Agenda - 11-23-2009 - C2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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18 There have been some steps initiated that will help this process. Staff is already working on those items. III. Look closely at organizational efficiencies and effectiveness. He said that the County should never think that it is the best that it can be. He said that the Board of County Commissioners creates some significant demands and then talks about leaving staff positions open. He said that he is looking at every vacant position and will weigh each one. He said that there are lots of other technologies that the County could be using but it is not, such as GPS units in EMS vehicles. There is also a huge amount of office space that the County is using to store historic records. Another issue is the long -term health coverage for employees, which is a great benefit, but it is very expensive. He said that the goal should be for employees to be more healthy and preventative in nature. IV. Identify where opportunities exist to expand upon and improve the County's communication efforts at all levels. The problem here is reaching the public on a regular basis with a common tool that everyone knows about. The key is to find someone with technical skills that can be taught about County government. VI. Look closely at reorganization options created by the potential retirements resulting from the County's incentive program. This is being done on a regular basis. Regarding volunteer boards, he said that these all have to have staff support and a huge amount of staff time. He said that there are some boards that need to be sunset because there is some duplication. He suggested shifting some of the functions of volunteer boards to a non - profit status so that it does not take up staff time. He said that Orange County has a lot of dedicated employees and they do not always communicate like they should between departments. He said that when there is an impact on another department, those impacts need to be explored. VII. Other duties as assigned (or as recognized by myself) needing management oversight, input or direction. Frank Clifton said that there is a concept within Orange County government called the Orange County "way". He said that there is Board micromanagement. He said that staff thinks they know what the Board likes and dislikes enough, and sometimes the options presented to the Board are based on that rather than what is right or wrong. He thinks that sometimes the Board does not hear what it needs to hear. His impression is that staff holds things back because they are afraid that if they lay too many options out on the table that there will be more work involved. He said that the Board of County Commissioners has to step up and make a decision that may not be easy, but at least there was a decision.