From Vision to Action: Understanding Dover's City Council Goals

In this episode of the Dover Download podcast, Deputy City Manager Christopher Parker chats with Director of Media Services Mike Gillis about Dover City Council's goal-setting process and the current council goals. Parker explains how newly elected council members participate in orientation sessions before engaging in a facilitated full-day workshop to establish their two-year goals. He details the seven main goals adopted in February 2024: promoting diverse housing, ensuring civic engagement, building city resilience, maintaining safety and appeal, fostering inclusivity, implementing sustainable financial policies, and making opportunities accessible to all. Parker and Gillis discuss how these goals are monitored through monthly city manager reports, budget presentations, and the work of various boards and committees. They emphasize the evolution of the goal-setting process over the years, noting the increased collaboration between council and staff, and how certain goals, like waterfront development, have been achieved while new priorities emerge.

In This Week in Dover History, we learn about Marilla Ricker, who announced her candidacy for Governor of New Hampshire on Feb. 14, 1910. A wealthy Dover widow and women's rights activist, Ricker was the first woman to attempt voting in New Hampshire (1870), the first woman admitted to the NH bar (1890), and gained admission to the U.S. Supreme Court bar in 1891. She died in 1920, and in 2016, her portrait was hung in the New Hampshire Statehouse.