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VI. Look closely at reorganization options created by the potential retirements resulting from the County's incentive program. VII. Other duties as assigned (or as recognized by myself) needing management oversight, input or direction. Overview Frank Clifton said that several of these items have some overlap and impact other functions within the County's operating structures. When reviewing the information as presented, the Board will see references between issues and functions highlighting expected outcomes or impacts. Where impacts are obvious, they may not have been addressed. He said all of this input is based on his professional experience, direct exposure as manager of two other NC Counties and regular interaction with numerous county managers and staff in other counties over a ten year plus period in NC. He also called upon past experience as a city manager in other jurisdictions along with some experience in private sector areas including manufacturing and land development activities. Frank Clifton said that one tenet to keep in mind is there is "NO" one-size fits all perfect method to do anything or everything. Any effort applied in delivering services must be customized to local conditions BUT valuable lessons are to be learned from other applications elsewhere. There is seldom an issue faced by local government "anywhere" that has not been dealt with "elsewhere". Approach and Methodology Frank Clifton said that it would have been easy for him to make a list of items for the Board and the next manager to address and walk away saying the task is done. He said he approached these tasks with two objectives. First, he said he felt it important to give the BOCC his best effort responding to their directives. Second, regardless of who the next manager is, they will have some personalized perspective of what that person will face and can use this input to best judge what type of individual will be best suited and capable of addressing these issues with some degree of success. Finally, "timing", "resources", "organizational response" and "persistence" will be the elements most impacting upon successful change AND improvements will be incremental. (Slay one dragon at a time!) He said his approach beyond addressing those challenges and opportunities that were readily available and obvious, was to attempt to reach out to every department in an effort to gain a better understanding of why "things are the way they are". In most cases, department heads and staff were fairly open about their operations. Many are proud of what they do and very guarded about how they do it. Ms. Blackmon began a process of transitioning the organization from that developed by Mr. Link over his 18 years as manager to more closely align with today's challenges and "resource limitations". He said he spent time talking with Ms. Blackmon and Mr. Link to gain a personalized perspective of their analysis of how the organization functions and could function better. Both provided valuable insight and similar perspectives on factors that critically impact upon county operations, and the ability of the organization to plan for and respond to change. He has known both of these individuals for a number of years and value their opinions and