Willmar City Council to hold retreat Oct. 16

WILLMAR - Willmar Mayor Marv Calvin said he hopes City Council members will discuss priorities and goals when they hold a retreat Oct. 16. Calvin announced the retreat at the regular council meeting this week.
Calvin said Big River Group LLC of St. Cloud was selected as the consultant to lead the retreat at a location yet to be determined. Calvin said the retreat would start at 1:30 p.m. and last 4 to 4 1/2 hours.
Calvin and several other council members have expressed their support for holding a retreat.
The retreat will be preceded by interviews conducted by Bruce Miles, owner and CEO of Big River Group, with council members, department directors and key employees at City Hall.
In his written proposal for the retreat project, Miles listed three specific goals:
• Increased effectiveness of council work.
• Development of better working relationships among the council.
• Development of better working relationships between the council and city staff, and positive
perceptions of community members.
The last council retreat was Nov. 23, 2013, with the goal of setting priorities. But the session appeared to have been unproductive, with the
facilitator at that time going so far as to use the term “dysfunctional.”
Miles wrote that his system has been used extensively with service and education organizations, including governmental units, schools and school districts; interagency collaboratives; colleges and universities; and other nonprofit organizations.
His work includes leading a town hall meeting attended by more than 300 people who gathered March 26 to discuss Willmar’s future.
Miles wrote that the system will allow participants to quickly work through issues and develop more effective strategies where needed.
Calvin said in an interview that he hopes the council will discuss a number of things. He said his priorities have been streets, parks, infrastructure such as maintenance and repair of city buildings and facilities, and stormwater.
No. 1 is streets, for which Calvin said he increased his 2016 budget by $370,000. No. 2 is parks. Calvin requested $710,000 for parks, but the council reduced it to $706,000 during preliminary budget discussions Sept. 14.
On stormwater problems, Calvin said the council needs to find solutions. But he added, “We need to understand that those solutions on stormwater are going to be very expensive.’’
Calvin said he hopes a consultant group studying facility needs will have a report for the council in the November-December timeframe. But he thinks those numbers are going to be very high.
Also, about $400,000 remains unappropriated in Calvin’s 2016 budget. Calvin said the council will have the ability to move that money around to where their priorities are.
“I hope that the council can agree coming out of that to get some direction on where we should go on one or more of those issues,’’ Calvin said.
The other thing, Calvin said, is the opportunity for the council as a whole to set goals on what they should be working on.
“I hope we can agree to put a strategic plan together for the city, and that is that the council would be policy setters and we would let staff carry out the policies that we set,’’ Calvin said. “And so that would be one of my goals as well.’’