In January 2011, three new county commissioners for Glynn County took office. They joined four existing commissioners of which one had served 14 years as a commissioner and three had served as commissioner for two years. In February 2011, this group of commissioners met to develop a vision for Glynn County and goals for the upcoming year. At that time they agreed to meet again in six months. The meeting in February went very well and everyone left with a spirit of cooperation and a joint plan on moving forward.
As Administrator, after four to five months of when the Commission meets I start to get nervous in terms of how we are doing on their list of goals. We all tend to get busy with day to day issues that we often lose sight of our main goals. That can happen very easily, especially this year since we have had so much going on. I am happy to report that I breathed a sigh of relief when I checked the list about 45 days ago to see that great progress had been made on completing the goals that the Board had established in February. This was very important for a lot of reasons, but especially since the Board was getting ready to have their six month follow-up meeting. I do not like to be in trouble with those I work for so I was especially glad that significant progress had been made J. I certainly am aware of goals that are worked on throughout the year, but I only look at them as a whole every three to four months.
The Board did in fact meet for a six month follow-up on Thursday, August 11th. The meeting was facilitated by Gordon Maner who is with the Carl Vinson Institute of Government at the University of Georgia. Gordon does a great job leading discussion and getting commitments on goals. Gordon led the discussion in February and it was good to have him lead again. Gordon made several comments that it was very obvious to him that the Board had made a lot of progress since February.
Here are some of the things that were discussed:
- Continue to improve communication between Commissioners and with executive staff
- Remain focused on the horizon and do not get lost in the weeds
- Continue to focus on our legacy as a Board
- Directed staff to develop executive summaries for long reports ( not a bad idea, especially if you are the one doing the reading)
- Continue to develop positive press releases for Glynn County
- Staff to develop a Capital Improvement Plan
- Develop a plan to educate the public about the referendum in November for SPLOST 6
- With available revenue restore employee benefits that were cut three years ago (only a few benefits fall into this category) next fiscal year
- Continue to seek ways to streamline positions
- Continue to seek new technology to make government more efficient
- Look for ways to “Right Size” government
- Press forward with the detention Center project
- Last, but not least, continue to move forward with the Strategic Plan
Overall the meeting went very well and it provided the Board an opportunity to check the pulse of where they have been and where they are going. The Board is one of the best that I have worked with in my 29 years of local government service and the citizens of Glynn County are fortunate to have a group of individuals who have a vision and a game plan! Staff will move forward with these goals set by the Board and the Board agreed to meet for a follow-up in another six months. This time I think I will check the main list every month, which will be good for my health J I hope that throughout Georgia every county administrator/manager is proud of their county, but I will have to say that there is a tremendous amount of awesome things to be proud of here in Paradise!
