news-record.com

Rockingham County Commissioners worked on a mission statement and sculpted a vision for the county on Monday during the first of two work sessions planned for this week.

Matthew Dolge, executive director for the Piedmont Triad Regional Council, acted as facilitator for the first part of the planning retreat. He asked commissioners to first look at expectations they had for their fellow board members and members of staff.

Commissioner Craig Travis said he felt like there's a lack of communication between departments and the managers.

"I want the department to run as efficient as possible and to keep the costs down as much as possible," he said. "If I have all the information...I can make a better judgment call on any decision I have to make."

Many commissioners agreed departments needed to become more efficient and work together.

A frank discussion was also held about how involved commissioners should be in departments. Commissioner Harold Bass made a suggestion that micro management should be minimized.

"I would like to see us hold our county manager accountable for the staff's job execution and responsibility," he said. "I don't see it as my job going into each department and telling them what to do. We should not have as much intervention in department issues."

Travis said many employees have started coming to him or other commissioners with problems after they found it hard to speak to the previous county manager.

"Staff has gotten it in their thoughts to go straight to commissioners and complain," he said. "Departments come to me about a certain problem and they expect something to be done. When we mentioned things to the county manager in the past, it was never really worked on. We have to get some trust built into this system for staff. You expect staff to communicate with the county manager, but they have to be confident that something will be done about their complaints."

Commissioners agreed there should be a documented process where each employee is expected to go up the chain of command with a problem.

County Manager Lance Metzler said his door is always open to employees, but he can't force them to use it.

"I can't force them to come and see me," he said. "If they want to see me, I'll meet them after hours, but they need to forward those complaints to me so I can discuss them. I want to be clear on the process."

Metzler said he will develop a procedure for the entire staff and commissioners to know what the procedure will be on staff complaints and communication.

During an exercise to identify the best things about the county and its challenges, all commissioners agreed that jobs and economic development for small and large business continues to be the largest challenge. Coming in second were preparing the workforce for the 21st century and communications among different county boards, organizations and other entities.

The best things about the county were harder to pin down. Each commissioner chose a different one including the county's water supply, a quality education system, road infrastructure, Project Safe and a population of quality individuals.

Commissioners worked for a while on developing a new mission statement for Rockingham County. Each commissioner chimed in a different point they would like to see addressed in the statement. These included efficiency, equity to all citizens, opportunity, openness and improving the life of all citizens.

The board also received an update on 2012-2013 budget projections. Staff from the finance department warned that much information included in the budget forecast is speculation.

The tax rate is set at 0.71 in the budget forecast, a 0.012 increase from last year's adopted budget. Mike Apple, former finance director and now a consultant for Rockingham County, said they were making assumptions for sales taxes and other revenues and expenses.

Near the end of Monday's retreat, department heads started the presentation of county project updates to commissioners and the county manager. The Madison/Mayodan Library is still short in funding by $255,435. Plans have already been drawn for the building and Travis said he would like to see the project completed as quickly as possible.

Staff is currently in the process of picking out a firm to develop the Western EMS base, funding of which for the building is available through the 5-cent capital improvement tax. Metzler said several engineering firms have already been interviewed and he will have information for commissioners at an upcoming board meeting.

He said a big decision commissioners will have to make is whether the building will be designed for 12-hour or 24-hour shifts. Metzler said about $18,000 will be added to the project for 24-hour shifts and annual operating expenses will increase by more than $100,000.

Chairman Keith Mabe and Vice Chairman James Kallam both agreed that 12-hour EMS shifts are something that's sorely needed in Rockingham County.

"We need to look at the quality of life for the people involved, and the safety factor involved in patients and two employees," Mabe said. "I would rather not have that on my conscience if something were to go wrong."

The retreat will continue through Wednesday.