Priorities and Strategies, Oh My

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors spent yesterday afternoon beginning to update their (our?) priorities within the County’s Strategic Plan.

I sat in on the first 90 minutes of the meeting at the Downtown County Office Building because I had been told earlier in the day that there would be no computer audio streaming of this work session. When I found out at the meeting that audio streaming was indeed available, I drove home during a break to listen to the remainder of the meeting from my desk and near my refrigerator.

Big mistake!

The Board’s computer audio streaming system from Room 241 of the Downtown County Office Building needs to be a priority — or else ripped out and shut down. Most of the time, the volumes coming through the Supervisors’ and Staff’s microphones were so faint as to make their comments sound like they were coming from the moon.

I take that back. We are able to hear audio quite well from astronauts on the moon.

Ironically, a good portion of the meeting was about how to communicate better to the public and get the public more involved in what’s happening in County government. Hard to do when you can hardly hear what's supposed to be there for us to hear.

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Here’s some of what I thought I was able to hear about some possible future priorities in the County’s next Two-Year Strategic Plan. Or is it a Five-Year Strategic Plan? That wasn’t clear even during the times the sound volume was audible. I’ll go with two years, since I did hear Staff talking about revising the FY2015-2017 Strategic Plan.

One of the first things Supervisors asked about was how many County residents were interviewed in the 2015 Citizens Survey that is used, in part, to set priorities for Albemarle County. When not one Staff member could answer that question, I slipped Supervisor Brad Sheffield (D, Rio) a note. It was 375 people. From memory. I read and studied the survey. All the Staff could tell the Supervisors was that they knew the survey was statistically valid, plus or minus 5 points. By the way, the three staff at the table? County Executive Tom Foley, Assistant County Executive Lee Catlin, and Organizational Development Manager Louise Wyatt. My guess is that this triumvirate costs County taxpayers close to $400,000 annually in total compensation.

(Reminder to self: look up the Organizational Development Manager job description on the Albemarle website. Is ODM an actual college major?)

Here are a few of the priorities and strategy ideas mentioned by Board members:

Rick Randolph (D, Scottsville): more bicycle routes; focus on MOUs (Memoranda of Understanding) recently agreed to with Charlottesville; Master Planning and Community Advisory Committees for Albemarle’s rural areas; workplace housing initiatives for County employees such as police officers

Ann Mallek (D, White Hall): anything environmental or dealing with natural resources or stormwater retention or transportation revenue-sharing dollars or protecting neighborhoods and rural areas from development; addressing gaps in the County’s zoning code with legal work; paying attention to what rural people say

Diantha McKeel (D, Jack Jouett): improving the attractiveness of the County’s development areas; better compensation for County employees; “I’m very concerned about pay scales; it’s critical that we be able to recruit and retain high quality employees.”

Norman Dill (D, Rivanna): housing and development issues; keeping the list of the County’s strategic priorities to a manageable number (There were over two dozen by the end of the meeting. The list will be reduced and ranked at a Board meeting in June.)

Liz Palmer (D, Samuel Miller): stormwater expenditures; concerns about having enough County staff to get all the work done; “What things are we really not going to do because of financial issues?”

Brad Sheffield (D, Rio): digital governance; public can’t find the information they want fast enough; police training facility; urban ring infrastructure issues; small area planning; land acquisition by the County for future needs; economic preparedness

It will be interesting to see how all of these are wordsmithed by County Staff for the June whittling down meeting. Of course, all of these will come with price tags that Tom Foley and his Staff will have to provide. It would be great, in my view, if he would bring cost estimates with him to the June prioritizing and strategizing meeting so that Supervisors could throw money as well as dreams into their decision-making mix.

By the way, County residents will be getting a crack in June and July at providing feedback on what the Supervisors eventually decide to include in the new Strategic Plan. The actual community engagement process for doing so has not yet been decided upon, but Supervisor Randolph did say he was interested in standing outside the Scottsville Food Lion with a simple 5-question survey, pencils, and postage (for those who prefer to mail it in).

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If you’ve ever heard Albemarle Staff, predominantly County Executive Tom Foley and Assistant County Executive Lee Catlin, mention something called the Leadership Council, here’s who’s on it (as of 5/17/2016):

Amelia McCulley, Zoning Administrator

Betty Burrell, Director of Finance

Bill Letteri, Deputy County Executive

Bob Crickenberger, Director of Parks & Recreation

Dan Eggleston, Chief of Fire/Rescue

Doug Walker, Deputy County Executive

Faith McClintic, Economic Development Director

Larry Davis, County Attorney

Lee Catlin, Assistant County Executive

Lori Allshouse, Director of the Office of Management & Budget

Lorna Gerome, Director of Human Resources

Louise Wyatt, Organizational Development Manager

Mark Graham, Director of Community Development

Mike Culp, Director of Information Technology

Phyllis Savides, Director of Social Services

Ron White, Chief of Housing

Steve Sellers, Chief of Police

Tom Foley, County Executive

Tom Hanson, Executive Director Emergency Communications Center

Trevor Henry, Director of Facilities & Environmental Services

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Quotes of the Day (5-17-2016):

“There is insane frustration in the countryside when it appears that we forget what people tell us.” Ann Mallek (D, White Hall)

“I try to get feedback from as many different sources as I can; just because we’re listening doesn’t mean we’re going to do anything about it.” Brad Sheffield (D, Rio)

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So, who was it that created the rule that Supervisors were not to engage with the public at public engagement sessions on the budget earlier this year? I’ve said all along that this directive came from County Executive Tom Foley. That’s how I thought I heard it at meeting after meeting after meeting this spring. Board Chairwoman Liz Palmer (D, Samuel Miller) e-mailed me recently — very politely, I might add — to say that’s not correct. Here’s what she wrote:

“Tom Foley did not advise us not to engage the public. We, the supervisors, decided to change the model in hopes of getting better attendance with the more formal presentation by the county executive. One of the reasons we did not more actively participate was that we were concerned the residents in attendance would get less or incomplete information if all the supervisors in attendance answered questions. This form of meeting was obviously unsuccessful in that less people than usual attended.”

The question I now have is at which open, public meeting did the Supervisors make this decision. Maybe someone can engage with some meeting Minutes or a meeting tape.