Agenda - 02-21-2017 - 6-a - Minutes

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31 1 2 Commissioner Dorosin asked all the staff in the room if the Board is overlooking anything 3 important in its stated priorities. He asked staff what they were hearing from the public that was 4 not encompassed on today's monitoring and evaluation handout; what needs elaboration: 5 6 • Bob Marotto, Animal Services Director, suggested that the community centers become a 7 better point of contact between the County and community; this relates to the Residents 8 Academy idea and to the larger issue of Communication, he said. Mr. Stancil agreed. 9 • Jim Northup said he was surprised that residents do not know the quality of work happening 10 within the County. Once residents get exposed to the information they seem pleasantly 11 surprised. This might be solved by the Residents Academy, getting the word out, and 12 increasing interactions between residents and County staff. 13 • David Hunt shared a story and an observation about Communications. He said they then 14 were approaching the time when the Visitors Center and Historical Society in Hillsborough 15 holds the annual Living History Day. Last year they posted some pictures on social media, 16 to which others responded that the event looked like a great time and why did they not hear 17 about it in advance. The sponsors replied that publicity for the event included newspaper 18 advertisements, signs in front of the Visitors Center, and Twitter and Facebook postings. 19 The sponsors asked if there were suggestions others could make for better ways to get the 20 word out more effectively. The lesson is, messages can go out but sometimes people are 21 not receptive. A message put out today by Emergency Services on how to prepare for a 22 snowstorm would not get a lot of attention, but if there were a blizzard on the way then 23 people would be much more receptive. Timing is important. How the information affects 24 them immediately is important. And sometimes they are just not going to reach them. 25 • Janice Tyler, Director on Aging, spoke about the importance of our becoming an "Age 26 Friendly" community. When the Department on Aging surveyed 1,000 folks this summer we 27 learned that people are concerned about getting dementia and about running out of 28 resources. 29 • Bob Marotto said the challenge of managing scarce resources while continuing to meet 30 needs and expectations for excellent services. There's the challenge of effectively 31 integrating government services in our County, of not seeing them as opposed to each other 32 but rather finding the best ways to coordinate them. That's a continuing challenge here, and 33 the opportunities for creating smarter, streamlined service delivery continues to beckon; 34 necessity might move us there again in the coming years, as we should go there willingly. 35 • Kirby Sanders said he only had three-years tenure but he wanted to speak on resilient 36 leadership. They should consider a process for growing and nurturing our own leaders from 37 within; an academy like they have been talking about for residents only this one for young 38 and aspiring leaders within County staff. 39 40 Commissioner Marcoplos said he is hearing that messages are best received when there is a 41 pressing event or controversy. It seems like they are going to have a lot of pressing issues arise 42 over the next several months. This means they have an opportunity to get a message out in 43 reaction to whatever craziness comes down the pike, to get people's attention. 44 45 Commissioner Jacobs added that revaluation could be difficult, although they have done a much 46 more scientific job than in the past in trying to determine values. They ought to have a plan in 47 place— and the Board ought to know what the plan is in advance-- so that when they go to the 48 public with the revaluation they can have some assurance that staff has this covered, so they 49 have the answers to the FAQs, and so they have had the opportunity to review and improve the 50 FAQs. Revaluation is one pressing issue they know is coming. 31