COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

County Manager’s Office

 

DATE:

BOARD MEETING DATE:

SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:

VOTE REQUIRED:

January 21, 2009

January 27, 2009

None

Majority

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

FROM:

Mary McMillan

Deputy County Manager (650) 363-4129

SUBJECT

Update of Shared Vision 2010-2025: Vision to Action

RECOMMENDATION

Accept this update report on Shared Vision 2010-2025.

VISION ALINGMENT

Commitment: Responsive, effective and collaborative government

Goal: Government decisions are based on careful consideration of future impact, rather than temporary relief or immediate gain.

BACKGROUND

In the fall of 2007, your Board determined it was time to update the Shared Vision 2010. A Community Steering Committee was established and an “Issues Briefing Book,” was prepared to initiate the process and frame the discussion with these questions: Where are we now? Where are we going? Where do we want to be? A total of ten community forums were conducted across the county, including two in Spanish and a Youth Town Hall meeting. Additionally, over a three-month period the on-line survey generated 680 completed questionnaires. More than 1,000 individuals participated in the Shared Vision 2025 process answering the question: What are the most important goals that San Mateo County should set for the year 2025?

The revised Shared Vision 2025 reflects your Board’s direction and feedback to streamline the vision statements. Gone are the Shared Vision 2010 ten commitments and 25 goals, replaced with five high-level outcome statements. Reducing the number of vision statements and discrete goal silos places increased emphasis on the interconnectedness of county policies and programs. The five vision statements capture and reflect the top priorities consistently identified through the community process. Together, they express a desired future for a healthy, livable, prosperous, environmentally conscious and collaborative community. As a result of that community process, five new vision outcome statements were approved by your board:

Our Shared Vision 2025 is for a sustainable San Mateo County that is:

Healthy

Our neighborhoods are safe and provide

residents with access to quality health care and seamless services.

Livable

Our growth occurs near transit, promotes affordable,

livable connected communities.

Prosperous

Our economic strategy fosters innovation in all sectors, creates jobs,

builds community and educational opportunities for all residents.

Environmental Conscious

Our natural resources are preserved through environmental stewardship,

reducing our carbon emissions, and using energy, water and land more efficiently.

Collaborative

Our leaders forge partnerships, promote regional solutions, with informed and

engaged residents, and approach issues with fiscal accountability and concern for future impacts.

DISCUSSION

From the beginning your Board has regarded the visioning process as a means to engage residents and stakeholder groups as our community partners, to assume greater personal and collective responsibility for the future of the County. Visioning, however, was not just a process to set strategic goals that looked well out into the future, but also a means to continuously engage residents to develop and implement strategic actions over time to achieve the desired outcomes.

To begin to move Shared Vision 2025 from five outcome statements into community action would require champions: residents, community partners, stakeholders and Board members involved in each of the five vision outcomes. With the Board, these champions would be charged with forming a community “task force” around each of the five outcomes, inclusive and representative of stakeholders, partners and the broader community. Each task force would complete an assessment of what is currently being done throughout the county, in terms of efforts that contribute to achieving the vision. Based on that information, each task force would identify areas or “gaps” that need more work. They would develop an issues agenda and through further community engagement, develop recommended strategies or initiatives necessary to address the gaps. Each recommendation would be prioritized, elevating those that require immediate action and are most urgent, with lesser efforts that could be accomplished over the long-term. Taken together, the recommended strategies would constitute a Shared Vision 2025 strategic action plan.

Your Board, through its subcommittee of Supervisors Gordon and Jacobs-Gibson would first appoint co-chairs for each of the five task forces with community and County staff participation. The task forces would meet over the next three to four months completing their work and reporting back to you with their strategy recommendations no later than May 19, 2009.

Fiscal Impact

Full funding for the Shared Vision 2025 Project is included in the FY 2008-09 County Budget.