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Get Involved in El Cerrito’s Strategic Planning Efforts! City Hall 10890 San Pablo Ave El Cerrito, CA 94530 City of El Cerrito The City would like to engage its residents and stakeholders in the strategic planning process. If you would like to contribute to our city’s vision for the future, please visit www.ElCerritoStrategicPlan.org to get started. There are a number of ways in which you can participate, and we are looking forward to hearing from you! Strategic Planning Process Creating our future… Together For more information, contact: Suzanne Iarla, Community Outreach Specialist [PHONE REDACTED] Karen Pinkos, Assistant City Manager [PHONE REDACTED] [EMAIL REDACTED] www.el-cerrito.org ---PAGE BREAK--- How Can We Get There? Pick a future point in time, say 20 years, and imagine looking out over the City of El Cerrito. What do you want to see? Preparing a strategic plan begins with a clear vision for our city’s future and is supported by our mission and values. Building on these key ingredients, we can identify goals and strategies to get us there. A vision sets the focus for the future. Our mission states the purpose of our city organization. It fundamentally defines what our organization stands for and what it will do. Our organizational values drive the goals we create and how we implement them. Our values provide the basis for how we intend to achieve our mission and vision. Some examples of values could include professional excellence, innovation, responsiveness, leadership, teamwork and integrity. What is a Strategic Plan? A strategic plan articulates the direction we are headed and identifies strategies to achieve specific goals. The strategic plan for El Cerrito will create a shared vision of our future among community members, elected officials and city staff. The strategic plan will: Convey confidence about our future Create clarity about strategies to pursue to achieve goals Help us match priorities with resources Spark new thinking about what “success” looks like Define essential outcomes and performance expectations A strategic plan creates consensus about expectations and provides guidelines for the use of resources. It serves as a roadmap and will guide much that we do. Goals provide a framework to guide the focus of the organization, budget decisions and the allocation of other resources, such as staff time. They state the desired future and are expressed as wide views of opportunities for change and improvement. Goals provide the “why” of our specific actions. They help our city’s leadership decide which of the many worthy projects should be done and when, within available resources. The goals of El Cerrito must be meaningful and attainable. Strategies are the means to achieving the goals. They describe our approach and answer the question: How will we go about accomplishing the goal? They may include broad areas to pursue, rather than individual projects. Our Mission: The City of El Cerrito serves, leads, and supports our diverse community by providing exemplary and innovative services, public places, and infrastructure; ensuring public safety; and creating an economically and environmentally sustainable future . Strategic Plan Service Priorities General Plan Update Climate Action Plan Economic Development Capital Improvements Vision Mission Values Goals Strategies Photo: Dale F. Mead www.dalefmead.com