For Immediate Release
Date: June 3, 2017

City Council on Saturday wrapped up a two-day Savannah Forward retreat by charting a new direction for our community through year 2025.

After wading through a large number of comments provided by hundreds of citizens and focus groups over the past month at Savannah Forward meetings held across the City, Council decided on five strategic priorities:

• Public Safety
• Infrastructure
• Poverty Reduction/Economic Strength
• Neighborhood Revitalization
• Good Government

Council then spent hours in discussion before deciding on more than two dozen measurable strategic results under each of those priorities, which the City will track and report to the community to gauge whether progress is being made. These measurable results range from specific reductions in Police response times and Part 1 Crime to a commitment to construct sidewalks on all high-traffic roadways and school routes. Council decided that by 2025, the entire City will be free of structural flooding resulting from a 25-year rainfall event.

Achieving these results will likely mean changes in appropriations of City resources during the creation of upcoming budgets. That process will be driven by the development of an implementation plan, followed by department-level business plans, which will include the action plans needed to achieve City Council’s expected results.

“Creation of this strategic plan is just the beginning,” said City Manager Rob Hernandez. “The real work is in developing the organization and programs needed to get results.”

In coming days the City will post Council’s strategic priorities, as well as feedback from the public during the Savannah Forward engagement process, at www.savannahga.gov/SavannahForward.