A professional local government manager supports the vision and policy goals of elected officials. If the city council feels that the manager or the city staff is not working in tandem with them, tension develops within city hall, plans get derailed, and the whole community suffers.

When Jack Ethredge took over as city manager in Thornton in 1985, he soon learned that the city council did not trust the professional staff and saw them as an obstacle rather than a resource for achieving success. This distrust made it impossible to engage in long-term planning and implementing programs and projects to improve the community.

To build trust between the council and the professional city staff, Ethredge started the Policy Planning Program in 1985. His hope was to bring a collaborative approach to developing and implementing the council’s goals.

Each year, Ethredge organized an annual council retreat and invited senior staff to attend and participate. Then, as a team, they collaborated to identify budget priorities and capital improvement projects. Staff also began providing detailed information to the council on all core services provided to the community, to help council members make informed decisions.

In 1990, Jack focused the retreat on the issues, challenges, and opportunities likely to face Thornton in the coming decade. As a result, the council developed a city mission statement and a set of broad community goals that would guide the council’s decision-making well into the future.

In the mid-1990s, Thornton began experiencing significant growth. So, Ethredge began steering the Policy Planning Program to focus on the long-term, strategic goals of the city and the various strategic tools and master plans that needed to be in place to ensure the long-term growth of the city in a manner consistent with the city’s mission statement.

At the 1999 retreat, Ethredge asked council members this question: “The city has experienced phenomenal growth over the past three years. If we paint a picture of what the city will look like in the near future, based upon carrying out existing policies, is this playing out the way you had expected? If not, what do we want; what are the obstacles and implications of changing strategies to get there?”

The result of these discussions was that the council, indeed, wanted to readjust the direction, so they and the city staff initiated a major master plan revision to provide the roadmap to achieve the council’s vision.

By convening yearly retreats, asking thought-provoking questions, and facilitating collaboration with city staff, Ethredge’s leadership helped the council become more effective in their role of providing vision and policy direction for Thornton.