It appears the City of Naperville is on a quest to change its image. Recently there has been a movement to change Naperville’s city flag, along with some talk to change its logo, and now comes a city council agenda topic for next Tuesday’s council meeting to change the City of Naperville’s Mission Statement. Who knew there was so much to dislike in Naperville.
During the past five years, there has been a not-too subtle change from being family-focused to aiming towards becoming a destination for entertainment. Naperville is attempting to still clutch to the family focus, but with the number of liquor licenses increasing in the downtown area, entertainment is the future for Naperville.
Just as President Obama campaigned to ‘fundamentally change America’, and unfortunately he has, city officials are moving to fundamentally change Naperville. This begins with a flag, a logo, and most importantly, a mission statement.
As Naperville city officials correctly point out, “a mission statement…is intended to set the tone of an organization and guide decision-making. It should clearly and concisely define the core purpose of the organization.”
Naperville’s current 39-word Mission Statement was approved in 1998 and it states:
“The mission of the government of the City of Naperville is to preserve the quality of life by providing municipal services that are responsive to the needs of the residents and businesses and are reliable, efficient and fiscally responsible”
The Naperville city council will vote next Tuesday night, to change the Mission Statement to the following:
“To provide services that ensure a high quality of life for our residents and dynamic environment for our business community through collaboration, innovation, and sound fiscal management”
It’s not that much different than the current mission statement other than the addition of the words, ‘ensure a high quality of life’, ‘dynamic environment’, along with a couple of toss-in words of ‘collaboration’, and ‘innovation’. The key addition are the words, ‘dynamic environment’, and is there any environment more dynamic than an expanding downtown area with a booming night-life with much more boom to come.