CITY OKs MISSION STATEMENT; COUNCIL RESOLVES CAPE WILL `STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE'

Cape Girardeau is a city with a mission.

The City Council has adopted the city's first mission statement, which Mayor Al Spradling III calls a guideline for council members, employees and staff.

"I think it's an important step to let the general public know what the mission of the city is," Spradling said. "While I think some people take that for granted, there's more to the operation of a city as it relates to the quality-of-life issues than just what is obvious. Some people don't realize all the intricacies of what the goals of the community government might be."

The mission statement calls Cape Girardeau "a community rich in history and pride" and pledges that city government "will continue to strive for excellence to improve the overall quality of life for our community."

Spradling said the city is already working on the goals outlined in the mission statement.

The statement gives the city something to shoot for, he said.

"I think what we're seeing right now is these goals are being performed," he said. "They can always be performed better, and they can always be refined over the years to reflect the changing needs of the community."

Most of the goals are "self-manageable," Spradling said, "and are more for us to try to abide by."

The budgetary goals included in the mission statement "are on-going," he said. "You have to constantly monitor that."

The first draft of the mission statement was developed by a team of city staff, including representatives of the police, fire, public works, planning, public awareness and parks and recreation departments.

"The city employees and the staff felt that it would be important so that we would have the goals and the issues to make a better quality-of-life statement for the community outlined, and that's what they began to do," Spradling said.

The final version was arrived at by consensus at the City Council's annual retreat May 1 and formally adopted at Monday night's council meeting.

City mission statement

Cape Girardeau is a community rich in history and pride. As a city government we will continue to strive for excellence to improve the overall quality of life for our community. To accomplish our mission, it is essential to:

-- Provide a safe and secure community environment.

-- Provide the highest quality customer services to the community with equality and fairness.

-- Retain highly motivated and qualified employees committed to fulfilling community expectations.

-- Encourage and embrace innovative ideas and concepts.

-- Provide responsible stewardship of tax revenues.

-- Create an atmosphere that will promote, develop, retain and encourage economic development.

-- Invest in neighborhood vitality and sustainability.

-- Encourage a sense of community through civic partnerships and citizen involvement.