SOUNDING OFF: Ending re-rinse cycle of city government

In a recent Surfing Soapbox, titled “A never-ending re-rinse cycle,” (Sept. 26) James Pribram compares an old washing machine with Laguna’s politics. His point was that the same issues facing our city keep being recycled, as an old machine might remain stuck on its re-rinse cycle. Pribram includes a laundry list of city to-do projects and programs that have been, seemingly, endlessly recycled.

While many of the listed items have merit, I believe the list is too superficial. True council leadership involves digging deeper into the long-term needs of the community, not just matters they hear about from their constituents and staff. This often means the people who yell the hardest get what they want. An alternative superior approach is establishing priorities through a long-term strategic planning process.

It appears to be America’s nature to not look long-term, but to take the path of least resistance or instant gratification. As a result, elected and appointed officials who bring up and take on difficult issues are often not popular.

As an example, consider the current national financial fiasco. It was evident that the meteoric increase in housing prices would surely collapse when largely supported by sub-prime mortgages. Politicians failed to take corrective action. Even the Department of the Treasury secretary and the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman failed to act. On the contrary, they touted how great the economy was doing, especially the housing sector. Unfortunately, we were riding the crest of a wave that was inevitable going to crash with a major wipe out.

Another major issue that we have known for years is our dependence on foreign oil. The U.S. only has 2% to 3% of the world’s oil reserves, but consumes 25% of the world’s oil production. Why have we failed to develop a comprehensive national energy plan to minimize this dependency? The same can be said for our failure to address the looming problem with the underfunded Social Security and Medicare programs.

While the city is not facing such monumental issues as these, there is a lesson to be learned from the problems that have been ignored at the federal level. That is, good leaders do not just address the superficial issues that constituents might want as illustrated by Pribram’s laundry list. The council should devote a significant amount of time and resources to strategic planning.

Simply put, strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. This process culminates with a long-term financial plan to address the city’s needs. The long-term financial plan is a living document with the projected costs for the city’s priorities. It is continually updated and used to develop each year’s budget.

This planning process was adopted by the city of San Clemente 17 years ago and has been extremely successful. San Clemente has been transformed from a financially strapped community with notoriously potholed streets and decaying storm drain system into a financially healthy one with miles of new streets, improved streetscapes, storm drains and other revitalization projects in its business districts and throughout the city. All levels of public services have been dramatically improved, including public safety and recreation.

The decisions that a council makes in the strategic planning process are only as good as the information upon which they are made. Therefore, the process involves a great deal of research and assessment of our long-term needs. The public and key stakeholders are included throughout the process for their input and to discover other needs and interests for which limited resources are competing.

The strategic planning process includes an evaluation of our aging infrastructure: streets, storm drains, sewer lines, pumps and treatment facilities, parks, beaches, traffic, parking, and other public facilities. It should include an evaluation of how the city is going to use technologies and innovations. It should evaluate future staffing needs and options on how to best meet these needs. It should evaluate our options to assure we have emergency care facilities within a reasonable response time in case of closure of South Coast hospital’s emergency room. It should look at how the city would respond to a significant loss of revenue from the looming economic downturn and still provide essential city services.

To their credit, the city staff and City Council have done considerable work in developing plans for many of these issues. Yet, there needs to be much more work to really get our arms around the issues and prioritize them as they compete for limited staff time and funds. It will require three to four years to initially establish a strategic plan with the long-term financial plan. It will require the use of outside assistance given the complexity of identifying and quantifying the issues to determine the scope of the work and their costs. This diligence will also put the council and staff in a better position to justify the fees or taxes that might be necessary to pay for these projects and programs.

While strategic planning might seem lofty “pie in the sky” or academic, it needs to be a council priority. The process and the decisions that come from it will better allow the council and staff to meet our future needs in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. And Pribram’s to-do laundry list might be shorter, to all our benefit.

LYNN HUGHES lives in Laguna Beach.