Here is a link to the City of Manassas strategic plan: link It is a pdf file so you need to have acrobat. This was written in 2005. This was before I was elected and I actually served on that commission. A couple of things are obvious from reading the plan. The first is that, even 2 years ago, overcrowding and zoning problems were climbing in importance. The second is that the fiscal situation in the City was pretty good. The document itself is also pretty general in nature.
In the next few weeks, the Land Use and Economic development committee will start to take up refreshing our comprehensive (land use) plan. Part of this process is to review the City’s strategic plan. With all of that in mind, what I’m looking for is feedback on the City’s overall strategic plan. If you can spare a few minutes, give it a read (it’s only like 8 pages long) and let me know what you think.
May 9, 2007 at 8:57 am
Andy,
Thanks for posting this. The easier it is for the public to see what our government is trying to do, the better off we all will be. I have a couple of comments.
First, it is great that the Council is doing this. As you have mentioned here before, it is very easy for politicians to get so wrapped up in day-to-day fights that they lose track of where they are headed. Exercises like this remind all of us what our government is trying to do, thereby helping you know what to focus on.
More specifically, under “Positive growth and Economic Development,” I think you need to include a bullet on downtown. It is important to focus on the neighborhoods, but downtown is the face and heart of our community. Having a friendly, vibrant and beautiful downtown attracts both visitors and businesses. It also helps cement the town’s sense of identity. Several of the bullets in this section refer to downtown, but I think it is important enough to get its own bullet. The town will not stay healthy if its heart is not healthy.
Under “Neighborhood Preservation …” I question whether the number of home owner associations is really an important indicator of the town’s health. Personally, I don’t want to live in a community with a homeowners association. I see them as another level of government, and traditionally a very unresponsive level of government at that. Are home owner associations really necessary for a vibrant community? I think the city government can focus on working with neighborhood groups, but you don’t need to create home owner associations to do that.
Under this same bullet, tracking the percentage of people leaving the city each year will give you a better measure of general satisfaction than a poll of the people who don’t leave. You would expect most people living in the city to be generally happy with it. If they were not, they would go elsewhere. On the other hand, if the city is experiencing a net-outflow of citizens, this would indicate a rising level of unhappiness with city services, especially f those people are moving to neighboring jurisdictions.
Still under “Neighborhood Preservation…,” can we measure the number of citizens who are involved with civic life? How many volunteer in the community? For the town? In the schools? The more Manassas residents who are actively engaged in making the town a better place to live, the healthier the town will be. Can we track this?
Under “Government Stewardship” I suggest having a formal goal of making the city and school budgets available on-line in as much detail as possible. The city budget is up in some detail, but I can’t find the school’s budget, except in very general terms. The more information you can provide, and the easier it is to access this information, the better. Having an explicit goal to make all budget information public and easy to access is, I think, important enough to be spelled out explicitly. Let’s face it, most of what the town government does involves raising and spending money. You should make it a priority to tell us how you are doing that.
Finally, I note that there is nothing in the plan about the schools. I suspect they were excluded out of deference to the School Board, which is reasonable. However, it needs to be noted that no community can be healthy without healthy schools. The schools consume most of our taxes and are the part of the government that most citizens interact with the most often. I think the City Council should explicitly commit itself to helping the School Board build the best school system in the state. Having it in the Strategic Plan would remind both the Council and the School Board that this needs to be a team effort. Our schools are too important, and good schools too difficult to run, for the City Council not to have a role in building them. While this probably should not be a major point, some recognition of the importance of the schools to the town is, I think, warented.
Overall, I think this is a good effort by a distinguished group of citizens. Thank you for posting it and inviting comments. I apologize for the length of my comments.
June 21, 2007 at 10:13 pm
A brief comment Andy…. Though Manassas is a little place, our leaders need to think and act as if we were a big place… meaning that we need to take account of local problems and rather more broad opportunities, if we are to flourish as a community over the long term. We need to stop thinking like the guy who figures that he could get HBO and Showtime if he payed $200 less in taxes each year and think more strategically, as our economic competitors do (it’s our problem to consider, and not just that of our national representatives). Those who are concerned about illegal immigration are acting locally to address a much broader issue (to their credit in some cases, and to their discredit in others, but nonetheless with an eye to a long-term trend) that will impact our quality of life over the long term. Manassas, to it’s credit, from its very inception as a town, was a very progressive place, which understood the power of strategic vision and investment. Unfortunately, the current Council, truth be told, is doing nothing of a truly visionary nature to advance the prospects of the City of Manassas and its citizens in a competive national and international economy. Where is the great offensive (as opposed to defensive) strategy? Where is the modern equivalent of civic investment that we saw with the Manassas Airport, the Manassas Electic System (the distribution of system, by all rights, should be 100% underground, rather than only 84% underground, after more than 30 years), the Manassas Water Impoundment (Lake Manassas), the Manassas Museum System (which has been starved of resources in the last few years as the only shriveled remnant of our commitment to cultural infrastructure)? I ask you, most respectfully, to pay more attention to the position of Manassas relative to its economic competitors (local, regional and national) than to those poor loudmouthed souls (deprived economically, intellectually and educationally) who have gained ascendancy in the Manassas Republican Party. Think of those who the insurgents, who now control the party, have jettisoned… it is a true slaughter, a veritable bloodbath, of the skilled, educated, moderate and visionary (with the excetion of Mr. Way and yourself). The truth, acknowledged by all, is that L’il Parrish is a soft grass in a powerful wind to be influenced by anyone who pressures him (his own mother finds herself often in the position of apologizing for him). Mr. Aveni is a classic know-nothing, who brings discredit upon himself, his family, and Manassas. You and Mr. Way are the only potential voices of reason. Please save us.
June 22, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Andy… I neglected to mention Steve Smith in the round-up… he also believes in and is committed to the health of Manassas as a community over the long term. But one of you guys, or some of you together, have to take a leadership role in defining a strategic vision, with a clear execution plan backed by REAL INVESTMENT. From a strategic investment perspective, Manassas has been treading water and sinking slowly for about five years. It’s sad that you’re having so much trouble coming up with money for more zoning inspectors (a very basic defensive move to protect overall property values, the cost of which is no more than decimal dust in the overall budget), and it does not bode well for the prospects of getting the City back on its feet and moving forward again. Who, do you think, those on the City Council who so muscularly oppose civic/community infrastructure investment believe they are representing? Can you help us understand their motivation and thinking? Do we need to move (in an organizational sense) against the cuckoo’s who’ve hijacked the leadership of the GOP in Manassas?
July 16, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Andy, I whole heartedly agree with Mr. Hall’s accessment of the situation. We need fair minded, rational leadership at this time to continue to keep Manassas the kind of community honest, hard working people would want to reside and raise a family. We need to stand apart from surrounding jurisdictions and deal with the problems of our city. If we buy into the current hate-based, prejudice retoric that has dominated the political discussions lately then we are going to damage the reputation of this city beyond repair. You, Mr.Smith and Mr. Way need to be the voice of reason in this matter. Of course there are problems, but the attitude of “Act now and think about the consequences later” can only lead to disaster. Manassas is up to their necks in legal troubles because of the rash and knee-jerk actions of the Council two years ago. Things may turn out good or they might not; nobody knows for sure at this time. Economic growth and development as well as schools, police protection, essential services and quality of life issues depend on Tax revenues. If property values continue to fall and tourism in the Old Town areas decreases, budgeting for the future is going to become a much trickier proposition. Clean up the town, but co it the right way, the legal way, by enforcing the ordinances that are already on the books. Get Manassas involved in creating the kind of community we can all be proud to call home.