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City of Muskegon Special Meeting
Goal Setting Session
Lakeshore Museum Center
430 W. Clay Avenue, Muskegon, MI 49440
11:30 a.m.
Attendance
Present: Mayor Johnson, Commissioners St.Clair, Emory, Gorman, and Ramsey
Absent: Vice Mayor German and Commissioner Hood
Staff Members present: Mike Franzak, Ann Meisch, Kyle Karczewski, Jason Boes, Dan
VanderHeide, Pete Wills, Deborah Santiago-Sweet, Dave Alexander, Jake Lamie, Jessica
Rabe, Jake Eckholm, Sarah Peterson, Dwana Thompson, Sharonda Carson, Captain Tim
Bahorski, Peggy Thorsen-Straley, Rachel Gorman, LeighAnn Mikesell, Todd Myers, Ken Grant,
Jonathan Seyferth, Barb Shullenberger, Wendy Webster (to do minutes), and Kim Young (to do
minutes)
Paula Kendra (Facilitator)
The Goal Setting session is being led by Paula Kendra, owner of Kendra Consulting.
Review the Four Major Goal Areas and Key Take-a-ways from 2022 - 2027 Vision
● Community Connection/Manager’s Office
● Destination & Quality of Life/DPW/Parks
● Financial Infrastructure/Finance/Manager
● Economic Development, Housing, and Business/Development Services
Review each key focus area and discuss next steps/new action items
City Manager Jonathan Seyferth reviewed of the “rules” - use first names, no interrupting - let
others finish, raise your hand to follow up on an idea - let everyone speak on a topic if they wish
- respect by debating ideas, not individuals, stay on topic, ask questions, be present - engaged -
and actively listening.
Paula Kendra is here to help us continue our strategy and is impressed with the visions the city
came up with.
Deborah Santiago-Sweet and Ann Meisch presented updates on
2027 Goal 3: Community Connection: Create an environment of mutual respect and trust
between local government and the community we serve. Increase communication with
residents, workers, business owners, and visitors to inform, educate, and create opportunities
for input.
Focus Areas:
Enhanced internal and community communications
Focus on neighborhood associations
Foster strong ties among government and community agencies
Help increase public participation
More integrated community
Increased range of options for communications
Staff reflective of the diverse community
Increased election turnout
Progress made on this goal includes:
Hired Community Engagement Director
Created C2EM (Communication, Community Engagement, and Marketing) Committee
We will be publishing a newsletter
Launched Monday.com
Providing a monthly update sheet for Neighborhood Associations
Holding engagement events
Have approved budget for print newsletter and monthly e-newsletter
Created internal Human Resources position
Using Zen City
Change in law allows early voting beginning in 2024
We will have early voting available for residents at County Facility and City Hall
Continued utilization of voting trailer
Highlights from discussion for recommendations to build momentum and focus on things that
haven’t been done include:
Ensure communication with residents is digestible/understandable/accessible
Track Community Interaction – metrics (presented with a narrative) such as number of
attendees, email open rate, online survey interactions, etc.
How do we reach and engage with a more diverse range of the the city’s residents?
Including renters? Need for methods and tracking metrics
Staff should be reflective of Community
Have more internal staff communication to prepare them to respond to residents
Need to invest in updating city forms for accessibility for non-English speakers/readers
or use sign language
Focus on neighborhood organizations – provide organizational development support
Some areas/Residents are not represented by a neighborhood association
Continue election turnout focus – include education for residents regarding wards in
which they reside, who their city commissioner is.
Continue to support public safety’s efforts to build relationships with residents
Prioritize participation in C2EM
Specific and targeted outreach to people in areas we don’t usually hear from.
Identify agencies in community that do similar work, better tell these stories when we’re
already working with partners (GARE)
Diversity (recruit and retain) public safety department
Focus on retaining youth and young adults in the city
Dan VanderHeide and Kyle Karczewski provided updates on
2027 Goal 1: Destination Community & Quality of Life: Create an environment that puts an
emphasis on improving amenities and investing in the traits that positively affect residents’
quality of life and attract visitors.
Focus Areas:
Improved access to the waterfront
Improved connections between downtown and the beaches
Passenger transit service to Chicago
Blight cleanup
Enhanced Parks and Recreation Department and Services
Events and activities
Public transportation options (tram, scooters, trolley biking network)
Public restrooms that remain open
Progress made on this goal includes:
Many of new developments are on the water and are providing waterfront access on
their own or with encouragement
Parks & Rec officially re-established
All but one set of bathrooms re-opened - Sheldon park needs work
About 150 events in 2022; about 125 in 2023
Highlights from discussion for recommendations to build momentum and focus on things that
haven’t been done include:
Continue exploration of Amtrak service – connect with Representative Scholten, promote
bus service to Holland
Promote Positive attitudes about community by communicating a positive narrative
about amenities
Offering quality recreation opportunities that are attractive to a broader range of
residents
Clean up graffiti quickly
Improve connections along the Lakeshore (updated language for #2)
Improved public access and accessibility to the water front (#1)
Equitable and judicious enforcement of blight clean up laws – particularly commercial
buildings
Pilot a community tool shed – use tool trailer?
Analysis of current property management policies
Kruse Park stairway restoration
Develop plan for recurring revenue for parks
More focus on combatting, reducing, preventing gun violence in the community
Identify ways for city government to be supportive or organizations focused on reducing
poverty beyond monetary support
Ken Grant presented updates on:
2027 Goal 4: Financial Infrastructure: Create an environment that naturally affects the city’s
revenues in a positive manner, with a focus on reclaiming city investments in housing, nurturing
startup projects proposed throughout the city, and exploring staff recommendations related to
new revenues.
Focus Areas and progress on this goal:
Decrease infrastructure burden on residents
a. DPW has been awesome about securing grants/loans for projects
Sustainability in financial practices and infrastructure
a. Continue to follow guidelines with sound practices
b. DPW doing great here too
Increase Revenue
a. Getting more housing/developments - this helps the bottom line
b. Economic Development and Income Tax; public safety - everyone plays a role in
increasing tax income
Highlights from discussion for recommendations to build momentum and focus on things that
haven’t been done include:
Improve communication with residents about how tax dollars are used – make city
budget “digestible”
Capture tourism revenue
Educate the public on ow the city raises funds
Thank residents for support – make communication positive
Share expenses information to help residents understand
Continue infill housing work and increase density to address infrastructure burden
Explore building an endowment for parks and rec while managing expectations of
donors
Keen ap eye on costs – continually become more cost efficient.
10-minute Break
Jake Eckholm and Mike Franzak presented updates on:
2027 Goal 2: Economic Development, Housing, and Business: Create an environment that
effectively attracts new residents and retains existing residents by filling existing employment
gaps, attracting new and diverse businesses to the city, and expanding access to a variety of
high-quality options in Muskegon.
Focus Areas:
Diverse Housing types
Diversity reflected in businesses and business owners
Improved reputation for inspections department
Micro-commercial areas in neighborhoods
Retain youth within the city
Neighborhood commercial center development
Progress toward completion of ongoing economic development projects
Progress made on this goal includes:
Highlights from discussion for recommendations to build momentum and focus on things that
haven’t been done include:
24,000 people work in the city every day, 20,000 of them do not live in the city
Commissioners must support staff efforts – votes, communicating to constituents
Add public safety focus area communicate that our neighborhoods are safe where infill
housing is being built – share widely
Incentive City staff to live within city limits
Emphasize benefits in job postings
Identify the next area for investment
Continued commitment to arena and convention center
Set clear expectations with residents regarding the role of the inspections department
Implement customer service evaluation process for inspections department, including a
plan for improving customer satisfaction.
Include SafeBuilt in celebrating residents – provide a different way for them to interact
with residents
Evaluate how/which residents are using the arena
Greater engagement by DDA in arena costs
Programs and efforts to increase housing affordability
Other comments/discussion points included:
Mayor Johnson talked about the entrepreneurial eco system of the city, citing Kitchen 424;
chalets as examples; reinforcing what we are already doing as an entrepreneur friendly city. We
The city has invested heavily in the arena to revitalize and activate it. We should determine how
it’s being used by city residents and figure out how to get those that don’t use the arena to do so
Discussions need to take place around who to retain youth within the city - no action items were
assigned last year and we should put more focus on it this year - young adults and youth - focus
on attracting people to our schools. How do we foster strong ties between government and
community? The C2EM Committee can be helpful here.
Climate Action - Environmental impact - we will be doing an impact study to figure out how the
city impacts the climate…not as a whole (the whole city) but as an entity.
Look at action steps for Community Connection and Economic Development - add action items
Community Connection:
Action Items: barriers were with communication
Goal 3 action item add: Participation in C2EM Committee to take advantage of the Community
Engagement department to push out information about your department and increase
communication about things that are happening so everyone has the information
Two focus areas did not have action items assigned:
Specific and targeted outreach to communities we don’t hear from and don’t normally connect
with. Use targeted universalism and align with other agencies that do the work.
Action item regarding GARE and how it aligns with organization and schools
Discussion regarding Economic Development, housing, and business. Regarding housing
subsidies, we should continue working toward this and expand our efforts. Maybe consider a
designated housing fund.
Start on 2022-2.5 - Plaza has been designed for chalets at beach - we need to confirm interest
and it will be about 1.5M to get started. It would improve parking but where’s the money coming
from? Look into potential grant resources. Is this an urgent need? Parking, boardwalk, plaza
space - want to see this move forward but need to address Kruse Park Boardwalk first.
Add action item for securing funding for Kruse Park stairway repair/replacement - Destination
Community and Quality of Life. Consider establishing “Friends of Muskegon Parks“
Encourage DPW to put together a list of concrete plans/best intentions/ that looks like
something we can share and know. Something that explains why we’re doing what we’re doing
when we’re doing it.
Long term funding sources for Parks and Recreation, continuously explore recurring revenue
options. Develop a plan.
Talk about gun violence in our city and how to get a handle on it - how to combat and prevent. It
should go under quality of life. We should we include public safety in all of our goals, like climate
change, we need to view all of our goals through a public safety lens. Make this a place you
want to be and want to stay.
Create an environment where people can be successful
There are numerous organizations that support kids and we should partner with those.
We need to advertise opportunities for training, job placement, etc.
The goal setting meeting adjourned at 2:36 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
_____________________________
Ann Marie Meisch, MMC – City Clerk