Minutes 02-20-2024 - Business Meeting

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18 Vice Chair Greene said that Commissioner Richards would like to pull the budget amendment for the strategic plan from the consent agenda and the new employee that will implement the plan. Commissioner Richards said she wants to discuss the employee that will be hired to help implement the plan as they move through the Strategic Plan. Travis Myren, Deputy County Manager, said the priorities are not limited to one department and the role of the person will be bringing teams together to help them identify strategies and focus on the reporting and accountability of the plan. He said they will have a plan that is brought to the manager's office quarterly and this person will facilitate that. Commissioner Richards said in the plan, there are some objectives that do not have measurable outcomes and she is hesitant to approve the plan when those are not in place. She said if it takes another month to approve the plan, that would be preferable to her if that allowed them to establish the baselines and measurements. Travis Myren said the Board can certainly do that but said to keep in mind that staff would like to be able to note alignment in the CIP and the Operating Budget, and he would like to keep them on schedule. Charline Kirongozi said performance measures are meant to be evolving. She said that once the plan is adopted, they also put together an action plan for staff. Bonnie Hammersley said the position is modeled like the Sustainability Manager position. She said she thinks it is good that they look at performance measures but does not know that the plan needs to be held up for that. She said having someone on board to lead this is important. Commissioner Fowler said she does not think the specifics need to be nailed down before adopting the plan, especially knowing that the performance measures can change. She said she likes that it is aligned with other county plans and there are built in recipes for developing the budget. Commissioner Hamilton said she cannot vote for this plan with performance measures that are not well-delineated. She said there is an opportunity to clarify good performance measures. She said that she wants them to be clear. She said she wants to get it right and take more time before approval. She said a subcommittee of commissioners is one way to do that. Bonnie Hammersley said staff does not have the capacity to work on the strategic plan as the budget process is beginning. She said this could be delayed until after the budget cycle. Commissioner Richards asked if the consent agenda for hiring the employee would allow them to come in and get to work quickly. Bonnie Hammersley said it would probably be June or July before the person could be hired. Commissioner McKee said he is hesitant to put it off because it will never be perfect. He said for it to be useful, it would be better to move forward and make amendments as time allows and as the plan is implemented. Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked how to make sure the budget aligns with the priorities without the detail. Bonnie Hammersley said the budget will align with the goals of the strategic plan. She said the goals of the strategic plan do not align much differently than what the budget is already aligned with. She said they will not go in a different direction because governmental priorities are established goals and guiding principles. Commissioner Portie-Ascott asked if a strategic plan is needed since they have not had one. Bonnie Hammersley said this is a more organized and structured way for operating from an elected board and she thinks it is a very good thing. She said that it is difficult right now to say there will be changes to the plan from a staff perspective because of the timing of it. She said they are in the budget process and that will be intensive.