Planning
A Community Looks Ahead: Herdon’s Vision for 2027
Following his reelection to the Herndon Town Council in May 2006, Herndon Vice Mayor Dennis Husch was eager to absorb any new information or ideas that may energize his new colleagues on the council and help the seven member body accomplish its ambitious agenda. In that spirit, he attended the Virginia Mayors’ Institute, a two day meeting that preceded the annual Virginia Municipal League conference in October 2006 that focused on leadership issues in particular to mayors and vice mayors in local governments.
Among the sessions he attended was a seminar on “Visioning & Goal Setting: Leading Your Community,” facilitated by A. Tyler St. Clair. She is on the faulty and part of the leadership development team at UVa’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service. Former Herdon Town Manager Stephen F. Owen recalled, “ Dennis left that session, found me as I was arriving for the VML conference and said, “ We need to look into this.” He was clearly inspired by Tyler's presentation and its core message on the importance of crafting a clear vision for succesful governing. ”
The presentation at the session, and the vision subsequently developed by the Herdon Town Council over four intense, highly productive days in January and February 2007, focused on the Cooper Center’s local elected leadership model that encompasses 1)a vision: destination, and preferred future; 2) vision principles: principles and policies to guide decision making to achieve the preferred future; and 3) operating guidelines: values to guide member and staff relationships. Combined these elements of te local elected leadership model help municipalities establish a clearly defined roadmap that addresses short and long term strategies and may be referanced by subsequent governing bodies, staff and–most importantly–citizens.
Herndon Mayor Stephen J. DeBenedittis said he recalls speaking with Dennis Husch following the presentation at the VML Mayors’ Institute. “ The whole idea–taking time away from immediate and pressing issues to formulate a long term perspective that benefits our town to a signifigant degree–had tremendous appeal , ” Stephen DeBenedittis said. “ We all have so much to do; it’s easy to get distracted. Plus, we’d had a lot of turnover on the council at the last election, with five out of the seven either new to office or returning to office after taking time off. So I felt this exercise would go far in helping us transition into a single governing entity–although now that I’ve gone through the visioning process, I see that a council that has worked together for years would benefit as well.”
Steve Owen confirms the importance of timing as a contributing factor to the success of Herndon’s visioning project. “Asking the new council to focus on this in August (One month after taking office) would have been to soon,” he said. “They needed time to get to know one another and to solidify thier identity as a governing unit. Six months into thier terms was really the optimal point for undertaking this exercise.”
Accordingly, and following Dennis Husch’s enthusiastic reccomendation to his coucil colleagues that they engage the Cooper Center's St. Clair to facilitate the town’s visioning process. The seven member coucil met for three days, from Friday January 26 through Sunday January 28, with a follow up session on Saturday, February 17, top craft the Town of Herndon’s Vision, Vision Principles and Goals and Objectives. The council met in the offices of Northern Virginia Regional Commission(NVRC), a location approximatley 20 miles from Herndon–close enough for easy travel, but far enough away so participants would not be distracted by external issues. “The idea was for the council to be on a ‘retreat’ from the day to day so that they could focus entirely on the vision,” said Steve Owen. “Finding an office site nearby that was available on weekends enabled us to get out of town without incurring signifigant expense.” Joining the council for the sessions were Steve Owen and Town Attorney Richard B. Kaufman.
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The sessions, according to all who participated, were intense, extensive, and carefully organized. ‘Throughout my career in the federal government, I’ve taken many management courses,” recounted Councilmember Dave Kirby. “ Most of them focus on ‘ how to ’ –accomplish as outcome, achieve a goal or whatever the objective may be. After taking these courses you were sent back to your office to create or accomplish what you’ve learned, but of course there would be no time in your daily routine to follow through.
“This three day visioning process not only provided instruction on ‘how to’– we also did the work, actually producing by the end a comprehensive Vision Statement for the Town of Herndon,” Dave Kirby said. “Tyler St. Clair kept us on track throughout the three days and kept us focused, limiting what needed to be done without sacrificing important details. The product that came out of this exercise, and the personal satisfaction I felt at its conclusion, made it extremely worth the time and energy spent.”
Said Councilmember Bill Tirrell, “The visioning work gave us a chance to work in small groups with other members of council, different groups depending on the exercise, and have ideas forged into a vision that took into account a variety of perspectives.”
In fact, all participants agreed that respect for varying perspectives, carefully cultivated by the facilitator, was key to the visioning process’ successful outcome. “It was very enlightening, not to mention helpful to the process, to understand the priorities of the other members of the council,” said Mayor Stephen DeBenedittis. “It was also very encouraging to see that we actually had a great deal of consensus.”
Vice Mayor Husch agreed and said, “I was struck by the level of agreement among the participants when it came down to deciding what needed to be kept and what needed to be changed to achieve the desired vision.”
Said Mayor Debenedittis, “Having a professional facilitator was a huge factor in the success of this exercise. Tyler kept us on target and on schedule, and pulled us back if we got to far off topic.” Concurred Councilmember Tirrell, “She kept us moving when we tended to want to bog down and discuss ‘to death’ an idea.”
Coucilmembers were also in agreement on the importance of having senior staff participate in the visioning process. “Having the town manager and the town attorney present was an excellent decision, as both roles are vital to the process of setting the wheels in motion to make the vision work,” said Councilmember Tirrell.
In fact, according to Steve Owen, his pending departure from town’s top administrative position became a factor in the visioning process. “The fact that I would be leaving the town provided specific impetus for a general, important element of the vision that needed to be considered–it must be a sustainable program that would be as accountable in 2027 as it was in 2007, when the council was creating it.”
The end result of the three day retreat in January was a vision statement for the town that assumes the viewpoint of the community in 2027, looking back at its accomplishments over a 20 year period and celebrating its stature at a point just beyond the quarter century mark. The day long session in February furthered the process with the development of principles to support each tenet defined in the vision statement, and to begin the work of identifying goals and objectives to accomplish the vision.
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The next step in the visioning process was to present the statement to Herndon’s citizens and ask for thier thoughts. The statement was sent to all households via a letter from Mayor Debenedittis. It was also posted on the town’s website and issued to local media. Additionally, the vision statement was adopted via resolution at a town council public hearing, at which citizen comments were heard.
“Another positive outcome of this process is that, once an elected body creates a vision statement it initiates a dialogue with the community,” said Vice Mayor Husch. “Such discussion will eventually lead to a vision that the entire community can embrace as well.”
Looking back on the process to develop a vision statement for the town of Herndon, all participants agreed that the town is the primary beneficiary of thier work. “Admittedly, I did not recognize the long-term value of creating a consensus vision statement and guiding principles,” said Vice Mayor Husch. “Having gone through the process, I see that without these guiding documents, the mayor and town council could provide different and contradictory guidance to staff, limiting thier effectiveness and not fully servicing the community. The vision statement gives us all a document to which we can look as we work to improve our community.”
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Said Mayor DeBenedittis, “We came into the [visioning process] with few preconcieved notions about what we wanted to accomplish. We concluded the process with a well thought out vision for the town of Herndon–and the realization that the process isn’t truly concluded, and that the vision will evolve and grow in concert with the wants and needs of our citizens.”
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