The Mercer Island City Council will meet on Jan. 26-27 for its annual planning session at the Community and Event Center, to set goals, review issues and discuss good governance.

It will be the first planning session for new council members Salim Nice and Tom Acker, and the first led by Debbie Bertlin as mayor.

“The annual planning session is designed for the council and staff to spend [one and a half] days strategic planning and goal setting,” according to the agenda posted at www.mercergov.org/CouncilMeetings.

On Friday, the group will start with facilitated ice breakers and team building activities at 3 p.m., followed by a recap of 2017 accomplishments and lessons learned at 5:45 p.m.

On Saturday, the group will start to set the work plan for the year by identifying goals and “must dos” for 2018-2019. After lunch, staff will go over emerging issues for the 2019-2020 budget, including infrastructure needs, personnel costs, changing demographics and service level impacts.

A review of council-staff communications guidelines and rules of procedure will follow at 2:45 p.m. Adjournment is expected at 5 p.m.

Contact City Clerk Ali Spietz at 206-275-7793 for more.