It's that time again when the City of Torrance does a comprehensive update to its Strategic Plan. To include the community in this process, the Community Development Department is asking Torrance residents to participate in focus groups and provide their input on what they like and dislike about the City and what they want to see in the future for the City.
Two members of the LWVTA, Sharon Alexander and Jill Verenkoff, attended a 2019 Stratigic Plan Focus Group meeting and gave their input at the Katy Geissert Library in Torrance on February 28th. Energetic facilitators jotted down our group's comments on large white tablets. Each member of the group was given stickers to select their four most important issues. Photos of our group's charts can be found here: Torrance Focus Strategy Group B Charts: Likes, Dislikes, Suggestions for the Future
Soon a committee will be formed to assist in the preparation of the new plan. The last major update to this plan was done in 2008. A copy of the full 2008 Strategic Plan can be found here: Torrance Strategic Plan 2008.
We were told that the process and composition of the committee will be basically the same as in 2008. In 2008, a Strategic Plan Update Committee was created and provided with a current survey, an environmental scan, and focus group data. The committee was charged with the following objectives:
- Review the Strategic Priorities to be sure they are current and revise them if necessary;
- Identify emerging Strategic Priorities;
- Review the Goals and Sub goals, and revise them if necessary; and
- Forward an updated Plan to the City Council for review and approval.
The composition of the Committee included representatives of the Community only, with no employee or Council members.The sixteen-member committee was comprised of the following:
- Small business representative
- Large business representative
- Four homeowner association representatives
- Youth Council representative
- Torrance Unified School District representative
- Council on Aging representative
- Seven at-large members appointed by Mayor and Council
Other than the Council and Mayor appointed at-large members, all members were appointed by the groups they represented. These focus group inputs are one of the ways that the voice of the community was incorporated by the Update Committee.