improving county operations
“… Bruce offers a very useful perspective from his career in the Coast Guard and the private sector.”
-Tom Winker, serving supervisor
As an executive arm of the state, what the county does is well-defined in State statutes. But how well it performs those functions, or how efficiently, is a measure of county managerial effectiveness. Supervisors must keep their eye on this ball, and they must have the experience to efficiently guide county staff to improved levels of effectiveness and cost savings. Without the “tyranny of the bottom line” that comes with for-profit businesses, government must create and implement management ‘tools’ and practices to maximize results for the taxpayers.
Results include:
Historically low interest rates allowed us to leverage our AAA bond rating to reduce debt and reduce costs of the loans we had taken out years ago, saving hundreds of thousands per year of debt service, while reducing our overall debt load.
When I joined the board in 2018, the county nursing home had run up an operating deficit of nearly $4M. Within 2 years, that debt had been turned into a surplus.
The county lacked an up-to-date strategic plan - “when you don’t have destination, any wind is favorable”. Without such a plan, each decision is taken without context, each budget is a one-year snapshot, each hire may or may not take you towards goals. The county now has a draft plan to guide such decisions and activity. But it will take Board leadership to implement it effectively.
Over $2.5M has been re-prioritzed from the county’s operational departments to fund needed long-term infrastructure, or reduce the levy over the past 6 years.
County metrics have been updated (but more work ahead) to expose effectiveness and efficiency in our operations—are we doing the right thing, and are we doing it well?
Our financial team continues to be recognized as one of the premier accounting teams in the state by outside reviewers and editors.