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- the process as a way to reach a community vision and establish goals to reach that vision. Budget Committee members discussed the purpose of the meeting. Ms. Rich said it was her belief that the committee was meeting to discuss financial plan- ning. She was concerned about the possibility of employing a communitywide strategy, which would delay resolution of the financial problems facing the City organization. She asked if strategic planning could be focused on fi- nances. Dr. luke said yes. He said that some cities do strategic planning just for financial reasons. He said a strategic plan will not help the or- ganization if it was "time to bite the bullet," though it would make it clear where that must happen. Mr. Miller said the organization could go through a community strategic plan process including financial components, but the fear of the committee was that by the time it reached the FY93 budget planning stage the financial situation will be so bad that it will be disruptive to the community. Dr. luke said that unless the City gets public support for its work it will not be able to implement its strategy. Mr. Rutan said one of the results of the strategic planning process was that as the organization went through the process it would examine services from the bottom up. Priorities will be determined from that process and the City can then determine how to fund those priorities. Many services may not be carried forward. Mr. Rutan felt that it would be best to start with such a clean slate in order to avoid debates about philosophy, because decisions would be made through community consensus. Ms. Rich asked if Mr. Rutan wished to go through the entire process outlined by Dr. Luke. Mr. Rutan said e no. He believed that the committee had on hand a great deal of the informa- tion necessary for an assessment of the organization's position. Mr. Nicholson asked if Mr. Rutan was proposing to take the goals already estab- lished through other processes for granted and start with a clean slate in determining how to implement the goals. Mr. Rutan said that was one method to consider. Mr. Perry asked how the community would raise the level of demand for servic- es and quality of life to the point that people are willing to address the question of limited resources and consider expanding the resource base. He felt if the community set the priorities, the community might be willing to raise the resource level. Mr. Boles said Mr. Perry's comments reflected the basic tensions existing in the community at the present time: There was one school of thought that believed government should be downsized to fit its resources, and another school of thought that maintained that government services are important and resource levels should be raised to support them. He felt that was the focus for a financial planning process. He agreed with Mr. Rutan that the community has already done a great deal of planning and has, in fact, met many of the goals it has established in the past. Mr. Nicholson said that most of the controversies he had witnessed or been a part of had not been disputes about goals, but rather whether action taken was pertinent to realizing a goal or compromised another goal. He cited the Riverfront Research Park as an example of a controversy where the creation of the park as a means of diversifying the economy conflicted with the goal of e MINUTES--Strategic Plan Committee November 1, 1990 Page 5