Prioritizing Our Priorities...Again

Prioritizing Our Priorities...Again

By April Sither, Scarborough Town Council Chair

As occasionally happens, we had a little snafu with who was planning to author this week’s article. Typically, when this happens I am called up, or self selected, to write something on a short deadline. Normally, I am all too happy to oblige. I love connecting with people through writing. However, this week when Councilors Cushing and Anderson needed an article in a pinch and they suggested I could write about our council goals…again, I think I audibly groaned. While my last article on goals was informative and timely, it was also dry and lacked personal connection. When I wrote it, I knew it didn't have the right balance of information and relatability. So while I hadn’t planned on improving it, I will take this second chance to make a first impression. 

The Council held a productive goal setting meeting on Saturday, January 25th. The meeting, unlike most (if not all) of our other meetings, was not livestreamed or recorded, which we took a little flack for on social media. Candidly, we work week after week, on camera, in some pretty high pressure situations. At goal setting we dressed casually, moved around the room freely, ate snacks, and joked as colleagues do. It was good for our council dynamics, and I appreciated the relaxed setting to do some really great work, and eat cookies without my kids knowing exactly how many. 

In my four years as a councilor, I have never seen a council put more foundational work in ahead of our goal setting session. As a result, we really set ourselves up for success. I kicked off the work in early December by soliciting goal ideas from each councilor. What resulted was a seven-page document bursting with everything from big ideas to granular tasks. We took that document with us as we met with Senior Staff on January 23rd to inform our final goals. The biggest take away from that session for many of us was clear - we have been doing A LOT the past few years, and this year may be the time to refocus, reprioritize, and pick a handful of goals to dedicate focus and make significant progress on, versus spreading ourselves (and our amazing staff) too thin. I can’t say thank you enough to our staff and committee volunteers for making all of this work happen. I do not take your dedication for granted. 

There are so many great things coming this year that we will be carrying over and starting to develop action plans for, most notably the Open Space Master Plan, Vulnerability Assessment, Town-wide Transportation Study, and New School Project with the School Building Advisory Committee (SBAC). These efforts in themselves are big for the Town to work through and will continue to require significant time and energy. 

In an attempt to temper ourselves, which is more difficult from some than others, five goals were brought forward from Councilors related to facilities planning, conservation, sustainability, resilience, growth, affordable housing, communications, advocacy with the state, traffic and transportation, and financial stewardship. These goals will drive our agendas, give direction to our citizen committees, and align with our staff expertise, all while keeping you, our residents, our number one priority. 

So much careful thought and effort went into the development of these goals, but none of that will mean anything if they don’t represent our community’s values. I hope you will attend or tune in to our February 5th meeting to hear the goals, and offer us your thoughts and feedback before we vote to adopt them on February 19th. 

So, as we buckle down for another busy year, I’m hopeful we’ll keep moving forward—though, let’s be honest, if nothing else, we can all agree these meetings could always use more cookies! See you at the February 5th meeting!

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Scarborough Town Council.