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Geof Gledhill said that he can say that the franchise is not part of the agenda materials, <br /> so his assumption is that whatever the Colonel has done in this regard has nothing to do with <br /> the franchise. He said that he would meet with the Manager and get an answer back to Chief <br /> Matthews. <br /> Laura Blackmon distributed a letter from Chief Matthews that he gave to her just now <br /> with copies to the County Commissioners. <br /> 3. Development of 2009-19 Capital Investment Plan (CIP) and FY 2009-10 Annual <br /> Operating Budget <br /> a. BOCC Comment on Past CIP and Annual Operating Budget Processes and <br /> Provide Direction for Upcoming Processes <br /> b. Preliminary Timelines for Development of CIP and Annual Operating Budget <br /> Laura Blackmon said that this is the first budget work session. She would like to talk about the <br /> plan for the future as well as discuss the budget process from last year. The Clerk is working <br /> with the calendar for next year. <br /> Chair Jacobs pointed out that Commissioner Gordon also sent an email requesting a discussion <br /> about the budget process. <br /> Commissioner Nelson said that he would like to talk about the budget process as well as the <br /> retreat process. He has some minor concerns. First, the County Commissioners received the <br /> budget document right before Memorial Day weekend, and it did not even include the real meat <br /> of the budget. Not knowing this, he had set aside part of the weekend to study the budget, and <br /> when he opened the document, it was all narrative. He regrets that staff spent a lot of time <br /> writing the narratives and it was not the meat of the budget. For him, this was not something he <br /> needed and he never looked at it again. Given the fact that he did not receive the entire budget <br /> until the 2nd or 3rd of June, he did not have time to study it thoroughly. He said that next year, <br /> when the Board receives the budget, he wants it to be the real budget. <br /> The second concern has to do with the work sessions between the period of getting the budget <br /> and adopting it. It was not clear to him what was going to be discussed in those work sessions <br /> and he did not know how to prepare. He said that he was frustrated. <br /> The bigger concerns have to do with how the budget is created. He said that the retreat is <br /> where he is used to bringing up the projects that the County might be working on. Typically, at <br /> a retreat, the County Commissioners toss out ideas and discuss it, and if there is enough <br /> support, it is put on the list of items for the budget and the Manager figures out a way to work <br /> them into the budget. He said that the Board held its retreat in January and there were 200+ <br /> items and the Board never finished discussing them and never prioritized them. He does not <br /> know how the Manager created the budget because there was no input from the Board about <br /> what to include. He said that this makes the second budget in a row where he felt cut out of the <br /> process of creating the budget. He said that it is frustrating as an elected official to make <br /> promises to constituents, to have projects and ideas, and there is a block to getting it done. <br /> Moving forward, he would like to pick back up with the notion of doing a real strategic planning <br /> retreat and prioritize projects. He wants to get back to the retreat model and have one <br /> sometime this fall. He would suggest working with a good facilitator who knows how to work <br /> with local government. He would suggest having a more doable list with 30 or 40 items. He <br /> would like to set up a retreat planning committee. <br /> Chair Jacobs said that he recalled talking about a retreat in multiple parts and the first part <br /> would be to clean up. It might fit the Proposed Schedule for the Capital Investment Plan to try <br />