A community that has experienced 4080% growth in the last decade has no shortage of projects, priorities and work to be completed to serve the needs of over 45,000 new residents. It would seem that taking the time to conduct strategic planning exercises would be a back-burner task reserved for a day when adequate staff and resources would lend better to such a discussion. But that is exactly the opposite of one City’s approach to strategic planning that continues to advance and evolve as rapidly as the community itself.

The City of Maricopa identifies itself as having a “Proud History and a Prosperous Future.” Located only 35 minutes south of Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix but separated from the metropolitan area by a 16-mile portion of the Gila River Indian Community, it became Arizona’s 88th municipality when it was incorporated in 2003 in response to housing boom hypergrowth.

Since that time, the City has continued to progress – even when the housing crisis was at its worst and Maricopa was another prime example of high foreclosure levels, it never experienced a negative growth period. Maricopa continued to increase its population, attracting residents from the Phoenix Metro area seeking a smaller town feel with access to the east valley area as well as relocates from California and the Midwest. It has also become a favorite for Canadian winter visitors.

This unique combination of rapid influx amidst a small-town feel led to the establishment of a highly engaged citizenry - nine citizen boards, commissions and committees and a Citizens Leadership Academy (which since 2008 has seen over 130 graduates) provide opportunities for Maricopa residents to stay informed on issues. Leadership Academy graduate Doris Fightmaster noted “people that go through the program feel a better connection to their City. How many opportunities do people get to sit down with the Mayor, and Council, and City leaders and ask questions and learn who does what?”

As part of the Strategic Plan creation, this citizenry was used to identify perceptions of municipal performance and give feedback on priorities that City leadership should focus on. Every two years since 2008, a statistically valid Citizen Survey has been conducted to provide a baseline of these perceptions and tracking of them over time. Annually, the City Council comes together at a retreat to update its four-year Strategic Plan.

The Plan originally set broad City Council priorities, provided specific direction for the immediate future of Maricopa and established goals for long-term community development. In 2011, the City Council and staff leadership initiated a more involved application of the Plan in order to use it as a method for focusing on and measuring results. While they wanted the document to continue to be a road map for the City’s success, it became an instrument serving as a communications piece and showpiece to help current and future residents and businesses understand the City’s vision and priorities. ““This strategic plan is a working document. It is the guiding force for our decisions and employee performance evaluations are tied to the strategic plan to ensure that the plan doesn’t sit on the shelf and collect dust,” commented City Manager Brenda Fischer, a driving force behind this enhanced initiative.

Under this new directive, staff began creating a document that provided primary focus areas and major goals, objectives and activities needed to support the City Council’s vision in five key areas: economic sustainability, quality of life, transportation, public safety and quality municipal services. The design itself also set a new standard for City branding and publications – telling the story of Maricopa, a young vibrant community, through the use of strong designs and impactful images. Then the details began to emerge in the staff creation of a list of tactics and actions for achieving each Council-approved objective. Through this process, timelines and deliverables are solidified and reporting departments are assigned. A calendar is created that ensures regular updates to the City Council on the status of the objectives.

“It can be a somewhat time consuming process, combining updates from directors across all City departments on hundreds of actions and tasks, but the payoff is a comprehensive document that keeps the entire organization in sync and the Council informed of our progress,” notes Paul Jepson, Assistant to the City Manager, who is tasked with tracking staff reports on activities.

But the process does not end there. The City of Maricopa is now incorporating the Strategic Plan objectives into the development of budget performance measures and performance evaluations. This approach is based upon the belief that every action, every service and every program that the City provides should directly tie back to a specific objective listed in the guiding document – the City Council Strategic Plan. In doing so, the organization moves ahead in concert with a unified vision, a defined strategy and a roadmap for success. City Manager Brenda Fischer points out that “if it is measured, it gets attention, and if it gets attention, it gets accomplished,” when discussing the critical importance that appropriate and comprehensive effectiveness measures play in the delivery of results.

A community experiencing rapid growth such as Maricopa, while seemingly too busy dealing with immediate needs related to establishing a full-service municipality in under a decade, is actually more in need of a carefully developed and measured Strategic Plan than any other resource. It will ensure a results-focused organization, allowing Maricopa to deliver on its promise of a Prosperous Future to its citizens.