City manager ready to tackle the 2026 list
By Barb Pert Templeton
A recent meeting of the Marine City Commission had City Manager Michael Reaves sharing the status of the goals and accomplishments set for the city in 2025.
At a Jan. 15 meeting Reaves told officials he addressed goals and accomplishments twice with them during 2025, including the progress he’d made while also meeting with city department heads on the same topic.
“We set a number of goals, I think it was five in total and in one form or fashion all those have been accomplished, or are ongoing and I believe we exceeded the expectations that were originally laid out,” Reaves said.
He said now it’s time for the commission to return to the table in February with their goals and objectives for the coming year, including their thoughts about what they’ve heard from the community.
“Your goals may include a continuation – that’s a strong hint – of something we’ve been doing all along which is the managing of projects,” Reaves said. “We have multiple different projects going on within the city and as we talk about that we’re taking on additional work.”
“So. a lot going on but I look forward to hearing your goals and if you have any questions feel free to reach out to me,” he added.
Reaves included the goals list for 2025 in the meeting packet and took time on each one to note their current status.
They appeared as follows:
Marine City Manager Michael Reaves tells the city commission the goals for 2025 were either accomplished, exceeded or are ongoing at this time. City Attorney Robert Davis is pictured here on the right.
1.) Category – Streets / roadways and underground infrastructure projects
Goal: Continue management of on-going projects and other planned events to effectively and efficiently manage additional needs determined through observation, work site detection, and on-going construction. Status: 10/23/25- Accomplished – On-going. Additional SAW work initiated throughout water project footprint on both sanitary & storm systems in conjunction with project. Additional management of sanitary and storm repairs coordinated in conjunction with water project.
2.) Category – Capital Improvement Plans – Finance / Budgeting –
Goal: As of 11/01/25 – Accomplished in part. On-going Goal – Develop multiple capital improvement plans to conduct a city-wide analysis and focus on short term / long term planning.
The CIP should include the following spectrums: – 10/23/25- Accomplished – On-going a. Water distribution plant -Accomplished – plant under renovation. b. Waste Water Treatment plant (WWTP) -Accomplished. CIP is now being used to put together a CWSRF Loan project plan to address critical needs. c. Facilities CIP include short term maintenance planning / estimated long term replacement and cost analysis. (5 yr, 10yr, 15yr, etc.) Status: CIP accomplished – both short-term & long-term maintenance planning in on-going. d. Departmental CIP revolving around capital items such as vehicles, specialized equipment, systems analysis, etc. -Accomplished – On going.
3.) Category – Personnel / service providers / finance – budgeting – Goal: Recruitment, development, training, retention, and compensation of city staff across all city departments. Develop and initiate policies and practices across the goals spectrum that best serve our city staff. Status:10/23/25- Accomplished – On-going.
4.) Category – City Ordinances – legal / charter Goal – Construct a committee consisting of two Commissioners, two city residents, the city attorney, city manager, and the city clerk and relevant city staff to review the city ordinances and conduct a review. The committee will select five (5) ordinances at a time and determine if the ordinance is still valid / needed, requires revision or updating, or if the ordinance is no longer effective and needs to be rescinded. Status: 10/23/25- Accomplished – work is on-going 358 5.)
5.) Category – Public Communication – 10/23/25- Accomplished – On-going Goal – Work to improve communication with the public in multiple ways. Consider hosting scoped town halls that would deal with educational issues for the public on a range of different issues. Investigate and make progress in increasing communication between city staff / city commissioners and our citizens via the use of televised commission meetings, and other committees that serve the city. Status: Accomplished – Two Town hall meetings held on important city issues. New practice for live TV coverage of city townhalls and every City Commission meeting also instituted and on-going. On going website and social media are used to more effectively communicate with city residents and businesses.
