FAIRMONT– The first of two goal setting workshops held by the Fairmont City Council on Wednesday focused on industry, both the challenges and shortages, communication and code enforcement.

City Administrator Jason Baker open the workshop by telling the council that its purpose wasn’t about solving every issue that was facing the city, but instead was an opportunity to step back from regular meeting agendas and focus on the bigger picture for the city of Fairmont.

“As elected officials, each of you bring unique experiences, perspectives and priorities to the table. While we may not agree on every issue, I believe we all share a common goal. We want this community to be successful, financially stable, safe and a great place to live, work and raise a family,” Baker said.

He said that strategic planning and goal setting will help the council move from reacting to individual issues as they arise, to intentionally working toward a shared goal for the community.

Baker told the council that they would be working on setting goals using the SMART framework, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. He said the outcome would be a prioritized set of achievable goals that provide clear direction for staff and give alignment between council and administration.

To start, he asked the council members to answer, five years from now, what one accomplishment or improvement would be that would make them say, “we were successful as a council.”

Some of the answers that the five council members and Mayor Lee Baarts came up with were a larger population, maintaining and growing industry, camaraderie among the council and staff, development of a strategic and detailed Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), five new houses a year and improved customer service and processes at city hall.

Council Member Randy Lubenow was stuck on the issue of the “red tape” at city hall and he said he thought there were some individuals who did not want to grow Fairmont.

“The old adage is, you come to city hall and you’re told no, but you’re not told how you could. I think that’s important,” Lubenow said.

Later during the session Lubenow said he thinks that customers service training is something that city staff should undergo.

Baarts agreed with Lubenow’s earlier point and said that it seems like there is often trouble people run into when trying to build in Fairmont.

“Why is it builders and people shy away from us?” Baarts asked.

Council Member Jay Maynard said he’s also heard concerns about red tape, but at the same time said they need to remember that there are requirements and mandates that have to be met.

“We can’t become easier to build by relaxing code enforcement,” Maynard said. “We have to provide ways to say yes, but when we have to say no, we need to be sure that we do so.”

Baker said that staff is working to address issues and make improvements and that projects will start to wrap up, including the zoning code updates, which have been in the works for several years.

In talking about getting things done, Council Member Britney Kawecki said, “It seems like the only things that get done, are the things that staff want to get done.”

She said that while everyone wants the city to grow and industry to come, it’s not going to happen if issues at the bottom aren’t addressed.

“A lot of it comes back to strategic plans, capital improvement plans, the budget,” Kawecki said.

Next, the group went over a current state of the city review and Baker shared what he has seen and learned in his time in Fairmont and in talking with staff

“Currently, the population in Fairmont is fairly stable… Fairmont has seen an increase in retail throughout the city. With the next big growth projects we’ll have to make sure that we focus on industrial jobs. Obviously 3M is one of those topics where we’re losing a high number of jobs and need something to replace on the industrial side,” Baker said.

He agreed that there is a need for more housing and for a variety of housing types. He pointed out that there is a housing study in the works that should be done later this month or in July.

Baker touched on infrastructure and said constant improvements are being made, including with the roads and he said Fairmont is not unique in its road needs.

Lubenow said, “for me, that will be a success story, that we have made some progress.”

In talking about some other needs he sees in the current state of the city, Baker said that while Fairmont is considered a safe city, he sees a need for new facilities for the police and fire departments.

“It should be something that’s considered for the coming years. I think it’s a well-known idea. It’s not anything new to anyone. Our police department is currently housed out of the county facility in their basement and crammed in there and our fire department is crammed into their facility and outgrowing that and they’re both outdated,” Baker said.

Later in the meeting, Lubenow said that he thinks the community has outstanding public safety and while he agreed the facilities are questionable, he pointed out that there are other jails with beds outside of Martin County.

“I look at the jail roster on a regular basis and we have 10, 12 people normally in the jail. I want the jailers to be safe… but I could really care less about the conditions those prisoners have,” Lubenow said. “If we need facilities, we have facilities in southern Minnesota.”

In looking at the organizational structure of the staff, in addition to hiring a community development director, Baker said he would like to add a parks supervisor to oversee the parks department and he would also like to see a public information officer added to city staff.

“Right now I think our communication with the community is lacking in certain spots,” Baker said.

He said that person would take charge of the website and different communication pages as he said right now the duties are divided among three or four staff members.

Communication became a big thing that was discussed later during the workshop.

Lubenow said that he thinks that the city needs to start responding to comments on social media.

“We just allow the negativity to fester because we never make a comment,” Lubenow said. “Communication is a big thing. If you don’t communicate from the negative, people are going to go off the rails.”

However, Maynard said he thinks that to deal with social media agitators, the city needs to make them irrelevant by getting the city moving altogether forward and refusing to dig into the past.

“Facebook is about communicating. That’s all it is, good, bad or otherwise and everyone has their first amendment right to say what they want to say but we have responsibility as city leaders to make sure we’re giving out a positive choice moving forward,” said Council Member James Kotewa.

Toward the end of the session, Baker asked the council what the biggest opportunities and the biggest risks facing the city are and what projects would define success.

“We have to figure out, why don’t people want to build in Fairmont? We have so many great things and we have so much to offer that other communities don’t have so why are people choosing to go elsewhere? There has to be a reason,” Kawecki said.

Council Member Wayne Hasek said he thinks that negativity is part of it.

Kotewa agreed and said that solutions need to be found in a positive way. He said, being born and raised here, he’s seen a lot of changes in the community.

“We can’t follow the same pattern that we have for years. We have to ebb and flow and work with what we have and in five years I want to see this town be successful and that means we have lakes we can swim in and use and the infrastructure… not to have Taj Mahal facilities but places, a senior center, community center, something we have where we can come together,” Kotewa said.

He said defining success would be hard to gauge but that he thinks the city needs to look at where it’s been and where it’s going and follow a plan.

In speaking about negativity being a problem, Maynard said that it’s getting in the way of moving forward because some people are too invested in rehashing old decisions and complaining about how things have been done in the past.

“We need to get past that. We have to put that behind us and make decisions about what we’re doing from here out,” Maynard said.

Baker said that moving forward is a good opportunity that the city has right now because it’s getting in the position to start pushing projects forward and moving the community in a positive way.

He reiterated that not everything is going to be solved overnight but pointed out that there is agreement that there are opportunities to move forward and have growth.

Finally, the group spent some time talking about what services are most important to residents and what the priorities are and some of the responses were public safety, lakes, code enforcement and addressing blight.

“I honestly think we could have three or four code enforcement employees. I think that’s honestly one of the biggest things in ward three and four. You hear about it. People want it taken care of. They want the yards cleaned up,” Kawecki said.

The next goal setting workshop will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. on June 17 at the Southern Minnesota Educational Campus (SMEC) building.