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1 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW 4 sent to hospital after carbon monoxide poisoning at Pete's Gourmet Confections ... Heat record falls in Medford ... Jackson County approves Medford's first commercial solar farm ... 4 sent to hospital after carbon monoxide poisoning at Pete's Gourmet Confections ... Heat record falls in Medford ... Jackson County approves Medford's first commercial solar farm ... FROM THE COUNCIL From the Council: Medford government lacks a coherent vision Comment By Chris Corcoran MailTribune.com By Chris Corcoran Posted Apr. 3, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Chris Corcoran Posted Apr. 3, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News So what, exactly, is a vision? Quite frankly, it is a question that has stumped this City Council on two separate occasions recently. We had a joint work session with members of our Site Plan and Architectural Commission. The council had recently overturned a decision by SPAC and the commission members, rightfully so, requested a work session with the council to discuss the issue. During the course of the conversation, a SPAC member posed the question, “… what exactly is the council’s vision for growth in downtown in particular?” Fast forward to just a couple of weeks ago. The council has been holding a series of work sessions with all of the department heads discussing current operations, goals and plans. At one point a council member asked Parks and Recreation Director Brian Sjothun, “… what is it that you want from the City Council to support the Parks Department?” Sjothun replied, “We need to know exactly what is the council’s vision for the future.” In both instances, generic statements were tossed about, but in my opinion, there were not any comments containing any kind of substantive statement as to where we are going as a community. Just for fun, I pulled up the city of Medford’s website. In the upper right hand corner there is a search box. I entered vision. No. 1 on the hit parade was City of Medford, Vision Process from 2000-2002. No. 2 was an item containing a speech delivered by Mayor Gary Wheeler, city of Medford, Service in the Recession, a speech made in 2010. Contained in that speech is the following excerpt: “We envision Medford as an outstanding livable community, the financial, medical, tourist and business hub of Southern Oregon and Northern California, blending family lifestyles, diverse educational, artistic and cultural resources and a strong sense of environmental stewardship with robust economic activity to create a vibrant place for people to live, work, learn, invest, grow, play and visit.” Those are great attributes to aspire to. Answer me this, though: change the name of the city and its location, and couldn’t that apply to just about any city anywhere? That, to me, is where we have fallen short as policy makers and leaders of your community. Council members spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with necessary minutiae such as alley vacation, General Land Use Plan amendments, sidewalk appeals, Travel Medford contracts, etc. As I said, necessary topics. But what does that have to do with our vision for our community? In 2012, a former city manager provided the council with a six-year strategic plan containing 15 goals and 117 action items. In my opinion, that document was written so generically, anything and everything accomplished by the city administration could be counted as achieving goals, which was a very important consideration when it came time to craft a bi-annual budget. I truly believe you deserve more from this council when it comes to crafting a vision that is specific in nature with a detailed road map on how we are going to achieve that vision. As it is now, the bureaucracy that is city government is driving the bus. This council needs to strap itself into the driver’s seat! Chris Corcoran is vice president of the Medford City Council. The views expressed in this piece are the individual's and do not necessarily represent the opinions or positions of the City Council. By Chris Corcoran MailTribune.com By Chris Corcoran Posted Apr. 3, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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