By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
SUAMICO – The village will be seeking public input for putting together a new strategic plan.
Village Administrator Alex Kaker said on Monday, Nov. 18, the last strategic plan was approved by the village board in June 2013, with the process having started by surveying residents and businesses in 2011.
That strategic plan lists six goals:
• Maintain and enhance rural character.
• Maintain/enhance the village’s operational efficiencies.
• Maintain and balance stable and reasonable general fund tax and utility rates.
• Public participation processes improvement and enhancement.
• Enhance and encourage commercial/business creation and expansion that is sustainable.
• Promote balanced high quality grown Tax Incremental Financing and specifically encourage residential,
commercial and mixed use development in the utility serviced areas.
Kaker said utilizing the village’s 2015 comprehensive plan, which was last updated in January 2016, to assist with developing survey questions and drafting goals should allow the village to move faster than the last strategic plan process that took more than two years.
He suggested the following schedule with deadlines for the strategic plan process:
• Jan. 31: Strategic Plan Committee (SPC) formed from one member of each regularly occurring village committee (Planning and Zoning Commission, Cemetery Committee, etc.) including one trustee.
• April 6: Resident and business survey developed by SPC and staff approved by village board and distributed to the community.
• May 29: Surveys are due back to the village.
• June 30: Draft goals and objectives created by SPC and staff input.
• July/August: Two public meetings for the community to provide input on draft goals and objectives.
• Sept. 21: Village board approves 2021-23 strategic plan.
Kaker said a new strategic plan could be used as a guide when putting together the 2021-23 budgets.
Survey design
Though the village previously mailed out a survey, Kaker questioned whether he would want to spent an anticipated $4,000 to do so now when there could be less expensive options used.
“I think we could do a lot of either the internet with our social media and other avenues to get feedback back,” he said.
Kaker said the response rate when surveys were previously mailed out to village residents was around 12 percent, which is considered a good return.
Trustee Michelle Eckert expressed concerns about missing the village’s older population by relying on social media and the way survey questions could be worded.
“Overall, I think we should keep it simple…,” Eckert said. “Before I ever got into this (on the board), I never liked the surveys, because they always seemed like trick questions. They always seemed to be worded in such a way… and I just hope we’re not wasting our time here. I think, the simpler, the better.”
Kaker said he could update board members on the process for a new strategic plan and also provide them with the drafted questions before they would be placed in a survey.
Trustee Sky Van Rossum said he favors staff drafting questions for a survey to be placed on social media and possibly also making a questionnaire available at the village hall for Suamico residents to fill out.
“I think then, when we roll it out on different platforms, I’d like to know the return…,” Van Rossum said. “If we can get that 12 percent back utilizing those electronic media routes, I might be happy with that. On the other hand, if we come in and we have a much lower percentage than 12 percent, I think we should potentially look at the cost involved. But obviously, (getting citizen feedback on a survey is) pretty important. We may have to spend that money.”
Kaker said it could be possible to mention the survey is taking place on the reader board in front of the village hall or send out post cards to residents at less cost than mailing out the survey itself.
The board discussed with Kaker how the survey could be designed to prevent responses from non-residents and multiple responses from the same residents to be included in the results.
Kaker said staff will be putting together a survey for both residents and businesses to bring back to the board for review.