City of Hastings Offices (Brian Neben, Central Nebraska Today)
HASTINGS — Hastings residences will soon begin receiving the multi-page community survey that is part of the city’s strategic planning process.
The strategic planning process will be used to prioritize efforts, effectively allocate resources, align shareholders and employees on the organization’s goals, and ensure those goals are backed by data and sound reasoning. The strategic plan will assist city department heads in planning for future fiscal years.
ETC Institute of Olathe, Kansas will administer the survey as part of the data-gathering phase for approximately $25,000 with a continued annual cost of $25,000 as well. Within that cost is a feature that gives the public access to the survey data.
ETC Institute began mailing out the survey to Hastings residences on Friday, Oct. 6.
The City of Hastings selected ETC Institute because of the company’s experience in this field. ETC Institute has administered surveys for more than 1,000 cities and counties in 49 states during the last five years.
The survey will be mailed to 5,000 random Hastings households. That amount represents nearly half of all residences within the community.
There will be a $500 drawing for residents who fill out the survey. When someone receives the mailing, they will have the option to fill out the paper survey OR they will be able to fill the survey out online. If a resident takes the online survey, and they were not on the mailing list, their survey won’t count and will be discarded. The ETC Institute has a list of addresses that will be cross-checked with every survey.
The goal is for at least 500 surveys to be completed. That amount, along with proper controls, represents statistically significant results.
In addition to the community survey, members of the Strategic Planning Committee, who were selected by the Hastings City Council, are leading 20 community meetings with a variety of groups meant to represent all demographics across Hastings. Like the survey, the community meetings give residents a chance to provide feedback about what they like about Hastings, but also changes they would like to see in the community.
The Strategic Planning Committee will assist in future phases as well: data-gathering, analysis, composition, and a final report.
The Strategic Planning Committee is anticipated to present the strategic plan findings via resolution to the Hastings City Council for final approval in March 2024. As part of the implementation phase, the city administrator will build out the new strategic plan into a new software platform in April and May 2024.
Department heads will finalize potential projects with rough costs that support the strategic plan.
Each of these phases is anticipated to last a couple months, with the strategic plan becoming operational at the start of the 2025 fiscal year, on Oct. 1, 2024.
