Citizen Advisory Board summarizes outreach that yielded 1,000+ surveys for Des Moines strategic plan

Colleen Gantz, a member of the Citizens Advisory Board (CAB), told the council the CAB ran an extensive community-engagement effort to support the city’s strategic plan. She said the CAB comprises 23 members representing 10 neighborhoods and described outreach at the holiday market, libraries, the Des Moines Food Bank, town halls and multilingual distribution of materials; CAB members reported reaching approximately 3,000 people and exceeding the city target of 1,000 survey responses.

City Manager Catherine Caffrey summarized highlights from the engagement: residents repeatedly cited community commitment, waterfront and location as strengths; recurring concerns included downtown economic development, financial stability and transportation. Caffrey said staff and consultants (Raftelis) met with executive teams and that the council would next work on priorities at a retreat and consider adoption in the spring.

Why it matters: The engagement results will shape the council’s retreat deliberations and inform policy and budget priorities reflected in the draft strategic plan.