07/27/95 Agenda & Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ramsey County Strategic Plan Information Sheet Q. What is the strategic plan? A. The Ramsey County Strategic Plan is about citizenship - the process of people working together with government to solve public problems. The goal of the process is to help strengthen government of, by, and for the people. The only way we can do that is to reestablish the role of citizens in creating and maintaining our community. Strategic planning is a process that establishes a new compact - a direction and future that everyone agrees to - and then clearly lays out who is responsible for what actions to make that future come true. Chapter 6 of the Ramsey County Home Rule Charter requires the County to facilitate this planning process. It specifically lists 15 different service and policy areas that must be addressed. For the past year, over 450 citizens and government employees have discussed these issues. They have developed some ideas about what the future could be if we all worked together to create it. These vision statements are now being distributed to people throughout the County for input before work begins on implementing. Q. What is a vision statement anyway? •A. A vision statement briefly describes a preferred or ideal future within a specific time frame. Visions are verbal pictures of a what we would like Ramsey County to become. They are intended to set a direction, tell what needs to change, establish guiding principles, and inspire people to work together. We know that if people can agree about the future, they are more likely to cooperate on the things that need to be done to get there. These visions are not just about county government. They are about the entire county and involve all of the jurisdictions and interest groups of the whole community. They are at least_; -7 years in the future. Action plans and budget priorities will then be developed (Phase 2) to move from the present situation to the future described in the visions. We are now distributing the visions to make sure they really reflect the future everyone wants and can agree to work on together. Q. What will happen with the surveys I fill out? A. All the surveys will be compiled and analyzed. We're looking for areas where almost everyone can agree or where there is serious disagreement. We'll issue a report to the public that summarizes all of the survey responses. In that way, you'll know what others thought about the same areas you reviewed. •Q. What will happen with the vision statements after all of the surveys and comments are collected?