SANTA PAULA — At its regular meeting on June 21, the Santa Paula City Council adopted the 2023-2025 Strategic Plan. This plan comes as an update to the 2021-2023 Strategic Plan and emphasizes the City’s commitment to transparency as part of its larger goals to increase community engagement and promote equity.
The 2023-2025 Strategic Plan outlines major milestones for the City across seven core areas:
- Arts, Culture and Entertainment
- Economic Development
- Infrastructure, Transportation and Mobility
- Community Health
- Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
- Community Vitality
- Operational Excellence
“As we laid out the ambitious objectives outlined in the City’s 2023-2025 Strategic Plan, we wanted to reaffirm the City’s commitment to our community’s core values,” said Mayor Andy Sobel. “Our City thrives on open, transparent dialogue, and we want to foster an environment where ideas are openly exchanged between residents and their government. In line with these values, we’ve diligently sought to identify numerous objectives and consolidate them into a forward-looking, yet practical plan, to serve as our guiding compass over the next two years.
The City actively engaged the public in three public workshops with City Councilmembers and City staff for input and feedback on the plan. Through this collaboration, the City identified 52 key objectives to actively address throughout the entire plan. The objectives will serve as a framework for the development of budgets and departmental plans, which will dictate the amount of funding and staff resources available for different projects.
The City is looking to build on the success of the Business Roundtable program that arose from the 2021-2023 Strategic Plan by expanding access to business education programs through partnerships with organizations, such as the Economic Development Collaborative (EDC) and the Women’s Economic Ventures (WEV). Through these actions, the City intends to strengthen its economic development efforts by creating a synergized and communicative business community.
In addition, the City also plans to streamline the application and permitting process for businesses. Not only will this support the City’s broader goal of improving Santa Paula’s economic vitality, it will aid in the City’s downtown Santa Paula beautification efforts. As the economic and cultural heart of the City, Santa Paula’s historic downtown district is a primary focus of the City’s efforts to improve Santa Paulans’ economic well-being, quality of life and community engagement.
To promote public safety and strengthen its operational capabilities, the City hired its first ever Emergency Services Coordinator in February 2023. The updated Strategic Plan outlines new ways to leverage the City’s newfound resources to strengthen neighborhood safety engagement initiatives. The City intends to collaborate with the community on emergency preparedness efforts through various educational community workshops.
The 2023-2025 Strategic Plan also builds upon objectives which make Santa Paula a safe and healthy community to live, work and thrive. During the previous plan, the Santa Paula Social Services Coalition was created to bring together partners who can provide a range of services and resources to residents, including, but not limited to, mental health services and children and family services.
As the 2023-2025 Strategic Plan was worked on during the budgeting process, many of the objectives have been planned and accounted for in the City’s Fiscal Years 2023-2025 Budget. For more information about the 2023-2025 Strategic Plan, please contact Management Analyst Jonathan Royas at (805) 525-4478 or jroyas@spcity.org.