The Covington City Council and staff leadership spent most of Saturday, January 30th, in what is commonly called a “Retreat”.  The official name was “Annual Strategic Planning Retreat“.  This event was held in a nearby meeting facility to keep costs down. While this event is always advertised, few citizens ever attend.  This year, there were two, with one being from the Planning Commission.  It is tough enough for your elected officials to take a weekend day off for public business, as most have full-time jobs, too.

As with past Retreats, this one had very specific goals that were planned for in advance.  They were tweaked at the meeting a bit and were as follows:

1.  Review 2009 accomplishments and reaffirm our vision, mission and goals.

2.  Have a thought-provoking conversation about the City’s infrastructure (most specifically transportation) and how to ensure it reflects future trends, public preferences and strategic investments.

3.  Discuss tools and techniques to strengthen communications and relations with the public, with Commissions and within the Council.

4.  Anticipate Issues that may be the subject of future Council discussions.

While you had to be there to get the gist of the many hours of conversations, I can report that the time was well worth it, both for the Council Members, staff and Citizens.  I should point out that “Citizens” not only includes the Covington residents, but all those that transit the City in a vehicle and/or take advantage of the many services our great City offers!  Decisions made by this Council affect a lot of people and that responsibility is clearly understood.

This Council works together very well.  While not everyone agrees on everything, most issues are hashed out and voted on with a 7-0 vote.  While there may be controversial issues, civility and respect are a strength of this Council and the ability to “agree to disagree” is the result if compromise is not fully possible.  This Retreat was a great example of this.  While it was intended to be a more casual setting than the usual Council Chambers setting, it was no less important than any other meeting.  In fact, as some topics may span a generation before they are completed, one could argue that this is the most important meeting of the year!

Dozens of tasks were the outcome of the Retreat.  These tasks will be more carefully studied by both Staff and the Council in the coming months.  Some were small, such as trying to give better notice to our residents of street sweeping schedules.  Others were, simply put, huge! These include such things as future transit needs, road improvements, maintenance of existing roads and how to pay it.  Keeping high-quality services such as public safety, parks, and business services our community wants is very hard when the economy is tough.

The Council came away from this meeting energized and more ready than ever to meet the challenges this next year will bring.  So, hopefully, you now understand why a “Retreat” can be an “Advance“!