Mayor Spencer Announces City of St. Louis Strategic Priorities, Setting City’s Direction for Years to Come

Today, Mayor Cara Spencer announced five new City of St. Louis Strategic Priorities and 25 underlying initiatives, outlining a clear direction for the City for the coming years.

"By developing and sharing strategic priorities for the years ahead, we set clear expectations for where my administration and the City overall will focus our time, energy and resources," said Mayor Cara Spencer. "These priorities are not meant to encompass all the important work done by City employees, but to focus where my team and I will spend most of our time to improve our city in ways that will make a difference for St. Louisans."

The City of St. Louis Strategic Priorities, and the administration's current underlying initiatives, are:

Rebuild Trust in City Services

Streets

Launch paving and sidewalk pilot program with dedicated funding streams, and formalize "dig once" coordination with utilities.

Towing

Eliminate backlog and develop a tow lot expansion plan.

Water

Complete water infrastructure plan and update rates for system renewal.

Vacant lots

Optimize the mowing and trimming operations model for vacant private and public lots.

CEMA

Update the 2003 Comprehensive Plan and the Emergency Management Agency's structure.

Recover & Revitalize Neighborhoods

Tornado Recovery

Rapidly scale demolitions and repairs in the tornado zone and secure funding to rebuild.

North City Neighborhood Plan Implementation

Begin implementation of North St. Louis neighborhood plans and improve public health and housing availability.

Vacant Properties

Update the city plan for addressing blight with an aggressive and sustainable model led by the land bank.

Neighborhood Stabilization

Bring the Neighborhood Stabilization Division into the Mayor's cabinet and empower the division to play a bigger role in neighborhood transformation.

Homelessness

Expand permanent housing efforts and build a sustainable Code Blue plan.

Accelerate Economic Development

Downtown Revitalization

Enhance the strategy to attract and retain businesses and launch a public safety task force.

Collaboration

Establish a new model to align, incentivize and deliver economic development across agencies.

Ease of Business

Simplify permitting and licensing.

Zoning Upgrade

Lead zoning reform to increase the construction of housing.

Catalytic Investments

Ensure responsible deployment of ARPA and use Rams settlement funds to catalyze and leverage investments for visible impact.

Cultivate a Culture of Excellence

Customer-First Culture

Create customer-first experiences across departments; improve response times, resolutions, and accessibility.

Data-Driven Performance

Define operational KPIs and targets for all departments and incorporate them in CityStat.

Hiring

Improve applicant and onboarding experience; reduce application-to-offer timeline.

Training

Develop and launch a manager development and capability-building program.

Recognition

Establish a new recognition program for City staff.

Modernize City Government

Competitive Pay

Finalize and implement the new pay plan.

Organizational Review

Review organization structure and define future workforce skill and sizing needs.

Governance Reform

Modernize governance structure, right-size the number of government offices, and streamline processes.

Procurement

Modernize and streamline procurement to leverage every dollar to maximum effect.

IT

Create a roadmap to leverage modern technologies and move services, efficiency and data management into higher gear.

These strategic priorities set clear expectations for where Mayor Spencer, her staff, her cabinet, and the City workforce will focus its energy and resources over the coming years. By design, they do not cover every necessary and important city effort, like the critical expansion underway at Lambert International Airport. The priorities were created in collaboration with staff and cabinet members to ensure alignment across leadership and departments/divisions and will serve as a guiding framework as the administration focuses on critical initiatives to turn St. Louis around.

Implementation has already begun. For example, the City completed implementation of the new pay plan on July 1, making City of St. Louis salaries more competitive and thereby, over time, enhancing the City's ability to deliver city services at the levels St. Louisans count on and deserve. Similarly, Mayor Spencer recently signed the board bill to set water rates at a sustainable level, enabling the Water Division to remain publicly owned and solvent while improving the maintenance of our community's water infrastructure.

To keep up the momentum and ensure that the priorities result in real-life improvements for St. Louisans, the administration is incorporating initiatives under each strategic priority into its internal task management system, tracking them weekly in cabinet meetings and activating them in partnership with departments, the Board of Aldermen, the Comptroller's Office, and external stakeholders.