by Craig H. McFarland, Mayor, City of Casa Grande
Happy Holidays and cheers to another year nearly completed. 2023 was a good year for us. We experienced new industries, new businesses, new jobs, new residents and continued managed growth.
Let’s celebrate the holidays and prepare for 2024!
As a reminder, Casa Grande’s strategic location and strongly motivated City leadership honors diversity and provides opportunities for all residents. By building a sustainable and attractive community we create a place where people can safely live, work and play.
Here’s the strategic plan guiding your city:
Financial stability, sustainability
- Develop a sustainable budget that can withstand a 5% revenue reduction.
- Continue to use the classification and compensation system to benchmark job positions against mid-point of the salary range with the market.
- Analyze and evaluate five programs or services per year to ensure efficiency/effectiveness against the private sector.
- Create a comparative analysis of service delivery by other municipalities.
- Dispose of underutilized City properties.
- Develop a sustainable five-year capital infrastructure and financing plan
Community connection
- Build and strengthen collaborative relationships and partnerships that support the needs of, reflect and enrich our diverse and vibrant local community, and to promote tourism by:
- Adopting and sustaining a culture and practice of engagement and partnerships to achieve outcomes that reflect our City’s concerns, aspirations and values.
- Increasing positive citizen interaction.
- Creating an image of the City residents rate favorably.
- Creating an image to attract people to visit and live in Casa Grande.
- Creating an image of the City that businesses rate favorably.
- Increasing presence on City’s social media sites.
- Holding City events to fully reflect composition of entire community.
Community enhancement
- Construct and improve quality of life infrastructure, facilities.
- Expand broadband services.
- Eliminate blight by allocating City resources.
- Implement transit plan.
Economic expansion
- Implement 2030 general plan.
- Implement water resources plan.
- I-10 widening.
- Implement economic development strategic plan.
- Enhance art, culture within the City.
Education, workforce advancement
- Increase the number of baccalaureate degrees achieved by residents.
- Assess, improve workforce exposure to training and develop opportunities.
- Increase the number of students attending post graduate institutions, vocational education.
- Welcome five industrial companies participating in an apprenticeship/internship program to place five apprentices each year for the next five years.
- Place five interns within City departments each year for next five years.
Healthy, safe community environment
- Increase citizen’s sense of security.
- Advance a healthy community initiative.
See these Holiday remembrances that always light up my December!
