Camas to hold listening sessions, discuss five-year strategic plan

Camas residents are invited to two listening sessions to discuss the City’s five-year strategic plan.

The first session will be held virtually, on Zoom, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29. The second, an in-person session, will be held the following day, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, at the Camas Public Library, located at 625 N.E. Fourth Ave., in downtown Camas.

“The City is developing its next five-year strategic plan and your input is crucial to shaping the City’s priorities and future direction,” Camas Communications Director Bryan Rachal noted on the City’s website, adding that community members who want to add their thoughts to the strategic plan but cannot attend either listening session will still have a chance to complete the City’s strategic plan survey, which will soon be available on the City’s Engage Camas website and is expected to be open through mid-November.

The City hired PointNorth, a Vancouver consulting firm, to help develop the 2025-30 strategic plan. PointNorth consultants explained their approach and public outreach plan to Camas City Council members in early September, during the Council’s Sept. 3 workshop.

PointNorth consultants Lisa Keohokalole Schauer and Kim Sogge, both Camas residents, told Council members on Sept. 3, that they’ve heard “a need for clear direction as to the City’s priorities.”

During the consultants’ initial engagement with Camas stakeholders, they said they asked these individuals to list their top four priorities for the city of Camas.

“We often got more than four, so the list is long,” Keohokalole Schauer said. “We want to achieve balance between aspirational priorities and operating realities.”

When the consultants talked to City Council officials and the City’s various department heads, they also heard how important it is to reach out to not only Camas community members — external stakeholders — but also to internal City staff.

“We want to make sure we’re not leaving the internal staff behind,” Keohokalole Schauer said.

She added that the consultants also want to make sure community members know their input is being considered but are still clear on how much of a difference their feedback will have on the overall strategic plan.

“It’s important to not overpromise what community members’ feedback will impact,” she said.

The City’s Strategic Plan Community Advisory Committee (CAC), which the PointNorth consultants said is tasked with “developing the values and priorities for the City’s next strategic plan,” and making recommendations on the strategic plan to the Council and city administrator, launched in early September with 16 members.

The CAC includes two Council members (Marilyn Boerke and John Nohr); two City department heads (Camas Police Chief Tina Jones and Camas Information Technology Director Michelle Jackson); three members of the City’s staff (senior planner Lauren Hollenbeck, engineer Brian Monnin and programming librarian Vanessa Perger); two business owners (Maureen Garrett and Guillermo Huerta); Dave Pinkernell, the president of the Camas-Washougal Community Chest; Camas School Board member Bamini Pathmanathan; Port of Camas-Washougal Chief Executive Officer Trang Lam; Camas Parks and Recreation Commission Chairperson Ellen Burton; and three community members (Dena Strong, Terry Wiener and Chelsea Zibolsky).

During the Council’s Sept. 3 workshop, Councilwoman Leslie Lewallen asked the consultants: “What is the purpose of this strategic plan?”

“We are trying to develop a plan that (shows) the City’s priorities for the next five years,” Keohokalole Schauer said, adding that the plan will show what the City is doing and how they are doing it between 2025 and 2030. “As opposed to the big, 20-year comprehensive plan, this is what we are doing over the next five years.”

Camas City Administrator Doug Quinn said the City’s strategic and comprehensive plans inform each other. “This is a very short window of time,” Quinn said of the five-year strategic plan. “We have parks plans, land-use plans, utility plans … this endeavor will inform and be informed by those plans.”

Keohokalole Schauer added that the plan will help City leaders better understand where Camas is going as a city.

“How do we come up with a succinct, one-sentence, ‘Where are we headed?’” Keohokalole Schauer said. “Is that possible? (The strategic plan will) help us get a clear (idea of), ‘Here’s our vision. Here’s where we’re headed. Here are four to five priorities. And here’s how we get there.’”

Sogge added that the CAC will act not only as an advisory committee but also as “ambassadors to the community” during the development of the strategic plan.

“We had over 70 applicants for the community advisory committee,” Sogge told Council members on Sept. 3. “And we have a significant amount of folks that represent the diversity of Camas.”

The CAC members, she said, have lived in Camas between one and 40 years; span the generations with the youngest member being 25 years old and the oldest over the age of 65; and represent a range of ethnicities.

“We wanted diversity of thought, not just one dimension,” Sogge said of the CAC member-selection process. “We wanted to allow for real, authentic conversations … and looked at how to create a group that feels safe to share input on the future of Camas.”

Although the consultants were clear in September that the community engagement process had not yet started, Lewallen asked if they had reached out to representatives of the Camas paper mill.

“We are a town built on the mill. Their voice is a critical voice, so I would be very interested to hear what they have to say,” Lewallen said. “Did we engage with the (Georgia-Pacific) mill for their feedback on the strategic visioning?”

Councilman Tim Hein responded that the consultants had included two business owners on the CAC and wondered why they had not broadened the group to include more business voices.

“When you choose two, you may exclude others,” Hein said. “Maybe broaden it? I don’t want to complicate it, but if we want to get a sense of the community — is it inclusive enough of (business owners)?”

Keohokalole Schauer explained that, although the CAC had room for two business owners to be a part of the advisory committee, that doesn’t mean other business owners and corporate stakeholders will not be included in the creation of the strategic plan.

“Once we kick off the (public) engagement, which will happen this fall,” the consultants will take feedback from other business owners in the City, Keohokalole Schauer said.

The consultants said they “want to ensure we are tracking the individuals we’ve reached, the number of listening session attendees, survey completion rates, website visits and social media” engagement.

“It’s important to see how many folks are engaged and how they’re engaging, then making modifications to our approach as needed,” Sogge said, noting that the consultant team was at the very beginning stages of community engagement and would continue to engage with the community throughout the next few months, with the October listening sessions, the online survey that runs through mid-November and presentations before the Council set to take place in January and March 2025.

To join the online Oct. 29 listening session, visit bit.ly/VirtualListeningSes sionRSVP. To RSVP for the Oct. 30 session, visit bit.ly/In-PersonListeningSes sionRSVP.