Strategic Plan Guides the Village through December 2021

The Village of Glencoe has a long history of excellence in local government, providing an exceptionally high level of service to our residents. As evidenced by the feedback in the 2019 Community Survey, Glencoe residents see the Village in a positive light and our efforts and services are complemented by Glencoe’s high performing schools, the Glencoe Park District and a myriad of community service and religious organizations. The challenge for the Village Board and staff is to consider what the Village can do now to prepare the organization and community for the next 20 years – ensuring that we safeguard that which makes Glencoe attractive to current and prospective residents and businesses.

Despite Glencoe’s many positive attributes, there are a number of critical threats that we face, both as an organization and a community – from rising costs out-pacing revenue growth, to unpredictable State of Illinois action, to rapidly aging infrastructure, to a substantial percentage of retirement-eligible Village staff. This Strategic Plan has been developed with these critical threats, and others identified in the recent State of the Village Report, in mind. Together, the Village Board and staff members from all departments developed a new Strategic Vision Statement as well as four new Strategic Goals, that are more short-term in nature, which we believe will set us on the right track to achieving our longer-term aspirations as a community.

Strategic Plan Components

Pyramid - Copy As described below, the new Strategic Plan incorporates the six strategic priorities adopted in 2014, adding a new strategic vision statement and four new strategic goals. The Strategic Work Plan, a component piece of the Strategic Plan overall, identifies initiatives and action items that staff developed to move the Village toward those goals.

Strategic Vision:
We will make Glencoe the community that people choose to live, work and do business, by providing innovative, responsive, high-quality public services in an environmentally and fiscally sustainable manner.

Strategic Priorities:
As part of the Strategic Planning Process in 2014, the Village Board focused on areas that have historically been hallmarks for the Village – financial sustainability, infrastructure replacement and community engagement – while also focusing on the need to adapt the Village organization to deal with the challenges that lie ahead of the community – commercial vitality, operational effectiveness and organizational development. These six strategic priorities were used as pillars throughout the current strategic planning process, and environmental sustainability has been further identified as an underlying value inherent to each of the priorities.

Strategic Goals:
The following goals were adopted during the 2018 strategic visioning process. Each of the goals is supported with initiatives and action items designed to move the Village toward each desired outcome.

Governance: Evaluate and adapt Glencoe’s governance structure and regulations to best meet the needs of the community now and into the future.
Services and Infrastructure: Employ best practices to deliver high-quality services and maintain infrastructure in an environmentally and financially sustainable manner.
Economic Development: Create conditions to attract and retain businesses to support a thriving local economy with diverse retail, restaurant and service options.
Staffing: Attract, retain and develop an innovative, high-performing and diverse workforce.

Timeline:
While the scope of the Strategic Plan is intended to span Fiscal Year 2019- Calendar Year 2021 (from March 2018 through December 2021), the new Strategic Vision Statement and the existing Strategic Priorities are intended to remain guideposts for years to come. Additionally, multiple goals, projects and initiatives included in the Strategic Work Plan section will likely begin in the next three fiscal years, but continue into future work plans.

Strategic Visioning Process

Process_Graphic - Copy The Village embarked on a new strategic visioning process in the summer of 2017. The resulting Strategic Plan (formally adopted in April 2018) builds on the Village’s first Three-Year Strategic Work Plan, adopted in the fall of 2014. As stated above, as part of the Strategic Planning Process in 2014, the Village Board identified six strategic priorities – financial sustainability, infrastructure replacement, community engagement, commercial vitality, operational effectiveness and organizational development. These six strategic priorities were used as pillars throughout the recent strategic planning process, and environmental sustainability has been further identified as an underlying value inherent to each of the priorities. With these pillars in place, the Village Manager’s Office led an effort to design the next Strategic Visioning process, which was broken into three stages: Stage 1: Analysis, Stage 2: Direction and Stage 3: Execution.

Staff conducted the bulk of Stage 1: Analysis along with the Strategic Visioning Working Group, which resulted in the creation of the comprehensive State of the Village Report. Later, the Village employed the assistance of facilitator John Fontana to host individual meetings with each Village Board member to begin identifying the Village’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Stage 2: Direction began in earnest at the Strategic Visioning Workshop on October 30. In that workshop, the Village Board and staff collectively identified critical threats and brainstormed various ways to approach these issues. Following the workshop, the Village Manager’s Office compiled the significant feedback received during that full-day session, making special note of the Village Board’s request to create a strategic vision statement to supplement the existing six strategic priorities. Together, these would guide work plans into the future, helping to answer the questions: “What is the desired state of the Village in 20 years?” and “How do we get there?” The four strategic goalsare more short-term in nature, intended to guide projects for the next 0-5 years.

With a strategic vision statement and strategic goals finalized at the February 1 Strategic Visioning Workshop, staff members from across all departments worked to develop a draft Strategic Work Plan, which includes specific initiatives and action items to move the Village toward each goal. The Strategic Work Plan is designed to span Fiscal Year 2019 - Calendar Year 2021 (from March 2018 through December 2021), with some major initiatives beginning in that timeframe but extending into future fiscal years. At its Committee of the Whole meeting on March 15, 2018, the Village Board reviewed and commented on the draft Strategic Plan developed through this process. The updated version has been modified to account for the comments and feedback received.

In Stage 3: Execution, the Strategic Work Plan will be incorporated into each department work plan and into individual employee work plans where possible. Further, key performance indicators for each of the four strategic goals will be monitored and incorporated into regular reports to the Village Board. The Execution stage will also include education on how each employees’ day-to-day contributions support the overall vision and goals of the Village.

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