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I am pleased that members of the Jamestown City Council's Public Safety Committee recently tabled consideration of Mayor Kim Ecklund's proposed local law to abolish the City's Strategic Planning and Partnerships Commission. While the commission has been inactive since early 2020, that lack of activity should prompt a serious discussion about its purpose, effectiveness, and future before any decision is made to eliminate it.
Established in 1996, the Commission was created to develop and recommend strategic initiatives, establish community-wide goals, and help address issues involving economic development, quality of life, equity, and opportunity. Its membership brings together representatives from city government, education, health care, business, labor, and other community institutions. This structure provides the City Council with access to perspectives, expertise, and partnerships that nine elected officials cannot reasonably be expected to provide on their own.
Strategic planning is an essential responsibility of the City Council, not simply the administration, and is expressly addressed in the council's "Purposes and Authority" section of the City Charter. It allows elected officials to move beyond reacting to immediate problems and take a more proactive, coordinated approach to the city's future. A meaningful strategic-planning process helps identify priorities, establish goals, evaluate resources, and coordinate efforts across departments and community organizations. It also creates opportunities for residents and stakeholders to contribute to decisions that affect their community.
This is especially important today, as the city faces a variety of challenges, including homelessness, neighborhood blight, inflation, and increasingly stretched resources. A strategic plan can help the Council prioritize these and other issues while providing direction to city administration and staff.
The City Charter expressly requires the Council to engage in a strategic-planning process during the first quarter of each year, with input from the Commission and in conjunction with the city administration. The commission is therefore more than an inactive advisory body. It is an existing mechanism intended to help the council carry out an important responsibility.
It is also worth noting that the commission was established as a City Council body. With all due respect to Mayor Ecklund, I believe the council itself should take the lead in evaluating whether this commission remains useful and how it should function. The commission exists to assist the council with its responsibilities, and its future should be considered through that lens.
Before eliminating it, the council should determine what role the commission has played, what it has accomplished, and whether its structure or responsibilities should be updated. That review should include consultation with current and former members, as well as the community institutions the commission was designed to engage. The council should also identify how it would fulfill its charter responsibilities and maintain meaningful stakeholder participation if the commission no longer exists.
During the September 21 City Council work session, the mayor and council members raised legitimate concerns about the Commission's inactivity, attendance, partner participation, and potential demands on city staff. Those concerns deserve attention, but they could be addressed through reforms, including a clearer mission, more focused responsibilities, and quarterly rather than monthly meetings. Changing how the commission operates is not the same as determining that its purpose is no longer needed.
The timing also warrants consideration. With the council focused on the annual budget process and a municipal election approaching that could bring as many as three new members onto the council in January, there is little reason to rush a permanent charter change before conducting the necessary review. The remainder of 2026 could be used to examine the commission's history, consult stakeholders, and develop options for its future.
The City Council should not preserve an institution simply because it has existed for decades. But neither should it eliminate a potentially valuable planning resource without understanding what would be lost or how its responsibilities would be met. With or without the commission, the council should take a more active role in strategic planning, as required by the charter. It makes more sense to refine and use a tool already designed specifically for that purpose than to discard it and be left empty handed.
If the council ultimately decides to abolish the commission, that decision should follow a thoughtful process and include a plan for fulfilling its strategic-planning responsibilities while maintaining and strengthening community partnerships.
Jason Sample is a Jamestown resident.