to revisit the value around being proactive in some of the wording there. it felt good um to be proactive but the current position of the city didn't feel proactive at the moment. So first looking at the revisions to the vision statement. So the 2021 vision for the city of Sale strategic plan is a safe, livable and sustainable capital city with a thriving economy and a vibrant community that is welcoming to all. You'll see the proposed updated draft statement. We've highlighted the words that are specifically changing in green. So, the vision again keeping some of those themes in mind about wanting it to be more aspirational, wanting it to be more compelling. The proposed update to the draft statement is a leading capital city that sets the standard for safety, livability, and sustainability, fueling a dynamic economy, and nurturing a

vibrant community that is welcoming to all. I'll go through the mission and the vision and then I'll open up the floor to the question to see if there's any other feedback or considerations that we should think of the mission. So again the mission really thinking about how we are updating some of the specific language making it clear, concise and compelling. So the updated draft statement for the mission is to provide fiscally sustainable and quality services that enhance community safety and resiliency, improve the quality of life, the quality of our environment and neighborhoods and support a strong economy. So really looking at some of the words around vitality um and thinking that strong was a better fit. So only two updates. On the next slide, I have the other values that are included in the strategic plan and there's no changes. But for the value around inclusive, we propose an update. Uh we foster an anti-racist culture of equity, accessibility, and inclusion within our organization and across all city services. And then proactive. We continuously seek innovative solutions using datadriven insights and community input to deliver meaningful programs with measurable results. Thinking through the vision, mission, and value statements and the proposed updates. My first question for you is looking at these draft updates, is there any other considerations that we should keep in mind as we are reviewing these proposed drafts before we make any additional updates?

Yes. Um, can you go back one slide to the mission? Thank you. And then can you go back to the mission vision? Thank you. I think we're all trying to take a good look at this before we ask anything. I will simply say that I'm enjoying what I'm reading because it feels like it comes more alive in a sense. It it feels like I can connect with it better than previously. Maybe it's because it's kind of um establishing more of an emotion. uh some of the the vocabulary being used. So I think that um as I read through this earlier, I felt that it was like, yeah, dynamic, you know. So um I appreciate these. Um sometimes when we see a statement that we've seen before, it's nice to see it refreshed. Of course, then too, it can need to be adapted maybe in another year or two years. I'm just saying that I can see how an evolution of a statement um does need to have movement.

Does anyone have any questions on anything so far? Councelor Vney,

it's not necessarily a question. And thank you for including uh boy this is loud tonight isn't um sustainability and uh resiliency. I guess my question is um because I think it's really crucial that we have that especially with some of the challenges we're facing with with climate financially all those things. Um I was going to ask for some feedback. Um the mission is basically what's occurring now and I'm thinking the vision is what we're looking ahead towards and so I'm wondering if resiliency I don't know if it should be in the vision and sustainability should be in the mission. Those are just little little things but I didn't know if anyone else had any feedback on it. Madam Chair.

Yes. Thank you. I was sorry. I was breeding counselor.

That is that is all right. That is all right. Um the new proposed mission removes the word protect before discussing the environment neighborhoods. And I feel that the word protect should stay in because protection is a huge part of what we do. Our police department protects us. Uh we protect the quality of our water supply. I feel that protection has a lot with what we do as first responders as and also ensuring the safety of all of our parks and our water supply that the lights turn on at night so people feel safe walking in their car. Um I would add the word protection back in or protect and improve perhaps.

Thank you. Yeah, you might go ahead if anyone else has questions at this time.

Great. Next up are goals. So, key takeaways um from that work session again back in November related to goals specifically. So similar, there was an a desire to have goals be more aspirational and forward-looking. Talk a little bit more about where the city is in the future and less about where we are now while still recognizing and acknowledging where the city is presently. So again, also looking at reassessing the economic goal scope just to make sure that everything that is included is within the purview of the city to influence. addressing housing and homelessness. That came up as a number one priority from the community feedback um that we received early in the process and was echoed um in council feedback when we were looking at those goals. Really making sure that that's called out quite specifically. Good governance and transparency, continuing efforts um and broadening good governance to include transparency and accountability and efficient internal management, fiscal stability and revenue efficiency. Again, really want to highlight also those sustainability initiatives. So, water and wastewater responsibilities and then supporting next generation workforce retention and the natural environment. So, with those themes in mind, we'll look at three goals at a time. So, the very first one, safe and healthy community. the proposed update minor but does include um really specifically calling out um proactively collaborating to address the impact of crime, fire, natural disasters, health emergencies and homelessness to residents, vis visitors, businesses and property owners. So this was one um thinking also about the city's role in collaborating and forging those partnerships. A lot of the issues facing the city are quite complex and require a lot of resources. So in what ways does that partnership really come to the forefront and then specifically uh addressing that top

priority from the community around addressing homelessness and what does that look like? The next one, welcoming and livable community. Um again, a couple of updates here to capture all of the expanded um work of the city. So offering a mix of quality housing, libraries, parks, recreation, art, and historic and cultural resources for all ages. And then strong and diverse economy. This one got the biggest overhaul. So encouraging innovation, entrepreneurship, business retention, and growth that provides broad community benefit in downtown and beyond. So really clarifying the scope of the city and its responsibility to contribute to a strong and diverse economy. Before going to the next three, is there any feedback overall? Would you say these updates are headed in the right direction or is there anything else that we should consider?

Councelor Tyen,

thank you. Um, I just appreciate the revision of number three, the strong and the diverse economy. Um, much like the vision in the mission statement, I think it's feels more active. It feels more um I do think it it reads more as a goal as opposed to um you know the thing that we're achieving right now, but it's something we can set our sights towards. Um you know encourage using that word encouraging encouraging innovation entrepreneurship um that feels stronger to me and I appreciate that. though we want to have a resilient downtown, we want to have, you know, broad community benefit beyond downtown. And so I think for for lots of reasons to think about the whole of Salem rather than just downtown in that statement is really important.

Great. Okay. I I have a question. Um we're we in in these and maybe we'll see it in a little bit. I sorry if I'm asking ahead. I'm not seeing anything about um water wastewater management. Is that coming? It is. Okay. Thank you. Goal five. Perfect segue.

Okay. Um, goals four, five, and six for safe and safe, reliable, and efficient infrastructure. So, this one also got a little bit of a facelift. Um, maintaining and upgrading critical infrastructure systems, including transportation and public facilities to meet community needs. So, previous feedback um on goal number four is if we start to list bike paths, sidewalks, civic buildings, and technology, the list will get longer and longer and longer. So this felt fairly inclusive of the infrastructure that the city is responsible to both maintain and also upgrade. Number five, natural environment stewardship. So couple of updates here. Safeguarding environmental and natural resources including waterways, wastewater, tree canopy, parks, ecosystems while addressing environmental impacts from development and city operations. And the last one, good governance, really brings in those notions around transparency and accountability. Providing fiscally responsible, transparent, and equitable services, proactively engaging re residents, and building partnerships to prepare for the future and cultivate long-term success. Feedback on these goals. Are the updates headed in the right direction, or is there any other feedback that we should consider? Councelor Tyken.

Thank you, Councelor Nishioa. Um, I would say number four feels like a a definite upgrade. Um, maybe some people love the words integrated municipal asset system. Um but I think your uh revision is better. My only concern about um when I think about sort of the cross-section between our budgeting areas and um things like that is that wastewater is we don't generally in my memory and anybody on council is welcome to correct me but I don't think we usually consider our wastewater system part of our natural environment. um and stewardship action area. It's part of safe and reliable infrastructure. And so I appreciate wanting to call it out specifically, but so the fact that um storm water infrastructure is part of um natural environment stewardship, but waste water, what you flush out of your house is part of our infrastructure. So that would be my feedback on that.

Councelor Matthews, did you have something? You rose your you rose your hand up. Oh, okay. Councelor Vney, I just wanted to say I agree with councelor Tyan that it should be storm water because especially our green storm water infrastructure is so essential. We have a lot of groundwater limited areas. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, storm water management is I think one of the bigger elements of our natural resources, natural environment stewardship budget.

And then I would add that the wastewater would be the infrastructure because we definitely need to manage that. Jesse, can you go back to goal number one? Um, I'm kind of thinking out loud at this point. I know we have been working the past like eight months on safe, clean and healthy community. Um somehow the the clean is missing there and I I could see that in number two uh it talks about well-maintained city but because we have been having a lot of conversations with the community and this council about safe clean healthy Salem um and basically a clean Salem also is kind of a healthy Salem, right? I don't know if there is an opportunity to add that and I I'm not sure how this council feels about it.

Councelor Vney, um I think that's a really good point. Were you thinking of adding it in the main title at the top and making it safe, clean, and healthy community? Okay, thank you. Yeah, I would agree with that. and councelor Matthews. Yeah, I was just going to echo that. I think for continuity it makes sense to have it there.

Great. So looking at swapping welcome, welcoming and livable with clean and healthy or right? No, in the first one it says safe and healthy community but instead safe, clean and healthy community. Yes. Thank you. Water treatment is in natural environment. Yes. Would you like to add that? Oh, sure.

Sorry. Josh Agelson, chief financial officer. Uh, so wastewater treatment is historically a natural environment stewardship. Just to It is. Yeah. Yep. Um, Mayor Hoy, I believe you have your hand up. I apologize. I did not see it. That's all right. Back up, city manager, to add the clean. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. she basically um it was all part of what we've just been talking about. Thank you. Wonderful. Okay, so the brainstorming part of this workshop is think you know thank you so much for the feedback around these foundational statements, vision, mission, values, these goal areas. One of the pieces that's going to be really important to include in this strategic plan um are performance measures. They're historically part of a strategic plan. they were part of the previous strategic plan. Um, and when we are thinking about how to communicate progress and performance on the strategic plan, performance measures are a core part of that. One of the things that we want to get feedback on um that is an evolution of the strategic plan is really connecting those performance measures to outcomes. So more than what we are measuring at a snapshot in time, what ultimately are we striving for as an outcome? So different than um a snapshot of figures really what does success look like at the end of five years. So ideally outcomes can help um the city make thoughtful decisions and stay aligned over time um and then cultivates that shared understanding of what we're all driving towards and what that really looks like at the end of five years. So, we had crafted a couple of example um outcome measures for consideration um per goal area just to kind of get the creative juices flowing. Um and thinking through and ultimately wanting to get your feedback on what might be some of those considerations to keep in mind as we are developing these outcome measures. things that could be tracked towards success. While the activities may change or the specific measures may evolve over time, what ultimately are those trends leading towards? So, goal

one, safe and healthy community. Um, an example could be a higher percentage of residents who feel safe in their neighborhoods. You all do a community survey on a regular basis. This is a common question. So, this could be something that is monitored over time and can contribute towards the outcome of the activities that are included in a five-year strategic plan related specifically to homelessness. The lower point in time count could be one of the metrics um to be monitored over time as an outcome. Goal two, welcoming and livable community. I think a lot of those outcome measures are really connected to initiatives already in place. So the clean, safe and healthy city. Um, a lot of those outcome measures could be connected to that strong and diverse economy, increased number of new businesses or a higher percentage of businesses satisfied with operating operating in Salem or growth in local employment opportunities. Safer and reliable. Some options for outcomes. Higher percentage of streets and sidewalks rated in good condition. natural environment, improved water quality metrics, cleaner and better maintained natural areas and good governance. An outcome measure could be higher percentage of res residents who trust city government, increased satisfaction with city communication, um or greater participation in public engagement opportunities. So, these are just examples. It's not anything set in stone, but really is meant to kind of get some ideas going about what could be considered when building outcome measures for the upcoming strategic plan. And so the question for you all is looking ahead at the next five years, what does success look like and what measurable outcomes should guide the city's work even if the activities themselves may change in the next 5 years.

Oh, council me.

Uh, thank you so much. I I know those were just examples, but to me, affordable housing, uh we've already approved a housing production strategy in May of 2025. Uh we already have and serve, all of us serve on the Salem Housing Authority as voting members. So, this is already embedded in the work that we do. And it is anecdotally, I can tell you, it is one of the biggest issues that I hear over and over again in this community. uh too many folks are, you know, grown up and still living with their parents or there are seniors who have downsized and are now living with their folks. Uh you know, rents are going up, incomes are not keeping pace. We can play a role in affordable housing. I'm not saying we can solve it alone, but we've made enormous strides. And to me, that's some of the proudest work that we've accomplished together on council is on Yaquina Hall project, Redwood Crossings, Sequoia Crossings, our work behind the scenes on the Gussy Bell Commons project, uh afford when people can afford to live indoors, a lot of other social ills go away. homelessness goes down, crime goes down, people can finally start saving for their future, paying those medical bills, going to medical care for a change. So, I think there are ways that we can do this. We should do it. And also, this is one of the areas that lends itself readily to tangible outcomes. number of units created each year where we either leveraged a private partnership such as having a private developer take advantage of the MOTIP just looking at how many units were created year after year within a certain percentage of the area median income as just one random like off the top of my head but I think this is something that we can absolutely

develop performance metrics for and should continue to do. Thank you.

So, um I have a question. Um I'm wondering how we are to incorporate these um visions, missions, goals, outcomes um in conjunction with our budget because everything has to work around the budget. we have to incorporate all of this. And so I'm wondering if um if you have any guidance on how we can construct this so that it is these goals are reflective when we get to the budget which will be next month. Yes, I really appreciate that question. So usually during the strategic planning process on an annual basis, you would revisit the initiatives and activities that you outline in the plan as kind of a starter and then you would use those to prioritize kind of what you plan to tackle in the upcoming year. And that's how the outcomes can help you make sure that the activities that you choose to take on for that year are aligned with kind of what is set out in your values and your mission and your vision for this upcoming planning process. We baked into the plan right at the very beginning looking at the city's existing fiscal year 1 priorities. And so those are incorporated into what has been planned for year 1 so that you shouldn't have any surprises. when you go into the budgeting process, but usually when you revisit the plan on an ongoing basis, typically every year as you're developing that process, that's how it would come into play. And you would get a report out on these are the measures, these are the outcomes. The city also reports pretty regularly on its result areas uh as part of the budgeting process. So all of those pieces really come together to help paint the picture of here's where we are, here's what we did, and here's what we're looking ahead towards.

Councelor Tyken.

Thank you. I um I'd like to build on the comment from councelor Nordic about um housing and I when I look at the revised um drafts which are a a few slides up but the welcome and livable community I think speaks to housing directly at least uses the word develop Salem as a safe well-maintained city offering a mix of quality housing libraries parks recreation art um I think and with the housing production strategy and the numbers that were given from the state about how much growth is supposed to happen in the city and things like that. Um I I don't know if it'd be more challenging just to use housing starts as a as a output as as the measure um rather than affordable housing units. Um because I think we know we need all kinds of housing like we're not we're not we need to be housing type agnostic as well as supporting affordable housing through our work as Shaw commissioners um and as city councilors. But I feel like when we measure ourselves over the next 5 years, we'll we'll be measured on more than just whether we built affordable housing. We're going to be as whether we grew as an entire community and and there were housing starts across the entire um housing stock. So it's my feedback on that.

Thank you, Councelor Matthews.

No, I think that's I think that's reasonable. Councelor Tyigan, I think, as you kind of pointed out, we have to have increase in all aspects of our housing stock, not just affordable or not just subsidized housing as one area. And so, and we will be graded on kind of a larger percentage of that along with just the fact that if we only focused on that one aspect of subsidized housing for our for our actual success rate, we financially couldn't afford to actually do that just from a fiscal standpoint. point. So it would be in conflict, I think, directly with some of our other goals of being fiscally responsible. And so, um, so yeah, I tend to agree. I think housing starts or some version of that to kind of be able to show all housing aspects is probably I could definitely support that. I think it goes well to our kind of multiple other pieces of our goals. So,

thank you. And I went back to the examples. So I have notes about housing. Any other outcomes thinking ahead to the next five years? Yeah. Yes. Go right ahead. I just had I guess questions about they're on four I think it was in in goal five. So one of them is there to measure is to basically measure our sidewalk rating. And I'm not sure is that something we already do as a city? Like how what is the practical nature of us being able to like determine how much of our sidewalks are rated in good condition? Is that already something we do?

Would Mr. Martin like to come up and see if he can respond to that question? Hello, Brian Martin, public works director. Uh, I heard you talking about the sidewalks. Could you repeat the question?

Yeah, so the goal says in order how we would, sorry, the outcome says, so how we would measure ourselves is a higher percentage of streets and sidewalks rated in good condition, reduced infrastructure maintenance backlog. So the reduced infrastructure maintenance backlog, I'm assuming that's trackable for us. I'm sure we have a backlog. If it reduces, we can measure that. I'm not sure how well we do. We already measure our percentage of streets and sidewalks that are rated in good condition on a yearly basis, right? So, our streets uh we do measure based on a uh criteria that tells whether they're in good, fair, or bad. So, we have that data. We're already doing that. Okay.

The sidewalks are basically more for are there defects or not. So, we're not looking at a sidewalk that's okay marginally or okay, really good. So, in order to uh track the sidewalks, we'd have to implement something more specific than what we have. Okay. And that that's my only concern with it. I think I mean I love the concept of being able to measure that and being able to know that data. But I don't want to add task just for the data. Does that make sense? If it's not something we read rightly already have available.

Yeah, that makes complete sense. I don't in fact I don't know that the technology is there to really differentiate uh the quality of the sidewalk. With pavements there's what's called a pavement condition index and they go out and drive it. They test the asphalt. There's you know what the subgrade is so you can give it an index number. I don't think the same thing would exist for concrete sidewalks.

Okay. So, that'd be my only concern with that one would be that either measuring something different different or differently or something that we already do if we could find something that it's more or based in that. And I had one other one. This is not for you uh Brian, but um well, maybe it is, but the other one would just be on goal five. So, it says better maintain natural areas. That also seems somewhat obscure and not terribly well measurable, right? It's not really a actual statistical item that we can necessarily objectively I guess we could ask people and maybe that's the the objective with that but just not sure how we would actually define better maintain natural areas.

Yeah, it's a great comment and I'd have to think more about how we would get there to measure it in soundap in concept. It sounds like that's absolutely something we'd want to do but how we measure would be uh a little bit more challenging.

Yeah, perfect. That was it. Those are my two comments. And I also wonder if it would be helpful. These are examples in other strategic plans that we have done, not necessarily ones that need to be measured in this strategic plan. And so these were ones thinking through what are some of those different areas that we would like to consider in terms of outcomes and then kind of working backwards from there about your point to what is already being tracked, what's feasible to track and then what makes sense. but really kind of thinking through maybe some of those bigger picture items around what is important for us to think of um in terms of being able to communicate our success for the city. So, I apologize if it I don't want it to think that like nope, these are it and we're going to go forward, but the the goal was to

No, I actually love the concepts of all the items. Um, that's I mean that's that's why I actually like the idea of using or that's why I would say I like the concept of them. I just don't know how we effectively can measure them. But if someone else has a better way to like a way to actually do that, I'm in because I do like the idea of being able to measure us having better maintained natural areas. I just don't personally I come with only problems and no solutions in this scenario. I only see the problem. That's basically what I'm trying to say. I'm hoping someone else here is coming up with a solution.

Councelor Nordok, you had a question. Uh just some more comments on these goal areas. I I really do love this and I feel like I could nerd on out nerd out on it for quite a prolonged period of time. Um under goal one to me safe and healthy community when we start drilling down and thinking more about what the performance metrics might be. uh response times is a big one and it's also again some are you know feeling safe is a lot more nebulous and we have to run very expensive surveys to wrap our head around our residents sense of safety but response times are things that our public safety departments are already running on a regular basis and as a goal I would love to to know what our response times are. you know, we know I can hear sirens in the background. That feels so apppropo. Um, you know, I mean, for for the fire department, there's a national standard of five minutes or less. And it's it's hard for us to meet that goal because we have not been adding more firefighters to keep up with our rapidly growing population, just as one example. So, when I think of safety, it's not just the perception of safety, but are we investing in our public safety services? and that includes the reach team um which is very important to me that we continue funding that moving so these are just comments right now moving down to goal five again another metric that I think would be easier for us to define is tree canopy I if I remember correctly our urban foresters started doing an inventory of city-owned trees a couple years ago or so and that takes a long time to map but they've made enormous progress ress and so as we complete that mapping I know that they've also been keeping track and

keeping us informed of the number of trees that they've been planting over time. They have planted thousands of trees since the big ice storms which unfortunately knocked out a huge variety of white oaks and cherries and it it caused a lot of mayhem and a lot of uh a lot of tree canopy loss. But I think that tree canopy is something we can all agree on. is generally a good thing. And there are a lot of heat islands, particularly in northeast Salem, where we've made some real progress. I know councelor Barney and I participated in a tree planting ceremony at Yoshi Kai Stevens Elementary where there was a Let me just assure you, we could have planted five times the amount of trees from where we were, but you have to start somewhere. So when I think of some more tangible metrics, things that we can point to down the road as potential goals, that would be one of them.

Councelor Vney, thank you. Uh I'd like to kind of build on that a little bit. Um the comments I made earlier about resiliency and sustainability. Um I don't know how to put this into a performance measure. Um but thinking about building resi resiliency to a warming climate and the increase in related disasters. I mean we already do a lot through our climate action plan and other emergency actions we've taken that are doing that and I think it's something that we need to continue to uh to focus on. I mean for five years looking moving forward there's going to be more and more reliance on electricity and I'm really uh inspired by the fact that the city has done things like the solar on the public works building and on the fire station or the uh police station and on going in on Marian. I mean just things that we're doing. I don't know how to put it in a performance measure to just keep doing things like that because these projects actually a lot of them are funded by grants. Um staff does a wonderful job finding a lot of money to allow us to do these little pieces that definitely make a difference. And these things are saving the city and the residents money. I mean like the municipal building master energy plan reducing the energy usage in our I think almost 90 municipal buildings and converting over to using renewable energies. Um just keeping that that in in mind and as you said the heat islands I know we're going to start working closer with the county on both heat and cold related illness. Uh so that's really crucial trying to

think. Um, yeah, just I I don't know how to put it into words, but I think that's really important about preparing us for the future. Thank you,

Councelor Tyen.

Thank you, Councelor Nishoka. I think the um these outcomes as they're kind of listed here and I appreciate them as just a jumping off point, but they kind of they do two different things or two and a half different things. Um on one side you have, you know, widgets like metrics that you can easily measure. um higher percentage of streets and sidewalks, improved water quality metrics, and then some of them are perceptions like is the public feeling the love? Are they getting the thing that we want them to feel because we achieved the metric? Um, and I think we should probably decide which one we're going to use to, you know, figure out whether we're achieving our outcome. Um, and maybe you can use both, but response times like counselor um Nordike said, perfect example. If we if we improve our response times by 50%. We think the outcome would be that people would feel safer, right? Um, you achieve the widget, get the outcome. Um, where I worry is do we set a bar so high we can't reach it? Um, you know, we know we don't have the money to vastly increase our police force and response times. Similarly, higher percentage of streets and sidewalks rated in good condition. Our engineers are engineers for a reason. We're going to look at a CIP in 4 weeks and they're going to tell us exactly what they're going to work on in the next 5 years. 5 years from now, we will have 5 years of improvement. I guarantee it. The question is whether people will feel like the improvements we undertook make their lives better living in the city because their section of the city wasn't ignored or the road that has been

needed to be repaired for so long the city was responsive about it. So I just kind of um I can imagine things in both like I can imagine widgets and I can imagine you know feelings that people have about the widgets. Um, I'm curious and maybe if you in your experience, if you've watched councils or other organizations go after this, what do people usually go towards and what works better?

That's a great question. So, the the hard numbers are a lot easier to track, but sometimes they can be really restrictive in what you are able to track. And sometimes the work of a city doesn't always neatly fall into things that aren't as quantifiable. And so for some areas um the work of city can be better described via some of those more qualitative metrics such as perceptions of feeling of safety, but sometimes those are always rooted in what are the supportive activities. So I think that's a great point that you made. you know, even the first one thinking about residents who feel safe in their neighborhoods. We are putting a series of metrics together hypothetically putting a series of metrics together where we believe will well well lit streets um a good response time contribute to feelings of safety. And so if you track both of those as kind of snapshots and those more quantifiable metrics, maybe that does or doesn't contribute to feelings of safety over time. Um, if you do improve the number of streets that are well lit or you do improve your response times and your qualitative metrics around feelings of safety stay the same or maybe decline, those can be good indicators to say, is there something else here that, you know, we're making investments in these areas, which is really wonderful, but is there something else here that isn't getting connected? Um, and is there something else we need to have on our radar? And so it can be helpful to contribute to the conversation about what we are doing, where we're investing, and is it having the intended outcome that we think it does. So usually, I think your point is good. It's a mix of both. You don't typically want to rely exclusively on qualitative measures because they can be so subjective. Um, but only looking at the numbers can sometimes leave out some of those important connections about how your work shows up and what that really looks

like um for the community. So like a real consultant, the answer is both. Yes. So I'm going to continue on kind of in the same stream of thought. Um when we talk about a goal of economic growth or um managing homelessness um that involve other partners other not city

um how does this plan define what the city's role is and what the partners role is and how can we explain that and help community understand as we go through those metrics to improve those things but maybe not us us you know focusing in on it because others have to come to the table. Yeah. So I think your question is about how do we kind of consider some of those metrics that rely on partners to deliver on their success. You said it better than I did. Thank you.

Okay. I wanted to just make sure I understand that's also a great point and something that can be noted in those measures. And so we're measuring, you know, what we are able to and we are putting things in place in order to help us monitor the partnerships that we do have. And when you look holistically at an measure, um that similar to the difference between kind of a qualitative and a quantitative metric, um if your quantitative metric and what you are able to measure that's in the city's control is off, is that something that needs to be evaluated in your partnership? And so while you may not while you might measure certain things that are influenced by other people um that's usually captured in kind of the outcome but that can facilitate the conversation. Does that help? Yeah. I mean I think that it's going to it becomes more as a perception. Um but what I think I'm trying to help um is the narrative to community to understand the distinction and then how do we show that it's improving and improvements are coming from the partners partners that are in this too. So, um, again, I think part of it is the perception and the narrative,

I guess, is is how I'm hearing it. Yeah. Thank you,

Councelor Fang. Uh, thank you, counselor. and you actually uh went right to where I wanted to touch upon and this really goes more towards goal for the safe reliable uh infrastructure in that um Northeast and East Salem we are kind of like a jigsaw puzzle of the city where part of the city we're part of the city and then some parts are in the county and then um and so I think having um a measure or just acknowledging that a lot of the infrastructure improvement does rely on um joint projects or collaboration with um our county and maybe even our school districts sometimes. And so I think that is a part of the conversation that would help with the perception and driving the conversation of this is what the city is doing really well. Um, and in line with goal four, I think the um the examples here are a good start, but I would also like to maybe incorporate um or mention um the city's efforts in installing or improving calming measures for hightra, high impact areas. And also maybe putting out a survey or you know trying to collect the information or data about um the improvements that the city is doing or in collaboration with other agencies that help our residents use alternative mode of transportation and maybe try to move away or encourage move away from being car centric and other modes of transportation. I think that would be um information and data that could help make goal 4 more tangible for people. So, thank you. Those are just some of the comments. Thank you.

I'll ask another question. Um as we look at this and again I'm asking you which may end up being us or the budget committee. Um, as we look through these goals and objectives, um, because of budget, we may find that we're in places where we have to make tradeoffs or adjust or I guess um, postpone some of the goals even within uh, the five-year. Are there is that something that you feel the budget and council need to do? the leadership brings to us or as consultants suggestions on what things might be lower on the list. What I'm trying to understand is when we get to budget and we have to find places for tradeoffs or maybe not focus um any guidelines from you on how we may structure that or is that something we will need to do before or during budgets? thoughts on that?

Yeah. City Manager Nim, would you like to respond?

Sure. Yeah. So, I think councelor, what you're talking about is one of the the goals that uh I don't know which one of it is we talked about the fiscal responsibility, right? that's kind of seen you know so with all these outcomes that we are looking for how do we still reach you know kind of attain that fiscal responsibility while making progress on this you know to me I I I look at the these things um and I do think it's important that we continue to make progress in each of the areas but the speed and the rate at which we go is important because it's kind of why we talk about if we have so much money to manage and we have to be fiscally responsible. We can't add new services still. What are the ways that we can implement some programs that means we do have to try new things and how how can we continue to make progress in each of these areas. So, uh how do we combine all of this with that fiscal responsibility? That is the challenge, right? But but I think one thing that we need to remember uh we need to continue to strive to make progress in each of these areas but not necessarily everything that we are looking for but again one step at a time. Can we can we make some progress within the next year or two uh while being fiscally responsible and not putting deficit in the budget. And I could also add that that's the beauty of a strategic plan is that it does lay out the priorities that the city has identified over the next five years. And so in that annual budget planning cycle, you review the activities and that's when you start to chip away at the list. Um and so that's when you start to take a look at this is what we've identified and then these are the ones going back to our vision, our mission, our values, what we are working towards as outcomes in five years. here's the road map that we have. And so

in year one, here's the list of what we're tackling. And then this time next year, when you look at your plan and you look at those activities, you say, great, these were the ones that we had identified in year two and beyond. What are we well situated to do now? What do we have the budget to do? And what what is it that we prioritize? How does that connect back to our mission, vision, values, and the outcomes that we're driving towards? Thank you, councelor Tyen.

Thank you. Um, I appreciate the question that you asked after this the the slide. I think you came back to the slide, but asking us, you know, what we looking ahead in five years, right? And I think um have a tendency to say, you know, people overestimate what they can achieve in one year and underestimate what they can achieve in five. and another one of our frequent guests to the council who helps us um John from our survey uh contractor. I pulled up the 2025 community satisfaction survey because I distinctly remember our conversation with him um and sort of ask him what his response was because um in terms of the right track wrong direction metric when we've asked the public um and I remember him really specifically telling us like well it wasn't that long ago that the numbers were totally flipped. You know, it was in 2018 that, you know, 53% of Salem thought we were on the right track and 31% thought we were on the wrong track. And at its worst, in 2022, which, you know, we all exist in a context, but in 2022, almost 70% of people thought the city was on the wrong track. That's a huge switch in three years, right? But by 2025 the number had reduced from 70% to 60% or 59%. So the the in it's going the right way. But to me like all of these things here in terms of outcomes and what we're talking about is really about that core feeling that what do people think about

the city? Is it on the right track or is it heading in the wrong direction? And I feel like all the stuff we're talking about here is really based down into that. You know, people's perception of the city overall. And so looking ahead in 5 years, what will it look like if it's successful? To me, what success would look like is these numbers flipping back? That more people feel like the city's on the right track than people who feel like it's not. that to me is like the ultimate measure of whether we're doing our jobs well. Yes, Krishna, go ahead.

It's just sorry, it's just a thought. Wouldn't counselor tag and as you were speaking I was just thinking about wouldn't it be great if we can get the feedback as we do the work

like for every service that we are providing if we could get that feedback right then and there that would be a great measure than waiting for the survey to happen but I'm going to um to that to that statement um I'm wondering If uh with the new process of in of having pilot programs, if as we move forward before we implement a pilot program that we can try to get feedback from the community so that we can see if they are agreeing. Okay, any other question? Councelor Vney,

thank you. Um, well, I think that's kind of what we did with the safe, clean, and healthy Salem was base it on the community feedback. So, I agree with you. Taking that feedback and turning it into an action is really, really crucial. I wanted to comment briefly on the survey results, you know, when I look at that, um, a lot of that dissatisfaction is due to things that are out of our control. the way the economy is right now and how it's impacting everybody and it just makes us there there's not a lot we can do about certain portions of it. Um so I think we're doing really well by continuing to push forward at the pace that you know we are continuing to show improvement because this is a really tough environment. Thanks

councelor Tyen. I I really appreciate that, Councelor Varnney, and I and I think the the data bears examination because very few of the respondents say it's because of things outside of our control. What they say is that it's a combination, right? And so, like, of course, they're not going to give us a a free pass, right? Like, oh, sorry, we can't do it macroeconomics. like why doesn't it matter who you elect into these positions or or you know who the the people are in the city's executive team? I think those things matter a lot and we can help communicate to the public, hey, this is a big pool that we're swimming in and we can't do anything about the the water, but we can work as a team to swim in the right direction. Um, and I think that's what people sort of in the survey data sort of says that is I mean some people think this is mainly because of the way the city has acted that's like 30%. 2% is just things that are outside of our control and then 60% is some combination. So just good to keep in mind.

Councelor Nordic.

Yeah, I just want to piggy back on all those things. I feel that the city of Salem didn't cause the opioid crisis or the homelessness crisis or the affordable housing crisis. There are plenty of macroeconomic explanations for why these things are happening, but uh we need to be clear about us doing our part and there's a public education piece there. What are the things within our control? What are not within our control? We don't set statewide drug laws. For example, when measure 110 happened, it happened to us, right? Um, and when there was a slowdown in home building, that impacted everybody as well. So, I I think that as we discuss strategic planning and our goal setting, there are opportunities to educate the public as we go and say, what are the things within our legal authority as a city to do? You know, we're not the public health authority, for example. Um, but that doesn't mean we should turn a blind eye to mental health and suffering on our streets. And the reach team and all the trauma-informed deescalation training that our first responders go through are examples of that. So um yeah, I think that just every step of the way we can be clear about how we can be a part of the solution, what our role is and also help define what the other roles are for all the other uh local governments, what's the county's role, what's the state government's role. Uh what's the role of the homeless alliance? The homeless alliance oversees strategic planning for homelessness for the entire community. And we need to know what they're doing to be a part of the solution. just as one example. Thank you very much for the discussion.

That was all I had for you tonight in terms of um the next evolution and the next step of developing the strategic plan. So what we are going to do next, we're going to take all of this feedback and then we'll work on putting together the full draft of the plan. It will include updates that we shared with you all and incorporates the feedback that we gathered here tonight um for the mission, vision, values, also the goal areas. It will include a section of the city's year one priorities and the role of the city as we um heard from the management team and then it will also include those outcome measures that we discussed. So, thank you very much for your time today.

Thank you. We are adjourned.