Seal Beach elected officials and staff met Tuesday at the Old Ranch Country Club for a short official council meeting and a day-long workshop on goal-setting and city business.
In the official capacity of the City Council, members approved additional money to pay for the berm removal on the beach. The berm traditionally comes down in April and this year it was higher and wider than in past years because of the projected rainfall and storms from an El Nino condition. El Nino, however, had other plans and for the most part bypassed Southern California.
The first job of the workshop was to list what the city has done well and the list amounted to 50 action items that have been successfully completed or handled in the last year. Some of those were:
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Facilitated Centennial Celebrations
• Entitlement of New Park on 1st Street
• Launched user-friendly website and have Council meetings on mobile devices
• El Nino preparations
• Successfully lobbied against AB 1217 to preserve the City’s representation on the OCFA Board of Directors to protect the City’s annual $5 million dollar investment for fire and emergency medical services
• Saved the historical Blue Cottage
• Achieved the State-mandated water conservation goal of 8 percent
Next they talked about challenges and threats. Some of these were Tsunami, sand erosion and the effects on our town of the early release program and the downgrading of drug offenses to misdemeanor charges.
The Council and staff worked together at this point to write a mission statement for the city and this is what they decided:
“The City of Seal Beach provides excellent city services to enhance the quality of life and to preserve our small town character.”
The final work of the day was to come up with four goals.
Three-Year Goals (2016-2019) – not in priority order
• Provide a quality beach and pier environment, including a restaurant
• Achieve short and long-term fiscal sustainability
• Improve and maintain the infrastructure
• Attract, develop, compensate and retain quality staff
This and other information will be on the city’s website soon. Visit www.sealbeachca.gov.