When it comes to meeting goals set for him, Brian Alligood, Washington’s city manager, answers to the City Council.

During the council’s meeting last week, Alligood got a good idea of what the five council members want him to accomplish in the coming months and years. Those goals range from budget-specific items to general tasks. During one of its next meetings, council members will review the goals submitted by one another and prioritize those goals.

Council members discussed their lists with Alligood.

“I actually have eight items … that I have classified as being directly related to the budget. Then there’s another category or another group that I felt were more program oriented that budget oriented,” Councilman Doug Mercer said. “For example, under others, my first one is to attempt to schedule a quarterly meeting with the county commissioners … to discuss areas of mutual interest. That’s one that I think we need to do.”

Mayor Mac Hodges said he wants Alligood to explore the possibility of improving the city’s access to grants at the state, federal and corporate levels. “I think that’s an area we need to get on top of a lot,” he said.

Councilman Bobby Roberson said he rather the city focus on obtaining grants to meet specific needs rather than using the shotgun approach to seeking grants — going after any and all grants for which it could be eligible.

Council member William Pitt said he wants Alligood and city staff to work with residents of the Beebe Memorial Park area to incorporate their desires for the park and its neighborhood into the city’s master plan for future growth and development.

“Another one of my goals is the formation of a youth council. … We need to, somehow, engage the school system to assign or maybe find a way to assign students to the City Council has a public tool to teach them about government because it does start locally, it does start here. This is a good training ground for a young person to get involved in local government,” he said.

Councilman Richard Brooks wants Alligood to lead the effort to avoid the need to raise taxes to cover rising expenses by making city government run as efficiently as possible. Brooks also said he wants the city manager to also lead the effort to find ways to pay for increasing expenses related to maintaining recreation facilities without that solution resulting in a decline in the number of people — especially children and senior citizens — using those facilities.

“ I feel we should find some way to keep them active,” he said.

Roberson said it’s time for the city to revisit the issue of building a facility to house the city’s police department.

“I think we still need to have that as a top priority for our public safety,” he said.

Roberson said he also wants the city to increase its effort to relocate city residents who live in the 100-year flood plain and want to relocate so they don’t suffer repeated losses because of flooding caused by major storms such as hurricanes.

Councilman Larry Beeman said he wants Alligood to work on reducing the overtime hours worked by city employees and improving workplace safety.

“I’m just a big advocate for safety, maintaining it and improving it. Is there a way to improve a new program? Is there a better program out there for all employees?” he said.

Beeman said he wants Alligood to help with the effort to find a location for another soccer field so area children have improved opportunities to play that sport.