Lehi City News
Lehi City Staff and Council holds retreat, set goals
Lehi City staff members and the Lehi City Council recently met at a retreat to identify themes, needs, and goals for the fiscal year 2019. The motto was, “The One Thing.” The six themes that were identified were “tradition, parks, proactive, public safety, arts, and family friendly.”
Seven goals were discussed and chosen for implementation:
- Downtown Revitalization Plan
- Alternative Financing for Parks
- General Plan update
- Police Station
- Arts Center
- Dry Creek Lake
- Bike Trail Grants
Each department worked independently to establish specific goals and plans to achieve these goals. The departments and their goals/plans were:
City Council: Develop a cutting-edge, family-centric community.
Administration: Create a more efficient organization through the use of improved technology and data-driven decisions.
Community Development: Update the Land Use Element of the General Plan. The strategies used would be to hire a planning firm/consultant and proceed with update process and finally adopt the plan. The measures or actions would be to prepare an RFQ/RFP, follow selection process, prepare and get approved city contract. Then, create a steering committee, create a public involvement plan, and create a new draft plan. Finally, have the DRC (development review committee) review and then adopt.
Economic Development: Promote Lehi City as the #1 location for high wage jobs, retail shopping experience, entertainment opportunities, and affordable housing to facilitate growth and a higher quality of life for Lehi residents.
Engineering: Convert the Jordan River Reservoir into a family fishing facility while augmenting the water resources of Lehi City.
Fire: Deliver a high level of professional service to the community while enhancing public education and community relations. The strategies involved would be to maintain a 4-8-minute response time, implement employee mentor programs, and increase public education by reaching 15% more residents. Actions to reach these goals would be: ensure station boundaries are adequate, hire new high-quality employees, and promote highly qualified officers. Additionally, establish timeline benchmarks, get input from employees, ensure employees have opportunity to advance through training. Finally, establish a juvenile fire setter program, community and Lehi City CPR, annual fire prevention open house, and a child education program.
Justice Court: Implement evidence-based sentencing practices and utilize effective community resources for convicted defendants to reduce recidivism in the criminal justice system and effect positive change and reparation.
Recreation: Provide high-quality programs and services designed for Lehi families. The strategies employed would be to give resident priority registration for sports, develop a program proposal process and increase program offerings for seniors. Measures or actions taken are: to implement resident registration period prior to opening to outside participants. Dates to begin in the 2018 calendar year for full implementation mid-way through FY 2019, offer online proposal process to suggest programs that meet resident needs, priority given to meet family-centric curriculum based on available time and resources. For seniors, 8 trips (3 overnight) 6 events and 2 new programs.
Police: Provide professional police services focused on citizen engagement and transparency.
Power: Use technology and improved infrastructure to provide safe, reliable power. Strategies identified by the power department are internal generation, mapping, and metering. Action or measures taken are complete construction of gas line and generation facility, build a positive working relationship with neighbors and implement scheduling program to economically run generators. In mapping measures taken would be complete and review system inventory, find the best solution to implement field tools to best respond to needs, create processes to continue to update the system. The final action would be to determine short-term options for a meter vendor, form a committee to create RFP and select technology for smart grid network.
The work accomplished at the retreat will guide Lehi City staff and City Council members in future discussions and in decision making.
