The five goals the Greensboro City Council approved at its retreat at the ACC Hall of Champions on Monday, Feb. 24 were supposed to be “measurable” and “achievable.”
It would appear the goals are measurable, although measuring whether or not the city had been able to “form partnerships to increase committed affordable housing of the 0 to 30 percent and the 30 to 60 percent area median income by 1,000 units” may prove difficult.
And raising the per capita household income by 15 percent by 2025 doesn’t appear to be achievable.
City Councilmember Justin Outling said that developing plans to accomplish the goals was not the purpose of the retreat. He said, “That’s the next step.”
Outling explained that the council’s task was to establish the goals, but it was the city staff’s job to develop plans on how to accomplish them.
He said, “The goals are significant in that it helps us orient decision making for the year.”
He added, “As for increasing household income, we should be making decisions with that in mind and asking does this further our goal of increasing the area household income.”
Outling said that specifically when the council is asked for economic incentives, whether or not the new jobs being promised would further the goal of increasing the area household income should play a big part in the decision making.
Outling added that it would not be the only consideration and gave the example of a company offering to bring 3,000 jobs to Greensboro and said that would likely be approved because it’s 3,000 jobs.
Outling said, “Hopefully, we won’t be throwing $500,000 or $1 million at something that doesn’t help accomplish the goals.”
He said he thought the goals would help keep the council focused and that time is so valuable that the council couldn’t afford to spend time trying to solve every problem that comes along.
