Spirit

City Administration To Help Develop Strategic Plan

New city manager Sean Stegall took Elgin’s reins July 1 and is working with the City Council to help develop a new strategic plan.

“The world changed last year,” said Stegall referring to the effects of the worst economic downturn experienced since the Great Depression. “And that has impacted households and businesses across the country. But it also has impacted city government by fundamentally shifting the way the modern municipality will be able to do business.”


And that will be the foundation from which Elgin’s new strategic plan will be created.

“While municipalities will be expected to do more with less, citizen involvement will be required to ensure community success,” said Stegall. “For years, city government has worked to have citizens believe they are customers but that just isn’t the way true democracy works. Everyone has a responsibility.

“Oftentimes, a citizen’s interaction with government is reduced to nothing more than a transaction,” continued Stegall. “Some citizen’s believe that all they need to do is pay taxes and they’re done. Yet citizens are part of the government and they have a responsibility to the community too.”

But Elgin citizens also have a right to expect something from the city including stellar service and that’s something Stegall will address through the planning process.

“Citizens have a right to expect a high level of service,” said Stegall. “And city of Elgin employees are expected to provide that. So I’m very interested in pursuing the idea of a system where citizens can connect with the city and have requests be tracked in a way that ensures responsibility and follow up.”

Other cities have implemented 311 systems where residents can dial “311” for service.

“Residents could dial 911 for emergencies and 311 for everything else they need from the City,” said Stegall. “It will take some time to study and understand the implications, but I believe it’s a system that could work in Elgin.”

Identifying and focusing on core services is also something Stegall will address.

“I’m looking to ramp up neighborhood outreach efforts,” said Stegall. “I want to understand this community’s priorities and expectations to help the City Council move Elgin forward.”