This Friday and Saturday, March 20-21, Statesboro’s City Council, mayor, city manager and key agency leaders will hold their annual strategic planning retreat in Augusta.
Unlike the Bulloch County Commission’s budget retreat, which was being held Wednesday and Thursday in the field house at Paulson Stadium, the city government’s are usually held away from Statesboro, and for the last few years have been in Augusta. Also, the city’s retreats focus less on current-year budgeting and more on “big picture” topics and goals.
But the city’s sessions, starting at 8:30 a.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday after 7:30 a.m. breakfasts, are also officially open meetings, in case other Statesboro citizens want to make the drive. The location is the Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center, 2 Tenth Street.
Michael Hourihan from the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia, the same facilitator who set up the discussions at least the past six years, is scheduled to do so again.
Friday session
Poverty – and the plight of working people of very limited means – and homelessness are Friday morning’s key topics.
After the overview and statement of retreat objectives at 8:30 a.m., the presentation on poverty in America, with reference to the book “Placeless: Homelessness in the New Gilded Age” by Patrick Markee is slated for 9-10 a.m.
After a brief break, a presentation of information about poverty in Statesboro and Bulloch County is slated to begin with “ALICE” data, referring to “Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed” households, at 10:15, followed at 10:50 by survey results, housing data, nonprofit capacity and eviction issues. A Homelessness Task Force presentation is slated for 11:45 a.m., followed by lunch.
A city finance review is scheduled for 12:45 p.m., followed at 1:15 by a presentation on Economic Development and Industrial Recruitment involving the small business recruiter, the Downtown Statesboro Development Authority and the Development Authority of Bulloch County.
Presentations about the city’s website at 2 p.m., Fire Services at 2:35, Planning & Zoning at 3:30, Housing Development at 4 p.m., and “Readiness for Economic Uncertainty” at 4:45 round out the Friday afternoon schedule, concluding at 5 p.m.
Saturday session
Saturday’s schedule brings presentations or discussions of the Statesboro Housing and Family Support Collaborative beginning at 8 a.m., the city Capital Improvement Plan at 8:30, Municipal Court and the purpose of executive sessions at 9:30 a.m., then a break. Discussions of waste water system planning at 10:15 and fiscal considerations at 10:35 a.m. are slated before adjournment at noon.