The Cascade Water Alliance (Cascade) is a non-profit corporation comprised of five member cities (City of Bellevue, City of Issaquah, City of Kirkland, City of Redmond, City of Tukwila) and three water and sewer districts (Covington Water District, Sammamish Plateau Water and Sewer District, and Skyway Water and Sewer District). These cities and districts have joined together with the goal of bringing a regional approach to providing a safe, clean, and reliable water supply to over four hundred thousand (400,000) residents and twenty two thousand (22,000) businesses.

Cascade is governed by a Board of Directors consisting of representatives appointed by resolution from each member’s legislative authority. Members may similarly appoint Alternate Board Members. Additionally, each board member and each Alternate Board Member must be elected officials of the members.

Cascade takes the proactive approach that water management decisions made now affect environmental conditions 25 to 60 years in the future. As a result, the agency acquired the Lake Tapps reservoir, located in east Pierce County and obtained water rights from the state of Washington. Lake Tapps is part of Cascade’s long-term plan to provide safe, clean and reliable water to its members and the region. In 2010, Cascade signed an agreement with the four (4) cities surrounding the lake (Auburn, Bonney Lake, Buckley and Sumner) to ensure that they would have water to meet their future needs.

In 2010 Cascade updated its water demand forecast and analysis of supply alternatives as part of its long-term planning process. It was determined that projected demand for water has diminished. As a result, Cascade, along with its partners at Seattle Public Utilities and Tacoma Water, is currently working towards sharing of existing resources in order to achieve a truly systematic regional service delivery.

Purpose of the Plan
Cascade Water Alliance appointed RNR Consulting to develop a Strategic Plan based on the organization’s vision for the future and cooperation of efforts of Cascade’s employees, Board, Members, and the Community. The intent of this initiative was to confirm that a goal-oriented environment is in place within all functional areas, which would enable Cascade to establish an efficient and effective future organizational strategy that focuses on improving its competitive position within the Puget Sound Region.

The Strategic Plan Initiative
In July of 2010 Cascade conducted a retreat and identified and prioritized its major work activities. These activities shaped the Strategic Plan development which the attendees of the retreat identified as the major priority for the organization. To achieve this task, Cascade leadership contracted RNR Consulting to develop a comprehensive Strategic Plan for the agency.

During the development of the Strategic Plan, RNR Consulting conducted an assessment of the organization’s internal functions and resources and the external environment in which it operates and serves. The Project Team utilized information already available and collected additional data.

Based on the specific needs of Cascade the Project Team also conducted IT data collection activities and assessed the organization’s current IT environment. The information from these activities was used to develop specific IT strategic goals. The IT strategic goals will be valuable for the development of a comprehensive IT management and strategies implementation plan which the organization intends to develop to ensure that appropriate IT infrastructure is in place to support the overall strategic plan implementation.

In order to develop a comprehensive strategic plan, it is important to capture input from a variety of stakeholders. As a result, the Project Team incorporated input not only from Cascade’s employees, but also from its Board, customers (members) and the community (including communities served by Cascade’s members and the lake Tapps communities). In addition, the Vision, Mission, and Values statements of Cascade were revisited and re-designed to ensure the agency’s competitive position in the future.

In summary, the Strategic Plan was designed to provide Cascade’s leadership with goals and strategies for effective management of external opportunities and threats in light of Cascade’s strengths and weaknesses. It lists short-term (0-3 years) and long-term (4-10 years) goals for Cascade and associated key performance measures to guide the implementation of the strategic goals.