With Strategic Plan, Town To Lay Out Future

The Vienna Town Council voted Monday night to begin a nine-month strategic planning process, which will end in the approval of a document it hopes will prioritize resources and funding as the town faces new requirements and development continues , and throughout Corner.

Town Manager Mercury Payton, who was involved in strategic planning while he was employed by Manassas Park, brought the suggestion to the council as a way to chart its future and drive initiatives and funding.

While the town has developed and over the years, "we really haven’t put it together in one document that serves as a policy statement," said Administrative Services Director Nancy McMahon, who also leads the town's Major Issues Committee (MIC).

"The strategic plan would be the driving force for what we want to accomplish in the long term," Payton said. "It would connect all the pieces, and what it really does is provide structure for staff to know what needs to be done."

The biggest improvement would be seen in the town's annual budget process, Payton said: Currently, each department Sometimes, it's hard to reconcile those items with other town wants and needs.

"A strategic plan can actually tell staff [in advance] 'These items are important to us, you should go in this direction,'" Payton said.

The document will also allow the town to better track the steps it takes toward its goals, and be more transparent to residents, Public Information Officer Kirstyn Barr said.

The plan presented by Barr and the MIC on Monday night would authorize staff to hire a third-party facilitator, who will help the council develop themes and objectives in an off-site work session in June with existing funding in the town's training budget.

After that work session, town staff will spend the summer preparing mission, vision and critical measures and action statements, and updating the town's core values.

The council will review those documents at an October work session; review a draft of the strategic plan in November; and adopt it at a regular meeting in January 2013.

Afterward, staff would review and update the strategic plan at its annual retreat, and the council would review the document every five years.

Councilwoman Carey Sienicki asked if the public could have a chance to offer input or feedback on the document.

McMahon said the third-party facilitator could help walk the council through different options for resident input at its work session in June.

"This is probably a good time to sit down and say 'Who are we and where do we want to go? Who do we want to be and how are we going to get there?'" Mayor Jane Seeman said.