The Grays Harbor County Commissioners are bringing in outside help to create a strategic plan that is aimed to help the county achieve success in several different areas, including organizationally, legislatively and financially, which is both related and unrelated to the county’s dismal financial situation.
This year’s budget shows the county spending more money than it takes in and the resulting deficit will be balanced with funds from reserves. By 2017, if projections hold true, the county could be nearly $2 million in the hole in starting cash.
A presentation delivered by county Budget Director Brenda Sherman on Monday showed a worsening deficit. Whereas the county projected a hole of more than $1.6 million to end the year, the actual budget, using figures through the month of March, shows a deficit of more than $2.5 million.
“We cannot live like this,” Commissioner Vickie Raines said after the presentation. “When you look at what we have budgeted for 2015 and what the projection is for 2015, it’s almost a million dollars more than what the projection is. One of the things that I’m going to request is that all those departments seriously look at their budget.”
On Monday, April 20, each commissioner will propose a budget-reduction plan during the morning meeting. Morning meetings begin at 9 a.m. and are open to the public.
On Wednesday, April 22, a public budget workshop will be held at 1 p.m. to discuss each of the commissioners’ respective plans. Sherman and Budget Manager Marilyn Lewis also will attend the workshop.
The budget is part of an overall problem facing the county, Commissioner Vickie Raines said on Monday.
“There has to be changes. We are existing. Due to the lack of planning and process that has not been taken over the last decade, we are so broken that we’re broke,” Raines said. “We need to fix the broken part of us … currently, our budget drives out policy, and it should be the other way around.”
And that’s where the outside help comes in via Shelli Hopsecger, a private consultant. Her strategic planning process would help develop a long-range solution.
“This would have to be an inclusive process that the department heads would be a part of,” Hopsecger said. “It will have to be a process that has trust and open communication or it will be a complete waste of time.”
Hopsecger’s strategic planning process would involve three workshops, each with their own aim toward an overall goal of a cohesive, focused county.
The first workshop would focus on preparation for planning, with conversations involving Sherman, the county staff and the commissioners. Ideally, the first workshop would identify existing conditions the county faces, including human, financial, legislative and risks. The group then would work to set goals, both long term and short term, for each of the following areas: organization, finance, service and community.
In the second workshop, Hopsecger hopes to help the county figure out where it wants to go. The common goals set in the first workshop will be reviewed, and the group will identify the county’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats or risks. The workshop also will identify the ways in which the county will measure its success.
The third workshop will help the county identify its partners and tools. Additionally, the county will discuss how it will follow through and what expectations it has of the staff.
“Budget driving policy instead of policy driving budget has resulted in a lot of cuts over the years, and that has created an atmosphere of apprehension, and in those environments people tend to withdraw and don’t even want to offer suggestions of solutions for fear that the attention would become focused on them,” Hopsecger said.
Hopsecger priced the first workshop for the commissioners, tentatively billing them for 10 hours at $90 per hour, followed by a two-hour follow-up briefing at the same price for a total of $1,080. She said she worried that she had estimated conservatively.
Another concern Hopsecger had was that she wouldn’t have enough time in her own life to complete the other two workshops with the commissioners, but she said she was willing to find a replacement when the time comes. Commissioner Frank Gordon was apprehensive about moving forward with Hopsecger only to have her replaced by the second workshop.
“I feel comfortable with you, but my biggest fear is that if you didn’t do the second workshop is that the continuity would not be there,” Gordon said.
The commissioners unanimously approved up to $5,000 for the first workshop. A tentative schedule shows the strategic planning workshops beginning some time in May.
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