Minutes - 20080909 - Work Session

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and do it between the election and November 13th when there is a work session so that the new County Commissioners can come to the meeting. He wants to make sure that the new County Commissioners are very much in the loop. He suggested having the Clerk poll people on dates. Commissioner Carey agreed with Commissioner Nelson and said that he would like to pick up where the Board left off at the retreat. He will not be around for the next retreat, but he encouraged the Board to set the priorities for the Manager to use as a foundation for the budget. He encouraged the County Commissioners to get as much information as possible about the costs of projects before going to the retreat. He suggested having the agenda for each of the work sessions decided at the beginning of the process and also deciding whether decisions are going to be made at each work session that will impact the budget. Commissioner Gordon said that it is important to try and get the newly elected Commissioners involved in November. She said that the Board had a couple of preliminary retreats last year, and then a retreat with all of the staff. The point was that the staff was supposed to put the goals with the associated items in a more manageable form and then come back to the County Commissioners for adoption. It was always meant to come back to the County Commissioners soon after the retreat, but it did not come back until very late in the process. Another thing that happened was that the budget work sessions after the budget presentation were reduced from 4 to 3. She suggested having some priorities on the front end and moving the process back earlier. She suggested adopting the budget before the summer break. Regarding what went well, she said that the schools got their information in sooner. It was also a good idea to start the CIP process sooner, but the CIP was not approved. She thinks that with a little discipline, the process will be better. Commissioner Foushee agreed with not waiting until the last meeting to adopt the budget. She suggested that the last meeting be used for clean-up. She said that it would seem that a work session should be dedicated to working on goals and objectives. She said that trying to get 200+ objectives down to 40 would take an entire day. The only way she sees the Board prioritizing this is to commit a work session to the goals and objectives so that there is some frame of reference. Chair Jacobs summarized what he heard from the County Commissioners about this issue— decisions should be made before the last meeting, the whole process should be moved earlier, the Board wants clear directions and guidance in the agendas and an overall plan of action for the agendas, more work sessions are needed, the budget should be tied to the goals and objectives articulated by the Board. Chair Jacobs said that he would be glad to work with Commissioner Nelson on a retreat process. Another way to look at it is to have a work session to invite the new County Commissioners to see what their goals and objectives are before cutting the list down. He thinks that sharing the budget drivers with the schools was also very effective. He said that he was also concerned that spending decisions are made outside of the sequence of the budget as the Board gets toward the budget. He also talked to the Manager about the way that Hillsborough changed its budget process, and it is now tying goals and objectives to departments and outcomes. He thinks that everyone is of the same mind to make this work better. Laura Blackmon said that the staff tried to set up a preliminary timetable for the CIP. The schools cannot get information any earlier. She said that the thought was to follow up on November 13th and have the CIP adopted on the 18th or December 1St after the new Board is elected. She said that there is flexibility.