2026-10-08 - Town Council Strategic Planning Work Session

00:42The second person talks

16:34All

16:52right. Good afternoon everyone.

16:59We can

17:01stand for

17:08the flag of the United States of America

17:11and to the republic for it stands. One

17:14nation under God, indivisible with

17:16liberty and justice.

17:25>> Thank you to staff. guest we have today

17:27is looking forward to great work. Um I

17:31miss this

17:40>> we're going to make it worth your while.

17:41>> All right.

17:46That's their guarantee.

17:47>> They're pretty good with that. We've had

17:48several meetings and they keep us

17:49together.

17:50>> Let's go.

17:51>> All right. Ready?

17:52>> Let's go.

17:53>> Okay. So, thank you Mayor and Council

17:55for being here. I know we'll be joined

17:57hopefully

17:58a little bit later here very soon. We've

18:02got an aggressive agenda so I won't talk

18:04too much. We're going to start with our

18:07year in review which is something that's

18:08kind of an annual tradition at here. Uh

18:11then we will dive into uh having budget

18:14staff kick off the strategic planning uh

18:16the kickoff and then we'll get into the

18:18refresh with B works our consultant that

18:20has been working with us for several

18:22months as we look to refresh on the

18:25strategic plan.

18:27So what we're going to do at an ELT

18:31meeting which is our extended leadership

18:32team as we always do and we compiled you

18:35can see it all on the walls. I think

18:37it's Yep. They're all over there behind

18:38you, the pretty colors of stickies. And

18:40I'm always impressed each year I forget

18:43some of the things that we do because so

18:45much happens. And so this is a time for

18:48us. We did it as a team in our ELT

18:49meeting a couple weeks ago to reflect on

18:51the accomplishments during the fiscal

18:53year. So this isn't necessarily what

18:56we've done the last couple months. It

18:57went through June 30th of 26 from July 1

19:01of 25.

19:03Uh so kind of

19:05three four months ago now. Yeah. And the

19:08whole year before that. So what I'm

19:09going to do is go to each portfolio.

19:12We've got 30 minutes allocated for this.

19:14So I've asked each portfolio to take

19:15about 10 minutes and talk about their

19:18highlights that that are on the wall.

19:20It's definitely as you have free time,

19:22make sure you peruse and look and look

19:24because we're not going to be able to

19:25cover in that 30 minutes all the great

19:26things that have been done.

19:28While it may be all the stickies are the

19:30same, that doesn't necessarily address

19:31the weight of that ex. We've got some up

19:34there that it's one sticky and it's

19:35something that involve the entire

19:37organization for several months or

19:39years. So, really peruse that, but we're

19:42going to hit the highlights. I think

19:43Sean, if you're Oh, Sean's point that

19:45way. So, we're going to Marty. Oh, yeah.

19:48We're waiting for some of Sean's team.

19:50Marty's still eating. We're gonna go

19:52Marty. Marty's portfolio.

19:57So we wanted to to make sure that you

19:59all hear directly from the directors

20:01talked about before as well. So turn it

20:03over to Marty for his portfolio.

20:06>> Okay. So this was not me everything that

20:10we did each got like a minute and a

20:13half. So this is what we going to do

20:16this pride presentation

20:18director feels very proud of and the

20:21department did over the past year how

20:23associated with our strategic plan and

20:25we'll start.

20:27>> All right. So um very quickly we raised

20:30the park that's almost completed. That's

20:33new landmark. You want to vote for it?

20:39We're in third place right now. Um we

20:42completed the 30 MGD master plan

20:46and

20:49>> okay yeah I'll be brief uh I think the

20:53most proudest accomplishment for our

20:55team is we have really taken the

20:56sustainability action plan in all

20:58aspects you know we have facilities uh

21:01fleet uh everything we do for workflow

21:04and streets and uh solid waste you know

21:07so couple highlights for us uh in the

21:09facilities division installation the uh

21:12six new

21:14EV chargers and soccerers. I'll skip

21:16over and go to fleet utilizing telemetry

21:19data and all of our aspects of fleet

21:23operations. All the need some AI

21:25technology we predict and make

21:27maintenance lets us know a little bit

21:28about what's happening to a vehicle

21:30before it becomes a bigger issue. Data

21:33operations um uh expanding our software

21:37portfolio adding the new budget all the

21:40different support uh a budget that we do

21:42with our a lot of our divisions,

21:45operational divisions. Um utility

21:48billing support, you know, what our team

21:51has helped a lot update operations in

21:53the utility billing uh situation. Uh

21:56streets and department uh enhancing

21:58roadways, sidewalks, ADA compliance,

22:02stripping, mitigating those. And uh

22:05lastly, we'll touch on solid waste,

22:07modernizing our services, uh really

22:10leveraging um our technology to reroute

22:13our routes and make sure that they're

22:16operating as efficient as we can.

22:19>> Electric.

22:20>> All right. Uh in electric, as you know,

22:22um AMI was big for electric this year.

22:25So, we really we're implementing our

22:27AMI. We're almost finished. Um but that

22:30was a big this past fiscal year. And of

22:34course building infrastructure. So

22:35adding new capacity substations, new

22:38distribution infrastructure because bird

22:40is coming online. So to that so I will

22:43leave it at that.

22:45>> For transportation uh most of our work

22:47falls under responsible development

22:49mostly planning for investing in

22:51infrastructure and providing uh

22:52promoting mobility. Um at the end of uh

22:56last year we finished the Saunders lot

22:58expansship project which was a a big

23:00project for us. Um and it added 15 faces

23:03in downtown EV charging stations, storm

23:06water management. Um then right right

23:08right right right right right right

23:08right right right right right right

23:08right right right right right right

23:08right right right right right right

23:09right right right right right right

23:09right right right right right right

23:09right right right after that move right

23:10into the streetscape project. Um

23:12everybody understands that working in a

23:15urban downtown environment with

23:17merchants right next door and trying to

23:19keep sidewalks open is very tough and

23:22it's been a struggle but we're making

23:24progress. Um the contractor you haven't

23:28been out there at 3:00 a.m. Sometimes

23:29they are out there working at 3:00 a.m.

23:31starting the day. uh trying to get the

23:33sidewalks open every day by nine

23:35o'clock. So, that's been a real uh

23:37blessing that they've been willing to do

23:39that. Um we've encountered some early

23:42issues with the electrical plan, but we

23:44staff work diligently to address them as

23:47quickly as possible. Um and working

23:49through like these soil cells, these

23:51cells will go under the sidewalk out

23:53there. It is tough doing that type of

23:55work, but they're they're getting

23:57through it. I think they're only got two

23:59left after the one they're almost

24:00finished with now. And then you're going

24:02to really start seeing pavers and the

24:04amenities and things coming in pretty

24:06quick after that. Um so then last but

24:09not least, the X Peakway connector um

24:12projects entering the final stages. So

24:14they're beginning to work on uh paving

24:17initial paving operations for Salem

24:19Street, which is the last area that is

24:21still just got stone on it right now. So

24:23they're they're getting ready to start

24:24that in the coming week or two. And then

24:27uh once S Street is paved, then they're

24:29going to start trying to work in towards

24:31getting traffic into alternate patterns

24:33to begin final paving operations. So

24:35right now, we're hoping that everything

24:37is still planned for completion by

24:39December, which would still be roughly

24:4110 months ahead of the original project

24:43schedule.

24:45Right. Um, sorry. Let's get Councilman

24:49Gray

24:52Council in your

24:57>> I can.

25:03>> So, this is my last one of these. I'm

25:05gonna take my phone.

25:10>> The planning staff actually contributes

25:13[clears throat]

25:13to all five of the game plan Apex

25:16categories. So for high performing

25:18government, we have staff who lead or

25:20have participated on many of the special

25:23project teams that Ramy's office um has

25:25been embarking on, including uh s

25:28streetscape, downtown parking

25:30mitigation, employee relations council,

25:32uh structure review, designated Apex AI

25:36evaluations

25:38coming up. Uh we had two big foots this

25:40year. You're probably very familiar with

25:43one with Bruce Denal presenting to you

25:45all in the data centers, writing that

25:46really long white paper presenting to

25:48Central Pines and being a leader really

25:50in the whole state for data centers.

25:52He's presented Kings Mountain and other

25:54places around the state. The other one

25:56you may not know about Josh was the Mi

25:58performer and that's because he created

26:00a SharePoint site for onboarding new

26:02planners. We have a lot of new planners

26:05um working with us. Um and then we also

26:08continue to require certification of our

26:10planners GS staff and zoning compliance

26:13officers with uh Taylor Gerald and

26:15Thomas Rails

26:18this year responsible development. We

26:20have peak plan 2015 that's ongoing the

26:22next public forums November 120.

26:25[clears throat]

26:26Um and then we've also done amendments

26:28to deliver

26:30for the North Carolina Children's

26:32Hospital. Welcoming community. We um we

26:36have expanded the AC front one and door

26:38services to 30 minute um frequency and

26:41then added Sunday service. We also

26:43kicked off the Pleasant Park access

26:44study and the zoning compliance office

26:47completed regular non-p permitted signs

26:49and we've had a record amount. We've

26:51removed more than 2500 science fashion.

26:55Um, economic vitality of course we work

26:57regularly with economic vital staff on

26:59Apex Gateway, Vidia, North Carolina

27:01Children's. Um, we also published social

27:04make census data at your fingertips, the

27:07public's fingertips. If you haven't seen

27:09it, check it out to it. Um so

27:14leadership the EAB data center

27:16subcommittee website and process I think

27:18is unparallel for anything we've done in

27:20apex to keep up to date on how that

27:23process is going during the moratorum.

27:25Um and then we also house planning for

27:28extreme heat cohort and we're working

27:30with sustainability on the town's first

27:33heat action

27:35[clears throat]

27:38>> in building inspections. We are most

27:40proud of our initiative staff

27:41development which includes developing

27:44inhouse

27:45classes.

27:47The average inspector

27:49has 24 hours that they have to get every

27:52single by developing these classes in

27:56house that allows us to keep those

27:58requirements at a much lower cost.

28:01We also offer these classes to local so

28:07that

28:09the goal of having government to help us

28:12develop and retain our workforce, use

28:15public resources responsibly, and

28:17improve our customer focus.

28:21>> Excellent.

28:28>> Raise your hand if you were a new

28:30director or a promoter from the outside

28:32during that same period. We have a

28:33couple at that same right. So

28:35recognizing we had some major

28:37transitions and certain things that

28:38we've accomplished during that time. So,

28:41thank you very much.

28:42>> And the new assistant group,

28:43>> right? The new assistant director,

28:44right?

28:46>> This group is involved in everything

28:49that gets built in this town. This the

28:52key is the thing they talk about a lot

28:54of things that are town initiated.

28:56All the development that goes on here,

28:59everybody at this table's involved in

29:01that aspect of that as well. That hasn't

29:04gone away since 2016 when I've come when

29:06I got here. So all the development here

29:10and then is still here. We're still

29:11doing that and we're doing so much more.

29:14So they do an outstanding job.

29:17>> All right. Thank you.

29:19>> Okay. Gonna roll ready

29:27[laughter]

29:33[laughter]

29:37with what Marty said, our most community

29:40um forward facing departments um public

29:43safety and arts and of course uh

29:46community development and neighborhood

29:47connections. So, I'll start with uh

29:50Craig here and I'll end with our

29:53community developing connection.

29:56>> So, you can't do parks and wreck without

29:58volunteers. So, I want to give a shout

30:00out to the volunteers this year. Uh 277

30:05volunteers this year, over 57,000 hours

30:09of volunteer hours. Uh our monetary

30:13value was around 1.8 million for

30:16volunteer hours. So, which is pretty

30:18amazing. Ellison doing an outstanding

30:21job with that. Uh, shout outs to

30:23communication working with us on the

30:24chat bot for our website. So, easily

30:28accessible information using the chat

30:31bot. I think that's starting to spread

30:33throughout the organization at this

30:34point. So, that's really good. Uh, we

30:36increased program participation across

30:39all areas, seniors, athletics, youth,

30:41and adults. Um obviously special events

30:44continue to grow for parks and

30:46recreation will

30:48our pricing policy u which we created um

30:52it's given us a more equitable and

30:54sustainable policy moving forward. So

30:57we're really excited about that. Um

31:00Angela Ranki was promoted to be the

31:02assistant director uh this year which is

31:04pretty awesome. She's doing a fabulous

31:06job. We also in addition I think she

31:12took over the uh programming assistant

31:15director role when David left. We got a

31:18lot of design efforts continuing west

31:20street

31:22park his town playground ACP playground.

31:25Um we also completed two greenway

31:27extensions Beaver Creek as well as

31:29middle creek. Um and then we also had

31:32five employees uh receive their CPU

31:35which is the certified parks and

31:36recreation professional certification.

31:38So those are our high.

31:44>> Oh yeah [clears throat] busy year at PD.

31:46Um I think at the at the highest level

31:49we managed to finally cement this work

31:51we've been doing for the last two years

31:52on reestablishing our sort of why, how,

31:54and what purpose statements. Uh we've

31:57arrived at something that I think uh

31:58sits with all of the staff in a way that

32:00can motivate and drive their daily

32:02activities. We're pretty excited about

32:04those statements. We also completed the

32:07reorg of the police department focusing

32:09on moving resources to where they're

32:10most needed. Namely, that included the

32:13standing up of an independent trained

32:15unit and an independent special events

32:17unit to accommodate those need ancillary

32:20duties of other staff members. That

32:22reorg included the deployment of a squ

32:25patrol schedule which is a 310 schedule,

32:28three shifts and six squads. Uh this

32:30made sure that we now have during the

32:32busiest times for our community to

32:34double the number of officers out on the

32:36road and patrol and also provided 240

32:39hours of additional training per year

32:40per officer without any additional

32:42overtime expense so that we can raise

32:44our core competencies from where they

32:46were from where they were to where we

32:47want to go. In terms of recruiting, we

32:50had 24 vacancies to start the fiscal

32:51year. That's now down to four. Uh, and

32:53those four are all tenatively filled

32:55with people who are actively in the

32:57background process. We anticipate being

32:58fully staffed for the first time and as

33:00far back as I can track at the police

33:02department by January 1, which is a huge

33:04accomplishment in a day and time where

33:06it is very difficult to recruit police

33:08officers into the profession. I think a

33:09testament to the environment y'all have

33:11created here for employees that this is

33:12a place people want to come and want to

33:14work, making my job considerably easier.

33:16So, thank you. Uh we also secured some

33:19grant funding for ballistic vests,

33:20officer wellness, and some traffic

33:22safety initiatives. We established and

33:25mutual aid agreements with Raleigh,

33:26Kerry, Fugquway, Hollow Springs, Wake

33:28County, so Chattam County, and Wake

33:30Forest PD. Uh these are agreements that

33:33have always kind of been in place at

33:34theouou level, meaning that if we need

33:36to help, we can. We've now taken it to

33:38the level of establishing mutual aid

33:40relationships where we automatically

33:41help one another whenever help is

33:43needed. has resulted in us being able to

33:45better staff our special events and also

33:47being better prepared prepared for large

33:48emergencies for which our existing

33:50staffing is inadequate. So big victory

33:53for us there. We cemented another year

33:55of Kalia accreditation which uh as you

33:57guys know from long-standing

33:59[clears throat] practice here is no easy

34:00lift but made it through another year of

34:01being accredited through Kala. We

34:04conducted four complex promotional

34:05processes, rebuilt our fitness center,

34:08built out wellness and recovery rooms

34:10for the officers. deployed our first

34:13integrated succession and training plan.

34:15So training plan that actually

34:16incorporates the likely succession needs

34:18of the department and plans ahead to

34:20fill those needs so that we're not

34:21trying to fill them on the fly as people

34:23retire or move on to promotional or

34:25other assignments. And finally deployed

34:27an LTE failover system of infrastructure

34:30for our radio systems. This is a huge

34:32victory because as you know Mr. Mayor

34:34the uh landbased radio system sometimes

34:36faults and we don't have reception in

34:38areas that are critical. that is the

34:40lifeline for a police officer is that

34:41radio. Uh we now have LTE failover. So

34:44if the LMR the landbased radio system is

34:47not functional auto the radio

34:48automatically kicks over to an LTE

34:50functionality over cellular networks and

34:52we maintain continuity and connection

34:55time. So a busy year for PD. I

34:57appreciate you. Give me a minute to

34:58discuss something.

35:00>> Um [clears throat] before um Assistant

35:02Chief Frickman um um chimes in, um I

35:06wanted to say u if you don't already

35:08know, this is assistant chief uh Michael

35:10Prickman. Um Michael led the um um our

35:13new fire accreditation. Um he led that

35:16along with Smith Gazard. So um he's in

35:19place of Chief Herman who's traveling to

35:21I know you'll be talking about that.

35:25>> Yeah. Uh so again with fire a lot of

35:28great things going on this past year uh

35:30that we're really proud of. Our staff

35:31have been killing it this year. Uh doing

35:33a lot of great things but the main

35:35things I wanted to focus on were

35:36infrastructure needs. Our academy um has

35:40just graduated last month just a couple

35:42weeks ago actually nine month

35:44[clears throat] academy. So we're

35:45getting ready to bring seven more

35:46employees on board here soon. Um they

35:48should start in November on ship. So

35:50that's going to get us I think right at

35:52only two vacancies left over and we're

35:54in the process of filling one of those.

35:55So we'll be getting very close to full

35:57staffing very soon. Uh second thing I

36:00want to talk about was obviously station

36:01three in the administration building.

36:03The progress for that throughout the

36:05year has been phenomenal. We're looking

36:07forward to that. Um ordered a new engine

36:09as well that should be here very soon

36:12and we have some other key apparatus

36:14coming to shoot as well. And then like

36:17Demetri had mentioned, our prep work in

36:19the finalizing of all of our

36:20accreditation efforts uh didn't

36:22technically happen last year. It

36:24happened in August. Uh but we are uh

36:26internationally accredited through the

36:28Center for Public Safety Excellence. So

36:30a huge undertaking for our staff and for

36:32our department and we are extremely

36:34grateful for y'all support and

36:35everything that's helped us get across

36:37the finish line with that. So thank you.

36:40Um for the community development and

36:41neighborhood connections uh department

36:44as you know we are in a leadership trans

36:46transition. Um we received over 270

36:51applicants for this position. We are

36:54it's actively underway and we are

36:56getting ready just completed the um

36:59initial screening. So um we will be

37:02doing um an interview panel uh bringing

37:06in at least four candidates. um those

37:08have already um are being scheduled now

37:12and so we anticipate um

37:16on the table uh the beginning of

37:17November um just in a month. Um so we

37:22continue to uh focus on continuity of

37:26services supporting staff and preparing

37:28the department for its next phase. Um,

37:32as far as housing under the Apex Cares,

37:35uh, participation has increased

37:37significantly and that's in part by

37:40sitting down with uh, um, uh, preserving

37:44homes to look at what we've done. So,

37:46we've also included u manufactured

37:49homes. So, we're now uh, providing

37:52assistance to them. So, that's been very

37:54helpful um, um, to that community. Uh

37:58the North Hugh Street the planning and

38:00design work continues. Um we have

38:03completed the public engagement and we

38:05did have one stakeholder uh session. Um

38:08Randy and I sat down with them here um

38:11last week to you know sit down and have

38:13a reentering meeting. So we are planning

38:17to um bring the design team um in uh to

38:21you all back in January u for an update.

38:25So, um looking forward to that. Um Peak

38:29City Land Trust um um uh was

38:32incorporated. So, um we're looking

38:35forward to um having [clears throat] an

38:37organizational meeting starting next

38:39week. So, there's a lot of uh

38:42conversations around some future um

38:44things for the Lantra. So, looking

38:46forward to that. Um community

38:49engagement, we continue with the monthly

38:51comm university meetings. Um they

38:54launched the neighborhood leaders

38:55program, celebrated 38 neighborhood

38:58registry participants. Um there were 100

39:01volunteers for the think apex day and um

39:05they had another successful year of

39:07think Apex award and the four series.

39:10Um, so in closing, I do want to um say

39:15kudos to the Ask Apex team um because

39:18they continue to work hard and provide

39:21support while they're still developing

39:22out um the customer service uh platform.

39:26Um the we do have one housing staff

39:31who's continuing to drive the housing

39:34work, uh doing a great job there. And of

39:36course, the community engagement team

39:38just continues to develop out um our

39:42engagement program. So um and lastly,

39:46just want to say um thank you for all of

39:50the hard work to the community and

39:52safety portfolio, public safety and

39:54arts. Um a lot of work has been

39:56accomplished and keeping um especially

39:59keeping the community safe. So just want

40:01to say thank you that you've done a

40:03great job. That's it.

40:13>> [laughter]

40:13>> I'm struggling.

40:15>> Marty was trying to fix it.

40:19[laughter]

40:21>> All right, we're gonna go now to Sean's

40:23table. And Sean, if you could ask your

40:25team to stand up so the audio gets

40:27picked up.

40:32Um, what what I want to start with is

40:34that similar to

40:49[clears throat]

40:50the thing that is

40:55director

40:59last year.

41:13So our focus over this last year for

41:15this flow has been a [clears throat] lot

41:16of reshaping, a lot of reimagining, a

41:18lot of redirection in terms of where we

41:20are headed with our purpose of making

41:23sure we align to everything else that

41:25all of those portfolio impact every

41:28single portfolio, every other department

41:30every day in terms

41:33of finance.

41:37So it's a lot

41:42to

41:46point organizationally there's been a

41:49lot

41:54but

41:58they are

42:00it hasn't always been easy

42:02shaping

42:06I'm mention

42:13this year

42:17from the communication

42:20over 60 different communication this

42:23year.

42:25That's a lot of time to make sure that

42:27we get the right message out.

42:29Make sure that

42:32we

42:36Beat

42:54>> [clears throat]

43:02[clears throat]

43:02>> in budget. um obviously the development

43:06and adoption of the FY207 budget but um

43:09during all that we filled key roles on

43:11our team including the budget manager

43:13and planning and performance management

43:15analysts. We transitioned all of our

43:17budget processes into automated budget

43:20software. Um we increased uh staff's

43:23level of participation in budget

43:25development through um additions and

43:27updates to our budget process. Um we

43:30developed a fiscally sound fiveear

43:32improvement plan and we launched the um

43:36department business plan redesign to

43:38focus on our courses

43:43in organizational excellence. We um work

43:46on our engagement survey. You will hear

43:48more about that a little later on. We

43:50did expand our language access services

43:53to the community and to our individual

43:57staff members here about that. But what

43:59I really wanted to highlight

44:03it's very fitting that I came everybody

44:07in this room went through our first

44:10leadership program.

44:15And so with everybody doing all these

44:17things that you've heard, take some time

44:19to go through this yearong process to

44:21continue their leadership skills,

44:24practicing critical um practices. We

44:27talked about um seven habits of how

44:30people lead at [clears throat] trust,

44:33how best leaders ignite everyone's

44:35intelligence. And so having our

44:38directors and our team directors go

44:40through that and the town funding that

44:42has been very very

44:54effectively collaborating

44:57in mind.

45:00So I just like to thank everyone in here

45:04and from the survey that we did was

45:07overwhelmingly

45:09positive that we have already done. So

45:16good afternoon. Um one of the things I'm

45:19kind of echoing Diane here. One of the

45:20things I am most proud of is our staff.

45:22Um, y'all have heard me say that when I

45:24got here, we had six of 14 people

45:27showing up for work and we had some

45:29extended leads. We got a lot of

45:30vacancies. So, holding on to the people

45:32that we needed to hold on to and then

45:34filling some of those seats was

45:36absolutely essential. So, we've been

45:38able to work towards those goals. We

45:40brought in myself included, we hired

45:42four people in 20 are we last year?

45:47We've hired two people this summer this

45:49year. So we are just shy of being full

45:51staff for the first time and I don't

45:53know how. So that is amazing and it

45:55feels so good. Um [laughter]

45:58some of the great people that we have

45:59brought on board have been able to do

46:00some really wonderful things. So things

46:03like re-engaging our wellness committee.

46:05Um really being able to shine a

46:07spotlight on those events that employees

46:09really enjoy. Um we added a second

46:12healthcare option this

46:15plan year. We did a reboot of our

46:17manager and supervisor training program

46:19that we call four foundations. So that

46:21it's over the it's four sessions that

46:24are split up over I guess it's two days

46:27cumulatively. Um we implemented

46:29performance reviews in in

46:32um from the financial standpoint we were

46:34able to save $100,000 off the stop loss

46:37premium the health insurance plan and we

46:40got $30,000 to spend on wellness from

46:42Sigma and we spent every dime of it.

46:45Yeah.

46:50>> Um, finance [laughter]

46:57[laughter]

46:59slower and faster than you can imagine.

47:04Intense transition, software, people,

47:07personalities.

47:09Your financial statements are published.

47:13in the beans.

47:16[laughter]

47:25>> Okay. Hi.

47:28Well, we started off the year in the

47:29very best way of allowing

47:34that. Um, in addition, we onboarded a

47:38new marketing coordinator position. We

47:40developed a launch apex mentorship

47:42guide. We celebrated in October manu

47:44national manufacturing day with some of

47:46our local manufacturers. Um we onboarded

47:49a new program specialist. We added a

47:52scavenger hunt for our already

47:54established very successful downtown

47:56holidays. We um began implementing a new

48:00economic development CRM. We've never

48:01had one before and so um it was sortly

48:04needed. So we were still on boarding

48:06that but we started it. Uh we celebrated

48:08our fourth annual Apex restaurant week

48:10with the largest number of restaurants

48:12to date. Participating in that we

48:14participated in the Wake County Hotel

48:16Development Summit phase two. This is

48:18just a big day for all of

48:22hotels and communities. We did that with

48:25conal planning. Last year last week we

48:29instituted the inaugural shamrock

48:31showdown in March.

48:35Um St. have today and um the uh March

48:38Madness um we established a launch Apex

48:41alumni committee. We uh launched a new

48:46inter business directory interactive

48:49business directory on the tourism

48:50website. We have a new love local mascot

48:53in case you didn't know. Her name is

48:54Lucy. She's the shape of our heart.

48:56She's extremely cute. We have squishies

48:57if you want one. Um we selected a

49:01consultant for the um number one market

49:03analysis feasibility study. We updated

49:06our all around apex guided travel for

49:08sure and we were awarded large market

49:10deal of the year for NC hospital project

49:12and last but not least we graduated um

49:1519 businesses our nort of launch apex

49:20the largest class and this year we're

49:22celebrating the 10th so we have our 10th

49:24cohort now so we'll be doing some fun

49:25things and not on this list but worth

49:27bearing

49:29noting that um we had a very unpred of

49:33the year and um projects. And so we have

49:35a lot of projects that we um managed. Um

49:38some of them are still in the process of

49:41making their decision, but we had a lot

49:43more projects that we were in

49:44consideration for that we managed. And

49:46um hopefully this list next year we'll

49:48put some announcements up.

49:56All right. AI AI

50:00[laughter]

50:0352 tickets closed. That's really the

50:06bulk of our work background, but that's

50:10anything to come ready

50:14or whatever. But that's kind of what

50:16keeps the gears cranking and things

50:18driven. So, I don't want to make sure

50:19that doesn't go undersold. Um,

50:23we we did sort of turn on a a new

50:27division of our department which does

50:28have like a direct relationship with the

50:30outside world which is new to us. That's

50:32really cool. I think that's probably

50:36um with that was a lot of training um

50:40and a lot of it was AI

50:45workshops to talk about what we're doing

50:47with AI the council um

50:51employee they know how to get rolling

50:53out profile

50:55um specific replaced all our firewalls

50:59uh we replaced our traditional VPN with

51:02a zero trust network architecture.

51:03Basically, it fundamentally changes how

51:05people connect their resources in a more

51:07secure way. Um,

51:10we push customer relations management

51:12portal. Uh, that's part of the chat bot

51:16has been mentioned a couple of times

51:19people's highlights. Uh,

51:23and that's really that's it. I'll make

51:26it quick. Thanks,

51:34So, not necessarily connecting the dots,

51:36but half the comm's department was out.

51:37I think they were the ones handling all

51:39the phones at the Stanley Cup event, but

51:41they had gloves on. So,

51:44germs there. Um, thank you all

51:48this ELT. It's just amazing to hear.

51:51This was just the highlight. We're going

51:53to put this in a document. We'll make

51:55sure that you all get that document

51:58to full completeness. As we transition

52:00from, okay, that's what we did. Looking

52:02back and we're tending to strategic

52:04planning and moving forward. I did want

52:06to share this. We did this in our

52:08director's meeting yesterday. If you're

52:10here representing a director, pretend

52:12like you're that director when I ask you

52:13this question, but this is one of the

52:15things that keeps me up at night. So, if

52:18you are either have announced or are

52:20eligible, we're going to save the next

52:22six years for retirement. doesn't mean

52:23you will, but if you are eligible for

52:26retirement in the next six years, will

52:27you please stand up at the table of the

52:29portfolios? [clears throat]

52:34>> Right. So, something to keep in mind of

52:37the great accomplishments and what we

52:38have to continue to do while

52:40transitioning members of our team. And

52:42so, we are going to have a big push on

52:44succession planning. Chief mentioned it

52:46in PD, but we need this

52:47organizationwide.

52:49Thank you all. You can

52:51Sorry. Something that definitely keeps

52:54me up at night because all those great

52:56accomplishments takes the entire team,

52:58but a lot of it starts here at these

53:00tables. So, something for us to keep in

53:02mind as a So, maybe one more round of

53:05applause.

53:11>> Yeah, I'm hoping they stay long because

53:14just because they're eligible doesn't

53:15mean they got to leave. So, thank you

53:17very much. That's what we have for the

53:19year. pass it back to you, mayor, for

53:22next.

53:28Okay, let's keep moving. So, we're going

53:29to ask the budget team to come up,

53:31Jessica and David.

53:40We have a very exciting afternoon

53:42planned for you all today. We have

53:44Fountain Works with us here today who

53:46will be guiding us through um the

53:49process of this strategic planning

53:50refresh. So we are officially in our

53:52fifth year of game plan Apex. And so um

53:56we're going I'm going to kick it over to

53:58David Shexer. He is our strategic

54:00planning and performance management

54:02analyst. And he's going to talk high

54:04level about the structure of strategic

54:06plan and then all the work that has gone

54:08into this process so far to get us to um

54:10this point of refresh. So between

54:19mentioned I'm going to run us through a

54:21little bit about what the refresh

54:23process for our strategic plan is going

54:25to look like. Uh that top bullet point

54:27at the refresh of the council priorities

54:29which you'll be focusing on here today.

54:32Um I'm also going to show you some of

54:34the structural changes that we have been

54:36put in store for the staff level plan.

54:39Um we spend a little bit of time talking

54:41about the work that we've been doing in

54:42the background over the the last year to

54:44get to this point and that work includes

54:47uh some analysis that we've done on your

54:49your council initiatives exercise that

54:51you did last May. After that I'll turn

54:54it over to works and they'll be running

54:55most of the strategic planning

54:57exercises.

55:00So I think it's important to just kind

55:02of start at a very high level of what is

55:04strategic planning, why do we do it at

55:06the municipal level, what why do we do

55:09it for the town of Apex. It serves a lot

55:11of different purposes, but at the start,

55:14it really helps us establish shared

55:16community values, the things that matter

55:18most to us in the community, how we see

55:21the vision, how we we speak to what we

55:24want the found to be. Once we've done

55:27that, it allows us to more directly

55:29match our resources to those priorities.

55:32Making sure that at every decision

55:34point, we have the ability to say, is

55:35this in line with what we've identified

55:38matter most to us? It gives us a way to

55:40respond to external pressures to

55:42changing demands, always calling back to

55:44the plan in alignment with our core

55:47values.

55:49for you for the elected official level.

55:51You are the ones who set those

55:53priorities, but it also gives you this

55:55defined set so you can refer back to

55:58them at decision points or when dealing

55:59with public. Uh it gives us a a

56:02formalized reporting structure so that

56:04when you want to assess how staff is

56:06doing on the things you've asked them to

56:08do, it could be reported through the

56:09strategic plan. And I think above all

56:12else, it just gives you a concise tool

56:14to tell the public, here's what we're

56:17doing. Here's why we're doing it. And

56:19then every so often, here's how well

56:22we're doing at it. The staff level, it

56:24gives us a tool that that aligns all of

56:27our capital budgeting, our annual

56:29budgeting, just our attention and our

56:30focus, making sure we're all going in

56:32the same direction and working on the

56:34things that have been identified as

56:35those priorities. Um, and it gives us a

56:38decision- making framework. If we're

56:40faced with two options, which one is

56:42more in alignment with the strategic

56:44plan? And it also gives us a a way to

56:46structure ourselves for some of the more

56:48complicated cross departmental work that

56:50we have to do. Those are usually the

56:52things that end up in a plan or things

56:53that touch more than one person.

56:57Specific to our refresh today, step one

57:00is where we're going to be spending most

57:02of our time today is is the council

57:03level priority. You know these current

57:05priorities the the five strategic goals

57:07as you know them were established five

57:09years ago. Since then we have three new

57:12council members. We have an everchanging

57:14landscape of politics of social issues

57:16all the things that are different in the

57:18world today than they were five years

57:19ago. We also have as we know uh some

57:22revenue uncertainty as we saw in the

57:24last budget cycle potential uh slowing

57:27of our growth and who knows what's

57:29coming with referendum and things going

57:31on in general assembly. So it's

57:33critically important to make sure that

57:34our our priorities are are crystal clear

57:37so that we apply those scarce dollars to

57:40them. And then on the staff level, this

57:43is where that most of the changes we

57:45expect are going to occur. We're going

57:47to show a few of the structural changes

57:49that we're that we're making to the

57:51plants that we can be make it even more

57:54useful to our work. Uh some of those are

57:56going to be more specific uh strategic

57:59objectives. We're going to more clearly

58:01define our cross departmental teams and

58:04then I'll just share briefly some of our

58:06ideas for a better uh more robust

58:09reporting structure so that you know

58:11what's happening underneath the

58:12strategic plan.

58:15This is our structure as it exists today

58:18uh above everything else in our

58:20strategic plan and game plan. It's our

58:22our vision statement and our mission

58:24statement and our core values.

58:26Underneath those are the five strategic

58:28buckets as you know. Um and under each

58:32of those strategic goals are a set of

58:34strategic objectives.

58:36Spend just a little bit of time at each

58:38level for our vision statement, our

58:40mission statement and our values. Now, I

58:43know you received a a satisfaction

58:45survey and the results those Fountain

58:47Works has, they'll be uh referencing

58:49those in your work later this afternoon,

58:51but a vision statement and a mission

58:54statement and and our set of values they

58:56sit at the top of every strategic plan.

58:57That's everything that we do as an

59:00organization should be in alignment

59:02statements with those with those key

59:03principles or values. Um where we want

59:06to go as a community and how we see

59:07ourselves organization leading us there.

59:11At the strategic goal level, you

59:14probably know the five buckets pretty

59:15well. We refer back to them during

59:17budget time and a lot of your exercises.

59:19Um, they also have these statements

59:21underneath them. That's where you're

59:23going to spend most of your time today

59:25is refining these. Again, these are five

59:27years old. So, bringing them into

59:29alignment with the current thinking of

59:31the council, uh, making sure that the

59:33way we describe a welcoming community

59:35fits with your vision of what does it

59:38mean to be environmental leaders? So

59:41that that will be a lot of your the bulk

59:42of your work today. Then later on in the

59:45process, we're going to be revising

59:47strategic objectives. Now this is how

59:48they exist right now. As an example,

59:50this is responsible development. So plan

59:52for and invest infrastructure, provide

59:56abilities, support diverse housing,

59:57balance growth and development. These

1:00:00are pretty broad big picture statements.

1:00:03So structurally, we're looking for a

1:00:05change that makes these more specific

1:00:07more directional to staff work. What

1:00:10might that look like? Taking the uh

1:00:13growth and development example, you

1:00:15might see one of the things we saw a lot

1:00:17in your exercise, your initiative

1:00:18exercise was the idea commercial uh the

1:00:21ratio of commercial property and tax

1:00:23base increasing to reduce the the burden

1:00:25on residents. So you might write us a

1:00:28specific objective to that point so that

1:00:30we know as staff like that's that's what

1:00:32we're working towards is increasing that

1:00:34ratio of commercial property tax. That's

1:00:37just an example. you know, these will be

1:00:38developed throughout this process. But

1:00:40that's that's a more specific statement.

1:00:45So if we're looking at the three layers,

1:00:47then we're going to get more

1:00:48complicated. We're going to add a fourth

1:00:49layer, but this I think is actually

1:00:52going to be really helpful to the public

1:00:53to understand what this is. This is a

1:00:55projects list. Under each of these

1:00:57objectives, what are the the key

1:00:59specific projects that we are doing to

1:01:01accomplish this? So continuing with the

1:01:04commercial uh property development, what

1:01:06are the economic development projects

1:01:09occurring to achieve that? What are the

1:01:10planning initiatives that we need to do

1:01:12that we are working on actively to

1:01:15accomplish that? This this is twofold.

1:01:18This helps us better organize our work

1:01:19so we understand that we're actively all

1:01:22pulling in the same direction even if

1:01:23it's cross departmental, but also is a

1:01:26great public facing progress report. put

1:01:28this on the website and have the public

1:01:30see exactly what we're working on and

1:01:32how we're doing at it.

1:01:36These first two levels again, that's

1:01:37what we'll be working on today with our

1:01:39control leading the way. Um, after the

1:01:43the results of today are compiled, then

1:01:45we'll get to work on refining these

1:01:47strategic objectives to make them a

1:01:48little bit more directional. Um, and

1:01:50we'll present those to you on November

1:01:5317th for your feedback and edits. And

1:01:56after we've done that, we'll start

1:01:58developing these project lists. I mean,

1:01:59most of the project lists are things

1:02:01that are already on that wall. I I think

1:02:02they're things that are occurring. It's

1:02:04just how we organize it, how we um make

1:02:06sure that we're achieving everything

1:02:08that's been identified in the

1:02:09objectives. And then I think crucially

1:02:11identifying any gaps that there are and

1:02:13things that we need to be doing that

1:02:14we're not.

1:02:16Since our timeline of the the whole

1:02:18refresh process, uh your work started in

1:02:21May. You didn't know it, but it was

1:02:23happening. Um and then the uh and we've

1:02:26been working with the results of that

1:02:28initiative exercise. Conworks has

1:02:30already engaged our directors to kind of

1:02:32set the stage for what you'll be working

1:02:34on today as well. And then today the our

1:02:37big activities today will be that full

1:02:39development. After those are developed,

1:02:41we'll pop down to the objective level um

1:02:44which will happen over the next month

1:02:45and a half and we'll bring it back to

1:02:47you next month for your review.

1:02:49Following that, we'll take these to some

1:02:51focus groups in the public. And so we'll

1:02:53get some public engagement engagement on

1:02:56on that. Make sure there aren't any gaps

1:02:58in our in our thought process. Anything

1:03:01and get a kind of a priority list, too.

1:03:03A strategic plan has about five years

1:03:05worth of work in it. And deciding what

1:03:08goes first in that process can be can be

1:03:10helpful. The public's input on that. Um

1:03:13and then following that that's kind of

1:03:15those first two layers are where

1:03:16fountain works will be guiding uh our

1:03:19work and then it'll switch over to some

1:03:21more staff organization work at that red

1:03:23level project slit. We'll hope to adopt

1:03:26this sometime midy year next year and uh

1:03:29and then be able to give you initial

1:03:31progress reports in fall.

1:03:33[clears throat]

1:03:35But before we move on on a couple of

1:03:36things we've already been working on,

1:03:38I'll pause for any questions you might

1:03:40have about where we're going in the

1:03:42refresh process or the structure of the

1:03:44plan as it is or as a belie

1:04:05process.

1:04:07>> Yes.

1:04:21>> Just one more slide from me and this

1:04:23definitely's office is engaged in this

1:04:26process. Legal too is work with the

1:04:28department business plans that we've

1:04:30been doing. This is of going department

1:04:33by department and their own sort of you

1:04:36can think of it from any strategic plan

1:04:38but I it's more focused on the core

1:04:40services. Strategic plan might be more

1:04:42about the the new things or the things

1:04:44we're hoping to do over the next three

1:04:45to five years. These department plans

1:04:47are what are the core services that our

1:04:50departments exist to do and how well are

1:04:52they doing? um are we? So it kind of

1:04:55speaks to the why they exist, what they

1:04:57do, how they do it, and then we build

1:04:59our performance management program off

1:05:01of this key performance indicators,

1:05:04trend analysis, benchmarking, all that

1:05:06flows from these plans. So we've been

1:05:07revising these uh and bringing everybody

1:05:10up to speed on on this um as well. Um

1:05:15and then that kind of just provides this

1:05:17cycle of performance management that we

1:05:19we always try and have throughout the

1:05:21organization.

1:05:23planning, evaluation, process

1:05:25improvement, start the cycle again. Um,

1:05:28so that's that's what we've been doing

1:05:30with with departments already. That work

1:05:32continues and will go alongside uh the

1:05:35work that we do here with the strategic

1:05:36plan. We also have already uh we have

1:05:39your results from the council initiative

1:05:41exercise. We did a lot of analysis work.

1:05:44I'll invite Liv to uh come on up and

1:05:46walk you through some of the results of

1:05:48that. that joins us from the Carolina

1:05:50NPA program. She's been a great asset in

1:05:53both this business plan revision

1:05:54process, but some of the work she's

1:05:56about to to walk you through and all of

1:05:59this is setting the stage for fountain

1:06:01works um leading you through your goal

1:06:03development. So, I'm going to turn it

1:06:05over.

1:06:08>> Hello. So, just to give a little bit of

1:06:12a recap of you know what happened in

1:06:14terms of the activity itself. So, we

1:06:17first you all come in and um we had the

1:06:21strategic goals spread out and we

1:06:24gathered feedback on hopes that people

1:06:27interest that you all had regarding each

1:06:30strategic goal. So vision for Apex in

1:06:32the next years um things that might be

1:06:35keeping you up at night and if you

1:06:37already had any ideas for initiatives

1:06:39what some of those were. Then we took

1:06:42those initiatives and directors assessed

1:06:44the initiative feasibility through

1:06:46redundancy. So whether or not some of

1:06:48these ideas might exist in programs or

1:06:51services that we currently do. Um

1:06:53operational considerations so that how

1:06:55this would look in practice as well as

1:06:58what resources would be needed to

1:06:59actually accomplish initiatives.

1:07:03So for the analysis of the initiative

1:07:06data, these were grouped based on

1:07:08similarities and idea focus and

1:07:10language. So who community intentional

1:07:13and inclus and inclusive outreach this

1:07:15was more so how the town is engaging

1:07:19residents like the work that we're doing

1:07:21to reach residents whereas community

1:07:24connection was more so how we are

1:07:27creating opportunities for residents to

1:07:28connect with one another. high

1:07:30performing government, proactive

1:07:32resident communication, fairly

1:07:34self-explanatory, making sure that um

1:07:37you know, we're giving good information

1:07:38to residents. And one of the examples

1:07:40talked about like telling Apex's story,

1:07:42so being more descriptive in kind of

1:07:44what the town does and how those uh core

1:07:47services translate in residential lives

1:07:50and then workforce wellness and

1:07:52stability. Um this was, you know,

1:07:55wellness for our employees and um making

1:07:58sure that we're

1:08:00seeking opportunities to kind of foster

1:08:03those uh wellness initiatives that were

1:08:06meant she needs the activities and then

1:08:08environmental leadership tree canopy

1:08:10preservation there was a few examples of

1:08:12this um this was making sure that we're

1:08:15protecting conserving and actively

1:08:17contributing to our urban forest and

1:08:20then water resource management this was

1:08:22ensuring that we have the resources to

1:08:25sustain apex whereas infrastructure

1:08:28capacity in responsible development was

1:08:30making sure we have enough

1:08:31infrastructure to do so. And then

1:08:33transparent development communication.

1:08:35This was similar to the like telling

1:08:38Apex story, telling Apex's development

1:08:40story. So having uh places and spaces

1:08:43for residents and developers to kind of

1:08:46see what's happening in Apex and making

1:08:48that accessible.

1:08:50And finally, economic vitality. As David

1:08:53mentioned, the non-residential growth

1:08:55and tax base expansion. So taking some

1:08:57of the burden off of the residential tax

1:08:59base and this would be through like some

1:09:01commercial opportunities that were

1:09:02mentioned um and those initiatives and

1:09:04then the economic ecosystem and business

1:09:06support. This was just continuing to

1:09:08strengthen our own local economic

1:09:11identity as well as supporting small

1:09:13business and um several mentions of you

1:09:16know doing so through downtown

1:09:17programming.

1:09:19And then just a summary of the staff

1:09:22feedback. These are just main themes

1:09:25that were p from responses. There is a

1:09:29memo and this is in the appendix. So it

1:09:31breaks it down a little bit more about

1:09:33um some of the feedback that was given

1:09:35as well as a more in-depth uh

1:09:38description of those themes that were

1:09:41pulled from council data itself. So the

1:09:44first one is to further develop the

1:09:46scope of the initiatives. Obviously

1:09:47these were not like these fully flushed

1:09:49out plans that you guys put on the

1:09:50sticky notes. Um so this would just be

1:09:52helpful to have more information about

1:09:54logistics to evaluate that feasibility

1:09:57and this was a suggestion through doing

1:10:00so would be benchmarking for similar

1:10:02programs and services. So gathering

1:10:04examples from peer communities to avoid

1:10:07reinventing solutions. The third thing

1:10:10was consideration of resource

1:10:12constraints. So realistic capacity

1:10:14planning i.e. workload sustainability,

1:10:17financial resources, and if there is an

1:10:19opportunity for us to maybe utilize

1:10:20partnerships outside of our organization

1:10:22with others and then finally transitions

1:10:25greatly into alignment with existing

1:10:27programs. So if it was determined that

1:10:30initiative was

1:10:32uh I guess kind of already tied into

1:10:35something that we currently do, how can

1:10:37we integrate some of those ideas into

1:10:39our program activities utilizing you

1:10:42know partnerships or

1:10:45distribute that one.

1:10:49>> Any questions?

1:10:54>> Yes, thank you. Well done.

1:10:57>> Give me

1:10:59I'm unclear.

1:11:01Um I see some of these that are in this

1:11:03document and then I see the the staff

1:11:05feedback. Yes. And I'm wondering if at

1:11:08least a few of these where there's been

1:11:11essentially get lost in translation from

1:11:13what we said and then there's pretty

1:11:16succinct that doesn't work or that's

1:11:18whatever. Um I'm wonder is there is

1:11:22there another

1:11:24um layer of refined another bit sand

1:11:27finer sandpaper for us to clarify some

1:11:30of these things because

1:11:32>> absolutely and I think

1:11:34>> is that what today what we do

1:11:36>> so we're we're kind of bumping back up a

1:11:39level here

1:11:42identified

1:11:44of what what you do and then that will

1:11:46be

1:11:48I think clarify try that top strategic

1:11:50goal level first and then we'll bounce

1:11:53down to the objectives and so it'll be

1:11:56all in the process which is probably

1:11:58later

1:12:01clarify and I think that that was that

1:12:03was a recurring

1:12:06>> that was an acknowledged gap the

1:12:08director sat down looked at it and like

1:12:09we don't have full context on this but

1:12:11we'll evaluate what we can

1:12:13>> yeah and I don't know that I'll speak

1:12:15for myself that I believe eloquent

1:12:19succinct description um sort of things

1:12:21but thank you appreciate it.

1:12:23>> Um I have question um for the staff.

1:12:26Okay. Yeah. Uh what is our current tree

1:12:30canopy

1:12:33requirement

1:12:3640%.

1:12:42Anie, do we have any

1:12:44>> our tree candy department? It's not it's

1:12:46not something you can really summarize

1:12:48in a very short answer. Um we have

1:12:51resource conservation area. We'll call

1:12:53it tree candy protection and that amount

1:12:56varies depending on where you are in

1:12:57town and it can be as much as 35%. Um

1:13:02and uh we are currently working with our

1:13:05tree campy subcommittee of the EAB to

1:13:08evaluate uh amendments to our current

1:13:11standards to see where we can improve

1:13:12upon.

1:13:15>> Okay. Thank you.

1:13:17>> Yes.

1:13:26Still here.

1:13:29>> Still here.

1:13:31All right, great. Any questions?

1:13:35>> Nope.

1:13:38[laughter]

1:13:40>> All right.

1:13:42>> Well, thank you. And so again, yeah, the

1:13:44results that that they've identified,

1:13:47plus your your vision and your mission

1:13:49survey results, plus the the free work

1:13:52that our directors have done with works,

1:13:54all of that is already reflected on some

1:13:57of these exercises, and you'll see that

1:13:59throughout the rest of the afternoon.

1:14:00That I'm going to turn it over to Mount

1:14:02F. Um they have over over two decades of

1:14:06experience consulting with North

1:14:08Carolina municipalities. uh

1:14:11local government strategic planning is

1:14:13their bread and butter. We're really

1:14:14excited to have them here. I'll

1:14:15introduce Julie Brenman, their project

1:14:18team is uh 15 years of experience and uh

1:14:22executive leadership in the city of San

1:14:24Francisco and city of Durham before the

1:14:27consultant side. So really excited to

1:14:29have you.

1:14:31>> Thank you.

1:14:33>> Thank you all. Really happy to be here.

1:14:36Um, I'm Julie Tren

1:14:39here. Uh, Olive Newman and in the back.

1:14:45Um, and we'll be tag teaming working

1:14:47with you all today.

1:14:49Um,

1:14:52portion of the agenda. We've got the

1:14:55agenda up on the screen, but also here

1:14:57we're gonna just orient you to strategic

1:15:00planning and our role. Um, David and

1:15:03team just gave you a really good

1:15:05background. So, I'll breeze through some

1:15:08of the things I was going to say. Um,

1:15:11we're going to ask you to look at your

1:15:12vision and mission briefly. We are then

1:15:16going to be looking at the context Apex

1:15:19is working in, some of the trends that

1:15:22are happening. We'll look at those five

1:15:25strategic goals and judge uh from you

1:15:30all whether or not you want to change

1:15:31those goals and then we'll get

1:15:34information from you all on what your

1:15:37vision for success is that you can

1:15:39translate to staff so they can come back

1:15:43to you with that. Um so big picture my

1:15:48my number one question for you all today

1:15:51we that we want to walk away with is

1:15:53those five strategic goals um is the

1:15:56refresh saying yes we're good at that

1:15:59level or do you want some changes to

1:16:02that? So that's the the biggest question

1:16:04we're going to be asking you today but

1:16:05we'll walk through some steps together.

1:16:08Um

1:16:11Dave David uh already talked about some

1:16:13of like what strategic planning just as

1:16:15a refresh. I wanted to start with this

1:16:18um of you've already been doing work on

1:16:22strategic planning the questions that um

1:16:24that Liv summarized. You're also in the

1:16:28middle of updating your comprehensive

1:16:30plan. So just want to like tell you

1:16:32where strategic planning is situated in

1:16:36that work. The comprehensive plan is

1:16:40mostly but not entirely about land use

1:16:43for Apex. How you envision Apex 20 to 30

1:16:47years from now. Um that's longer term.

1:16:51You then have CIP or capital improvement

1:16:54plans and master plans. Those typically

1:16:57are five to 10 year time frames. The

1:17:00strategic plan here sits in the middle

1:17:03here. It's a three to five year time

1:17:05frame.

1:17:07uh you then usually do an annual or

1:17:10bianual retreat where you set your

1:17:13priorities in your budget you set annual

1:17:15priorities and then departments take uh

1:17:19work plans and operationalize those and

1:17:21those are one to two years. So in Apex,

1:17:24some of the things that fit in here,

1:17:27you've got currently you have advanced

1:17:29Apex, you're working on peak plan 2015,

1:17:33that's your comprehensive plan,

1:17:36community readiness plan in there. Some

1:17:38of the examples of your five to 10year

1:17:41plans uh are about affordable housing,

1:17:45your CIP, a master plan for parks,

1:17:47recreation, and cultural resources,

1:17:49greenways, and open space. So, just want

1:17:52to remind you that you have these other

1:17:54plans and they're sort of in the

1:17:57background and supporting what you're

1:17:59doing in the strategic plan. The

1:18:01strategic plan is that three to five

1:18:04year time frame of game plan apex. And

1:18:07that's what we're looking at today.

1:18:09We're not ignoring all of these other

1:18:11plans. we're building on them and

1:18:14operationalizing.

1:18:16Any questions about that?

1:18:20Um, so David had a nice like we're we're

1:18:24starting at your uh vision, mission, and

1:18:28values. Uh, then you have your five

1:18:31strategic goals. You have performance

1:18:34measures and then action agenda. So this

1:18:36is a more generic version of that to say

1:18:39these are the typical elements in a

1:18:41strategic plan. What um what I want to

1:18:44highlight to you is sort of that you

1:18:47know rough dotted line there. When

1:18:50you're at the top of the pyramid, when

1:18:52you're at the vision and mission and

1:18:54goals level, that's where council has

1:18:57the most responsibility.

1:18:59Staff provides you input, but council is

1:19:02really setting that vision and mission.

1:19:05As you go deeper into this pyramid of

1:19:08what's in a strategic plan, that's where

1:19:11council has much more limited

1:19:15responsibility and that's really the

1:19:18manager and the staff executing it. So,

1:19:22um, when David was saying, "We're going

1:19:24to go back and forth. We're focusing on

1:19:27the high level with you all today and

1:19:30then we're going to ask the staff to

1:19:32write the objectives to support your

1:19:34vision." That's sort of that back and

1:19:36forth. At the top level, your council is

1:19:40responsible. At the bottom, it's more

1:19:42staff.

1:19:45Um, the strategic plan though sets the

1:19:47course for what staff is doing. So the

1:19:50work you're doing today and in the next

1:19:53couple meetings um with us talking about

1:19:57strategic planning is really setting a

1:19:59course that um you're all agreeing to

1:20:03and sticking to. So what you decide

1:20:07dictates all of the work that staff is

1:20:10doing. It's important to think about the

1:20:12strategic plan in that three to five

1:20:14year time frame setting moving forward.

1:20:18And if you start deviating from the

1:20:20strategic plan, you're not going to make

1:20:22as much progress on the work because

1:20:26something new came up and that's going

1:20:29to um throw things off for staff.

1:20:32They've been operating in this direction

1:20:34and now they have to step over here in a

1:20:36different lane. You need them to be able

1:20:39to move forward in a single direction.

1:20:42So want you want want council to be

1:20:45thinking about what we're setting now is

1:20:49three to five years of of permanence to

1:20:52set the structure to stick stick to it.

1:20:58Um David again walked through the

1:21:01timeline. So the piece I want to

1:21:03highlight he mentioned it doing some

1:21:07community engagement. We we met with

1:21:10department leaders September 16th. We're

1:21:12meeting you all with you all today.

1:21:15We're planning for some community

1:21:17engagement now, but we're actually going

1:21:19to be doing it for that other doit. So,

1:21:21we're going to come back with department

1:21:23directors on October 21st, so it's two

1:21:26weeks. Um, and take all of the

1:21:29information from you all so that they

1:21:31can start setting those objectives. and

1:21:34council member Reese is out of the room,

1:21:36but making sure there's not that

1:21:37disconnect between what you're saying

1:21:39and what staff is hearing. Um, and then

1:21:43we'll come back with you on November

1:21:4517th. Um, so want to make sure that at

1:21:50that November 17th session, staff and

1:21:53council are pretty well in sync about

1:21:56what the goals are and what your

1:21:57objectives are. After that, we're going

1:22:00to have some community input sessions,

1:22:02community sharing sessions to make sure

1:22:05what what council and what staff is

1:22:08suggesting happens will also um uh

1:22:13resonate with the community and they'll

1:22:15be agreeing with what's uh what are your

1:22:18priorities. And then we will be working

1:22:21with staff to draft and update the

1:22:23strategic plan that would come back to

1:22:25you all for final review and approval.

1:22:32Oh, we're gonna start instead of you

1:22:34just listening. We're going to start

1:22:36with you um introducing yourselves to us

1:22:39and we're going to give you a quick

1:22:41little picture card and you're going to

1:22:43use that picture card as inspiration to

1:22:46do your introduction. Um a quick

1:22:49introduction.

1:22:51See a couple eyes big. Um

1:22:53>> it's after lunch. You got to get it

1:22:55going.

1:22:56>> Um Uh, so the picture card is going to

1:23:02be your inspiration. Just choose one and

1:23:05say, "This is this picture. Tell it.

1:23:08Hold up your picture. Tell us what it is

1:23:11and how what you're hoping to get out of

1:23:14strategic planning process. I'm trying

1:23:17to get you to use a little bit different

1:23:19part of your brain that strategic

1:23:21planning might feel very um structured,

1:23:25might feel very up there. Use a picture

1:23:28to describe what you want to get out of

1:23:31the strategic planning process.

1:23:36>> Don't think too hard. Just grab a

1:23:38picture.

1:23:40>> Council member took one from council

1:23:42member. [laughter]

1:23:44>> I gave more to him. Okay.

1:23:47>> Can you give us an example like what I

1:23:49hope to get out of it?

1:23:52Um, so

1:23:54I'll just take around. So this is a

1:23:56picture. It looks like the northern

1:23:58lights and trees. I think um the

1:24:02northern lights are often invisible to

1:24:04the eye. And when you take a picture

1:24:07with the camera, you can see the cool

1:24:10northern lights. with strategic

1:24:13planning. I am hoping that we are going

1:24:16to make visible what is important to the

1:24:20town so that the town can um can see

1:24:24what might not be visible at first

1:24:26glance. I I I I have actually never seen

1:24:30this one and I'm pretty impressed with

1:24:31what I just said. [laughter]

1:24:34But that's why I gave you that.

1:24:36>> Yeah. Thank you.

1:24:38So something like that.

1:24:42Um,

1:24:45tell me, you look like you're ready.

1:24:46>> Oh, I got an easy one.

1:24:51>> I guess introduce myself.

1:24:56>> And this is like a bunch of something.

1:25:00This kind of looks like a layup for

1:25:02street planning that, you know, what

1:25:04we're hoping to do here is really try

1:25:05and get the town

1:25:08to same direction and uh kind of focus

1:25:13and lean and acknowledge and thanks for

1:25:15our citizens

1:25:16in this picture something

1:25:19a little more.

1:25:21>> Yeah,

1:25:22>> good job. [laughter]

1:25:26John Gilbert, mayor.

1:25:28I have a jelly

1:25:32going in different directions here, but

1:25:35I would like to see our team and play

1:25:38focus be a collective effort. Everyone

1:25:41has a contribution to make

1:25:43their different colors.

1:25:47[laughter]

1:25:52We want to make sure that everyone is

1:25:53engaged not only from staff [cough]

1:25:56directors but also our community

1:26:00and everyone has everyone has a piece of

1:26:04this flavor that we have.

1:26:07>> Perfect. Thank you. I'll echo some of

1:26:10Shane Reese's rookie season top.

1:26:14[laughter]

1:26:15>> Sorry,

1:26:15>> I just laughed at the rookie season.

1:26:18>> We got a couple more months. You're not

1:26:19red shirted.

1:26:21>> I was gonna echo a bit of what Mayor

1:26:23Gilbert just said a moment ago. As much

1:26:25as I was would love to bring the beach

1:26:27to Apex, um uh the next best thing is um

1:26:33having a colorful, vibrant um uh

1:26:38landscape across town where everyone,

1:26:43all walks of life, all backgrounds are

1:26:46closed, excluded. the same time as you

1:26:48know we can see here I'm really

1:26:50stretching but as you can see here you

1:26:52know there's a there's a holesing

1:26:54there's a unity um as much as this is a

1:26:57kaleidoscope of um of ideas and opinions

1:27:01and um places in life and so that's um

1:27:04some of the things that I would love to

1:27:06see out of the strategic plan

1:27:11>> okay

1:27:12>> hey can I

1:27:15>> okay are you are you going to say

1:27:18something.

1:27:19>> Yeah, I want to go next because I've got

1:27:21to jump back into the courtroom. But I

1:27:22I'm just going to steal using one of the

1:27:24photos on the slide because I don't have

1:27:26my own picture.

1:27:28Um but Ed Gray, um the absent member of

1:27:32the room, um the voice speaking from

1:27:34above.

1:27:38And uh I'm going to use that photo on

1:27:40the lower right hand corner of the

1:27:41mountaintop because I think as I'm

1:27:43looking at the strategic planning

1:27:45process, I'd like us to be able to uh

1:27:47use that as an example of how far out

1:27:50we're going to be looking, how enduring

1:27:52our plan is going to be. Um, you know,

1:27:54strategic planning is best done when

1:27:56we're looking at how far our vision can

1:27:58go and refining our vision to make sure

1:28:00that we're meeting the needs for 10, 15,

1:28:0320 years out is, uh, is something I'd

1:28:05like to make sure that we're keeping in

1:28:06mind.

1:28:08>> Great. Thank you.

1:28:11>> Okay.

1:28:12>> So, um, I have two pictures. I, you

1:28:14know, um, is this one first. this kind

1:28:18of like um the beautiful sunset with

1:28:21forest.

1:28:23Um it reminds me our

1:28:27responsibility to protect our

1:28:30environment and the trees.

1:28:32So I think in our game plan we have that

1:28:36responsible environmental thing, right?

1:28:38Uh

1:28:40I think Apex um should do more to

1:28:45preserve trees to you know uh improve

1:28:50you know improve our tree canopy as you

1:28:54know the responsibility of you know

1:28:58human being on the earth. Okay.

1:29:01[laughter]

1:29:02Okay. This picture is busy street with

1:29:07all these you know apartments on the

1:29:10side of the road and all the cars parked

1:29:12on the street.

1:29:15It's kind of a symbol, you know, but to

1:29:19remind us that Apex should keep our

1:29:22small town character. Development

1:29:26brings good things, you know, job

1:29:29opportunities and

1:29:31like um economic benefits. But we should

1:29:34balance. We should make um apex

1:29:40you know um both know economic you

1:29:45economically benefit from the

1:29:47development

1:29:49and also being responsible to our

1:29:52residents by

1:29:54improve our by improving our

1:29:57infrastructure. Our infrastructure is

1:30:00under pressure. So the balance is really

1:30:03important. That's I think uh we have our

1:30:06game plan like responsible development.

1:30:09That's our job you know to make a better

1:30:13game plan. Okay. Thank you.

1:30:15>> Thank you.

1:30:17>> All right. That leaves me earn uh my

1:30:20boardier as council member. I got a

1:30:22picture of what looks to be the red

1:30:24rocks out west. Uh there's some jagged

1:30:28mountains and some rough terrain just as

1:30:31a reminder that you know the path that

1:30:34we travel is often you know rocky and

1:30:36and you know jagged uh and treacherous

1:30:40uh but at the end of the day

1:30:43we're in together I think you do have

1:30:46and want to establish a unified vision

1:30:48for the future so that just like Sue I

1:30:51was going to break the rules that you

1:30:52keep into it [laughter]

1:30:54you know our you know our path was more

1:30:57like foothills of the mountains you know

1:30:58where the terrain is more even going and

1:31:01easier going

1:31:03that's what I hope to get out of the

1:31:04strategic planning turn but you know at

1:31:08short distance looks like very

1:31:10treacherous and and

1:31:13you know at a much harder space you know

1:31:16tight let's kind of

1:31:18>> yeah it's the kind of the order that you

1:31:22all talked was kind of poetic start the

1:31:25chaos of all the different directions

1:31:28and then bring in the the jelly beans

1:31:31and the colorful seat to we want all

1:31:34opinions. We want all ideas and we want

1:31:38to have the long view as we bring order

1:31:43and a good good future to AES. So I

1:31:49think that's really helpful to start get

1:31:52you thinking of that direction.

1:32:00Um,

1:32:05uh, want to look at your vision and

1:32:07mission.

1:32:10>> Um,

1:32:13>> yeah, we went straight from lunch to

1:32:16starting. Do you need a quick little

1:32:18break? Let's say

1:32:24[laughter]

1:32:26>> yeah.

1:41:08Yeah.

1:41:29almost. [laughter]

1:41:31What was I doing? But

1:41:46this All

1:42:07right. Thank you, mayor.

1:42:09Um,

1:42:11all right. So, we're gonna talk about

1:42:13vision and mission first. The staff had

1:42:17sent you all a survey ahead of time

1:42:20about the vision and mission and our

1:42:23question is or with good. So

1:42:28as

1:42:36did you or did I

1:42:45so you already saw this and sorry for in

1:42:50the back if if our board is blocking you

1:42:53the vision mission and value is are key

1:42:56things set by council. The next layer

1:42:59are the goals. You want to look at the

1:43:01vision, mission and vision, mission and

1:43:04values in conjunction with goals. Um the

1:43:09vision, mission and value or big

1:43:11picture. The goals are the next level.

1:43:13Then the staff are going to develop the

1:43:15objectives.

1:43:17So, a vision statement, just kind of as

1:43:19a reminder, a vision statement statement

1:43:22outlines what an organization wants to

1:43:25be or how it wants the world in which it

1:43:27operates to be. Successful vision

1:43:31statements communicate the purpose and

1:43:33values of an organization. Vision

1:43:36statements can be aspirational. It

1:43:38doesn't have to be what exists today.

1:43:41When you look at your vision statement,

1:43:42it doesn't have to be this is what who

1:43:45Apex is today, but it's what you're

1:43:48trying to be. A mission statement

1:43:51defines your fundamental purpose, your

1:43:54primary objectives.

1:43:56It succinctly describes why you exist

1:44:00and what you do.

1:44:04[laughter]

1:44:07>> Thank you.

1:44:08>> Goodbye.

1:44:09>> I appreciate it. I says but to everyone

1:44:12[laughter]

1:44:14that works.

1:44:16>> Um so the a key piece about the mission

1:44:20statement and the vision statement is

1:44:22you want them to be succinct. Some

1:44:25organizations their vision and mission

1:44:27is really long paragraphs pages and

1:44:31those um are not the ideal vision and

1:44:34mission statements.

1:44:36So just wanted this context first and

1:44:39then as a reminder this is what your

1:44:41current vision and mission statement

1:44:43say. It's on here as well as on the

1:44:46screen. So your vision is you're a

1:44:49community unified in the stewardship of

1:44:51our small town character and natural

1:44:54environment for a future where I'll

1:44:56succeed. It works in combination with

1:44:59your mission as well as your values or

1:45:03your peak principles.

1:45:05So, in the survey that staff sent out,

1:45:08overall the council members that

1:45:10responded said, "I think our vision is

1:45:13pretty good. Um, we like it." There were

1:45:15a few particular comments or

1:45:18suggestions. Um, and they're listed up

1:45:22on the screen as feedback. So, one of

1:45:24the question, one of the comments was,

1:45:27should it be a community unified or a

1:45:30community united? Um, one of the

1:45:33suggestions should was should it be a

1:45:36diverse and inclusive community? Um, and

1:45:41is future where I'll succeed too

1:45:43generic? Should it be a future where

1:45:46residents thrive? So, those those were

1:45:50some of the comments that came.

1:45:53I will say just in my experience in the

1:45:56last two-ish years given our federal

1:46:00administration

1:46:02most organizations are um avoiding words

1:46:06like diverse and inclusive just so

1:46:08you're not targeted for something that's

1:46:11um a choice but I just want to elevate

1:46:13that. Um so the this was some feedback.

1:46:17I'm going to share the mission feedback

1:46:19too and then we'll come back to both. So

1:46:22again, the mission and your survey that

1:46:24you um responded to ahead of time, most

1:46:26of you said, "Yeah, I I like it. It's

1:46:29good." And a few um questions. So the

1:46:32current mission says, "Provide

1:46:34exceptional public service that fosters

1:46:37opportunity for the individual and

1:46:38community to live, thrive, and reach

1:46:40their peak." Um feedback. Should it

1:46:43include economic vitality? Should we use

1:46:46diverse community instead of community?

1:46:49And should the mission be less narrow?

1:46:52Like should it say things like we

1:46:54provide infrastructure, we promote um we

1:46:58provide recreation opportunities and

1:47:00list out some of the core things that

1:47:02you do.

1:47:04Um so given the current vision and

1:47:09mission and the ideas that um some of

1:47:12you shared and the feedback and that the

1:47:15vision and mission are almost always on

1:47:18the same page as your goals. So your

1:47:21goals are environmental leadership,

1:47:23economic vitality, responsible

1:47:25development,

1:47:27high performing government, and

1:47:31a welcoming community. So those um five

1:47:34are always listed with those. Want to

1:47:38open it up for feedback. I don't want to

1:47:41do precise edits as a group, but do you

1:47:45want some of these ideas incorporated

1:47:48into your vision and mission?

1:47:52>> You look like you want to start. I don't

1:47:55know. I'm just uh you know I always

1:47:56struggled with kind of like um

1:48:00the exact scope of what a vision of

1:48:03mission should be and to um understand

1:48:08you know

1:48:09the utility of the organization is it

1:48:11currently serving its needs. I think I

1:48:13made some comments about like the skills

1:48:16of it. you know, if something's too

1:48:17generic, I think it's ignored. If it's

1:48:19too specific, it really doesn't

1:48:22meet what a mission should be.

1:48:25So,

1:48:27I guess it kind of look to Randy

1:48:30managers like, you know, does the

1:48:31current vision

1:48:33kind of the right balance between

1:48:36providing direction but also not being

1:48:38too specific to getting the goal, you

1:48:41know, and I think it I think it does. I

1:48:45think it's the big umbrella that we fall

1:48:47under. But at the end of the day, you're

1:48:48right

1:48:50[clears throat] staff as we go down

1:48:52under this, we get goals and objectives

1:48:54and tasks and that's [clears throat]

1:48:56where staff lives, but making sure that

1:48:59that falls under the bigger umbrella.

1:49:02And so I feel like these are the big

1:49:05umbrellas that what we do fits within.

1:49:08It falls under them. But making sure

1:49:10that you all see that as is there

1:49:12anything not reflective here but I think

1:49:14from a staff perspective feel like the

1:49:16work that we do falls up.

1:49:19>> Yeah. Um

1:49:22I think it would be [clears throat]

1:49:24better if we

1:49:27can put diversity in either vision or

1:49:31mission.

1:49:35And I'm gonna I'm gonna ask just given

1:49:39the political environment that's one

1:49:42where I I would want a sense of council

1:49:45because it is something that given the

1:49:48current federal political environment

1:49:50mentioning diversity sometimes it's a

1:49:53target

1:49:55>> that is a target.

1:49:58>> Yeah.

1:50:02Is that true?

1:50:06[laughter]

1:50:06>> Could you just explore that a little?

1:50:09>> Yeah.

1:50:10>> Yeah.

1:50:11>> Because last year, maybe time flies, but

1:50:13there were spending legislation state

1:50:16and stuff at the federal level that

1:50:18really targeted diversity programs and

1:50:21the buzzwords around it. And so that's I

1:50:23think she referring to is maybe staying

1:50:25away from the buzzwords. To the mayor's

1:50:27point, if this captures the concept, you

1:50:29don't necessarily have to put the word

1:50:30in. Or you could take the position of I

1:50:32don't care. I want that word in and

1:50:34that's certainly a valid position as

1:50:36well.

1:50:39>> Got [clears throat] it.

1:50:41>> I I think you know all kind of um yeah

1:50:45the the comments that they showed

1:50:47earlier about the second part of the

1:50:49statement was was mine, right? You know

1:50:52where I think

1:50:56the sentence that we were asked to

1:50:58review had we in it. we where we where

1:51:00we all succeed. I don't see that here.

1:51:04Um and maybe I misread it at the time

1:51:05but we feels very internal whereas I

1:51:08think our vision needs to be much more

1:51:10resident outward focused. Um which is

1:51:13why I made that comment about you know

1:51:16kind of referring to residents instead

1:51:18of you know we or you know

1:51:22but no I'm kind of [clears throat]

1:51:25reading it. I also think that the first

1:51:28part of the statement is pretty narrowly

1:51:31defined if you consider kind of the five

1:51:34aspects of our plan, right? Why do we

1:51:37kind of these two

1:51:40but not the rest of what we need?

1:51:46>> The small town character natural those

1:51:48are the two.

1:51:49>> Yeah. So we talked about envir

1:51:51environmental stewardship as one of our

1:51:52five pillars. small character you kind

1:51:55of like to welcome community but there's

1:51:57three other pillars that were not

1:52:00referenced so how is this consistent but

1:52:04the P plan for three principles that be

1:52:07derived from this I think again it's my

1:52:10recollection we promoted promoted

1:52:12natural environment to the vision at

1:52:14some form of one of these exercises four

1:52:16or five years ago like it started out as

1:52:18maybe just

1:52:20you know a smaller subset what we felt

1:52:22environment

1:52:25at the time certainly changing but it's

1:52:27kind of the word smithing that happens

1:52:30word by word over the years.

1:52:32>> Yeah, it was kind of based on looking at

1:52:35those two the most feedback but

1:52:39maintain the small town.

1:52:42So I think that's not saying it was

1:52:45right.

1:52:49>> Are we gonna reference the next slide

1:52:51that you added that some of the

1:52:53feedback? Are we not going through those

1:52:56or we're like are we talking about those

1:52:58things right now or we're not talking

1:52:59about the

1:53:01>> um my my big question is do you want to

1:53:03talk about them one by one? Do you want

1:53:05to talk about

1:53:08>> um

1:53:09>> not doing that?

1:53:11>> If if you feel strongly about any of

1:53:14them and you want it to be incorporated,

1:53:17if you wanted economic vitality

1:53:19incorporated just because that's first

1:53:21on the list, I think that you should say

1:53:24that like the the comment you just said,

1:53:26we elevated small town character and

1:53:28natural environment because those were

1:53:30priorities before. If you want to say

1:53:33something else like diverse community or

1:53:35economic vitality should be elevated,

1:53:39tell us that and we'll work with staff

1:53:41to bring something back to you. What I

1:53:43don't want to do is figure out the

1:53:46commas and the ands and where in the

1:53:48sentence

1:53:48>> because so you you touched on exactly

1:53:50where I was um full transparency. I

1:53:54offered up the United versus unified and

1:53:56the economic title. Those are the two

1:53:58main things. I'm [clears throat]

1:54:00uh I just offered them. I'm not attached

1:54:03uh necessarily to either of them. And

1:54:05that's what I was just going to say from

1:54:06a logistics point of view. If staff

1:54:10feels really good about this, I'm

1:54:13reluctant to tinker with things that may

1:54:15already be working because know I'm the

1:54:20only

1:54:21nerve when it comes to this stuff.

1:54:23There's a there's like a meme where

1:54:25you've got editing where there's all

1:54:27this stuff is crossed out and you end up

1:54:28with essentially the same, but everybody

1:54:30kind of just had to have their fingers

1:54:31in it. And I don't feel the need to do

1:54:33it. If it ain't broke, I'll fix it.

1:54:40>> Want to ask the whole group if if that's

1:54:42the general sentiment or if there are

1:54:44other

1:54:47concepts that you think should be

1:54:49incorporated

1:54:50like keep it mostly the same, but maybe

1:54:52additional concept just look back to the

1:54:56>> I think neither one really

1:54:59neither one I I object

1:55:03strong

1:55:05opposition to or feel like really

1:55:08something huge here I think they're good

1:55:11in principle right uh can be words some

1:55:15of them sure right but I think my only

1:55:18request is to kind of hold this up

1:55:20against our plan goals five categories

1:55:24is are we still

1:55:35>> sounds like most of the speaking point

1:55:43>> like the mission better than

1:55:45>> Yeah.

1:55:49Right.

1:55:52>> Mission seems pretty good. Vision could

1:55:54do some minor edits and tweaking looking

1:55:56at the concept of could it be more broad

1:56:00or you still want to have the two in

1:56:02there

1:56:03and then look like terminology.

1:56:07>> So he's saying

1:56:13>> the good the good news is I think I

1:56:15don't want to speak for my colleagues. I

1:56:16think you're getting general like, hey,

1:56:19we're cool with a lot of this, but it's

1:56:20like if is there strong feedback from

1:56:23town leadership, town staff, from the

1:56:25community?

1:56:27>> I haven't heard anybody say anything,

1:56:28but maybe

1:56:30>> I think we could come back with a couple

1:56:31different versions of the vision to see

1:56:33which one resonates most

1:56:34>> base version this.

1:56:37>> Yeah. So, we could bring that back at

1:56:38the November session. You all

1:56:40>> Yeah. I feel like the vision is too

1:56:44general.

1:56:46Yeah, like a stewardship of small town

1:56:49character maybe well-being of the

1:56:53residents something [clears throat]

1:56:56adding something

1:56:58like

1:57:00and then natural environment future we

1:57:03all succeed small town character and

1:57:07well-being of the residents no need

1:57:12the nature generally of vision since

1:57:14they are broader views are bigger

1:57:16picture and then as you go down and

1:57:18develop your strategic goals then it

1:57:20gets more specific. So we do want these

1:57:23to be more broad picture

1:57:25>> really

1:57:26>> but yeah

1:57:28>> okay

1:57:32>> and and because we're looking at it in

1:57:34pieces what we'll bring back in November

1:57:37you'll be seeing these and maybe we'll

1:57:39give you a couple versions division but

1:57:41you'll be seeing it with the object with

1:57:44the five goals for change that could

1:57:47change today and the objectives and so

1:57:49maybe as the package it moved

1:57:54Thank you.

1:57:55>> All right. So, um any objections then to

1:57:59we will we will bring back a couple of

1:58:02mildly um changed options on the vision.

1:58:06We'll keep the mission the same and we

1:58:08may ultimately keep the vision the same

1:58:11but we'll bring that back in November.

1:58:13Anything else you want to call out of

1:58:15concepts you'd like to consider in the

1:58:18vision?

1:58:28[laughter]

1:58:28>> Check that box.

1:58:30>> You told me to have till five.

1:58:36[laughter]

1:58:38>> Um, right. So, when we met with the

1:58:42department directors

1:58:44weeks ago. Um we asked them

1:58:49no we asked them to look at some of the

1:58:53trends that are impacting Apex that you

1:58:58all may or may not be aware of. So

1:59:00mostly external trends that are

1:59:03impacting your Apex that that we think

1:59:07it would be useful to make sure council

1:59:10is aware of as you consider your

1:59:13priorities for the goal areas.

1:59:18Um, we went through, we call it the

1:59:21context map to think about the context

1:59:25and we've got a handout that has this in

1:59:28case this is a little small to read. Um,

1:59:31but we went through political trends,

1:59:33economic trends, social trends,

1:59:35technological, legal, and environmental

1:59:38trends. Um, so they're slightly

1:59:41abbreviated on here. what's on the page

1:59:44is the same as what's on Jared's just in

1:59:46a little more detail. I'm going to talk

1:59:48through them and highlight a few things.

1:59:52So, political trends, um staff called

1:59:55out when elections happen, priorities

1:59:58often shift. So, I already said when

2:00:00you're setting your strategic plan, you

2:00:03want that to be fairly stable. Those

2:00:05five or six or four goal areas, you want

2:00:08to be pretty stable. When elections

2:00:11happen, priorities shift. That can be

2:00:13federal, that can be state, that can

2:00:15also be town elections. So, just be

2:00:18aware of the impact of shifting

2:00:20priorities on town priorities.

2:00:24Um, the volume of resident requests has

2:00:28been increasing. Um, you're a growing

2:00:31community and you're getting more and

2:00:33more requests. residents requests for

2:00:36information, requests for, hey, look at

2:00:39this lot line. Um, you know, a lot of

2:00:43different types of requests that impacts

2:00:46staff's ability to deliver service.

2:00:50Um the federal level has a lot of

2:00:53uncertainty right now and that in that

2:00:56is probably something that's not

2:00:58surprising to anyone in the room but

2:01:01just that is a huge thing that weighs on

2:01:04staff. What types of regulations will

2:01:06change? What kind of information is

2:01:08going to change? Um there's a ballot

2:01:12initiative uh for a constitutional

2:01:14amendment that would limit property tax

2:01:17revenue. That's something staff is

2:01:20concerned about too. Um, and so just

2:01:22wanted to mention that. Uh, social media

2:01:26commentary.

2:01:28Residents

2:01:29often make comments on social media. It

2:01:33doesn't always represent all of Apex.

2:01:36So, what one person said doesn't always

2:01:38represent all of Apex. And um staff want

2:01:42to make sure they have time to respond

2:01:46to

2:01:47requests for information, social media

2:01:50comments so that they can provide

2:01:52accurate information and not have to

2:01:56provide a preliminary

2:01:58thing that might be um incorrect. It's

2:02:01just helpful if there's time to be able

2:02:06to respond accurately. So those were

2:02:08some of the political trends, economic

2:02:11trends, inflation um has been there

2:02:15there has been inflation, there have

2:02:17been rising interest rates that impacts

2:02:21this the town's purchasing power. And so

2:02:24with um with less purchasing power, your

2:02:29budget's not able to go as far as it

2:02:31has. There's also been increased demand

2:02:34for new projects in addition to what

2:02:37staff is already doing. You have a whole

2:02:39wall of what they're doing. And every

2:02:42new thing adds a new um new

2:02:46bit of work that someone has to take on.

2:02:49And so maybe what you're starting to

2:02:52hear is staff is stretched a little thin

2:02:54and just wants to make sure as you set

2:02:57priorities, you take into consideration

2:02:59the impact on staff.

2:03:02Um there's market uncertainties that um

2:03:06makes it higher cost to borrow. There's

2:03:08more multifamily housing and multifamily

2:03:12housing is good for diversity of housing

2:03:14in Apex. It also places more demand on

2:03:18staff in terms of um needing higher more

2:03:21experienced inspectors.

2:03:23Um you guys are in this great position

2:03:26where pe businesses are coming to Apex.

2:03:29you're you've got a lot of good economic

2:03:34development happening.

2:03:36That also means you got a lot of impact

2:03:38on your infrastructure and being able to

2:03:42support everything that's coming in as

2:03:44something you need to be planning for.

2:03:47And because you're growing, some

2:03:49residents are perceiving at least that

2:03:51your services aren't keeping pace.

2:03:54uh social trends

2:03:57uh there's an increased distrust in all

2:04:00levels of government. You see it more at

2:04:03the federal level, more at the state

2:04:05level, but it happens at all levels of

2:04:07government and that impacts whether or

2:04:10not people uh residents, business owners

2:04:13trust what staff is saying.

2:04:16um

2:04:18uh staying a welcoming community with

2:04:20growth and increased diversity, a lot of

2:04:23mental health challenges. It really

2:04:26stuck with me the chief said and maybe

2:04:28he said to you all before, but um Apex

2:04:31is a very safe place and the biggest

2:04:34challenge to safety is people

2:04:37experiencing mental health issues.

2:04:39That's unique uh amongst a lot of

2:04:43governments. A lot of governments have a

2:04:45lot more safety challenges than others.

2:04:48Uh language access issues, increased

2:04:51instability, not just at council

2:04:54meetings, but you might have a crew out

2:04:56mowing and someone on the street is

2:04:59nasty to them. So, it's just more common

2:05:02to be uh unkind to people these days. Um

2:05:07and there's expectations for maintaining

2:05:09high response times. Often when you hear

2:05:11response times in local government,

2:05:13you're thinking of just police and fire,

2:05:15but it's all of all of um the government

2:05:19being expected to respond quickly. I

2:05:22know you've all read it already, so I

2:05:23don't want to AI. Um staying ahead of

2:05:27tech needs across the entire city or

2:05:30town. Uh equipment shortages, data

2:05:34centers, disparity in technical

2:05:36aptitudes. There's a lot of people that

2:05:38still want the hightouch handholding

2:05:41personal experience and there's a lot of

2:05:44people that want those chat bots and

2:05:45want the um don't want to have to

2:05:48interact with a human ever. And so

2:05:51maintaining services for both types of

2:05:53people is important.

2:05:55uh legal trends, uptake in public record

2:05:58requests, the erosion of local control

2:06:01at the state level, the state taking

2:06:03more control away from local

2:06:05governments, [clears throat] challenges

2:06:07to your fee structures,

2:06:09um constantly changing laws and

2:06:12misinterpretation

2:06:14of those laws by some non non-legal

2:06:17folks. Um, and then non-prosecution of

2:06:20certain offenses makes some people in

2:06:23the community wonder, is it okay to

2:06:26commit crimes if uh if the DA isn't

2:06:29going to prosecute certain types of

2:06:31things? And then environmental trends,

2:06:35water resources, and drought resilience

2:06:37are important, zoning challenges,

2:06:40outdated storm water infrastructure,

2:06:43um, more flooding and extreme rain.

2:06:46Although I wanted to the staff wanted to

2:06:49emphasize it's not just nuisance

2:06:51flooding flooding uh that's annoying but

2:06:54it's problematic flooding um interest in

2:06:58using more native and pollinator plants

2:07:00cleaner and greener future and fleet um

2:07:04so these were some of the trends that

2:07:06staff identified that they weren't sure

2:07:10you were aware of all of them and wanted

2:07:12to make sure these were on your radar as

2:07:16you start thinking about your strategic

2:07:18goals.

2:07:20Um,

2:07:22as you look at these, do these resonate

2:07:25with you? Do they make sense? Are there

2:07:27any that surprise you or you're not sure

2:07:30what they mean? They mean or are there

2:07:33things that you think are missing and

2:07:34worth mentioning to set the stage for

2:07:37planning for um your future?

2:07:42Yeah, the first question I was gonna say

2:07:44I feel a little bit like this document

2:07:46where feel like this kind of came over

2:07:49the wall. I'm trying to like glean from

2:07:53it what was in what I should inform and

2:07:57so I'm wondering are there drill down

2:07:59opportunities? Do we get to find out

2:08:01like so and so said this and this is

2:08:04what and this is what they meant by it.

2:08:06This kind of unpack it like where it's

2:08:08the versus it like this is we just look

2:08:11at it.

2:08:13>> Um so we we've got time

2:08:17>> there's too many of them too

2:08:19>> talk for 10 minutes on each one of

2:08:20these.

2:08:21>> Yeah. I am I'm not expecting to talk for

2:08:2310 minutes on on each of them, but if

2:08:26there are some that you don't

2:08:27understand, I want to dig into that.

2:08:32>> Maybe help with that. What's the source

2:08:34of like who gave you these these

2:08:38involved directly from staff?

2:08:39>> Yeah, we consult we met with the

2:08:41department directors.

2:08:43that side of the room and went through a

2:08:46longer um process to identify trends

2:08:49that they thought would be important for

2:08:52council to at least have heard of. Um so

2:08:56you're not just hearing what comes

2:08:58across your desk or what your neighbor

2:09:00said, but some of these other trends

2:09:02that might be a little more hidden. So

2:09:05you hear of them before you start

2:09:07setting your strategic goals.

2:09:09>> Okay. Um I'd be curious to see

2:09:12these things and to to council member

2:09:14Mary's point I don't think you want to

2:09:16sit here and debate every point you know

2:09:18one by one by one and so you know you

2:09:20get picked it up and it's town manager

2:09:26that um others yeah right back on staff

2:09:31this is entirely solved so you know

2:09:37um so I think this requires more you

2:09:40know a deeper convers conversation that

2:09:42I think

2:09:44exceeds the the purpose of today's

2:09:46conversation. But by and large, I think

2:09:49a lot of these thoughts heard before

2:09:52from you know

2:09:57>> and just to one part of what you said,

2:10:00the intent isn't to share this with you

2:10:02to ask you to solve them. It's just to

2:10:05make sure you're aware of them. And so

2:10:07if you've heard them a lot before,

2:10:10you're definitely aware

2:10:12and and it's just to the context for the

2:10:15person.

2:10:16>> Yeah.

2:10:16>> I would ask like underneath

2:10:18environmental trends it says zoning

2:10:19challenges.

2:10:21>> We drill down a little bit into that

2:10:23like specifically what what zoning

2:10:25challenges are there

2:10:28regarding environmental trends that we

2:10:29should be aware of?

2:10:32Is that just getting stuff like or

2:10:36trying to

2:10:37>> No, state law.

2:10:43>> Do you want to say just another sentence

2:10:45beyond state law? [laughter]

2:10:49>> Basically taking away preeemption,

2:10:52taking away our ability to do things.

2:10:59>> [laughter]

2:11:01>> So, some of the things the town wants to

2:11:03do, we can't because state law is making

2:11:05more restrictions again.

2:11:15Want to just ask a question?

2:11:18>> Yeah. I mean, this just opens up a whole

2:11:19new front, I think, for me to dig in on

2:11:22what was meant by some of these, the

2:11:24context.

2:11:26um

2:11:27but the action plan. So yeah, we'll

2:11:29we'll take

2:11:31I'll be digging later. So thank you.

2:11:50>> That was your planned break.

2:11:53>> [laughter]

2:11:54>> Yeah, it's still there.

2:11:56>> So, we're going to go on to our next

2:11:58section.

2:11:59So, you're hearing a little bit here.

2:12:02We're building, right? So, we've talked

2:12:04to your directors and your staff and

2:12:06gotten some of their inputs. We're

2:12:08sharing those with you to give you a

2:12:10sort of sense of what we've heard and

2:12:13then we're going to ask you what do you

2:12:15think? And that's kind of what we're

2:12:16doing with each piece that we're talking

2:12:18about today. And so now we're going to

2:12:20do that with the strategic goals that

2:12:22you all already have. So I've got them

2:12:24on the screen. This is the same slide

2:12:26David shared earlier. So you have seen

2:12:28this. I am mindful now that you can't

2:12:31read this, but there is an easier to

2:12:33read version in the part that I'm about

2:12:35to ask you to do. So you will have that

2:12:37at your fingertips when you need it.

2:12:40[clears throat]

2:12:40So this is the stage on the goals

2:12:43conversation on what did we hear from

2:12:46teams and staffs that they wanted you

2:12:48all to be mindful of around the current

2:12:50strategic goals. Now as as you've heard

2:12:53the big question to you is do these

2:12:55still work? That's sort of the

2:12:57overarching question. But first we want

2:12:59to make sure you have a sense of what's

2:13:00falling into these what's happening in

2:13:03these. And then we're going to ask you

2:13:05do these still work? So, we're going to

2:13:07do a bit of an activity with you all for

2:13:09this piece.

2:13:11You might have noticed there are

2:13:13stations around the room that have each

2:13:15of the five existing strategic goals.

2:13:19What we're going to do, we're going to

2:13:21put you into some smaller teams, some

2:13:23very small, sorry. Um, but we're going

2:13:25to put you into some smaller teams and

2:13:28give you a chance to review each of the

2:13:30five. And you'll see there's a template

2:13:32at each stage. What's on that template

2:13:35is what we heard from your staff are the

2:13:38work happenings that they want to make

2:13:40sure you know are happening. This is not

2:13:43the whole universe. This is not our

2:13:45laundry list. This is we want to make

2:13:47sure council is aware that this is going

2:13:49on already.

2:13:51The right hand side are other

2:13:52considerations.

2:13:54Anything really that came up that

2:13:56doesn't fit into the work bucket is

2:13:57there on the right hand side.

2:14:00What we're asking each of you in your

2:14:01smaller groups to do is you're going to

2:14:03go through each station. You're going to

2:14:06read what's there, chew on it a little

2:14:08bit, and then if you have questions,

2:14:12comments, concerns, you are going to

2:14:14have staff at each station who can

2:14:17answer those questions, comments,

2:14:19concerns for you in the moment. The

2:14:22purpose of this exercise is to you to

2:14:24get a little bit of a deeper flavor on

2:14:26what's happening in the five strategic

2:14:28goals and what staff wants to make sure

2:14:30you're familiar with in those five

2:14:32strategic goals. I am not yet asking you

2:14:35what you want to do about the goals. I'm

2:14:37gonna but I'm not yet. For now, this is

2:14:39our sort of info gathering stage.

2:14:42Questions on what we're going to do.

2:14:44Well, what you're going to do, I'm going

2:14:46to wander.

2:14:47Make sense? Okay.

2:14:50So you will have 10 minutes at each

2:14:52station. In order to stick to our

2:14:55agreement on timing, we are going to use

2:14:58a clock for your 10 minutes. So um

2:15:01you'll hear it ding. You'll also hear me

2:15:03say you time to rotate. Um so just be

2:15:06mindful. I know it's a little

2:15:08simplistic, but we want to keep

2:15:10ourselves on time. And that's how we're

2:15:12going to do that. Uh we're also going to

2:15:14ask you to rotate

2:15:16clockwise if this screen was 12 o'clock.

2:15:19So, you'll go in this direction around

2:15:21the room. Just to keep it overly,

2:15:25let's give you your groups.

2:15:27I've got uh I've got you paired. Uh

2:15:31Mayor Promp, you will be flying solo.

2:15:33Apologies. Uh everyone else, you've got

2:15:35a partner there that you're going to be

2:15:36with. This is your starting station. You

2:15:39will go to all five. This is just where

2:15:42I want you to begin.

2:15:45for my staff over there. This is where I

2:15:49would like you all to be. So, if you see

2:15:51your name up there, I would like you to

2:15:53go to that station. Staff, you stay at

2:15:56your station. You're there for the

2:15:58council members to ask questions of you,

2:16:01hypothesize, chat with. My staff are not

2:16:03going to move. My council members are

2:16:05going to move.

2:16:06>> Okay.

2:16:07>> Yep. And all three of us will be milling

2:16:09around as well. So, if anything's

2:16:11confusing, just wave one of us down.

2:16:14I'm going to off this everyone feel like

2:16:16they know where they're supposed to go.

2:16:19Fabulous. Oh, not there yet. All right,

2:16:22let's go ahead and go to our first

2:16:23station and then I'll start our clock

2:16:26when everybody is settled where they're

2:16:27supposed to be. Here's a reminder for

2:16:30council case.

2:16:43>> And here's a reminder for

2:17:01And if you don't have council members at

2:17:02your station yet, please quietly hang

2:17:04out. You'll get council members in a few

2:17:07minutes.

2:17:09All

2:17:10>> [clears throat]

2:17:10>> right, we're gonna start your time. Your

2:17:12first 10 minutes for your first station.

2:17:14Please go ahead.

2:17:44Well,

2:17:58That's also

2:18:48>> [laughter]

2:18:53>> What was that?

2:18:59>> [clears throat]

2:19:00[laughter]

2:19:13>> I don't know.

2:19:21>> Somewhere over here. Yeah.

2:19:24You're doing a great job.

2:19:51>> She have the

2:20:11houses.

2:20:19Yes.

2:20:50We probably could have put him.

2:20:57[laughter]

2:21:07>> [laughter]

2:21:16>> I don't have patience.

2:21:21[laughter]

2:21:30>> [laughter]

2:22:02[laughter]

2:22:03>> Thank you for watching.

2:22:10>> [laughter]

2:22:18>> contract.

2:22:22>> [laughter]

2:22:49>> But they're all the same people.

2:22:56We found out

2:23:08that

2:23:13[laughter]

2:23:45I think it's

2:24:02like real

2:24:14takes up a lot.

2:24:17>> Did they tell every

2:24:28Can't remember if they've got something

2:24:30inside.

2:24:45>> Yeah.

2:24:50So Yeah.

2:25:20>> That's the

2:25:22All right.

2:25:42>> A great job.

2:25:47Sorry.

2:26:16>> I Yeah.

2:26:43How many more?

2:26:56see that

2:27:14you got real loud.

2:27:27Matthew

2:27:41talk.

2:27:56Set

2:28:09you guys always but

2:28:17>> [laughter]

2:28:24>> We got it in there.

2:28:38>> State funding is just what they're

2:28:39doing, right?

2:28:42Yeah.

2:28:48[laughter]

2:29:08>> They got

2:29:09follow

2:29:31up.

2:29:37Thanks.

2:30:02Starting

2:30:12We can't

2:30:14[laughter]

2:30:18talk to you.

2:30:50We're trying to like project it.

2:31:23anything

2:31:34I would want to vote for it.

2:31:58scary.

2:32:12[laughter]

2:32:30That's right.

2:32:41Let's see.

2:33:06>> [laughter]

2:33:08>> question.

2:33:11I went and record

2:33:40that.

2:33:47Friday night all the time.

2:34:09Don't challenge me. [laughter]

2:34:29>> I think I'm going home.

2:34:34So cute

2:34:35and glasses.

2:34:48[laughter]

2:34:56>> [laughter]

2:35:09>> I didn't have

2:35:21Anyway,

2:35:33it actually works better.

2:36:00Oh, they don't even

2:36:08know what

2:36:10[laughter]

2:36:17she She's like

2:36:21trying to sleep

2:36:29hard.

2:36:35She love funny thing is

2:36:59>> you're not happy.

2:37:02Rotating

2:37:19[laughter]

2:37:31>> lower that.

2:37:43actually

2:38:01March 1st.

2:38:03rest.

2:38:22She may

2:38:28Here is

2:38:40how many daughters.

2:38:54>> She goes to talk.

2:39:05I was shy.

2:39:26We have we have an external [laughter]

2:39:29lined up just going

2:39:34Sorry,

2:39:38>> I think

2:39:49[laughter]

2:40:00>> [laughter]

2:40:09>> Maybe when we get to the next one,

2:40:16you know, send some of those people over

2:40:17here.

2:40:32That's me. How do we make it?

2:41:02Well, right now

2:41:19we're eating

2:41:28future.

2:42:00years.

2:42:06Here

2:42:16he has

2:42:28a smaller

2:42:31office

2:42:35there.

2:42:46No, it's just too

2:42:50broad

2:42:53right now.

2:42:59>> Thank you. Is this

2:43:03>> not anywhere close?

2:43:29Yes,

2:43:30>> we were working together.

2:43:50It's just not

2:44:01There's like people in the

2:44:15>> [laughter]

2:44:22>> I'm just saying people

2:44:39[laughter]

2:44:41>> I want to talk

2:44:43Yeah. Yeah. But you got to have the

2:44:44whole thing, right?

2:44:56Last year. We were trying to find

2:45:17We have

2:45:26>> We should always be

2:45:29[laughter]

2:45:40>> while we're home. of the boat.

2:45:54They didn't have

2:45:57to get

2:46:01a question.

2:46:19It's funny.

2:46:41point

2:46:52>> I think

2:46:58you know

2:47:00they went out now they're going

2:47:12Some of that

2:47:41You seem

2:47:52to

2:47:57reality.

2:48:08$500.

2:48:35We've been working on that.

2:48:54radio.

2:49:14>> Share it. 2017.

2:50:12First half micro

2:50:32Let me

2:51:06I don't know that it has

2:51:25We had a large industrial user who

2:51:27wanted to

2:51:35[laughter]

2:51:48We can

2:52:08>> [clears throat]

2:52:09>> They couldn't

2:52:26bring What about

2:52:53you?

2:53:05I hear you.

2:53:28And I think for a place that's more

2:53:30stable.

2:53:49Okay.

2:53:59>> Yeah.

2:54:01And you said you wanted

2:54:28I've done this before.

2:54:49problem

2:54:54has to happen.

2:55:05Let's

2:55:09say we have

2:55:25several

2:55:43on the same day.

2:56:07I think the other problem.

2:56:27Why? This is still

2:57:03We have

2:57:11wonderframes.

2:57:36originally

2:57:38as

2:57:41we have

2:57:46They want to be

2:58:08used to politically approve offenses.

2:58:23I know

2:58:36in isolation.

2:58:48So most of that area

2:59:02[laughter]

2:59:03we're

2:59:04looking

2:59:15>> [laughter]

2:59:18>> It's kind of like a

2:59:21lot of

2:59:45right now.

2:59:52You've got

2:59:57more

3:00:28of

3:00:34I know.

3:00:53How do we dodent?

3:01:08We're going to rotate for the last time.

3:01:24Last one.

3:01:39We are

3:01:51[laughter]

3:01:55asking

3:02:05Thank you.

3:02:19Oh my goodness.

3:02:44What's happening?

3:03:12They always

3:03:26bicycle.

3:03:34I was watching

3:03:36and

3:03:56We had other

3:04:13[laughter]

3:04:21changes.

3:04:34three days for about 30 minutes.

3:04:40>> We were planning to end this at 3:30 and

3:04:42I ended at three.

3:04:47I think I'm just the person next to them

3:04:52to mix them up. He said that was okay in

3:04:54terms of things.

3:04:57Oh, and remembering reminding that

3:05:00you're doing the like are you okay with

3:05:05making sure we both

3:05:08um can

3:05:13we talk about the thing

3:05:15>> and then the CTE

3:05:22if you're not Russian that's okay that's

3:05:23fine.

3:05:36I know. I know.

3:05:57Yeah.

3:06:13Kiss us.

3:06:28Also

3:06:30data

3:06:42They're

3:06:54just

3:07:07respons

3:07:21One area where it's

3:07:45I guess

3:07:50so much

3:07:53visibility.

3:08:06We don't want

3:08:23to happen

3:08:34like where we are like our first

3:08:382030

3:08:48all takes a long time like the last time

3:08:52that they

3:08:58is a long

3:09:00process

3:09:13of fact

3:09:16that

3:09:47build it. We can build it like

3:09:51A lot of business

3:10:20at the end of

3:10:38Yeah. So, we'll go

3:11:06One more time. One more try.

3:11:22I'm saying

3:11:37>> I apologize.

3:21:48All right.

3:21:58[laughter]

3:22:06[laughter]

3:22:07>> Great. Thank you. Welcome back. Um, so

3:22:10you just spent time at each of the five

3:22:13stations looking at the five strategic

3:22:16goals, understanding a little more about

3:22:19what's going on, what some of the

3:22:21current things staff are working on or

3:22:23thinking about our didn't need you to

3:22:26make any decisions at the stations. Just

3:22:28wanted you understanding what was going

3:22:30on and let the staff hear from you. The

3:22:33question back for you now is

3:22:37as we're setting your strategic goals

3:22:40for your strategic plan, are these still

3:22:42the right five strategic goals? Um or do

3:22:47you want to make some changes to them?

3:22:51>> What do you recommend?

3:22:53>> I heard a few things been going around.

3:22:57>> Let me let me rephrase that question.

3:22:59based on your experience working with

3:23:00our municipalities. What are we or are

3:23:03we not covering?

3:23:07>> Yeah. So,

3:23:10these are good strategic goals. I'll

3:23:11start with that. And the strategic goals

3:23:14have to work for Apex.

3:23:16I think these have been working for

3:23:18Apex. The staff feels like they're

3:23:20working. I did hear a couple things

3:23:22coming um and I didn't necessarily hear

3:23:26all of them. So I'll start with just

3:23:29what what were I'll start with a couple

3:23:31of things I heard and then what were

3:23:34some of the things that you observed

3:23:35overall before we get to the question

3:23:38are these right?

3:23:40So, um, at the welcoming community

3:23:44station,

3:23:45um, the descriptor under it, it's create

3:23:49a safe and welcoming environment.

3:23:52And it's that word safe that a few

3:23:55people have asked about. Is welcoming

3:23:58community an appropriate abbreviation

3:24:01for that descriptor, creating a safe and

3:24:04welcoming environment? Do you want to

3:24:06change that to a safe and welcoming

3:24:09community or is it good with the

3:24:10descriptor? Some of the other comments

3:24:14um big picture comments were welcoming

3:24:17community and high performing government

3:24:20are really big catchall kind of goals.

3:24:25Are they are they too big

3:24:29are they too big or are they

3:24:31appropriate?

3:24:33And then um the other ones the

3:24:36environmental leadership, responsible

3:24:38development, economic develop uh

3:24:40economic vitality feel like they

3:24:43continue to be priorities. I was not at

3:24:46this but one of the comments at the

3:24:48environmental leadership station was

3:24:52we're we're doing really well there. And

3:24:54so the question is are you doing so well

3:24:57that it no longer needs to be a

3:24:59strategic goal? It could be dropped. The

3:25:05the person that said it said, "Oh, no.

3:25:08It still needs to be a strategic goal."

3:25:11But that's kind of a question for you

3:25:13all. Are these the right strategic

3:25:16goals? So before before getting into are

3:25:20these the right five, any other as you

3:25:23were going around kind of big picture

3:25:25reactions to some of them that you want

3:25:26to elevate and maybe not um bring to a

3:25:30decision yet?

3:25:33I'll go first. I think we still have a

3:25:35lot of ground to cover.

3:25:38I don't think we're there.

3:25:40>> We're not there still. So, these are

3:25:42still still things that we're working

3:25:45>> to. To me, they feel right. But again, I

3:25:48I I'm reacting to one, right? You know,

3:25:51I again, I'd like your

3:25:54your perspective from, you know, what

3:25:56other communities are doing, right?

3:25:58where you see kind of, you know, maybe

3:25:59focus shift a little bit. Um, you know,

3:26:04do we need to jump on on a bandwagon

3:26:06that that, you know, we're just not

3:26:08seeing just yet.

3:26:10>> So that that's kind of what my question

3:26:12was about.

3:26:13>> Yeah.

3:26:15>> I mean, as I look at our goals, and I

3:26:18think that the the key word in the

3:26:20entire phrase is strategic. You know,

3:26:22these aren't tasks. These aren't things

3:26:24that we're supposed to just kind of

3:26:25check the box and once they're done,

3:26:26they're done. These are going to be

3:26:28ongoing. They're going to complete to

3:26:30some extent where they're going to be,

3:26:32but they're aspirational for a reason.

3:26:36Um, so I don't know if it's necessarily

3:26:40required that we toss out or say, "Yeah,

3:26:44we've met our environmental leadership

3:26:47desires. We're doing really good, so

3:26:48let's go ahead and take that off." But I

3:26:50think the real question is

3:26:53what is it that we need to do to shape

3:26:56this for the current made these goals

3:27:01five years ago the world was a different

3:27:03place now and within the framework of

3:27:06each one of those buckets. What is it

3:27:08that we need to do to either make the

3:27:11pathway that go easier or extend it out

3:27:16understanding the new realities that

3:27:18we're dealing

3:27:21other high level reactions

3:27:24at your station rotations.

3:27:35>> I had one piece of feedback I shared

3:27:37with people um in terms of strategic

3:27:40goals. I felt like collectively they

3:27:41were so there are a couple that are

3:27:43specific but collectively they're pretty

3:27:45broad and did

3:27:48>> I I spoke your words even though you

3:27:50didn't say it

3:27:52>> did you do a good job

3:27:55[laughter]

3:27:56>> okay

3:28:01>> well it must have been a very profound

3:28:02point [laughter]

3:28:05>> thank you for that and I apologize again

3:28:08>> it's all good So, but but if two of them

3:28:13are kind of all-encompassing and three

3:28:16are specific,

3:28:18is that problematic to you or is it just

3:28:21something to be aware of?

3:28:22>> Um,

3:28:24I I guess what I was trying to express

3:28:26was that like it feels like when it's

3:28:28when you're in that situation where it's

3:28:30all encompassing, it becomes less of a

3:28:32goal and and less of a tool for

3:28:34direction and more classifications

3:28:38point. mad to me like that's fine then

3:28:41you're not not giving corrections just

3:28:42sort of like what what bucket does this

3:28:48>> mayor you looked like you were about to

3:28:50say something

3:28:51>> yeah I want to go back to a welcoming

3:28:53community being intentional about safe

3:28:57calling that out if you look at

3:28:59welcoming

3:29:01when you get the feedback of residents

3:29:04they think they want to be here

3:29:07but I really don't see where it really

3:29:10calls our public safety. Think we should

3:29:12be intentional on that in some way. So,

3:29:15let me see that.

3:29:21>> Okay. I have uh some thoughts about

3:29:25responsible development.

3:29:28So like um encourage equitable and

3:29:32sustainable development that provide

3:29:35accessibility and connectivity.

3:29:38Is it better if we use that improve

3:29:42accessibility and connectivity

3:29:45throughout the community? Because

3:29:47provides whatever they you provide,

3:29:50right? But improve means we make it

3:29:53better.

3:29:56Just my two cents.

3:29:59>> Yeah. So you're you're saying it's more

3:30:01directional. Yeah. Improving.

3:30:02>> Yeah. I'm just

3:30:04>> just there, you know.

3:30:11Um, [clears throat]

3:30:13council member Reese, any reflections on

3:30:15the

3:30:17>> I agree with a lot of things that have

3:30:19been said.

3:30:25I agree strongly with the point that

3:30:30I don't see strategic goals as being

3:30:34something that we would ever check off

3:30:35and say it's done because it's

3:30:39always on the horizon. It's always that

3:30:42thing pursued.

3:30:48So I think there's consensus there. Uh I

3:30:53do agree with

3:30:57some of it being focused and some of it

3:31:00being

3:31:02less focused. Um, but I don't know that

3:31:05I would

3:31:08to Councilman Zigerman's question, I

3:31:11would be curious. I haven't gotten a

3:31:15chance to dig through other

3:31:16municipalities

3:31:18um vision, mission statements, strategic

3:31:21goals, and so

3:31:25I'm looking for kind of an assessment.

3:31:27Yeah.

3:31:28>> If or and then to uh

3:31:33Gray's point about this out there just

3:31:36see do you have any initial reactions?

3:31:39>> Yeah. So back to your initial question.

3:31:41Um high performing government is that

3:31:44one that is kind of a catchall? Some

3:31:47communities choose to have something

3:31:49like that and some ignore it completely.

3:31:52the communities that have something like

3:31:54a high performing government, high

3:31:57functioning staff, you know, things like

3:31:59that. Um, include it as a strategic goal

3:32:04because they recognize you can't do

3:32:07everything else if you don't pay

3:32:09attention to your staff and facilities

3:32:12and your your like infrastructure in

3:32:14your town. And so, um, it's a choice.

3:32:18It's always a choice for what the

3:32:20elected officials want to talk about.

3:32:23It's not just a bucket so all of them

3:32:26feel like they belong somewhere, but

3:32:29it's a it's an intentional choice of

3:32:31we're recognizing that we want to be a

3:32:34high performing government and um and

3:32:37have that base of our strong employees,

3:32:39our strong facilities to be able to

3:32:42support all of the other um other

3:32:45strategic goals. So my personal

3:32:48preference um is that's a good thing to

3:32:51do and based on what I know of Apex

3:32:55that's something that's important to you

3:32:57that you recognize that you need to have

3:33:00a high performing government in order to

3:33:02deliver the strong services you want to.

3:33:05So um that would be my assessment on

3:33:08that one. your welcoming community

3:33:11is a and not mentioning safety

3:33:16is something unique to Apex. It can be

3:33:19partially because you are a safe

3:33:22community. Most other municipalities,

3:33:25not all, but most are struggling with

3:33:28more safety issues than Apex is. Like

3:33:31you're in a pretty good position.

3:33:35So, it's okay not to highlight we want

3:33:38to be a safe community separately,

3:33:41but I'm hearing enough people feel like

3:33:44and you don't need to add safety again

3:33:47just so police and fire feel like they

3:33:51have a a home in this.

3:33:54But, but it's something I think it's

3:33:57more than having a home. It's

3:33:58communicating to the community that

3:34:02safety is part of being a welcoming

3:34:04community and it's one of our

3:34:05priorities. If I remember our

3:34:08conversation when we were developing

3:34:09that, I think safe was intentionally

3:34:12used because we wanted it to kind of not

3:34:14only the public safety like in a

3:34:16law-abiding community, but also safe in

3:34:19terms of, you know, regardless of your

3:34:21sexual orientation, your race, color,

3:34:23creed, economic status. this would be a

3:34:26place that would feel as as mayor said

3:34:30that feeling of safety

3:34:32>> was something that we we really wanted

3:34:34to make sure was a a point of emphasis

3:34:36and I remember our conversations when we

3:34:38were trying to come up with our

3:34:39strategic goals the word safe was was a

3:34:43very intentional choice

3:34:48>> and

3:34:50I think I'm getting this sense of the

3:34:52room that having a theense counselors

3:34:56that having it be a safe and welcoming

3:34:59community. So, highlighting it even when

3:35:02it's being abbreviated,

3:35:04it's important to you all because you're

3:35:06communicating to the community that

3:35:08we're a safe, welcoming community.

3:35:15>> Yeah, you say that.

3:35:17>> So, your the subwords already say create

3:35:21a self and welcome,

3:35:23etc.

3:35:24So, one of the concerns is that in the

3:35:26red box when you're abbreviating what

3:35:30that means, it just says welcoming and

3:35:32it doesn't use the word safe. And so,

3:35:35changed the title, so to speak, to say a

3:35:38safe and welcome.

3:35:41>> Yeah. And it doesn't really change the

3:35:43meaning of anything. It's just kind of

3:35:45the title and what you're trying to

3:35:47communicate to the public when you're

3:35:49saying, "These are our five goals. safe

3:35:51and welcoming as

3:35:52>> I think it's a better idea. You know, a

3:35:55safe and welcoming

3:36:00>> I think it's a good update to your point

3:36:04of fact that this is five years ago was

3:36:07in a different world.

3:36:09um

3:36:11that inclusive and diverse are words

3:36:15that were stepping sidest stepping a

3:36:18safe and welcome community I think helps

3:36:22define that more clearly.

3:36:26Um

3:36:31>> then then Councilman Zerman the other,

3:36:34you know, those are the two kind of big

3:36:37buckets. The other three are sort of the

3:36:39uniquely apex um economic vitality,

3:36:42environmental leadership and responsible

3:36:44development. Others might have other

3:36:47communities might have something else

3:36:49but um those are appropriately uniquely

3:36:53apex. So when I look at that compared to

3:36:56all the other communities that I see it

3:36:59makes sense. One of the phrases I heard

3:37:03when you were introducing yourselves and

3:37:05it's in some of the other things is sort

3:37:07of that small town feel

3:37:10um that that's the only other thing that

3:37:12kind of jumps out to me that might not

3:37:15be

3:37:18um reflected here. I and I like you know

3:37:21Apex way better than me. It's just

3:37:24something that I've heard enough of you

3:37:26say. It makes me wonder if like

3:37:29responsible development is responsible

3:37:33development for all those reasons, but

3:37:35also maintaining that small town feel or

3:37:37maybe in that welcoming community, it's

3:37:40still that small town view. And I might

3:37:43jumping way ahead of you, but just want

3:37:45to make just want to throw that out

3:37:47there because I am hearing that and some

3:37:49of

3:37:49>> I like to be a little bit on that

3:37:52because that was that was many hours of

3:37:55conversation because we were talking

3:37:57about small town field versus small town

3:38:01character versus maintaining

3:38:04small town character. Because the thing

3:38:07that was universally recognized was that

3:38:10when it came to Apex, the thing that

3:38:12many people would gravitate to is that

3:38:14it felt like a small town, but there was

3:38:16an internal recognition that we were not

3:38:18a small town. So maintaining that

3:38:21character, that charm, that feel became

3:38:24kind of the the I guess the vision

3:38:27[clears throat] word that we were using.

3:38:29Um rec recognizing that that that is

3:38:32something that is inherently apex. Yeah,

3:38:35>> it was a point of discussion that it was

3:38:37not going to fit within the responsible

3:38:39development because if you look in the

3:38:41eyes of most of the members of our

3:38:43community, they're going to say the

3:38:45growth is actually contrary to the idea

3:38:47of small town, which

3:38:51if you're going to look at it in the

3:38:52sense of those words probably, but

3:38:55that's why we focus very much on the

3:38:57idea of small town character, which was

3:38:59there are things that make Apex

3:39:03feel

3:39:05like a smaller community even though we

3:39:07were a larger community.

3:39:08>> And that's where that conversation

3:39:11basically dubtailed right over into

3:39:12welcoming

3:39:13>> which is why we put a lot of those

3:39:16thought processes into how we defined

3:39:19what a welcoming community is. You know

3:39:21the idea of small town it's not the size

3:39:24of the town it was the community built

3:39:26within. So if you look at then welcome

3:39:28the community community also deliberate

3:39:30choice because we wanted to make sure

3:39:32that that was reflecting of the goal of

3:39:34reflecting our small town character and

3:39:37a recognition that no matter how big

3:39:39Apex got it's always going to have a

3:39:41small the goal should be to maintain a

3:39:43small town charact

3:39:45>> those communities maintain.

3:39:48>> Yeah that's for me your newer one is

3:39:51really helpful.

3:39:52>> Yeah. Um, and just looking back at the

3:39:55vision, the vision is where small town

3:39:58character appears. So, it's there and

3:40:02doesn't have to be here because you look

3:40:03at them together.

3:40:06Were you gonna say more or

3:40:08>> No, I agree with Con. Good point. Yeah,

3:40:12that's character. I like the word.

3:40:16>> Well, that was what two days of us in a

3:40:18room. [laughter]

3:40:20Two days in room going over and cards

3:40:23and at the end of it just kind of go

3:40:26like are we tired of this yet?

3:40:28[laughter]

3:40:30>> I got one one question. It might be just

3:40:32too deep but when you look at

3:40:33environmental leadership commit to

3:40:35sustaining and then a welcoming

3:40:38community create a safe

3:40:40there are conversations where when you

3:40:43look at ongoing needs for public safety

3:40:47well you already have a safe community

3:40:48so you don't need additional resources.

3:40:50So does that place

3:40:59>> and I'm hearing so rather than it's more

3:41:03like

3:41:03>> maintain

3:41:08>> maybe it's maintain

3:41:10I mean we've already got it created now

3:41:12it's just maint

3:41:14>> but then then it goes back to your point

3:41:17about the other

3:41:21definition of safe here. So if you say

3:41:24maintain so they feel like they're not

3:41:26>> right. So create and maintain

3:41:28>> create maintain we want to create

3:41:30>> and

3:41:31>> a safe environment where it's not

3:41:33otherwise there and maintain the safety

3:41:35where it is.

3:41:37Were were you agreeing for question?

3:41:42>> I kind of agree.

3:41:47[laughter]

3:41:48>> Not a strong endorsement.

3:41:54>> I'm just humbly submit maintain and

3:41:57enhance as possible.

3:42:02[laughter]

3:42:11and let just take care of.

3:42:14>> Yeah. Yeah. I think this one is better.

3:42:16Maintain and enhance.

3:42:18>> Okay. [laughter]

3:42:24[laughter]

3:42:26>> All right. Maintain and enhance

3:42:28um a safe and welcoming community. And

3:42:32then the other suggestion was yeah

3:42:35>> improves accessibility.

3:42:41How are we feeling?

3:42:44>> Good.

3:42:47Um so with those couple of edits

3:42:52we this is what it the clerk says. Do we

3:42:54need to take a motion because changing

3:42:57safe and welcoming is a big decision.

3:42:59Yeah. We're coming back in November with

3:43:02the sort of package. Would that be the

3:43:04appropriate time or do you think it's

3:43:06today?

3:43:07>> I think it might be then because you

3:43:08also talked about tweaking the vision.

3:43:10Yeah,

3:43:11>> potentially. Yeah. And then they can

3:43:12have there's clear direction

3:43:15>> to go forward and make those changes and

3:43:17then they can adopt

3:43:23>> you

3:43:27and I think it's an appropriate

3:43:30the buckets. We've talked about this

3:43:32entirely

3:43:34everything we could think of to do falls

3:43:36in these buckets. Yeah.

3:43:37>> And even the discussion around public

3:43:38safety have that discussion with our

3:43:41directors chief chiefs and we can we can

3:43:45either way we justify fits in a lot of

3:43:48these different buckets

3:43:50things that we do and we multi bucket

3:43:52that the small town character piece you

3:43:55can see that reflected community high

3:43:57performing government too. We talk about

3:43:59the level of service that we have

3:44:01expected to provide the community

3:44:02responsible development.

3:44:05I think there is we're dealing with

3:44:07budgets.

3:44:09>> So that's kind of going back to

3:44:11potential guys. So these are goals.

3:44:14They're not necessarily just meant to be

3:44:16classification system. So the fact that

3:44:18we can put everything that we do in one

3:44:20of these groups makes it sound a little

3:44:23bit more like a classification

3:44:25then truly something that gives you and

3:44:28staff a direction these are the

3:44:30priorities for the town that's you know

3:44:33give us guidance.

3:44:35So maybe a better way of saying it is

3:44:38when new initiatives are developed we

3:44:41find that they are within these subject

3:44:44areas. So

3:44:47you feel like it's a good fit as we've

3:44:49experienced in the

3:44:52oh my gosh.

3:44:56>> Have you ever found something that fit

3:44:58into this

3:45:00like maybe we shouldn't do this?

3:45:04>> [laughter]

3:45:06>> probably

3:45:12[laughter]

3:45:14>> I would say yes. If if everything fits,

3:45:17then this is now giving direction,

3:45:19right?

3:45:21>> Well, and maybe not to open up a whole

3:45:24discussion on this, but if you think

3:45:25about what we talked about in grass and

3:45:27what I mentioned in the meeting, we

3:45:29talked about grass fits in environmental

3:45:31leadership. um it fits in

3:45:35high performing government

3:45:38and so we [clears throat] brought

3:45:38something forward policy recommendation

3:45:40that we felt fit like fits in two of

3:45:42these areas and I know we're still

3:45:46working through that decision

3:45:49but the alternative maybe it fits in

3:45:52high performing government to provide

3:45:53that higher level of service even though

3:45:55it's not fiscally sound and not make

3:45:56sense from an environmental stand. So

3:45:58that's kind of an opposite example of a

3:46:00decision you all might make doesn't fit

3:46:03in buckets from a staff perspective if

3:46:05that makes sense.

3:46:06>> Good point.

3:46:07>> Perhaps we should look at it as fitting

3:46:09within a bucket but more of an

3:46:12alignment. I mean I think that's I mean

3:46:15you know you can't say that I mean let's

3:46:18just say police department. It fits

3:46:20within a welcoming community. It fits

3:46:21within a high performing government. You

3:46:23hope they're operating environmentally.

3:46:25I mean there's alignments I think that

3:46:27are that we're trying to get to with

3:46:31with these goals.

3:46:33With any alignment, there should be a

3:46:35100% agreement with each one of them.

3:46:38You know, everything we should be doing

3:46:40should be meeting every aspect at least

3:46:43one of these goals.

3:46:45You know, we purchase a vehicle. All

3:46:47right, that's a high performing

3:46:48government. We want to make sure it's

3:46:50environmentally sound. We want to make

3:46:51sure that it's going to be welcoming

3:46:52with the new leaders and it's

3:46:54responsible. I mean, we're trying to fit

3:46:57many of these alignment goals into every

3:47:00decision that we make because if we

3:47:02maintain these goals as our ultimate

3:47:04vector, then we know that most of the

3:47:07things that we're going to do will have

3:47:09some cohesiveness of trying to get to

3:47:11one point because we came up with these

3:47:13goals because we want to make sure that

3:47:15Apex can be number one on every one of

3:47:17these rankings and listings that we seem

3:47:19to get every other week.

3:47:21So I think looking at it as a bucket

3:47:24fill is probably a little too my it's

3:47:28much more appropriate that it's

3:47:32alignment based in my

3:47:36>> and I just want to say I think what um

3:47:39we're looking for like the direction of

3:47:41goals is actually the next level down

3:47:44strategic plan. So um after we get to

3:47:47direction today on our top level goals

3:47:50that's when staff based on all of our

3:47:52conversation we'll be creating direction

3:47:54specific uh initiatives come back in

3:47:58November with you guys. So we will see

3:48:00that um initiative and direction just at

3:48:03the next level down

3:48:07>> and that's the next thing we're going to

3:48:08ask you all to do. not the those

3:48:10initiatives but give staff that

3:48:13direction so that they can align with

3:48:16your direction.

3:48:19>> Um any remaining

3:48:22changes?

3:48:24>> Yes sir.

3:48:25>> Offering I [clears throat] don't know if

3:48:27this is but um environmental leadership

3:48:30part could be resilience is word I would

3:48:33like to see in there at some point.

3:48:42that that's definitely something that's

3:48:45coming up across the state more and

3:48:46more.

3:48:52Any other comments on these?

3:48:58>> Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and just say

3:48:59what's on my mind just because I mean,

3:49:01you know, a comment was made earlier and

3:49:03I appreciate it in in your presentation.

3:49:06Uh

3:49:07here's what we're doing, why we're doing

3:49:10it, and how well we're delivered. And

3:49:14I'm just

3:49:16to your point about the grass thing,

3:49:19like there's times you can talk about

3:49:20what bucket or what button is pressed

3:49:22and which one or which one lights up and

3:49:24which ones don't. But I'm just wondering

3:49:27when something like that is synthesized

3:49:30through this like how are we answering

3:49:32this is what we're doing why we're doing

3:49:34it and how well we're delivering.

3:49:37That's the part that's hole that I

3:49:38haven't seen

3:49:42connected or reconciled.

3:49:44Maybe that's what we're about.

3:49:47>> Um not [clears throat] quite but um yeah

3:49:50that needs to be connected before it's

3:49:53time. So I guess what I was saying is

3:49:54with the grass thing, yeah, you know,

3:49:56certain things light up or don't light

3:49:58up, but at the end of the day, something

3:49:59should there's an analysis and then a

3:50:01synthesis of that that says, yeah, those

3:50:04three things. So I'm just wondering how

3:50:06we can build that in without

3:50:07complicating things to hopefully

3:50:10simplify perhaps even offer more

3:50:12direction. Uh

3:50:15>> I mean my my my my thoughts on that is

3:50:19reflection back to the pyramid.

3:50:22You know this is a we identify the

3:50:25direction. We let them figure out how to

3:50:28do

3:50:29um boots on the ground tend to have a

3:50:32better application scenario. Those at

3:50:35the top of the pyramid tend to have a

3:50:37better vision as to what else.

3:50:40So, you know, I think to to help answer

3:50:42that question, the better we are at

3:50:44defining the direction, whether that

3:50:47azimuth is five degrees or one degree,

3:50:50that will make a better decision chain

3:50:53for those who have to be able to get

3:50:55that.

3:51:00I don't disagree that and I don't know

3:51:02how this but I guess I'm I'm thinking

3:51:04about this mathematically in terms of

3:51:07you know if I have something that spits

3:51:08out and I can take this number and I can

3:51:11make sure that the numbers match what I

3:51:13just put in. You're I agree with you on

3:51:16the the the vision and the boots on the

3:51:19ground knowing what to do. I guess I'm

3:51:20just looking for how then to

3:51:22re-evaluate. Did we did we check those

3:51:26three boxes?

3:51:29>> And that's part of what staff does after

3:51:32they've got this direction. They set

3:51:33their objectives, their initiatives, and

3:51:35their work plans, their their

3:51:37departmental business plans. That then

3:51:40measures that includes how to measure

3:51:43are we doing are we making the progress

3:51:46we set out to make. So, it's built into

3:51:49the structure. It's just not all right

3:51:52here in breakfast right now.

3:51:57>> It will be a future structure. It's not.

3:52:00[cough and snorts]

3:52:01>> Okay.

3:52:05All right. We are going to then take it.

3:52:08We've got notes on what to edit. We'll

3:52:10be working with staff and be bringing

3:52:12this back to you November 21st, I think,

3:52:16when we come back to you.

3:52:17>> 17.

3:52:17>> 17. Sorry. We're gonna come on

3:52:20Thanksgiving Day.

3:52:22Um, I'm gonna hand it off to her next

3:52:25step.

3:52:30>> Yeah.

3:52:35>> So, now we want to have you all think

3:52:40you're doing some more partner work, but

3:52:42you have to sit down this time. Now, we

3:52:44want you to be thinking a little bit

3:52:45about a next step that you mentioned.

3:52:47So, you've heard I'm gonna see if I can

3:52:49get back to Well, I can't get to moment.

3:52:52I'm gonna see if I can get back to the

3:52:54sort of organagram looking structure to

3:52:57talk us through this night. Did it? Uh,

3:53:00there we go. Thank you. Which I think we

3:53:03There she is. Okay. So, in the steps of

3:53:08this, we've sort of gut checked, for

3:53:11lack of a better word, we've gut checked

3:53:12the vision, mission, values with you in

3:53:14today's conversation. We've gut checked

3:53:16the goals with you which I would argue

3:53:19even in their shorter frames it is

3:53:22telling us a bit about where we're

3:53:23headed right development's the bucket

3:53:25responsible is the direction in my mind

3:53:28we it could be like high-end never

3:53:30stopping development that would tell me

3:53:31something different right so there is

3:53:33some nuance here in terms of telling

3:53:35folks where we're headed but now we're

3:53:37getting into the specifics and so as you

3:53:39heard earlier but I'm going to repeat

3:53:40your staff are going to propose the

3:53:42objective line and so right now what I

3:53:44want us to do is kind of in between

3:53:46those bottom two, which is the question

3:53:49I'm asking you all within these five

3:53:52buckets, acknowledging maybe there might

3:53:54be some tweaks, but I think we're okay

3:53:55with the gist. Within these five buckets

3:53:59for you, what is success?

3:54:02And I want to challenge you not to get

3:54:04into initiatives. So, not like Bob

3:54:08Street is paved, not that level. I don't

3:54:11think there's a Bob Street. It's my

3:54:12example. Um, but rather pretend, imagine

3:54:15it's three years from now. It's 2029.

3:54:18This is all everything we want is wildly

3:54:21successful. What are you bragging about?

3:54:24What are you like, oh, welcoming

3:54:26community. We do X really well. What is

3:54:29success? And you don't have to have

3:54:31we're going to kind of pull it together.

3:54:32We're going to look at it. So, it can be

3:54:35quirky. It can be literal. Be you. But

3:54:38what for you would success look like for

3:54:41these five? Trying not to get too far

3:54:44into specific initiatives. If that is

3:54:46impossible, we'll be fine, but ideally a

3:54:50little bit above initiative and

3:54:51objective level. So these are kind of my

3:54:54prompt questions for you. Again, it's

3:54:57the future and I'm asking how are your

3:55:00staff showing success? What is what

3:55:03progress has been made? If you were

3:55:06like, "Yeah, we did it." And so we're

3:55:07gonna do this in a couple of rounds. The

3:55:09first round, I want you all to jot some

3:55:11thoughts down with that prompt on your

3:55:13own. So solo, single. What does success

3:55:17look like for

3:55:19all five? If you have a if you really

3:55:22love one over the others, you can you

3:55:25can just focus on one. Um, but up to the

3:55:28five,

3:55:29what for you as a council member, mayor,

3:55:31prom is success?

3:55:35questions on what I'm asking you to

3:55:36think about.

3:55:37>> Do this for all five?

3:55:38>> Yes. If you want to, you can do less if

3:55:40you'd like, but I would love for you to

3:55:42do all five.

3:55:45>> That's not where we're going to go. I

3:55:48appreciate your brain, [laughter]

3:55:50but that's not where the math is going.

3:55:51So, you can do you have three minutes

3:55:54solo to jot down your five and then

3:55:57we'll merge a little bit differently.

3:56:06This been three years,

3:56:08>> correct? Three to five if that feels

3:56:10better. But yeah, but then not today.

3:56:13future thinking

3:56:18[laughter]

3:56:19>> and if it's helpful

3:56:23don't have it next to this but of course

3:56:25the five round

3:56:39melting on the screen

3:56:41>> [laughter]

3:59:32>> All right.

3:59:35[laughter]

3:59:36That's how we stay on time. I'm sorry.

3:59:41Okay. Now, what I'd like you to do is

3:59:43I'm going to ask you to turn to your

3:59:45neighbor, which is um the two of you

3:59:48together, the two of you together,

3:59:51and take all of your ideas that you came

3:59:53up separately, chat about them, maybe

3:59:56even negotiate them, and I want you to

3:59:58land on five total. You will probably

4:00:02have similarities, so that'll probably

4:00:04knock out some of that.

4:00:08You can also, if in your discussion you

4:00:10realize actually this other thing. It

4:00:12doesn't have to be exactly what you

4:00:13brought to the table. And at the end of

4:00:15I'm going to give us 10 minutes. At the

4:00:17end of 10 minutes, we'd like you to have

4:00:20five answers, one for each

4:00:24of the bowls.

4:00:27So, you're going to be combining, you're

4:00:28going to be negotiating, you're going to

4:00:30be discussing.

4:00:31Don't get too wordy because it might

4:00:33take you a while. But the the essence of

4:00:36the idea is what we're looking for.

4:00:38>> And then we'll talk about it as a full

4:00:40group as well. So you'll have time to

4:00:42add to it, subtract from it as we keep

4:00:43going.

4:00:44>> So one

4:00:45>> one each

4:00:46>> one each.

4:00:47>> One for each goal, not one for each

4:00:50person.

4:00:51>> Okay.

4:00:51>> So I want you five total after 10

4:00:55minutes.

4:00:57>> Begin.

4:00:59Yeah.

4:01:01[laughter]

4:01:10>> I have I just start

4:01:16traffic

4:01:21although we have we achieved

4:01:25greater economic development. I guess

4:01:29>> more business more jobs.

4:01:33>> I mean,

4:01:44>> yeah, because

4:01:55>> I don't know if you can [laughter]

4:01:58So

4:02:01>> I think these are kind of

4:02:22people say

4:02:38summarize all [laughter]

4:02:45[laughter]

4:02:53>> and this could be

4:03:19posted.

4:03:21>> Okay. one thing

4:03:24five question

4:03:28like you know a good description for

4:03:29location of choice so like Apex is

4:03:31location for

4:03:34>> high profile company commercial and le

4:03:37industrial

4:03:41Yeah, that's

4:04:02[laughter]

4:04:05>> okay. This is guy writing. Okay.

4:04:09But we can't read that.

4:04:13>> You can't read mine. We cannot read.

4:04:18[laughter]

4:04:19>> You got much better handwriting.

4:04:22>> Much better handwriting. Okay.

4:04:32>> Now we have a question for you.

4:04:48housing specific

4:05:00traffic.

4:05:13How can we be a welcoming community?

4:05:16>> Okay.

4:05:34>> [laughter]

4:05:37>> I'm done.

4:06:00>> That's too good. Yes.

4:06:28>> Stop right.

4:06:53That's my phone.

4:07:03infrastructure.

4:07:10Good.

4:07:27>> All right.

4:07:43Yes.

4:07:54[laughter]

4:07:56>> Of course.

4:08:12>> [laughter]

4:08:13>> I'll give Jul

4:08:26three minutes. If you could make sure

4:08:27you're working on your post,

4:08:55then this is

4:09:00I don't I don't

4:09:23think about like

4:09:38>> [laughter]

4:09:42>> accessible

4:09:43bed box and cross.

4:09:50pedestrians.

4:10:00[laughter]

4:10:06>> Okay.

4:10:21>> [laughter]

4:10:21>> She took a picturely

4:10:29responsible to customer

4:10:32responsially

4:10:36now it's the bleeding is the big

4:10:44[laughter]

4:11:07system

4:11:09of our cleaning service.

4:11:14>> So too much to compare. All right, that

4:11:16was

4:11:20How are we doing?

4:11:26>> Do you have the other two?

4:11:48environment.

4:11:54We're gonna have you share

4:12:09>> go.

4:12:13>> I know.

4:12:18coverage.

4:12:26>> Okay.

4:12:30from I mean I mean uh like

4:12:34solar or electricity

4:12:38>> that's also environment

4:12:44>> or alternative energy

4:12:47>> provide more

4:12:49>> challenge you on that

4:12:50>> tell

4:12:58That is a that is something to say to

4:13:00somebody.

4:13:07[laughter]

4:13:12Thanks.

4:13:15>> I did a good job.

4:13:22>> All right. I think we are all ready.

4:13:26>> So, what we're going to have you do is

4:13:28each pair share your top five. We will

4:13:32also take your postits as you're sharing

4:13:34and put them up on this board, okay? You

4:13:35see in front of us. And then we'll also

4:13:37have an opportunity to chat about it a

4:13:39little bit as well. So we can kind of

4:13:41talk about where you landed as a group.

4:13:44>> Are we good to get started?

4:13:50>> Sure.

4:13:51>> Go ahead.

4:13:52>> Okay. Is there a pair that would like to

4:13:54go first?

4:13:56[laughter]

4:13:58>> Go first.

4:13:58>> Okay.

4:14:01>> Let's go into order. If you've got Yeah,

4:14:02we'll just go in welcoming first.

4:14:05>> But we can move it.

4:14:06>> Measure for welcoming community was Our

4:14:10measure was that our uh that our

4:14:12grandchildren would want to live.

4:14:14>> Okay. Our grandchildren would want to

4:14:16live here and for responsible

4:14:19development.

4:14:20>> Let's see. That one was

4:14:23the town is bigger but it feels small.

4:14:25>> Okay. Smaller

4:14:28>> or smaller?

4:14:29>> Smaller.

4:14:34[laughter]

4:14:37>> Okay. Oh, smaller than a field.

4:14:39>> Smaller than

4:14:39>> that was the word preference. Okay.

4:14:42Economic vitality.

4:14:45>> Oh, that's more opportunity to work here

4:14:47as opposed to commuting off.

4:14:49>> Okay. More opportunity to work here and

4:14:51not have to commute.

4:14:53>> Environmental issue. Uh, more green than

4:14:55concrete driving around town.

4:14:57>> More green than concrete.

4:15:00>> You like that? [laughter]

4:15:02>> Best dream.

4:15:04>> We're dreaming. Let's dream. I like

4:15:07this. This was council gray also. Uh

4:15:10high performing government efficient

4:15:11ability for any resident participate in

4:15:14youth sports.

4:15:15>> Oh okay. So specifically in youth work

4:15:18because that gives you a measure. First

4:15:21of all if you can get many people to

4:15:24participate that means you've got

4:15:25capacity.

4:15:26>> Yep.

4:15:26>> The efficiency is the ability to

4:15:28register. That also means that makes it

4:15:30affordable for anybody to be able to get

4:15:32into it. So we've made measurable

4:15:35distinctions within one department that

4:15:37everybody gets a chance to touch on. And

4:15:39if you can make that happen for youth

4:15:41sports, then you ultimately address a

4:15:44lot of the issues that happen

4:15:46>> because if you cannot buy a kid, then

4:15:48you're giving a parent a little bit of

4:15:50time. So if you can do all of that, if

4:15:52you can measure that, your effects are

4:15:54going to be toward everybody's death.

4:15:57Back in the back in my military days,

4:15:59what we used to do is we made a shift in

4:16:02DoD from attacking targets to what's

4:16:04called effects based operations. Meaning

4:16:06that you do things to get in a desired

4:16:09effect.

4:16:10>> You do this, the desired effects will be

4:16:13better parents, affordability. It shows

4:16:15that we've got infrastructure,

4:16:17buildings, and ability to be able to

4:16:19have anybody who wants to be in a sport

4:16:21participate in that sport. And that

4:16:23means you've expanded the sports as

4:16:25well. So that's just effect that creates

4:16:28outcomes in a bunch of other areas that

4:16:31overall improvement.

4:16:34[laughter]

4:16:36>> So it's both sort of representative as

4:16:39well as indicates trickle down effects.

4:16:43>> Yeah, absolutely. Okay, we're going to

4:16:45keep rolling and then we'll talk about

4:16:46them all collectively.

4:16:48>> We have Facebook

4:16:54[clears throat]

4:16:57>> [laughter]

4:17:03>> Okay,

4:17:04so you've got a sort of one apex

4:17:06exclamation point and then public safety

4:17:08satisfaction. Fantastic. Okay,

4:17:12>> responsible development.

4:17:13>> Okay, so this is all from folks

4:17:14responsible by ordinance. So

4:17:17>> okay,

4:17:17>> uh meaning we can claim our res

4:17:20irresponsible development isn't

4:17:22possible.

4:17:23Oh, because the ordinance have it such

4:17:25that it's not it's literally not

4:17:27possible to do. Okay.

4:17:28>> Thank you. Economic advice.

4:17:31>> So, we have

4:17:33increase

4:17:36commercial

4:17:37development footprint by 50%.

4:17:39>> Oh, okay.

4:17:42>> [laughter]

4:17:50[laughter]

4:17:51>> We have we have

4:17:56>> I did see that there was a percent

4:17:58earlier so I was like okay [laughter]

4:18:01uh environmental leadership

4:18:04>> yeah this one goes straightforward

4:18:06strong tree protection path

4:18:08>> okay fantastic

4:18:10govern it

4:18:12here is positive trends and retention

4:18:14turnover and employ

4:18:16>> okay positive trends

4:18:21>> but it speaks to exactly what you're

4:18:22thinking about people are staying people

4:18:24want to be working here and the work is

4:18:27working

4:18:28>> absolutely last at least what are your

4:18:30five

4:18:31>> okay I'll start with uh welcoming

4:18:33community

4:18:34>> okay improved housing mix and housing

4:18:38affordability

4:18:40to make Apex a place where everyone can

4:18:43find a place to live.

4:18:45>> Okay, fantastic. Everyone can find a

4:18:47place to live. Wonderful. Responsible

4:18:50development.

4:18:52>> Uh address key traffic problem areas

4:18:54through road improvements, public

4:18:55transit, and complete street designs.

4:18:58>> Okay. Do you have a

4:19:02Is there a short way to say that? I know

4:19:04you probably tried, but is there like

4:19:08>> there's not congestion [laughter]

4:19:12congestion is gone or uh transport is

4:19:18seamless or is there anything like that

4:19:19that kind of speaks to it? You don't

4:19:21have to, but

4:19:22>> congestion

4:19:24significantly

4:19:26reduced.

4:19:27>> Okay.

4:19:28>> No way. It's gone. No way. It's gone.

4:19:30>> Fair enough. Significantly reduced.

4:19:33>> Yes. And um public transit system is I

4:19:38mean the the usage of public transit

4:19:41system

4:19:42>> has increased.

4:19:43>> Yeah. Has significantly increased.

4:19:46>> Okay. People are making use of the

4:19:47public transit. Yeah.

4:19:48>> Which is of course connected. So the

4:19:50congestion is down. Okay. Thank you very

4:19:53much. Good additional.

4:19:55>> All right. Here

4:19:56>> I can have vitality.

4:19:58[laughter]

4:20:01>> Okay. Um, Apex is the location of choice

4:20:05for highprofile companies,

4:20:08>> especially commercial entities.

4:20:11>> Okay.

4:20:11>> Yeah.

4:20:12>> Fantastic. So, location of choice.

4:20:13>> Yeah, that's nice.

4:20:14>> Commercial. We need a nice commercial

4:20:16>> phrase there. Yeah. Location of choice

4:20:17for hyperfall commercial.

4:20:20>> All right. Environmental leadership.

4:20:22Here's where we started running out of

4:20:23time. Um, alternative [laughter] energy

4:20:26options available to us. So you know

4:20:28kind of get beyond the

4:20:31>> electricity only

4:20:32>> electricity or or gas like you know what

4:20:35we used to

4:20:35>> a multitude of all

4:20:37>> make options available

4:20:38>> maybe wind. Yeah,

4:20:39>> we need

4:20:40>> fantastic

4:20:41>> free. [laughter]

4:20:44>> And last but not least,

4:20:45>> okay, high perform

4:20:48high performing governments like high

4:20:51resident satisfaction. No complaints.

4:20:54>> No complaints.

4:20:57>> Zero complaints.

4:21:02[laughter]

4:21:03>> All right. Fantastic. Thanks everyone.

4:21:06So now you see essentially a

4:21:08representative of all six of your

4:21:11visions for what success would entail.

4:21:16Reactions, reflections, and seeing them

4:21:17all kind of up there together themes,

4:21:22something that you're like, "Yeah,

4:21:23that's really important."

4:21:27I

4:21:27>> think a lot of them got the same

4:21:31>> some definite commonalities coming

4:21:32through, right?

4:21:44What's the question? [laughter]

4:21:47>> I was like, your face's like, do you

4:21:50want to share?

4:21:51>> Um,

4:21:52>> I'm still gauging the one with no

4:21:53complaints. [laughter]

4:21:59>> That's why we're That's why it's a

4:22:00vision. It's a vision.

4:22:04shoot for the moon. Even if you miss,

4:22:06you're wrong the star.

4:22:06>> There you go. Our plan is that this

4:22:09gives your teams direction once they

4:22:13start working on those objectives

4:22:14they're going to work on. And so this

4:22:16gives them a sense of what feels really

4:22:18critical to you all and where you really

4:22:21want to make sure they're focusing and

4:22:23thinking as they start playing with

4:22:25those objectives, which again is that

4:22:27layer underneath the goals.

4:22:30And so

4:22:33is anything missing? Is there anything

4:22:34we kind of forgot about that feel top of

4:22:37your mind?

4:22:38>> So when they come back and say stage

4:22:40this isn't realistic.

4:22:42>> No be well I don't know what I'm not in

4:22:45charge of them. I don't know what

4:22:46they're going to say. But the idea is

4:22:48not that these are more of the

4:22:52sort of dreamy version.

4:22:54>> Yeah.

4:22:54>> Yeah. And so we're not going to tell

4:22:57that this is literal

4:22:59necessarily, but it gives a sense of uh

4:23:02of the perspective, right? A sense of we

4:23:05really want you focusing on these kinds

4:23:06of things and this is really what's

4:23:08critical. Was that a hand or

4:23:10>> no?

4:23:10>> Oh, okay.

4:23:12>> Thumbs up actually. Um yes, I think um

4:23:16balance,

4:23:17>> okay,

4:23:18>> is important. For example, the

4:23:21affordable housing, right? Usually it's

4:23:23high density and creates more you know

4:23:28uh traffic congestions

4:23:30>> that your bonus [laughter]

4:23:33>> good point

4:23:34>> which is also balanced.

4:23:35>> Yeah. That's why yes the public transit

4:23:38system you use that to balance and also

4:23:42infra better infrastructure you know um

4:23:44the widen roads and also more uh like uh

4:23:49biking lens maybe and more crossroads so

4:23:54people don't have to drive all the time.

4:23:56>> Yeah.

4:23:57>> And you use specific or transport

4:23:59related but I think I was also hearing

4:24:01balance is key across the board. Right.

4:24:03Yeah. Also when we talk about the

4:24:04responsible development space also when

4:24:06we talk about um how people are even

4:24:10kind of how government is prioritizing

4:24:12thinking about things. Okay. Other

4:24:14thoughts or reflections.

4:24:24If we take this

4:24:27and share it back. Well actually they're

4:24:28hearing us now but we will also share it

4:24:30back.

4:24:32this feels like the right

4:24:35sort of guiding light for them to then

4:24:37start building out objectives for you.

4:24:39>> Yeah.

4:24:43>> All going in next year.

4:24:46>> Well, and I was I was going to comment

4:24:48on that. I've got a lot of thoughts in

4:24:49the head. Share all of them. Um, so it

4:24:53the way it's I'm not saying you're

4:24:56specifically structuring this way, but I

4:24:58think the atmosphere is that this is the

4:25:00success staff go to this,

4:25:03>> but I think there's ownership at the

4:25:04council that this is too because we

4:25:08could bring something to you that we

4:25:10feel like points towards success and you

4:25:13may go a different direction. Therefore,

4:25:15we're not successful out the system. The

4:25:18other thing that came to mind was I

4:25:20think success is often a moving target.

4:25:24So if you tell me this is success, we go

4:25:26and achieve all of this, I guarantee you

4:25:29there's going to be another board behind

4:25:31this of what success looks like.

4:25:33>> So recognizing that it's an evolving

4:25:35thing, it's a moving target. Even though

4:25:36you've given us specifics,

4:25:38>> what does it mean to be specific on

4:25:40success? And are you all committed that

4:25:43okay, if I if I take this column and I

4:25:45we do

4:25:47glasses on, but we do these three

4:25:49things. Good chief that

4:25:50>> lots of alternative energy options.

4:25:52>> Right.

4:25:52>> There you go.

4:25:53>> Yeah. Or or even like the staff

4:25:54turnover. It's like, okay, we get to a

4:25:56good turnover rate and then we maintain

4:25:58that. Okay, we're successful. But I feel

4:26:01like going to be other steps. So, it's

4:26:02it's an evolving working thing.

4:26:04>> Um I don't know how put all my thoughts

4:26:07together.

4:26:07>> I think I mean I love that thought

4:26:09because to me that's very much kind of

4:26:11aligned with my you know what's the

4:26:13exact you know the the task itself will

4:26:17change year to year, month to month, day

4:26:19to day, almost hour to the effect is

4:26:22what you're ultimately trying to get the

4:26:24outcome. So if I want to, and anybody

4:26:27who's had a kid here understands this

4:26:28analogy, which is if you want your kid

4:26:31to make up their bed every morning,

4:26:33there's a number of ways you can make

4:26:35that happen. You know, you could say,

4:26:37"I'm grounding you until that happens."

4:26:39You could do the old drill sergeant

4:26:41thing, tearing everything off the bed,

4:26:43or even hiding the bed completely.

4:26:45There's a bunch of ways to get there.

4:26:47Some may be child abuse, some may just

4:26:50being a parent, but it's the effect that

4:26:53you're trying to get to, which is

4:26:54ultimately getting the bed made. So, we

4:26:58want you to get to the effect. We want

4:26:59to empower you all to be able to figure

4:27:01out how to get to the because once

4:27:04again, you all have much more knowledge

4:27:07on how to make that outcome a reality

4:27:10than we do. And our job from my

4:27:14perspective is to make sure that we are

4:27:16providing the right tools and talent and

4:27:19incentives to make sure that you guys

4:27:21have all the resources necessary to do

4:27:24the jobs that you need to do. You know,

4:27:27get to the get to the go in the

4:27:29direction how you get there. The words

4:27:32of General Patton, you know, don't tell

4:27:34someone how to do it. Just tell them

4:27:36what to do and let them amaze you with

4:27:38their ingenuity and how they got it. And

4:27:41that's what we've got to do is force you

4:27:44to be able to make that happen. And

4:27:46understanding that the target's going to

4:27:48change hour to hour, day to day, month

4:27:50to month, and give us grace to to

4:27:52understand that, you know, there's some

4:27:54frustration because the target has

4:27:56changed or the nature of the of the

4:27:58objective has changed like, you know,

4:28:00that's why it's an open dialogue. I

4:28:02think as a count we've been very very

4:28:04frank with you know be be be be be be be

4:28:07be be be be be be be be be be be be be

4:28:07be be be be be be be be be be be be be

4:28:07be be be be be be be be be be more more

4:28:08than count to be able to tell us that

4:28:10we're either you know overstating the

4:28:13goal, understating the goal or just

4:28:15completely off the mark because in order

4:28:17for us to be able to help make sure you

4:28:19guys are doing your job, we need to know

4:28:21that we're actually resourcing you and

4:28:24having feedback to know that that's

4:28:25what's taking place. So this is this is

4:28:28a cooperative goal. These are not your

4:28:30goals. are everyone's hope. This is how

4:28:33we [clears throat] are because it's not

4:28:35for us. It's for everyone outside and

4:28:39that's the focus.

4:28:42>> Can I just say one thing? Love

4:28:44everything you said. I'm concerned with

4:28:46you saying the goal might change.

4:28:50>> No doubt.

4:28:52Um you you want this strategic plan to

4:28:57at least give you enough stability for

4:29:00staff to exit.

4:29:01>> Agreed. That's why I said goal may

4:29:03change. Plan doesn't.

4:29:05>> Okay.

4:29:07Okay. And so when so the goals

4:29:11are going to stay the same. The general

4:29:14plan is going to stay the same. The

4:29:18actual initiatives under the plan might

4:29:20change.

4:29:22how they want to do it. That's going to

4:29:23be that's going to be the direct. But

4:29:25even our longer I mean even our long

4:29:28strategic goals, I mean we're here five

4:29:30years after we came up with this plan

4:29:31looking at whether or not our goals have

4:29:33changed. I mean that's that to me.

4:29:36>> Yeah.

4:29:38>> Yeah. Absolutely. I just don't want it

4:29:41to be whiplash for staff.

4:29:44>> Yeah.

4:29:45>> Today I don't even know what we're

4:29:48talking about.

4:29:50Yeah.

4:29:56And I think the overarching point

4:30:00>> the overarching point which we've

4:30:02captured is that this is collective.

4:30:05We're going to use this for staff to

4:30:07kind of pick think about the objectives

4:30:09but it doesn't mean it belongs solely to

4:30:10them. Um so thank you for for adding

4:30:12that layer to it. This is about your

4:30:15collective town and what that that looks

4:30:18like.

4:30:20All right.

4:30:20>> She didn't like our option.

4:30:22>> Apparently, I threw this one down. Okay,

4:30:25then we are gonna stop here on this

4:30:28piece.

4:30:29>> I was just going to reflect on what

4:30:31Council Grace said a moment ago about

4:30:32dial.

4:30:33>> That's my just quick, not the overall,

4:30:37but just a quick reflection. I really

4:30:39like the effects, but I could absolutely

4:30:42see how some of that can be dizzying,

4:30:43especially when you just all of a sudden

4:30:45on the fly got a bunch slapped up on

4:30:47board. That's where

4:30:50again it's that communication over the

4:30:52wall. There's this document, there's

4:30:54this document, there's this stuff and I

4:30:56feel like you're dispro

4:30:58So I I guess I think it's good news. My

4:31:01point is is I think that the open

4:31:03dialogue is good. I think that the more

4:31:06that open dialogue is encouraged, the

4:31:08more we can simplify some of these and

4:31:11make them more manageable and then

4:31:14[clears throat] council Ray's point,

4:31:15empower you guys to then go figure out

4:31:17how it's done um before

4:31:21um tackling what's undoubtedly an

4:31:24overwhelming task ahead.

4:31:27And that is definitely the plan that

4:31:29they all come into like the initiatives

4:31:31piece that you're looking at there. That

4:31:33will come into the initiatives piece of

4:31:35the planning and and that that'll be

4:31:37that's where we're hoping to land. So we

4:31:40hear you.

4:31:42>> All right. Thank you all very much.

4:31:44Thank you for sharing your creative uh

4:31:46ideas on the visioning and let's talk a

4:31:48little bit more to your point about next

4:31:49steps.

4:31:50>> I want I want to just make sure Mandy,

4:31:53you said you had a lot of thoughts in

4:31:54your head.

4:31:55>> Yes,

4:31:56>> that's normal. And you said

4:31:58>> you only you only said one out loud.

4:32:01Were there others?

4:32:02>> No, there are others. But I mean it's I

4:32:04need to think through others and digest

4:32:06this as we all

4:32:07>> I think it's to your you've been given

4:32:10documents today that came from staff.

4:32:12>> You guys have provided us feedback. We

4:32:15all need to take and digest this and see

4:32:19>> a deep breath like that. Yeah, I think

4:32:20there are some things here that are good

4:32:22>> to give a full reaction.

4:32:24>> You feel again

4:32:26frantic in terms of all of a sudden look

4:32:28at all these things we got to do might

4:32:30be an opportunity to keep talking.

4:32:36>> Thank you.

4:32:37>> Okay. [clears throat]

4:32:38>> Um we are actually mayor we're almost

4:32:41done.

4:32:43>> [laughter]

4:32:45>> Um

4:32:47>> we we are going to collap consolidate

4:32:51collect all of this information and

4:32:53share it back with the department

4:32:55directors in about two weeks for them to

4:32:59start turning these into objectives so

4:33:02that we can come back to council um and

4:33:06show this all as a collective package to

4:33:08you all to make sure that this feels

4:33:11like what what you're saying and also

4:33:14will give you time to be kind of

4:33:17reflecting like it was a lot of

4:33:19information. There was maybe something

4:33:21missing that I want to mention. If there

4:33:24was something missing that you want to

4:33:26mention, let Randy know so it can be

4:33:28incorporated into um what staff is doing

4:33:32between now and when we see you next

4:33:34November 17th. After November 17th, when

4:33:38the council has had an opportunity to

4:33:42digest and bless what the strategic

4:33:45plan, structure, and contents would look

4:33:47like, we would then go out to a handful

4:33:50of community um sort of small events

4:33:55with some targeted folks um like your

4:33:58peak academy folks, some of your

4:34:00business community, youth, um your Randy

4:34:05has ask me anything session.

4:34:08>> We

4:34:08>> talked about the

4:34:10community engagement program, the

4:34:11neighbor

4:34:12>> neighbor um leaders program.

4:34:15>> Yeah. So there'll be an opportunity to

4:34:18get a sort of community pulse check

4:34:21after you've done your recommendation

4:34:25before you finally adopt it. So there'll

4:34:27be that um that back and forth. It is

4:34:31you know at the beginning I showed that

4:34:32how this embeds with the comprehensive

4:34:37plan your peak peak plan

4:34:45>> when

4:34:47[laughter]

4:34:49um there's community meetings about that

4:34:51happening too. So want you all to this

4:34:55is the three to five year the peak plans

4:34:58longer term but we're going to be asking

4:35:00community about the strategic plan while

4:35:04the planning department's also asking

4:35:06about that paper comprehensive plan

4:35:09information. So there's a little overlap

4:35:11which if it feels a little confusing to

4:35:14you might feel a little confusing to the

4:35:16public try and keep emphasizing the

4:35:19differences and other

4:35:23Um

4:35:24that is what we had intended to

4:35:26accomplish today.

4:35:29Before we adjourn, council members, any

4:35:33um any additional thoughts and any

4:35:36membering concerns?

4:35:39>> I have one. Okay. It's for the um

4:35:43transportation.

4:35:45How can we increase the participation

4:35:48for our public transit system like go

4:35:52apex I went to rally uh the other day I

4:35:55saw the huge um rally you know um bus

4:36:00station there's so many people just to

4:36:02sit there waiting for the bus but in

4:36:05Apex our bus kind of empty most of the

4:36:10time only one or two three people taking

4:36:14the bus. How can we

4:36:18>> multiaceted question?

4:36:20>> Yeah,

4:36:21speak to

4:36:23>> think we're already taking steps by

4:36:25increasing the cut the bus route in half

4:36:28in terms of adding an additional bus.

4:36:30We've talked about different routes in

4:36:32the future.

4:36:33Part of it is

4:36:35is is the bus going to enough places and

4:36:38so as you increase your routes and give

4:36:40other options more people

4:36:59also think focusing

4:37:14on

4:37:18but it will take a while.

4:37:21>> Yeah. Bigger. Yeah.

4:37:25>> Right. Yeah, I remember

4:37:30when we when we had meetings with car

4:37:32remember this three four years ago

4:37:35>> they said that you know they the way to

4:37:39think about it public transportation

4:37:42infrastructure is it's more akin to a

4:37:44tree than it is filling a pocket you're

4:37:48planting for 10 years from now and they

4:37:50engaged and I know we engaged in the

4:37:52idea of a public transportation system

4:37:54understanding that this is a 10 year

4:37:56ramp up because the thing that you've

4:37:58got to build is the infrastructure, the

4:38:01understanding and the things like that.

4:38:03Raleigh's system, you know, it's still

4:38:06in its infancy, too, [clears throat]

4:38:08but it is what 20 22 years in. So, you

4:38:13know, we're looking at their wrership.

4:38:17Ours will eventually get to that point,

4:38:18but you can't get there. It's it's it

4:38:21this is a 10ear process. It's and it's

4:38:23and it's a 10ear process because it is

4:38:25so just intensively resourced,

4:38:29>> right?

4:38:30>> But we'll get there. We'll get there.

4:38:33>> Thank you for all the answers, Sha.

4:38:35Thank you.

4:38:36>> And and we've got that question as part

4:38:38of what staff should be coming back.

4:38:42>> Any other

4:38:43>> we we have seen increase in writership

4:38:46especially since we put the the second

4:38:47route in place. Right. So you know we

4:38:51through the uh mult transportation

4:38:53advisory board you can keep an eye on

4:38:55those those stats right and through that

4:38:58advisory board we're also um you know

4:39:01engaging on some more public outreach

4:39:04and then you know create more awareness

4:39:07uh you know we have a single loop right

4:39:09now which is pretty restrictive right

4:39:12and so once we start connecting you know

4:39:15some of these other routes and uh I

4:39:17think we'll see more uh more increased

4:39:19value shift at you know kind of my point

4:39:22of reference stairs. the bus stations

4:39:24that you see people sitting and waiting,

4:39:27right, are typically the transverse like

4:39:29where the the car 305 or what what that

4:39:32comes in, right? So our, you know, our

4:39:35residents take the little bus to that

4:39:38station, right, to that stuff

4:39:40>> and then pick up the larger bus to go to

4:39:42work or wherever, you know, they're

4:39:44going, right? So I think that that

4:39:46interconnectivity with multiple lines,

4:39:48multiple you know options to go places

4:39:51is going to be the key and that's you

4:39:54know the road map that's chip.

4:39:58>> Thank you. Yeah

4:40:01want to say thank you for the amazing

4:40:11work. I continue to look around the room

4:40:15so much

4:40:19election so [laughter]

4:40:26[clears throat]

4:40:28>> good everybody.

4:40:30>> Yes.

4:40:33>> Thank you.

4:40:34>> Thank you.

4:40:48My favorite show is next.