Thursday, February 18, 2010

The city of Key West has resolved to create a strategic plan, an initiative proposed by Commissioners Jimmy Weekley and Teri Johnston and formally approved by the City Commission.

Is this a worthy idea? Of course it is. Every private sector and public sector institution should have a clearly articulated strategic plan:

1) As a means of assessing where things stand today;

2) To explore the extent to which a new or modified vision of the future would be desirable -- and why;

3) To establish realistic goals that will ensure measurable progress toward a new or modified vision of the future within predetermined milestones and timetables; and

4) To understand the magnitude of resources, leadership and public support that will be required and, perhaps most important of all, to assess whether such a plan and the goals that go with it are even feasible.

Obviously, it is not difficult to be enthusiastic about the concept of a strategic plan. But when you think a bit about the effort and complexity of the tasks involved, Mr. Weekley, Ms. Johnston and the City Commission had better think again about what may be required to make a success of the venture.

For example, it's our understanding that a committee or team of citizens appointed by the commissioners will undertake responsibility for the entire effort. If the past is prologue, we would respectfully point out that the outcome of public policy initiatives put into the hands of committees sanctioned and mandated by the commission is somewhere between awful and discouraging.

One reason this is so is that, without staff support or realistic funding, you cannot expect volunteers to undertake and succeed with tasks that otherwise require experienced consultants.

Another consideration is, it seems unlikely the commission can assemble a committee of citizen volunteers who are sufficiently familiar with the intricacies and requirements of strategic planning, a discipline well-known to experts, but frequently beyond the competency of the rest of us.

Under the circumstances, we urge the city to engage the services of a seasoned consultant or an academic who teaches strategic planning. Such experts can give proper structure to the project, as well as the knowledge and experience to assemble the data and planning tools necessary to a fully articulated proposal.

This does not rule out the desirability of a committee of local citizens. These volunteers would be especially well-equipped to seek public input, a necessary task in the planning process and, also, be available to the consultant in understanding the many unspoken priorities of the general public, as well as the professional and business communities.

-- The Citizen