The City of Cathedral City’s 5-Year Strategic Plan is now available for residents to review on the Discover Cathedral City homepage. The plan provides a longer-term perspective for service delivery and budgeting as well as operationally addressing current needs and priorities.
On Jan. 27, 2024, the City’s leadership team and City Council met together for a daylong workshop to review the City’s Five-Year Strategic Plan and to set goals for the next year. This was the second full update provided to the City Council since the plan was adopted on April 12, 2023. The City Council approved updates made to the Five-Year Strategic Plan made at the Goal Setting Session at the regular meeting on Feb. 14, 2024.
During the workshop, the City Council received a financial overview of the City’s midyear fiscal position, particularly the significant costs due to damage and debris removal resulting from Tropical Storm Hilary. After the fiscal update, the City Manager and executive team members provided the City Council updates on their efforts on meeting the Strategic Plan goals and objectives, guided by the following questions:
- Over the past year, what has your department accomplished that you and your team are most proud of? What factors contributed to your success?
- What has challenged your department the most? What were the biggest internal or external factors that impeded your department from achieving your goals and objectives?
- What key initiatives will be the focus of your department over the next year? Do they still align with the goals/objectives outlined in the Strategic Plan or do they need to shift? If a change is proposed, what is the proposed change and timeline for implementation? After the staff’s presentations, the City Council provided their response to the same questions, which led to a discussion of future goals.
Similar to the City’s Biennial Budget process, 5-Year Capital Improvement Project (CIP) Plan, and the Parks Improvement Project Plan, the Strategic Plan will not be a static document. It will be reviewed, updated, and revised annually to reflect City Council priorities, business imperatives created by evolving customer needs and expectations, technology, and emerging legal and regulatory requirements.
