Carrying it out

The 2011 arts and cultural plan committed the City to a reporting cycle, such as a progress report every year. About three quarters of the 2011 plan was accomplished. That is a positive record. Part of what we heard from the community about Plan 26 is they want accountability and transparency, and we agree.

What the City commits to

An annual public report. Once a year, on a fixed date, the Arts Commission publishes what moved, what didn’t, and what it cost. 

A review at year five. A hard look by the community whether the priorities still describe Roanoke. Ten years is long enough that some of what is in this document will stop being true.

An action companion, updated every year. The specific steps, their costs, their owners, and their timing live in a companion document that staff revise annually. It keeps the adopted plan short enough to read in one sitting and it keeps a ten-year commitment from being frozen to a one-year budget.

Measurable goals with names attached. Every action item in the companion carries a responsible party. 

Who does what

The Arts Commission owns the plan. It reviews progress at a standing point in its meeting calendar, approves the annual report, and brings the year-five review forward.

City staff maintain the companion, track the action items, and produces the report.

City Council receives the annual report. Adoption of this plan is not an appropriation and the action items compete for money every year like everything else the City does. 

What this plan cannot do

It cannot bind a future Council to fund anything. It cannot make a partner organization do something it has no capacity for. And it cannot fix the things respondents raised that sit outside arts and culture entirely.