Will Ferris ever be able to RIP?

FERRIS – Will the city of Ferris ever be able to rest in peace?

Particularly after all the recent controversy, with a quickly departing city manager, an exiting mayor, a suspended employee and a resigning police chief.

Ferris City Council member Place 2, Michael Martinez hopes it will be the case.

Martinez presented what he called a Rapid Implementation Plan (RIP) at a recent city council meeting stating,

“Every organization should and must have a work plan in place if their leaders want to know where they’re going, and how they are getting there.”

The RIP plan looks at policymaking, regulating policies and procedures regarding businesses and residents, creating programs to meet community requirements, measuring effectiveness of the ongoing municipal services and risk management, to name a few.

“When I first came into city council, I requested a copy of our strategic plan,” Martinez said.

“Nobody knew what that was, much less where it was.

“So eventually, I got a copy of an obsolete one from 2003, where the water topic was the main issue.

“Based on serving in the economic development board for about five years, I was able to gain knowledge of the critical needs of the city to fulfill our resident’s needs.”

Those critical needs became the council member’s RIP plan.

Approved for adoption in a unanimous vote, Martinez said, “In my personal opinion, the purpose of city council is to serve as a leader in providing direction to our city manager and his team in carrying out the various goals and objectives that will best serve our city residents.”

He believes by having a living work plan in place, the city council can stay focused on each item and see their progress until each one comes to fruition.

“It should be our responsibility to have an on-going reassessment protocol to update the RIP and adjust as necessary, this could be by modifying the way we approach each item, add new ones or delete those that no longer serve our city’s purpose, which is serve our resident/ community,” he adds.

Some of the line items included in the RIP are of a high-level requiring team effort and a large capital amount to fund.

Martinez said he believes, however, each need from water and sewer to a city-wide cleanup to internet-fiberoptic, a communication process for emergencies, to the develop of a capital improvement financial plan are possible.

“I believe that they are all achievable, and when this happen, we have just transformed people’s lives in our community,” Martinez said.

“This is because of the positive impact these items will have in the quality of life of each one of us.

“I am hoping that once we achieve some or all of them, that our residents will once again trust our city council, and trust that we are going the best we can while implementing the RIP.”

Martinez said he also believes that if the city efficiently and effectively implements the RIP, this will bring about a change in the environment of the city also bringing a higher level of quality of life to residents.

Next steps?

Martinez concludes, “We have shared the RIP plan with our new city manager, Brooks Williams.

“He is working on a way to best articulate its implementation,” Martinez said.