A Push For Transparency: Select Board Discusses New Ways To Package Strategic Plan

BREWSTER – Earlier this month, the select board held its annual retreat to discuss strategic goals for the upcoming fiscal year, based on the previous year’s progress. 

This year, the board decided to focus on four specific organizational aspects of the plan: creating a consensus values statement; reorienting the plan along strategic focus areas instead of the local comprehensive plan’s building blocks; developing a public-facing document with concise and comprehensive information; and referencing the list of adopted plans that are currently being implemented. 

At its Sep. 22 meeting, board members agreed that creating the values statement would take time, especially in the case of soliciting feedback from residents, committees and other organizations in town. According to the annual retreat presentation, the values statement will include the guiding principles of the strategic plan.

Caroline McCarley said it would make sense to also be working on a public-facing document instead of waiting for the values statement to be finished. 

Chair Mary Chaffee referenced two other towns in Massachusetts that have well-crafted, simple, straightforward documents for their residents to refer to. Westford and Nantucket have both used consultants to help with their strategic planning, including creating the final report and one-page public-facing document.

Town Manager Peter Lombardi said he spoke with officials in both municipalities and they hired the consultants for $85,000. While Brewster has taken a more “homegrown” approach to its strategic planning, board members said they wouldn’t need the full consultant treatment.

Lombardi suggested using town staff to create a one-pager for the time being so residents had a more transparent, easily-accessible document to refer back to when looking at the goals for the upcoming year.

The local comprehensive plan is organized in 10 building blocks. Historically, the select board has followed these core principles, recently adding the Sea Camps as its own component. 

Chaffee said the board had discussed using broader focus areas to organize the strategic plan, instead of always linking back to the local comprehensive plan. Member Amanda Bebrin was in favor of that approach, as long as the local comprehensive plan was referenced throughout the document. 

The current plan is a four-page excel spreadsheet that all members agreed did not “knock it out of the park” when it comes to clarity. 

Lombardi said that Westford and Nantucket struggled with keeping their local comprehensive plan and strategic plan aligned because they had deviated from linking them. Whether that influences the board’s decision remains up in the air. 

As of now, the board won’t be changing the working document this year, but their hope is to create a visually appealing document that helps residents understand where the select board’s focus is for the upcoming year. 

“For this as an internal working document to guide the work of the town,” said Chaffee, referring to the current strategic plan. “This document has a different purpose than whatever the more attractive, educational, concise summary is.”

She went on to say that the internal document’s purpose is to identify the priorities, determine who is responsible and accomplish the work. The public-facing document’s purpose is to highlight what the plan is doing and how the pieces fit together. 

The board did not move forward with a decision, but members were encouraged to digest the discussions and think of new ways to make the work clear for the community.