Community safety will be ensured through plans to staff Fire Station 2 and a community policing program.Greater citizen involvement will he accomplished though a Community Visioning process, review of the city’s bilingual translation policy, expanded city Website, televised council meetings, and an outreach program to the Spanish-speaking community. The council and citizens will work together to implement goals and priority projects.Enhancing customer focus and business friendliness of city government will include complete management audits of each department and instituting the recommendations of the citizens and employee customer service task forces.“This is the cleaned up version of what you developed,” at the January goals workshop, said Bobkiewicz.Vice Mayor Gabino Aguirre called the plan the “best effort to this point” to move the community forward and said the council and community should be “actively engaged so these don’t wind up on the shelf. . .”To ensure wide exposure of the council adopted plan Councilman Rick Cook suggested that it be aired on the city cable television station, while Mayor John Procter asked that the plan be posted in the council chambers to remind the body of the goals.
Council adopts wide-ranging goals, priority projects for fiscal year balance
February 14, 2003
Santa Paula City Council
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula TimesMaintaining and enhancing the quality of life fostering a balanced community and housing development, ensuring community safety, facilitating greater citizen involvement and enhancing customer focus and business friendliness of city government were the top priorities set by the Santa Paula City Council at a recent goals workshop.The almost all day session was held to tackle goals and priority projects for the rest of the budget year and provide direction to staff on how to publicize and monitor the implementation of same.At the Jan. 25th goal setting meeting, City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz noted that when the council initially adopted goals in Nov. 2001, “in my humble opinion, these are not goals at all but projects,” and he urged the council to “think of the distinction of goals and priority projects as well go through the process. . .use your goals to be as broad-thinking as possible.”The council formally adopted the plan at the Feb. 2nd meeting.Working to keep open the financially plagued Santa Paula Memorial Hospital led the list of maintaining and enhancing the quality of life issues, followed by construction of a new wastewater treatment plant, improving streets, parks and water systems as well as completing the skatepark.The council also approved implementing an aggressive graffiti abatement program.Striving for a balanced community and housing development will see implementation of a Economic Development/Redevelopment Plan targeting Main Street, downtown redevelopment and business development. Fulfilling the Housing Element will be planned and a grant writing strategy development and implemented. Also online is facilitating the construction of the new Ventura East Campus.
