Mayor Jeff Hall Reports Progress on First 100 Days and Outlines Near-Term Action Plan
Mayor Jeff Hall Reports Progress on First 100 Days and Outlines Near-Term Action Plan
Alexandria, La., (March 13, 2019) — Today, marking the completion of 100 days in office, Mayor Jeffrey Hall announced his administration’s progress toward addressing immediate city and community needs and advancing longer-term plans.
“We are excited to push forward projects like the 16th Street bridge and a police presence downtown,” said Mayor Hall. “We’ve been working on all fronts to make incremental improvements such as those aimed at better customer service and enhancing our community programs. At the same time, our due diligence shows there are many more opportunities to run city government better. We are committed to spending the next 100 days making even more progress toward the kind of efficient, effective and responsive local government our citizens and businesses expect.”
The Mayor is asking the Alexandria community for their involvement and input in a formal transition planning process to assist in identifying, assessing and prioritizing these near-term opportunities for improvement. Specifically, a series of citizen subcommittees will provide feedback around five key focus areas: Quality of Life, Public Safety, Infrastructure, Community Services and City Support Services. The work of these subcommittees will be supported by Emergent Method, a Louisiana-based management consulting firm with experience working with public sector organizations throughout Louisiana in near-term and long-range planning.
“We want to identify the areas of greatest need and create a plan based on what we are hearing from the community,” Hall said. “Our model will use citizen committees to identify pain points and areas ripe for improvement. We are serious about putting our people first – including the hundreds who work for the city and the tens of thousands we serve daily.”
Emergent Method’s team has spent the past several weeks reviewing city operations and meeting with city staff. Their initial observations indicate there are opportunities for increasing governmental efficiency through the deployment of technology, enhanced employee training and more intentional planning around how assets, equipment and infrastructure are used to serve citizens.
“Though we have just begun this process, we are very optimistic about the opportunities
that exist for the city to operate with maximum efficiency in the near-term while taking intentional steps to improve long-term quality of life throughout the Alexandria community,” said John Snow, Partner at Emergent Method.
Hall said members of the citizen committees will be announced within the week and their work will formally begin this month.
“After 100 days in office, I am even more confident that we have the right path forward for our community with the right people in place,” Hall said. “There is no way to fully capture all of the work that has taken place since December 3, and I continue to be grateful for our city employees and our council for their continued partnership and support.”
During the Mayor’s State of the Community address on Friday, March 8, Hall outlined key accomplishments during the first 100 days. These include the following:
• Began engineering work on the 16th Street bridge
• Created a community policing model that fosters relationships between police officers and communities
• Enhanced community policing
• Implemented a service improvement plan to upgrade meter reading equipment to limit estimated use readings
• Added resources in the customer service office during peak periods to help customers get in and out of the office as quickly as possible
• Completed an assessment and started repairs on several community services facilities which have desperately needed attention
• Announced the inaugural Red River Festival for May 2-5, which will include music, food, the ArtWalk and the Dragon Boat Races
• Developed a downtown parking plan using current infrastructure to create more than 500 downtown parking spaces to accommodate the opening of the Central Louisiana Community and Technical College in late summer and early fall
• Established an internal audit team to help the city improve key processes and ensure compliance across all divisions, programs and funding sources.
Contact:
Cynthia D. Jardon
Communications
318.449.5025
cynthia.jardon@cityofalex.com
