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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,January 5, 2015 Page 9 was intended as a discussion of City Council goals; however, he opined that since those initial discussions at the end of 2014, the retreat seemed to have morphed into a broader scope of strategic planning. Councilmember Willmus referenced the process used by the HRA in developing and then updating their strategic plan, expecting a similar process, and noting the lower price for that process than pro- posed for this retreat. If pursuing the proposed process, Councilmember Willmus suggested a Request for Proposals (RFP) process that would provide more options and get better bank for the buck. In general, Councilmember Willmus stated that he was personally hung up with a process as proposed that appeared to provide a strategic planning side without allowing a window for the community to be a di- rect part of the process. Councilmember Laliberte noted her ongoing interest expressed frequently over the last year to get short-term goals on the docket to determine common interests. However, Councilmember Laliberte agreed that this has morphed into more than those original intentions she had voiced, opining that perhaps the term "strategic planning" was problematic compared to "goal planning." Councilmember Laliberte clarified that her hope had been that the City Council could step outside their weekly meeting format of reacting to RCA's and those issues coming before the body, to review individual Councilmember goals to see where they connected. Councilmember Laliberte opined that this should be a simple thing to accomplish, especially with reinstatement of the community survey on an annual basis to pro- vide consistent community feedback in addition to existing guiding documents. Councilmember Laliberte questioned if the City Council didn't already have what it needed, and with everyone being on the same team, she didn't see a need for the proposal as outlined in the RCA compared to what everyone on the team wanted to proactively work toward in 2015 beyond weekly formal actions of the City Council. Councilmember Etten stated that he was a proponent of a retreat, especially with his experience in attending the annual League of Minnesota Cities (LMC) meet- ing last summer. During that meeting, Councilmember Etten noted his conversa- tions with representatives of the Village of St. Anthony, and their extensive retreat process involving senior staff and Councilmembers. While not being on that lev- el, Councilmember Etten expressed his personal interest in having staff involved at some level in the retreat as the City Council developed short- and medium-term goals based on their perspective and information they could provide from a day- to-day operational standpoint. With available guiding documents, Councilmem- ber Etten opined that staff could provide realities as the City Council worked through community visioning and priorities. Councilmember Etten stated that he was open to this process or a lesser one; but opined that a retreat was important, allowing the City Council to simply be reactive. Councilmember McGehee suggested that each individual Councilmember could list their goals and priorities as part of this process; with staff collating those lists