- October 26, 2024
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Flagler County Administrator Heidi Petito kicked off a new strategic planning process with a day-long collaborative planning session for department heads – bringing in resources from the cities of Bunnell and Palm Coast, as well as Alachua County, to discuss best practices for moving the process forward. The goal is to define the county’s mission for the future, and to ensure the budget and staffing allocations are aligned to best provide the services that meet the needs of residents.
“I think we can always do better,” Petito said. “This is extremely important as we transition from a small county into a mid-size county, and it’s a huge cultural shift from where we are today. The changes we are embracing should be woven into the fabric of Flagler County. We need to create a framework for our plan, and realign our resources to support that framework.”
Bunnell City Manager Alvin Jackson, who has extensive experience in strategic planning throughout his career in government, said that all staff members within an organization are critical to ensuring results are delivered.
“The plan is a document for communication purposes,” Jackson said. “A strategic plan is not what you create, it’s what you become … Everyone must take into account the organization’s purpose – constancy of purpose.”
Interim Palm Coast City Manager Denise Bevan followed Jackson to deliver the second half of the one-day retreat’s morning session. She has been with the city since 2007, and has always volunteered to serve on internal committees that focus on delivering services based in part on community surveys that communicate what residents say they want and need.
Bevan highlighted five distinct actions for effective strategic planning: adopt priorities, identify strategies, link it to the budget, set a timeline, and establish a multi-year planning cycle. Key performance indicators are used to analyze the success of elements of the plan. She noted that some plan pieces are short-term – one and done – but the organizational mission should be worked into each of the indicators.
“The annual Strategic Action Plan, and the budget process go together,” Bevan said. “They survey results are a tool for the (city) council.”
Donna Bradbrook, strategic performance manager for Alachua County, led the afternoon session.
As with the other two presenters, Bradbrook talked about aligning operations with the strategic plan and, in turn, linking budget requests to the strategic plan.
“The theory of what you want to accomplish is the strategic plan,” she said. “The actuality of what you want to accomplish is the adopted budget.”
Bradbrook also discussed the best practices advocated by the International City/County Management Association and the Government Finance Officers Association for both strategic and comprehensive planning. In short, both require clearly stated goals, objectives, and strategies, as well as a means to measure the progress made individually in addition to the organizational mission.
“What you measure, you can manage,” Bradbrook said. “What you manage gets done.”
Key takeaways for the day were as follows:
