I know I gave great praise in my article "We Won" to staff for producing some written documentation that can be reviewed by residents to help us understand the financial situation of the City.  This will be somewhat helpful in helping people evaluate the city financial situation when they go to vote November 4th.  Hopefully, we are working toward the day when the information is made available in a format that can be passed around better between citizens.  In previous writings I've described this as an essay written so an 8th grader can understand it but also containing enough information so that it had enough details to pass a college level course. 
 
The briefing that was given last Monday night was great but because it was a briefing the information will last only as long as our memories.  The posting of the worksheets is good but there isn't much of a description on why they are there or what they are suppose to show.  So here is what I envision we are working toward.
 
During my orientation the city engineer now assistance city manager brought out a document I had seen before; The Huber Heights 2011 Comprehensive Plan.  This is a good start for an overall picture of where the city is going.  Currently you can search HHOH.org using Comprehensive Plan and you won't find this document (however if you search using comprehensive you'll find it here - Thanks Scott for the correction).  This plan is 48 pages long so it is much longer than what I envision will be the first page available to the public.  In fact, the first page I would like to see available to the public might print out to two pages.  That page would tell us that the 2011 Comprehensive Plan exists, why it exists and what work is being done to improve it in the near future.  If someone wants to see the full 2011 Comprehensive Plan then there would be a link to another two pages that describes the 2011 Comprehensive Plan more fully and that has a direct link to the actual document.  
 
Also, on the initial page would be some of the higher interest items that would fall under the 2011 Comprehensive Plan for instance "The Heights Development".  If there is something at the next level that people would be talking about or interested in that falls under a category like "The Heights Development" that also could be mentioned on the introduction page.  An example of this would be the Music Center.  Each of these high interest items would also have links to their own pages and inside those pages you would find links to sub categories (for instance the Aquatic and Music Centers for the Heights) and source documents.  So the Music Center intro page would link to some of the documents we saw last Monday, for instance the worksheet showing how we expect to finance the construction costs and the expected operation budget. 
 
Key to each of these pages and intro is the summary of what has occurred previously, what is going on now, and identifying what work needs to be accomplished next.  Other important elements is to identify a city point of contact or responsible party, a timeline for updates and improvements, and the funding needs and availability.
 
-------------------------------------------
 
Post Script:  Though I mention the 2011 Comprehensive Plan and know that we have a Heights Development agreement.  Both these documents need a lot of work to make them useful as tools for the City's economic growth.  Not only doesn't the 2011 Comprehensive Plan mention the Heights Development it is not written in a way that could easily be edited to incorporate it into the plan.  The other major problem with the document is the third section "Implementation".  That section starts with a number of good practices like Inventory Tracking and developing a Marketing Strategy but isn't specific enough to give guidance on how to start.  Nor does it give a status on if the City had any of the items it recommends and if the City did, how close were they to what is recommended.    
 
Looking at the Heights Development Project you can see it needs work by the fact that it calls for the developer to submit to the City reports such as a Land Assembly Agreement, Updated Conceptual Development Plan, Infrastructure Analysis, and a Project Budget and Project Schedule.  Though we have never formally relieved the original developer of any of their responsibilities, city representatives keep mentioning another contractor as taking the Land Assembly Agreement duties.  I'm not aware of the status of any of the other reports that the original developer is suppose to be making.  If staff is getting them they aren't bringing them for discussion at any of the committee meetings.