On the slips of paper, an array of Savannah City Council members’ priorities and ideas ― workforce development, balance/livability, transportation accessibility ― began to shape a strategic action plan for city staffers to wrangle. The number of slips on the wall reached over 100 by the end of the two-day session.
Council’s idea collage resulted in a set of six “strategic priorities” to guide City Manager Jay Melder and staff in drafting a strategic plan for this council’s four-year term. The plan, which will be the city’s first since 2017, will identify policy initiatives and assessment measures that match council’s values and priorities.
“I think this really narrows it down,” said Mayor Van Johnson. “It helps our staff to really be focused, it helps our budget discussions to be focused. It helps to really operationalize our vision.”
The six strategic priorities, drafted by Melder and Rashad Young, chief strategy officer at Washington, D.C.’s Howard University and a consultant, encompassed key areas, including:
- community development and resiliency
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public safety
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livable built environment/infrastructure
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quality of life/fundamental city services
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economic access, opportunity, vitality, and
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good government.
Johnson said he felt like the list encapsulated council’s work and their shared goals. “Our council members are not only well-versed and knowledgeable, but very passionate. A lot of the conversation was very impassioned, really about values and then about initiatives.”
District 4 Alderman Nick Palumbo said the sessions were “cathartic,” because they were an opportunity to talk about the bigger picture, while week-to-week council work is often dictated by the agenda.
The policy issue that received the most support was housing security and the undercurrent to all of the priorities was how to distribute effort and funding equitably.
Palumbo said he was very excited to see housing as a top priority of council. “What’s both comforting and affirming is that nothing jumped out to me out of that board that I didn’t expect to see already. The priorities of housing, public safety, community resilience, those are major investments we are making here in the city already.”
During visioning, council hashed out old wounds
On the morning of the second day of the retreat, consultant Ruth Demeter guided council through its visioning sessions and prompted members to share actionable steps they could take to achieve “consensus and collaboration.”
Council members shared their steps, but the conversation eventually turned to lingering tensions from the previous council, which was often marked by its division. What ensued was about 30 minutes of council members sharing their perspective and feelings about existing and perceived divisions.
Post 2 At-Large Alderwoman Alicia Miller Blakely said there is still a dynamic where members of council’s majority leave out her and District 1 Alderwoman Bernetta Lanier. Johnson referenced previous instances from last term where other council members attacked his character online.
When it came time for District 2 Alderman Detric Leggett to speak, he said there was a large Bible in his church. In it, he put in every single council member’s name. In the middle of sharing, Leggett was moved to tears. “Y’all are all I got left,” Leggett said. “I got family members, but I spend the majority of my emotional time with y’all.”
While the conversation moved away from the initial scope of the exercise, Blakely said that it was a necessary conversation, because divisions remained. Multiple council members acknowledged that the first day of visioning sessions showed that everyone deeply cared about Savannah and shared a goal to make it better, although they didn’t all agree on the steps to make it better.
Johnson said after the retreat that the conversations were constructive and, in some ways, therapeutic. He described it as “get it off your chest.”
“Sometimes you got to have that family meeting, the difference is for us, those meetings have to be in public unless prescribed for by law,” Johnson said. “I think we’re good. We’re going to continue to be the greatest city on Earth, because we have the greatest council on Earth.”
Tuesday’s retreat ended with council members laughing, egging on Melder as he imitated an emotive preacher while recounting the work done and the path forward. At one point, he motioned as if he was playing an organ to accent the end of his remarks.
“We’re really excited about these four years,” Melder said. “We were glad we could kick off these four years with work like this.”
Evan Lasseter is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah council leaves retreat with vision for strategic plan