The Albert Lea City Council discussed establishing a list of goals Thursday night from surveys of the city’s management team and council that City Manager Chad Adams said addresses the city’s short- and long-term needs. 

Adams presented the results of a survey taken from the management team and council members at the council’s study session.

The top six goals rated on a five-point scale in order by average between the two groups are:

Increasing community tax base with a defined action plan and collaborating with Albert Lea Economic Development Agency and other organizations, as well as promotion. Adams said this could include identifying specific types of business and industry the city wants to bring to the community to increase its tax base.

Completing the renewal of the Shell Rock River Watershed District’s request for a 15 year or until $15 million has been collected extension of the district’s half-percent sales tax. Adams said Albert Lea has a great asset in its lakes, noting he thinks the Watershed District has done a lot of good work over the last 10 years. He said extending the sales tax will allow for the dredging of Fountain Lake, which he said will increase recreation habitat and tourism for the betterment of the community’s quality of life.

Increase workforce housing in the community through existing initiatives such as tax abatement or through new initiatives and partnerships.

Implement facilities master plan projects per the present timeline, with priorities being the Albert Lea Municipal Airport project to construct a new arrival and departure building, public works building phase one project to demolish a portion of current administrative offices and creating additional administrative space and starting preliminary design work on a new fire station.

Continue recently-implemented community communications, conversations, programming and outreach along with some new approaches. Adams said conducting  more neighborhood forums, expanding state of the city addresses and other city engagement techniques are on the table. He said using the best forms of social media is necessary for community engagement.

Continue implementation and study for fire services in Freeborn County, including a potential merger with Albert Lea Township Fire Department and long-term opportunities for collaboration with other fire department jurisdictions in Freeborn County.

Other top goals identified by the council included increasing the nuisance abatement program and code enforcement, and adopting debt service and investment policies and revisiting organization and best organizational structure to meet community needs, such as possible reorganization of the Albert Lea Parks and Recreation Department.

Adams said setting goals is a yearly process — noting some goals remain from last year, such as expanding the city’s tax base. He said setting goals is a yearly process for the council, noting a lot of the goals are already in progress.

He said the council will review the goals at its next study session June 23, noting city officials are getting the ideas out to the community.

He said it will be up to the council to identify the top five goals.

“I think it’s always good for an organization of any kind to be identifying both short-term and long-term goals and I think this obviously encompasses a little bit of both,” he said, noting he thinks setting the goals is a big deal.

“Absolutely,” he said. “I think they’re all important,” noting he thinks the goals are consistent with what they have been hearing from the public.