From Staff Reports
TRAVERSE CITY — Penning a five-year strategy for Traverse City could require outside help.
Commissioners on Monday will review a request for proposals aimed at firms that would work though the process. The resulting five-year strategic plan would include goals, plans to realize them and some accountability through monitoring and a public “dashboard.”
To get there, commissioners must first select a firm that would make initial assessments both inside city government and among residents, including through an engagement process and a statistically valid survey, according to the current scope of work.
Should commissioners approve the request for proposals at a later meeting, the deadline for firms to respond would be March 1.
On Monday, commissioners also will consider allowing city Clerk Benjamin Marentette to hire an operations coordinator, one of four new positions in the current city budget. That post would be responsible for the licensing processes under the city clerk’s purview, as the department lead for absentee voting and as coordinator for city board appointment processes, among other tasks, according to a memo from city Human Resources Director Kristine Bosley.
Commissioners also will vote on a total of $240,924 in two contracts, one to abate asbestos in four buildings on State Street land the city recently purchased, and another to tear them down. The Downtown Development Authority would reimburse the city out of a $900,000 state grant it received to clear the land that could be the site of a future structure with public parking, housing and other uses.
The buildings include a former dry cleaner, offices and a recently built cottage, but not an adjacent office building at the corner of State and Pine streets that remains privately owned, property records show.
In addition, commissioners will talk with legal counsel in closed session about an ongoing lawsuit brought by 326 Land Company challenging the city’s tall buildings vote requirement, and a stop-work order the city issued for the developer’s State Street project following a judge’s ruling in a separate lawsuit involving the same vote requirement.