City of Leavenworth sets 2025–27 priorities at annual retreat

LEAVENWORTH — The Leavenworth City Council stepped away from its usual agenda on Aug. 26 for an annual retreat focused on clarifying priorities for 2025–27, giving staff clear direction, and aligning the council on key values.

Facilitated by strategy consultant Una McAlinden, the four-hour session reviewed current realities, articulated goals, and identified established and future accomplishments that would help reach those goals. The discussions centered on four focus areas: community sustainability and growth management, governance and regional collaboration, infrastructure investment and asset management, and economic resilience and financial strategy.

“I'm both encouraged and surprised that we had overall pretty good alignment, because we don't always as a council. But I also really appreciate that, because we always have really great conversation, and we end up landing on consensus, but not necessarily agreement,” said Councilmember Anne Hessburg.

While the list of goals laid out in discussion was extensive, the council narrowed it down to a select number of key priorities: replacing the community pool, launching the Osborn Property project, upgrading aging infrastructure, improving the city website, diversifying housing, securing a funding stream for workforce housing, and increasing community engagement.

These items were chosen with consideration of feasibility, highest impact, and community interest. Council members also qualified their selections by a set of articulated values: community benefit, sustainability, efficiency and impact, diverse perspectives that support quality of life, preservation of community character, and long-term investments that serve everyone.

“It's helpful to articulate the filters that we're using, so that we can collectively understand the frame of reference and the value system that we're bringing to bear as an elective body,” said McAlinden.

In doing so, McAlinden aimed to not only help the city council clarify its vision but also provide staff with a set of criteria when evaluating new opportunities and choosing projects to pursue.

Before narrowing priorities, staff and council reviewed the city’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in each category, then outlined success indicators and accomplishments to guide future decisions.

The council first addressed community sustainability and growth management, citing unaffordable housing, overtourism and a loss of community as ongoing challenges. Strengths included dedicated budget allocations for workforce housing, zoning changes to support housing affordability, and state-level lobbying efforts. Moving forward, the council wanted to see the Osborn Property project launch, affordable housing units added, and a framework created to evaluate new enterprises in a way that protects community and culture.

On infrastructure and assets, the group acknowledged aging systems, deferred maintenance and limited funding as urgent issues. For strengths, they pointed to capital and transportation improvement plans, water and sewer capacity, and progress on downtown projects. Priorities included a 100-year infrastructure plan, neighborhood utility upgrades, and major community projects such as the Osborn site and pool replacement.

Discussion of economic resilience and financial strategy highlighted strong lodging tax and parking funds, but also limited debt and staff capacity, diminishing reserves, and outside threats like wildfire, recession, and inflation. The group identified needs such as succession planning in the finance department, a full-time grant writer, financial policy maintenance and understanding, and a stable, community-focused revenue source to reduce dependence on tourism.

Under governance and regional collaboration, the council credited community engagement nights and work with the Icicle Work Group as positive realities. They emphasized expanding partnerships around natural resource management, housing and population growth, including water conservation groups, regional and state partners, the outdoor nonprofit TREAD, and the housing authority. Improving the city website was also identified as a tool for stronger community engagement.

The session closed with a group reflection, with council and staff describing feelings ranging from optimism and focus to being overwhelmed. The information collected from the session will be documented and provided to staff to inform decisions moving forward, said McAlinden.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media