Six months after Tupelo’s most damaging tornado since the deadly twister of 1936, the City Council, mayor and other leaders are set to resume work on a 53-item to-do list developed during a 2013 retreat. That gathering came a month before the April 28 storm that required a refocus of energies on immediate emergency priorities.
Mayor Jason Shelton, the council and department heads gather Wednesday at the BancorpSouth Conference Center to resume work on the city’s priorities and actions to achieve them once set.
The full council, except for newly elected Ward 3 member Travis Beard, has been through a full fiscal cycle, including making a budget and dealing, in a profound way, with the unexpected.
Restoring order and cleaning up mountains of debris after the tornado, in fact, should be counted as a major achievement for citizens and city government.
Tupelo’s priorities changed in the space of a few minutes from routine but focused progress to emergency recovery.
In an article in Cityscape magazine, published by the Iowa League of Cities, “acting strategically” was listed as the first priority in City Council effectiveness, and that’s what Tupelo did without delay.
Tupelo is not a newcomer to acting strategically. The steady progress in constructing the Major Thoroughfare Program began with a strategic decision in 1991, and the action continues successfully 23 years later.
Not every project or priority requires the magnitude of commitment used in the MTP, but every priority should be undertaken with the same sense of urgency once the need is defined and a course of action agreed on.
As noted in reporter Robbie Ward’s Monday article, the current Tupelo City Council term runs for 32 more months, so time is relatively short, especially because of the tornado interruption.
Tornado destruction and recovery may have caused other priorities to slip a few notches, but efforts to help encourage more jobs in the city and retain and recruit more residents remain.
Jeff Shott, director of the Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Iowa, described all cities when he wrote in Cityscape:
“Whether a city decides to use goal setting or strategic planning, there are numerous benefits to the local government and its citizens. Going through the process often leads to better communication amongst city officials and a more effective and responsive city government.”
More effective and responsive should always be in the lead of Tupelo’s agenda because it is essential in every undertaking.