Owatonna City Council Approves 2025-2027 Strategic Plan
The City Council approved the City of Owatonna’s 2025-2027 Strategic Plan at its April 15 meeting. The Strategic Plan reflects the projects and initiatives that will be prioritized over the next few years. These priorities were refined through a series of meetings between City Council and staff that began in February. “The plan creates a roadmap we will use as we make decisions in analyzing and adopting policies and providing direction to staff on how to best use City resources,” said City Council President Kevin Raney. “It will be a helpful guide as we begin shaping our 2026 operating and capital budgets.”
There were several key decisions made during the process of developing this plan. This includes replacing the previous vision statement with the City’s Purpose Statement ‘We Create a Better Tomorrow’ and Core Values of Better Together, Community Stewardship and Pride in Our Work. “Our purpose and values were developed with City Council input in 2022 and we have been using them to drive organizational operations,” said City Administrator Kris Busse. “Integrating them into the Strategic Plan creates alignment in our planning and sets a clear path for staff to establish work plans.”
Another shift was made after evaluating the previous four Key Focus Areas of Infrastructure, Economic Vitality, Quality of Life and Efficient Effective Government. These have been replaced with five higher-level, overarching strategic priorities with specific outcomes, strategies and goals:
- Our Public Amenities
- Economic Prosperity
- Financial Security
- A Premier Employer
- Our Neighbors
Action items are being developed for each of these five priorities to ensure the goals in the Strategic Plan are met. Progress reports on the Strategic Plan will be provided to the City Council in July and December. An annual review will be done in early 2026 to make updates as needed. A summary of the City’s Strategic Plan document can be viewed online at owatonna.gov.
