Maggie Blackwell

The presentation from George Khaldun, COO of the Harlem Children's Zone, was just as inspiring as I had anticipated. The HCZ is a program I have followed for years. Luckily for me, his flight back to NYC was delayed by a day-and-a-half, so I had plenty of time to pepper him with questions! He was gracious and kind, and I truly appreciated his patience.

We heard from several key departments. I've always loved the customer service culture in our City government, and I am even more impressed by it now that I have a closer relationship.

We hosted two luncheons for leaders in the city. Everyone who serves on the city's boards and commissions was invited, as well as philanthropists, business owners, college presidents, and faith leaders. On Wednesday, the keynote luncheon speaker was Mayor Anthony Foxx from Charlotte. Wow. He spoke to us without a note and presented his thoughts on our region. I was amazed and impressed by his ideas. On Thursday, the luncheon speaker was Chuck Ambrose, president of Pfeiffer University, just 30 miles up the road. Ambrose spoke to us with stories, parables really, and although each little story was humorous or poignant, I wondered, "Where is all this going?" At the end, he neatly wrapped them up with a unifying theme that caused all the audience -- our largest ever in the 25 year history of retreats -- to leave saying, "Wow! What a speaker! Wasn't he great?" I smiled to myself in the parking lot as I noticed how many people were saying the same thing.

The retreat is open to the public. We had an audience of maybe 40 people to hear Mr. Khaldun, but otherwise, no one else attended, except of course, the press. If you feel left out this year, please check the newspaper next year for the public notices that we will be meeting. Or of course you can always give me a call, email, or FB me. :)

Finally, yesterday afternoon, we got down to the work of identifying our goals for the coming year. These goals are not closed in a notebook and forgotten for a year; we work on them throughout the year and check on their progress on a quarterly basis.

Here are our top five goals for 2010-2011 (the newspaper got them muddled):

• Focus on one neighborhood for a youth initiative and a neighborhood improvement initiative.
• Implement Fiber to the home.
• Support local businesses and encourage citizens to do so, as well.
• Develop a relationship with the County Commission.
• Explore development of a Housing Commission.

Other goals include looking into a gun buy-back program and working with our newly-developed tourism authority.

You may have read in the newspaper that our City revenues are down and we will be hard-pressed to maintain current City services on the reduced revenue. These new goals do not require large outlays of money (the money for Fiber has already been invested in it!) so, in addition to having a potential impact for our citizens, they should not have a large impact on our budget.

As a freshman Council member, I was pleased to go through my first retreat, and feel it was effective on so many fronts -- making us feel like a team not the least of them.

Usually when I work with a team to develop goals, we end with a mixed list: some I strongly endorse, and some I don't. It's all in the nature of compromise and give-and-take.

This year, however, that was NOT the case. I heartily embrace each and every goal. I believe in each one, and I'm excited for us to start the journey of implementing them. I can't wait to see what our year will bring.