Richmond Hill’s mayor and council members had  only good things to say about Saturday’s all-day retreat conducted by the Carlson Vinson Institute.
The retreat included a taught power point presentation that reviewed things that a council should be doing. Council member Marilyn Hodges, who brought the idea to the council, said other municipalities conduct retreats annually. The Institute charged $1,000 for the retreat.
Hodges said the retreat was “long overdue.”
“It was time well spent,” Councilman Russ Carpenter said. “Council came out of it agreeing that a high priority is communication – not just with each other but also among the city manager and the city’s department heads.”
Mayor Harold Fowler said the value of the retreat will ultimately be measured by the numbers of things that are followed up on.
Carpenter and Hodges said council decided at the retreat to create strategic plans “of what we (council) want to accomplish. That way, the city staff has their marching orders.”
Council also decided to meet quarterly with city staff quarterly and outside regular council meetings for trouble shooting and to look at things such as legislation.
“People don’t realize how important that (legislation) is to a city,” Hodges said.
Hodges said she and new council members Russ Carpenter and Van Hunter have enrolled for city council training sessions, which will be conducted this weekend as well as in June at Sea Island. Among the classes they will be attending are finance, ethics and taxation.