Redesigning Ventura City Government
Tonight, we present our Redesign Plan formally to the City Council for their consideration.
The goal of this plan is an ambitious one: to forge a sustainable strategy so we can weather at least two more years of hardship from the local effects of the global economic crisis. We will not spend money we don’t have. With our limited resources, we must reshape City government to focus on what matters most. The highest priority has gone to public safety and rebuilding prosperity by promoting high-wage, high value jobs in the private sector. Every aspect of the way we do business has been questioned with the goal of eliminating or reducing lower-priority expenses and finding quicker, better and/or cheaper ways to deliver high-priority results. We offer a plan for a leaner and greener city organization redesigned to succeed despite these difficult times.
This plan is the result of a unique collaborative effort. Every city program in the General Fund was analyzed and prioritized by six committees made up of key staff from throughout the organization and active community partners. The final recommendation has been put together in a spirit of shared sacrifice, City staff has been asked to reduce payroll expenses by 5%. The Redesign plan reduces our General Fund workforce by 10%, requiring reductions in services that will be felt by every citizen of Ventura for years to come.
It is always easier to get people to agree that something must be done than to get them to agree on what must be done. Many aspects of the Redesign Plan will be controversial because they eliminate or reduce programs popular with many parts of our community and reduce our loyal and dedicated city workforce. Even those who worked hard on this effort vigorously debated every element of the overall plan. But the Redesign plan fulfills the Council’s key groundrule for this effort, unanimously adopted in January:
“To ensure increasingly limited resources are allocated to what matters most in achieving the General Plan Strategic Visions, the City Council recognizes that tough choices will need to be made and that its emphasis will be placed on eliminating, reducing or restructuring lower-priority programs and expenses rather than compromising the success of high-priority efforts by inadequate funding.”
The Redesign plan is organized into six themes, reflecting the strategic visions of the 2005 General Plan, which also guide our annual performance measures. The underlying budget framework for each department makes up the total spending plan for approximately $85 million in General Fund revenue during the next fiscal year.
The Redesign plan will be presented formally at the City Council meeting tonight for discussion and debate beginning on March 23rd. The purpose is to begin to implement the approved version of the plan prior to the new fiscal year.
It is with a deep sense of responsibility that I recognize how difficult the upcoming decisions will be for our City Council and our community. Yet back in 2000, the citizens who contributed to the “Ventura Vision” report recognized, “to remain successful, Ventura must periodically renew itself, re-examine its goals and create a shared vision to guide the community into the future.” When the City Council unanimously adopted the General Plan in 2005, it embraced a long-term vision of what it would take to “ensure that our City continues to be a great place to live.” This crisis forces a re-examination of how we achieve our goals through a redesign of how our government does business and a reprioritization of what matters most. But it need not divert us from our long-term goals and our commitment to strive for excellence in serving the citizens of our unique community.
For more details on the plan, what priorities are being fully funded, what services are being reduced, what expenses are being cut and what programs are being eliminated -- see the first item on the City's budget page here.
The goal of this plan is an ambitious one: to forge a sustainable strategy so we can weather at least two more years of hardship from the local effects of the global economic crisis. We will not spend money we don’t have. With our limited resources, we must reshape City government to focus on what matters most. The highest priority has gone to public safety and rebuilding prosperity by promoting high-wage, high value jobs in the private sector. Every aspect of the way we do business has been questioned with the goal of eliminating or reducing lower-priority expenses and finding quicker, better and/or cheaper ways to deliver high-priority results. We offer a plan for a leaner and greener city organization redesigned to succeed despite these difficult times.
This plan is the result of a unique collaborative effort. Every city program in the General Fund was analyzed and prioritized by six committees made up of key staff from throughout the organization and active community partners. The final recommendation has been put together in a spirit of shared sacrifice, City staff has been asked to reduce payroll expenses by 5%. The Redesign plan reduces our General Fund workforce by 10%, requiring reductions in services that will be felt by every citizen of Ventura for years to come.
It is always easier to get people to agree that something must be done than to get them to agree on what must be done. Many aspects of the Redesign Plan will be controversial because they eliminate or reduce programs popular with many parts of our community and reduce our loyal and dedicated city workforce. Even those who worked hard on this effort vigorously debated every element of the overall plan. But the Redesign plan fulfills the Council’s key groundrule for this effort, unanimously adopted in January:
“To ensure increasingly limited resources are allocated to what matters most in achieving the General Plan Strategic Visions, the City Council recognizes that tough choices will need to be made and that its emphasis will be placed on eliminating, reducing or restructuring lower-priority programs and expenses rather than compromising the success of high-priority efforts by inadequate funding.”
The Redesign plan is organized into six themes, reflecting the strategic visions of the 2005 General Plan, which also guide our annual performance measures. The underlying budget framework for each department makes up the total spending plan for approximately $85 million in General Fund revenue during the next fiscal year.
The Redesign plan will be presented formally at the City Council meeting tonight for discussion and debate beginning on March 23rd. The purpose is to begin to implement the approved version of the plan prior to the new fiscal year.
It is with a deep sense of responsibility that I recognize how difficult the upcoming decisions will be for our City Council and our community. Yet back in 2000, the citizens who contributed to the “Ventura Vision” report recognized, “to remain successful, Ventura must periodically renew itself, re-examine its goals and create a shared vision to guide the community into the future.” When the City Council unanimously adopted the General Plan in 2005, it embraced a long-term vision of what it would take to “ensure that our City continues to be a great place to live.” This crisis forces a re-examination of how we achieve our goals through a redesign of how our government does business and a reprioritization of what matters most. But it need not divert us from our long-term goals and our commitment to strive for excellence in serving the citizens of our unique community.
For more details on the plan, what priorities are being fully funded, what services are being reduced, what expenses are being cut and what programs are being eliminated -- see the first item on the City's budget page here.
posted by Rick Cole at
11:01 AM
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