Government

Updating the 2012 Strategic Plan

In 2018, the City began implementing a new budgeting method called Priority Based Budgeting. An important step in Priority Based Budgeting is to score the City’s programs and services against the City’s goals identified in the adopted Strategic Plan. Staff did outreach to the community in the first half of 2018 to see if the Strategic Plan still reflects the Community’s priorities and values. The outreach included an online survey, print surveys distributed to the City’s Boards & Commissions, community groups, the Foster High School civics classes (71), the Community Connectors, and other opportunities, as well as a community dinner and workshop on May 3rd at Thorndyke Elementary School attended by around 50 people. The survey was translated into Spanish, Somali, Burmese, Nepali, and Vietnamese. The City also offered an online survey to staff as well.

The following is a summary of the survey feedback from the community and from staff that informed the 2018 amendments.

  1. What has been accomplished since 2012?
    Accomplishments that constituents and staff are proud of include improvements to roads and sidewalks, the new library, Tukwila Village, general improvements to Tukwila International Boulevard, and adding residential development to the Southcenter business district.
  2. What does our community still need to work on?
    Constituents report that the City still has work to do with regard to safety, projecting a positive image, ensuring that Tukwila residents can get basic needs met—affordable housing being at the top of the list—and community outreach and engagement.
  3. What do you like about the Plan? What is important to you that the City should consider when developing the budget?
    For the most part, constituents agree with the vision, mission, goals and objectives laid out in the 2012 Strategic Plan, and that the City should keep working toward the aspirational vision of being “The City of Opportunity, the Community of Choice.”
  4. What would you change about the Plan? What’s missing?
    Important items that the community and staff have identified as missing from the Strategic Plan in its current form, are:

    1. Equity, particularly with regard to race
    2. Addressing gentrification and displacement
    3. Health and environmental health
    4. Infrastructure
    5. Technology and innovation

The 2012 Strategic Plan was then amended to reflect the feedback in question four above.