Kelowna City Council has released the 2019 progress report on its priorities for 2019 – 2022. The interactive online report shows how the City is moving closer to being the city residents envisioned through the Imagine Kelowna process. The public reporting, to be published annually, demonstrates Council’s commitment to transparency, accountability and providing value to residents.
“The current crisis reinforces the need for strategic planning, reporting and responsive management,” said Mayor Colin Basran. “Council will be revisiting its priorities in the light of COVID-19. With good strategic planning, we believe we can proactively adapt and ensure that Kelowna remains a great place to invest and do business.”
Council has identified six priority areas where they want to see a difference during their term of office. These are the services, programs, and key infrastructure items that help make Kelowna a great place to live, work and do business:
Overall the organization reported that:
The report goes beyond the numbers to evaluate performance with a focus on continuous improvement by answering why each area is important, what are we doing to address the issues in each area, how is what we’re doing being effective and what are the longer-term plans.
The City’s administrative leadership focused the organization in three distinct areas – financial management, clear direction and people – to ensure results are achieved and to deliver good value for public funds to residents.
“It’s important that residents are able to see the progress we are making” said City Manager Doug Gilchrist. “This accountability is part of the good governance and effective management practices that allows residents to have confidence in their local government.”
The result-based approach in the Council priorities document balances the need to provide sufficient direction with the need to allow flexibility to foster innovation and creative solutions, adjust quickly to changes in the community, and take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
The progress report is available online at kelowna.ca/councilpriorities and will be updated each spring.