With citizen survey results in, the Issaquah City Council has begun the annual process of setting long term city goals.

At Monday’s council work session, Council President Paul Winterstein established a timeline in which the council would revisit the survey March 24, submit proposals for goals a week later, hear staff responses in April and cement goals at the work session and council retreat in May and June, respectively. Winterstein said good goal proposals would be based on observable data backed up by the survey and come with the backing of councilmember sponsorship.

At the session, senior city administrators were already prepared to address myriad issues within the municipal government, including needed projects and the availability of funds to make them happen.

Financial Director Diane Marcotte told councilmembers the city would need to lock into a financially sustainable sweet spot by balancing pay-as-you-go services and municipal debt. Financial sustainability is more than just a balanced budget in a given year, Marcotte said.

“It’s looking out 10, 15 years, or even further and making sure council goals for the community are being met,” she said.

The city’s infrastructure will need sustainable funding in order to meet the demand for repairs that will come from urbanization under the Central Issaquah Plan, said Deputy City Administrator Emily Moon and Public Works Operations Director Bob Heath.

Urbanization requires cities to plan for the continued use of their complete road system, as opposed to piecemeal responses to individual streets, with an eye toward maintenance, operation and long-term financial planning beyond an individual year, Moon said.

The city may also be looking at necessary new office space for administrative and police services.

Issaquah’s primary city hall building on East Sunset Way was originally intended to be a full police station. However, a need for office space resulted in the top floor being reserved for city administrators, with police operations being restricted to the lower levels. That’s resulted in police services being crowded, Police Chief Scott Behrbaum said.

For instance, interviews with citizens reporting crimes have to be done in the lobby area, he said.

“We’re having to have private conversations in very public forums and that’s something that needs to be improved,” Behrbaum said.

The use of that building for city administrators was meant to be temporary, Economic Development Director Keith Niven said. Further, the splitting of city services among multiple city hall buildings made public services, in a city that prides itself on the ideals of sustainability, inefficient, he said.

City Administrator Robert Harrison said the city should also examine incorporating its own fire department as Issaquah urbanizes. The city currently contracts with Eastside Fire and Rescue.

“Our growth projections show another Issaquah Highlands level of households on the valley floor in the next 15 years,” Harrison said.

Moreover, those people seem less likely to move closer to city services as they age, he said. Harrison pointed to 2010 census data that suggested three-quarters of baby boomers were choosing to “age in place,” remaining where they are familiar.

The city is still soliciting citizen input on its goals through March 16. More information can be found at issaquahwa.gov.