Letter To The Editor – Unite Oskaloosa Behind a new Comprehensive City Plan

Editors Note: The views and opinions expressed in this editorial are not necessarily the views or opinions of Oskaloosa News.

A manager knows how important an operational plan is to his or to her organization’s success, whether it is public or private, a local government or a business. Without a plan an organization lacks direction, like the proverbial ship without a rudder. Let’s unite all of Oskaloosa behind a new Comprehensive City Plan – an idea long proposed by Jason Van Zetten, but an idea that has been lost in the rhetoric of the current city council election campaign.

With the possible exceptions of electing its officials and levying taxes, a city should be viewed as a business – a business operating in the public sector for the public good funded by “we” the taxpayers. Oskaloosa is no exception. The City has a comprehensive operations plan, but as Van Zetten has pointed out several times, it is out of date and in need of either updating or replacing from scratch.

The current city plan, whether revised or replaced, can become a truly unifying plan: A plan which prioritizes and budgets for all city governmental obligations on a sound fiscal basis, while at the same time anticipates requests from civic organizations and planning bodies for City resources, such as Roger Brooks, BLT, Blue Zones, Bicycle Coalition, MCDG (under the broad auspices of The Oskaloosa Area Chamber and Development Group, including Main Street), etc.

Most of the above groups author and present original plans to the public based upon their own goals and objectives. Though most of the plans possess worthy qualities, overlapping similarities of purpose can represent a costly duplication of effort. Yet, several of the above groups have made requests for and have received funding approval from the city. This is fiscally unsound and unfair to the City Council when the request is made mid-term in the fiscal cycle. Each was not in the city budget.

At the risk of being repetitive, each plan can and should be evaluated and ranked relative to all the other requests for City resources in order of importance. Otherwise, planning and spending become fragmented and wasteful. Unfortunately, this is the current state of affairs and the City is forced to be all things to all people without regard to priority. City resources are limited.

So how do we overcome this problem? Simply, form a new “super” city planning committee or task force appointed by the Mayor of Oskaloosa – a committee of the City Council. Of most importance, include the representatives or heads of each of the aforementioned groups. Let their ideas be heard and prioritized in a unified forum. Duplication of effort can be eliminated.

Finally, there is a crucial step in comprehensive planning which must not be omitted. The planner(s) must examine and determine the city’s real needs, often correctly expressed as a problem which must be overcome – a short coming, if you will. To do so is not “obstructive” to progress, of which Van Zetten has been accused. It is a required forward step.

An effective planner looks for and, at times, must express uncomfortable truths. Admittedly, it can be time consuming and painful. In the politically correct world in which we live today, it is not ‘in’ to describe problems others don’t see, but to avoid them is to limit real progress. Let’s unite behind and adopt a new Comprehensive City Plan and get on with business.

Bob Walton

Posted by on Nov 2 2015. Filed under Editorial, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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