QUENTIN ROUX / Staff

Steven Thompson is a candidate for the Marco city manager position.

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MARCO ISLAND — The “Weekly Update” is intended to provide timely and regular information for the City Council, and often includes substantive and critical information. City staff works to avoid surprises and to ensure that the City Council is informed on issues and able to respond to citizens. Copies are also provided through the city’s website for the community. Items that are marked with an asterisk (*) are updates from a previous City Council Meeting.

City Manager

Budget Process Changes. City Council has changed and evolved over the past few years, and the staff is preparing for changes to next year’s budget process as well. The staff is working on formats to bring greater public comment on the budget and community goals forward, to provide greater budget detail, and to structure the budget process and documents to meet City Council’s growing need for information and detail. The attached memo outlines the budget process that the staff is recommending to Council to more clearly meet these expectations. The attached schedule also incorporates the timing for the new Ad-Hoc Financial Planning Committee’s meetings and reports, but the dates will change slightly as we move forward with the planning process.

City Broadcast Channel.

After the December 4 Joint meeting with the Board of County Commissioners, the audio visual room will be modified. The planned changes will allow the city to rebroadcast meetings, title meetings so viewers know what meeting they are viewing and allow monthly programming to be scheduled. Beginning in January 2009, City Council, Planning Board and Code Enforcement Board meetings will be replayed. We do not expect any interruption in either the online video or broadcast information; however, we can not anticipate all issues that may arise. We thank you for your patience during the transition. We are looking forward to the new MItv, Channel 98’s debut.

Staff Promotion.

Bryan Milk was appointed to the position of Parks and Recreation Director on Tuesday. Bryan’s leadership and positive nature is a fine addition to the management team. His tenure with the City and history of planning is an important key in further development of the Parks and Recreation Department. Congratulations, Bryan.

Pending Items List.

We have attached the current Pending Items List, summarizing the status of city projects. This is generally available by the end of each month, and the report includes the current estimated timetable, contact information, and next steps for each project. The staff is also working to include financial information on the capital projects for future editions.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact City Manager Steve Thompson at 389-5001.