Minutes 01-27-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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27 • Jim Northup said he was surprised that residents do not know the quality of work happening within the County. Once residents get exposed to the information they seem pleasantly surprised. This might be solved by the Residents Academy, getting the word out, and increasing interactions between residents and County staff. • David Hunt shared a story and an observation about Communications. He said they then were approaching the time when the Visitors Center and Historical Society in Hillsborough holds the annual Living History Day. Last year they posted some pictures on social media, to which others responded that the event looked like a great time and why did they not hear about it in advance. The sponsors replied that publicity for the event included newspaper advertisements, signs in front of the Visitors Center, and Twitter and Facebook postings. The sponsors asked if there were suggestions others could make for better ways to get the word out more effectively. The lesson is, messages can go out but sometimes people are not receptive. A message put out today by Emergency Services on how to prepare for a snowstorm would not get a lot of attention, but if there were a blizzard on the way then people would be much more receptive. Timing is important. How the information affects them immediately is important. And sometimes they are just not going to reach them. • Janice Tyler, Director on Aging, spoke about the importance of our becoming an "Age Friendly" community. When the Department on Aging surveyed 1,000 folks this summer we learned that people are concerned about getting dementia and about running out of resources. • Bob Marotto said the challenge of managing scarce resources while continuing to meet needs and expectations for excellent services. There's the challenge of effectively integrating government services in our County, of not seeing them as opposed to each other but rather finding the best ways to coordinate them. That's a continuing challenge here, and the opportunities for creating smarter, streamlined service delivery continues to beckon; necessity might move us there again in the coming years, as we should go there willingly. • Kirby Sanders said he only had three-years tenure but he wanted to speak on resilient leadership. They should consider a process for growing and nurturing our own leaders from within; an academy like they have been talking about for residents only this one for young and aspiring leaders within County staff. Commissioner Marcoplos said he is hearing that messages are best received when there is a pressing event or controversy. It seems like they are going to have a lot of pressing issues arise over the next several months. This means they have an opportunity to get a message out in reaction to whatever craziness comes down the pike, to get people's attention. Commissioner Jacobs added that revaluation could be difficult, although they have done a much more scientific job than in the past in trying to determine values. They ought to have a plan in place —and the Board ought to know what the plan is in advance-- so that when they go to the public with the revaluation they can have some assurance that staff has this covered, so they have the answers to the FAQs, and so they have had the opportunity to review and improve the FAQs. Revaluation is one pressing issue they know is coming. Bonnie Hammersley said she sees revaluation as the County's next big issue. Scientific or not, the revaluation touches on people's property and they will be engaged. They will be calling Commissioners. We have a communications plans set up, and the Community Relations Director will be contacting each of you to go over the FAQs and to help you prepare to be helpful to members of the public who contact you. February 7 is the next time we will be talking about the revaluation, and Todd McGee will be in touch with the Board before that. Commissioner Jacobs said that the first two revaluations he was involved with as a Commissioner raised little interest in the public. The one conducted at the cusp of the recession was different. People were upset. A community meeting filled the Senior Center while the Board