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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION — APRIL 14, 2025 13 Council reconvened the work session at 8:27 pm. B. Strategic Planning Discussion City Administrator Jagoe said this is a follow-up item from the last meeting. Council directed Staff to try to schedule a strategic planning session. Strategic planning discussions were had in 2023 and 2024. She reviewed those notes and at that time Staff reached out to Ethical Leaders in Action to get a proposal for a Council Retreat/Strategic Planning/Goal Setting Session. The scope of services was geared toward working relationships for elected officials and interactions with City Staff. She heard Council saying they wanted action plans, budget discussion drivers and a 5- year plan for some of the organizational items that may be Work Session topics. She reached out to an agency she has worked with in the past and got a quote from them. Their services gear toward a vision for a 5-year plan where you are setting goals and objectives and some implementation strategies for year one. They are proposing a 2-day session. She has provided quotes and would like direction from Council that what Staff is scheduling is meeting the objectives you are looking for. She would also like to know if a 2-day session is okay or just 1- day. Councilmember Rousseau is interested in building a road map and trying to prioritize. She recognizes chickens may be more urgent with the economy. Organized trash collection is on the list. Do we want to put Staff time toward that? She would like to come up with a plan for the next couple of years. Councilmember Holden asked how many years we are looking at. The next couple years are going to be different for us. There isn't going to be a lot of money, there's not going to be grants. Is this a ten-year plan or a two to three-year plan? The state is cutting back. She needs to know how many years we're looking at. Mayor Grant said no on a two-day retreat. He can skip team building. He wants to focus on what we want to achieve over the next two to three years. We are going to be in some interesting financial finds. We will need to figure out what our priorities are. Councilmember Monson is in support of the Hue Life option. We've been needing strategic direction for some time, the need is greater with the potential funding changes. She thinks the timeline we are planning for can be decided there. For sure a two-year plan will need to be discussed, potentially four -years. She asked how long a "day" is for the two-day session. City Administrator Jagoe said the scope of services in the two-day retreat is 12-14 hours of deliverable facilitation time. Typically, it would be a Friday and Saturday and six to seven hours each day. It can be structured to be eight hours on Friday and then five on Saturday. But they are saying two days. Councilmember Monson is not excited about a two-day session but understands that is what is required. She's flexible. She thinks if we are going to spend the time and money, we should do it right. Councilmember Holden can't do two days. If the list could be split, putting the big things together then put smaller things under that. She noticed there aren't any financials. Discussion