Canby council holds facilitated goal‑setting session to refine 2025 priorities
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Canby — The Canby City Council met in a facilitated goal‑setting session for 2025 to refine its list of priorities and give staff clearer direction on next steps. Facilitators from SSW Consulting guided the council through status updates on five broad goal areas — financial stability, growth and development, transportation, parks and recreation, and communications and engagement — and captured refinements the council wants staff to pursue before formal adoption of the goals.
Council members and department heads reviewed each objective, agreed to keep a 20–25% reserve level as policy and asked staff to present more detailed cost and funding analyses for items including street maintenance fees, parks funding, and a potential parks management structure. The council also asked staff to bring back a clarified master fee schedule and to return refined language for several goals at a work session in March, with formal adoption scheduled for a later council meeting in March 2025.
The facilitators said the purpose of the workshop was to make the goals “clear, reasonable and achievable,” and council members spent the afternoon deciding which items should be marked “complete,” which need refinement, and which should remain ongoing. Staff will convert board notes and the group’s edits into a single, clarified document for presentation to council later this winter. The meeting included department heads from planning, public works, police and library services, who answered technical questions that shaped the refinements.
Quotes in the session highlighted both procedural and substantive priorities. Ashley Sonoff, facilitator with SSW Consulting, told the council the evening’s aim was to “refine the council goals so they are clear, reasonable and achievable.” City Administrator Eileen (no last name given in the meeting transcript) and staff identified specific follow‑up items they will return with, including schedule updates and cost estimates where needed.
The council directed staff to return with draft language and supporting schedules; staff will provide quarterly progress reports after goals are adopted and will brief the council on any significant timing or budget changes before those quarterly updates.
Council members and department heads reviewed each objective, agreed to keep a 20–25% reserve level as policy and asked staff to present more detailed cost and funding analyses for items including street maintenance fees, parks funding, and a potential parks management structure. The council also asked staff to bring back a clarified master fee schedule and to return refined language for several goals at a work session in March, with formal adoption scheduled for a later council meeting in March 2025.
The facilitators said the purpose of the workshop was to make the goals “clear, reasonable and achievable,” and council members spent the afternoon deciding which items should be marked “complete,” which need refinement, and which should remain ongoing. Staff will convert board notes and the group’s edits into a single, clarified document for presentation to council later this winter. The meeting included department heads from planning, public works, police and library services, who answered technical questions that shaped the refinements.
Quotes in the session highlighted both procedural and substantive priorities. Ashley Sonoff, facilitator with SSW Consulting, told the council the evening’s aim was to “refine the council goals so they are clear, reasonable and achievable.” City Administrator Eileen (no last name given in the meeting transcript) and staff identified specific follow‑up items they will return with, including schedule updates and cost estimates where needed.
The council directed staff to return with draft language and supporting schedules; staff will provide quarterly progress reports after goals are adopted and will brief the council on any significant timing or budget changes before those quarterly updates.
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