With the city of Napa still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Napa City Council prioritized goals to both complete that recovery and fortify the city’s sustainability in several areas at the council’s annual goal-setting workshop.
The focus areas prioritized by the council include: recruitment and workforce stability, adopting and implementing the city’s general plan, economic development and recovery, housing, and climate change. These areas serve to guide the creation of the city’s fiscal year 2022-2023 budget, which needs to be approved by the City Council before the new fiscal year that arrives on July 1.
Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register.
“The purpose of the workshop is there’s a certain amount of money we can kind of look towards using, and maybe for something that has become more prominent in the public mind,” said Mayor Scott Sedgley of the February workshop. “One example is climate change … Eight years ago that wasn’t in the discussion but now it is, and justifiably so.”
Topping the list of priorities, recruitment and workforce stability were recognized by all councilmembers as a vital, foundational goal given the city’s high number of vacant positions and slow progress in filling those positions this year. About 60 positions were purposefully left vacant in fiscal year 2020-21 in response to budgetary concerns around the pandemic, and the city’s 2021-2022 budget included a goal of filling those positions by June 2022.
People are also reading…
But not that much progress has been made to fill vacant positions, in part because hiring has been slow in many sectors of the economy, according to Human Resources Director Heather Ruiz. The city’s currently carrying out a public relations campaign — including radio ads, signage, social media post, and decals on city vehicles — to encourage people to apply. Additionally, the city’s working on a new onboarding program and is using hiring incentives for certain positions.
Councilmember Liz Alessio said stabilizing the city’s staffing is an important goal because that’s what allows the city to be able to carry out its duties to the public in the first place. Councilmember Bernie Narvaez said current staff members have done a great job considering the number of vacancies, but making progress on the city’s goals will benefit from filling those staffing gaps.
“We still have a demand in hiring in a lot of key areas, so how we align our priorities with our capacity to get them done is a challenge,” Narvaez said.
Another goal the council prioritized was finishing up and adopting the city’s general plan — essentially the long-term planning document for the city — and housing element, which is an aspect of the general plan, this year. (Indeed, Alessio said, that effort has been delayed by staff shortages.)
Both documents have been in the works for years, and a draft of the general plan became available for public review last month. Review of the general plan is currently ongoing, and, following adoption, the goals of the general plan — in areas such as land use, housing, transportation, parks and recreation, economic development and health and safety — will work to form the foundation of the city’s policy direction. The city’s current general plan was adopted in 1998.
The council also prioritized economic recovery and development. Though the city of Napa’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is still going strong, costs are also continuing to increase year over year. Several economic development efforts are ongoing, however, including the city’s implementation of an ordinance allowing adult-use cannabis sales, the Make it In Napa Initiative to help support the city’s art and creator community, and much more.
Housing was also recognized as a priority by the council. Councilmember Mary Luros said her top priority is housing and affordability in Napa, and she noted that housing is one category that persists as a great need year over year, in part because housing is a category that impacts other categories.
“Napa has not been a traditionally affordable community,” Luros said. “As we feel the squeeze on housing, it’s all interrelated for sure. If we don’t have enough housing, then we have a traffic problem because people have to commute, which leads to climate change issues.”
And the council’s final priority area was climate change. Alessio said the city may consider hiring a staff member specifically focused on climate change. Luros said the council likely needs to chip away at how to handle climate change at the level it can, considering how broad of a category it is.
“We’ve got to set priorities within that priority,” Luros said.
Catch up on Napa County’s top news stories
Get unlimited digital access to the Napa Valley Register! Enjoy every article without restrictions and find tons of subscriber-only perks, such as access to our daily eEdition. Click here for details!
When war broke out in Ukraine, this Napa Valley man (and his Ukrainian girlfriend) became refugees. This is their story.
The state Fair Political Practices Commission has a role to play in the tangled tale of Walt Ranch and potential conflict-of-interest allegati…
The man accused of shooting an American Canyon resident on Highway 29 could face life imprisonment after his arraignment on attempted murder a…
After being stored away for decades, paintings of four Saviez children recently found their way back into family hands. While happy news, it h…
Over the past 49 years, chances are if you got a newspaper dropped off at your driveway, a carrier working for Napa’s Gelow or Borreson famili…
In just eight short weeks, the brides, along with every other kind of guest, will begin to arrive at Napa’s Stanly Ranch resort.
Soscol Junction construction could start by summer, more money is needed for a key Napa Valley Vine Trail segment and dirt is flying for a par…
A restaurant that uses the motto “Where Flavor Gets its Wings” would like to land in Napa.
Streets near a Napa synagogue were littered overnight with flyers bearing a screed linking Jews to “the COVID agenda,” in an act similar to an…
German POWs worked on Napa ranches and farms during World War II. Here’s one family’s story.
You can reach Edward Booth at (707) 256-2213.
#pu-email-form-daily-email-article { clear: both; background-color: #fff; color: #222; background-position: bottom; background-repeat: no-repeat; padding: 15px 20px; margin-bottom: 40px; border-top: 4px solid rgba(0,0,0,.8); border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(0,0,0,.2); display: none; } #pu-email-form-daily-email-article, #pu-email-form-daily-email-article p { font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, “Segoe UI”, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, “Apple Color Emoji”, “Segoe UI Emoji”, “Segoe UI Symbol”; } #pu-email-form-daily-email-article h1 { font-size: 24px; margin: 15px 0 5px 0; font-family: “serif-ds”, Times, “Times New Roman”, serif; } #pu-email-form-daily-email-article .lead { margin-bottom: 5px; } #pu-email-form-daily-email-article .email-desc { font-size: 16px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px; opacity: 0.7; } #pu-email-form-daily-email-article form { padding: 10px 30px 5px 30px; } #pu-email-form-daily-email-article .disclaimer { opacity: 0.5; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 100%; } #pu-email-form-daily-email-article .disclaimer a { color: #222; text-decoration: underline; } #pu-email-form-daily-email-article .email-hammer { border-bottom: 3px solid #222; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; padding: 0 10px 5px 10px; margin-bottom: -5px; font-size: 16px; } @media (max-width: 991px) { #pu-email-form-daily-email-article form { padding: 10px 0 5px 0; } }
from WordPress https://ift.tt/dCoZm0J
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment