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ARDEN HILLS SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION—APRIL 15, 2024 9 goal setting without a consultant was that this would put more work on staff, while a third party would take this work off of staff. Councilmember Holden suggested the Council pursue a hybrid by coming up with its criteria first and that a consultant then be brought in to assist with moving a plan forward. Mayor Grant stated this would make sense. Councilmember Monson indicated she could support the Council moving forward in this direction. Mayor Grant requested each Councilmember provide staff with their top five strategic goals for the City and the Council would discuss these goals at the April 22 worksession. City Administrator Perrault commented the Council could provide staff with 25 goals and these could be honed down. He stated his concern would then be how a consultant would work with the City on a plan moving forward. He discussed how important it would be to work with a consultant through the entire process. Councilmember Holden recommended the goals drafted by the Council be focused. She anticipated a professional in this field would be able to help the City address its goals and make a plan to move the goals forward. Mayor Grant stated the Council would come up with 20+ goals that would be honed down to five or six goals. It was his hope that a consultant could then be brought in to assist the Council with defining how to move forward on these goals and to assist the City with putting a plan in place to reach these goals. Councilmember Rousseau indicated her goals would have to do with an improved canopy and rain gardens. She questioned how she would get buy-in from the Public Works Department. Councilmember Holden stated if this was the goal the City wanted to go, then the Council would have to address staffing and costs. Mayor Grant recommended a discussion be held regarding strategic goals on April 22 and the Council could then determine if there would be staffing or budgeting needs. Councilmember Monson explained she could support the Council going down this path, but she anticipated the Council would only be able to go so far before hitting a roadblock and staff would have to be asked to do a great deal of work, or a third party would have to be brought in to assist with finishing this process. She indicated the Council had budgeted $10,000 for this process. Mayor Grant requested the Council review goals on April 22 and see how much commonality was in place. Councilmember Fabel questioned how the Council defined a strategic goal. He recommended these be broad issues.