“We have a lot to accomplish in 2023.”
Such was the introduction Dave Cziok gave for a presentation to the Litchfield City Council in late December. Cziok, who marked his 10-year anniversary as city administrator in October, has seen plenty in his decade at the helm of city government.
And by his count, there’s a lot more to come in the new year.
With that in mind — and in answer to sharp criticism lodged by some council members about progress on several projects — Cziok unveiled a “work table” that he told the City Council he would like to use to help prioritize and move projects forward.
“My goal was to be including this in a Council (agenda) packet, maybe once a month, or every four weeks,” Cziok said. “The idea is that the Council would have an opportunity to kind of review the schedule and, maybe in a quarterly work session format, we might get into a debate about moving something around a little bit.”
While he touted the work table as a helpful tool in keeping paid administrative staff and the elected City Council members on the same page, Cziok admitted some reluctance in including it in the agenda packet.
“I want to make sure that we’re not, I don’t want to provide another tool for staff to feel micromanaged,” he said. “I want to make sure that they still continue to have some flexibility in terms of how we’re getting to some of this stuff on the list. This is my list, but staff is supporting this list.”
He cautioned the City Council members that he didn’t think that including the work table in the agenda packet on a monthly basis should open its individual items on the list to lengthy discussion at those meetings, when the administrative team might not be ready to discuss them.
Despite those expressed concerns, however, Cziok said, “the advantages clearly outweigh those and we can get the council moving towards the same goals.”
While building the work table concept, Cziok said, he also received some advice about not just focusing on the lengthy to-do list it presented, but also allowing time to celebrate the completion of projects. He took the opportunity during the meeting to do just that.
Among his “2022 Council/Administration to Done List’ were:
- Street overlay improvements
- Airport improvements including snow removal equipment, pavement rehabilitation, and creation of a new advisory board;
- Union contracts settled;
- Water plant improvement project authorized;
- Sale of Nelson Street lots executed;
- American Recovery Plan Act employee retention benefits authorized and executed;
- Litchfield Area Recreation Center planning, funding, and local sales tax passed;
- Hired five new city employees;
- Optimist Park canopy erected;
- THC ordinance authorized and executed;
- City bond rating affirmed.
Those accomplishments will not mean any slow down in projects, however, as Cziok explained in the unveiling of the work table, which he broke into three task priority rankings — “High,” “Medium” and “Low.” A fourth category — “Additional Tasks (not to be forgotten)” also was included.
Projects can move up and down the priority list based on City Council decisions, and on other timing issues. But among the “High Priority Tasks” on Cziok’s initial list were:
- Filling the City Council vacancy left by at-large member Ron Dingmann being elected mayor in November. He moves into the seat with the first meeting of the new year, and the City Council will look to interview and select a candidate to fill the remaining two years of his at-large City Council seat, likely in February.
- LARC planning will continue, with sales tax authorization set for mid-March, along with funding in May and creation of joint-powers, operations and facility-use agreements, in addition to design and bidding for construction of the facility, tentatively set for September.
- Planning for upgrades to the wastewater treatment facility, which will include negotiation of industrial user allocations, funding packages, design and bidding.
“I appreciate what you put all together here,” said Mayor Keith Johnson, who will be leaving the Council in January.
“We may have some growing pains, but I think I’d like to continue to try this a little bit and see if we can … make sure that we’re staying on the same page with everyone in terms of expectations,” Cziok said.
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