In this week’s City Council Packet, the City Manager provides a report on what he feels his administrations success has been regarding the past years Goals and Objectives. There may be some discussion of this at tonight’s council meeting.
Here is his Cover letter and the report the Councilors received. Do you agree with his findings?
January 27, 2012
Mayor Patrick O Murphy
And
Members of the Lowell City Council
RE: Goals and Objectives
Dear Mayor Murphy and City Councilors,
I am pleased to provide a presentation to the Council regarding the City Manager’s Goals and Objectives which was adopted in February of 2011 . An update was provided to the Council at the December 13th meeting and is attached for your information. The presentation provides an excellent opportunity to look back over the last year and reflect upon our progress in aligning our focus to strategic goals and objectives outlined in that plan and supported by the Council. The focus of the strategic plan should be providing a framework to direct resources in order to achieve a specific vision for the City. The eight goals accomplish this and at the same time give departments the guidance necessary to develop their own goals.
I want to thank the department heads for their commitment towards meeting the challenges in
attempting to achieve these goals, even in the face of changes in personnel or funding levels which
threatened to derail their efforts. I want to recognize Michael Hebert for his work in guiding department heads through the goal setting process.
It is clear that the vision and specific priorities of the Council are reflected in what has been accomplished over the past year, particularly in the areas of financial stability, sustainability, infrastructure improvements and improved customer service. As we begin the new year, I look forward to the current Council’s input as we establish our next steps and complete those items left unfinished.
Sincerely ,
Bernard F. Lynch
City Manager
So where is the emphasis on improving real estate values?
I would like to be able to sell my condo for at least 80% of what I paid for it.
I guess real estate values don’t matter if you don’t own a house here and are not invested in the community.
Thomas; in case you haven’t noticed, real estate values are a concern everywhere for a lot of reasons. I could sell my house now for about 1/3 less than I paid 8yrs ago but am not blaming anyone in the city for it. Please enlighten us as to how YOU would increase property values for all of us… we’re all ears!
Mr. Citizen:
Real estate values are not a concern everywhere, just in most places. Many communities have not seen a housing bubble or crash as hard as Lowell (or in some cases, at all) because they have more stable neighborhoods that retain homeowners. If there was “a lot to like about Lowell” we would be able to keep people living here. Instead, our housing stick continues to increase (because the CITY issues new permits for high density housing) while our existing stock has a high vacancy rate / # of days on market. Simple supply and demand will drive down the value of the existing stock all other factors being equal. Focus on using the existing building code (which means actually enforcing it) to improve the existing housing stock. Right now, there are enough vacant condominium units in Lowell that at the current sales rate, it would take 3 1/2 years to sell them… so the prices will keep dropping every time a new one gets built. Now the city COULD slow the rate of increase, but some people have a hand in the pocket.
When 100 people are selling and only 50 are buying, prices will drop. But hey – the City will keep doing favors for the politically connected and screw the homeowners. The people in charge (overlords of the City) don’t live here anyway, so no loss out of their pocket.