Five-Point Management System:
(updated April 2012)

During my career of working in and with county governments as either an employee or consultant, I discovered that often times we are overwhelmed by the many different demands and challenges that face us each and every day. It appeared to me that our organization frequently became stale in the direction, management and focus of goals and objectives we hoped to accomplish. With these thoughts in mind, I focused during the campaign on a 5-Point Star System of management which would give our administration some direction for the future.

The current five points are: (updated April 2012)

1.            Recreation/Tourism (8)

2.            Sewer Operations/Capital Plan (11)

3.            Risk Management (12)

4.            Industrial Economic Development (13)

5.            2013 Budget (14)

(Focus points that have been worked on and have either ended or been suspended are marked through. We are leaving them on the list so that you can see what has been accomplished since September 2010.)

(1) Debt Management. (began September 2012, ended March 2011)

Resolution #03-11-23, approving a Roane County Debt Management Plan, was adopted by the Roane County Commission on March 14, 2011.

When I was elected Roane County was approximately $60 million in debt. In the first 6 months of my administration I planned on having a debt management plan submitted, studied and reviewed by the county commission and hopefully adopted. That gave Roane County future direction. Policies of debt management include: (1) insuring that debt does not exceed the assets' life expectancy and which assets a county should not be in debt to purchase (computers, vehicles, furniture, radios, etc.); (2) not back-loading our debt repayment schedules; and (3) a multi-year (25-30 year) debt budget; just to name a few.

(2) Capital Improvement Plan/Program: (began September 2012, ended March 2011)

Resolution #02-11-22, approving a Roane County Capital Plan, was adopted by the Roane County Commission on March 14, 2011.

In the first 6 months I planned on having a CIP ready for study and review by our county commission. Our CIP goes hand and hand with debt management and will give us further direction into the future. We must know where we are going. We continue to replace certain assets so let's develop a replacement schedule and understand whether or not these replacement assets influence our debt management plan. Let's look to the next decade to help carve a path of where we want to travel.

(3) Department Management (began September 1, 2010, ended March 2012)

Work will continue on departmental management but we are replacing the departmental management focus at this time due to improvement on:

1)       Policies adopted on cell phones and use of county vehicles

2)       Scheduled weekly staff meetings

3)       Communication with commissioners/employees through monthly newsletter

4)       Development of a template of committee minutes reports

5)       Development of system direction policies on capital and debt which has assisted in focusing our administration on some primary goals of managing county programs and finances for the future.

 (4) Communication (began September 1. 2010, ended November 2010)

Since September 1, 2010, a monthly newsletter to Commission has been published and distributed, not only to Commissioners, but also to County and City officials and business and community leaders as well as being added to the county's website for public viewing. Weekly staff meetings are scheduled and frequent meetings are held with other county officials. Our "Communication" point was taken off during November 2010 for two basic reasons (1) we have made great steps in improving communication by improving the County Executive's report at Commission meetings, monthly Commission newsletters, weekly staff meetings, periodic official meetings, Executive Summary presentations via power points, written Executive Position papers, and continued work on the county website, (2) an immediate need came to our attention of sewer expansion needs in the Midtown area related to the anticipated construction of a $65 million hospital, $7-$8 million Physicians' Plaza, and other retail business plans.

(5) Emergency Medical Services Operations (began September 1, 2010, ended March 2012)

The Emergency Service Operation focus as a point on the five-point system has been temporarily suspended.  Much progress has taken place over the last 20 months to define operations and begin a more direct focus of emergency management and emergency services. More work will continue on this focus and we could anticipate the service coming back on the five-point system, but in the meantime we will suspend the focus noting the following accomplishments:

1)       More formal stability has been obtained for the ambulance service. Issues not fully solved but a stable foundation has been established. Budget has 1 cent property tax to offset indigent care. Ambulance Service is purchasing its own ambulances without issuing debt.

2)       Billing of ambulance service has been outsourced. This has created efficiency in the organization keeping current on Medicare, Medicaid, TennCare and private insurance regulations and contract changes.

3)       Collection rates have improved and are most  understandable with a system of reporting payer ______ and collections rates.

4)       Response time is documented and utilization of system resources are monitored.

5)       Unscheduled overtime has been basically eliminated.

Many improvements have been made in the Ambulance Operations and will continue to be monitored.

Emergency Services, Homeland Security, and County-wide Fire Protection continue to be reviewed; however, any focus for additional resources are not being explored at this time. Much discussion among Volunteer Fire Departments and Commission has been had related to continuing the county-wide fire department concept; however, no action has been taken to either enhance or discontinue the service.

Further, the new focus of Risk Management shall also cover various aspects of Emergence Management.

Emergency Services could become a primary focus again at a later date.

(6) Midtown Area Development (Sewer Expansion) (began November 2010, ended December 2011)

An immediate need came to our attention of sewer expansion needs in the Midtown area related to the anticipated construction of a $65 million hospital, $7-$8 million Physicians' Plaza, and other retail business plans. Roane County received approval for a State Revolving Loan of over $5 million in June 2011. The implementation process of the Midtown Sewer Construction began in August 2011.

(7) Fund Balance Policy (Began February 2011, ended April 2011)

Resolution #04-11-32, approving a Fund Balance Policy, was adopted by the Roane County Commission on April 11, 2011.

As we were completing the drafting and review of the county Capital and Debt Management Policies, it became apparent that we should draft our Fund Balance Policy. The Fund Balance Policy deals with how the county should manage the equities balance of each of the county’s individual funds. Basically, this policy will encompass how much money should be carried over at the end of each fiscal year.

(8) Recreation/Tourism (began March 2011)

A focus that we feel will continue for some time during our administration. Currently, recreation focuses on the Swan Pond Sports Complex, the Chamberlain Trail, a model remote control airplane field, Riley Creek Campground, and a bridge over Caney Fork to the old campground, just to name a few.

Throughout my travels as a UT Government Consultant, I saw firsthand the benefits various counties enjoyed when the county embraced their recreation and tourism program. From the benefits of new dollars being injected into the local economy with little annual cost to deliver the recreational and tourism service, we will focus on operations at the Roane County Park, Caney Creek RV and Marina, and the Roane County EXPO Center, along with lake and river opportunities. March 14, 2011, the Roane County Commission granted the County Executive authority to operate under a license agreement the Riley Creek Campground. Opportunities abound with Roane County’s many recreational and tourism assets.

 (9) 2012 Budget (began March 2011, ended July 2011)

Budget Resolutions #07-11-10, #07-11-11, and #07-11-12 were adopted by the Roane County Commission on July 11, 2011.

Although work takes place each day on the county's financial management and budget administration, it is in the spring of each year that intensive work begins and continues up until the adoption of the new fiscal year's budget.

We began the 2012 Budget process in January 2011, which included adoption of financial policies listed in our 5-point system, and then began focusing on developing our budget around the established policies. Work continued in February with mailing out department request forms and requesting not only the department operating budget, but for the first time, a capital budget. During March and April we started receiving the departmental requests and organizing, sorting, and totaling all the requests. In April, a consolidated debt budget was prepared and 2012 recommendations approved by the Budget Committee.

(10) Implementation of 2012 Capital Budgets (began January 2011, July 21, 2011):

With the adoption of the 2012 Budget the county, for the first time, adopted a Comprehensive Capital Budget. The late adoption of the 2011 Budget established Capital Outlay funding and plans. During the spring of 2011 a capital policy was adopted, and with the adoption of the 2012 Budget a schedule of detailed projects was established. We will prepare an Executive Summary in August of the projects funded and establish preliminary timelines of work activity on each project.

(11) Sewer Operations/Capital Plan (began January 3, 2012)

Multi-year Operations and a Capital Plan will be developed, studied, and reviewed as sewer service expansion continues, along with the Accounting conversion from special revenue fund to the Enterprise Fund. A comprehensive sewer operations and sewer capital report will be published.

(12) Risk Management (began January 3, 2012)

Development of a Risk Management program will be developed that will deal with internal risk of local government operations along with external risk both natural and man-made.

(13) Industrial/Economic Development (began March 2012)

During March and April 2012 we have devoted a lot of time and energy on Industrial/economic development and, by default, a focus of the five-point system became Industrial/Economic Development. Much work has and will continue to take place with the appraisal, acceptance, and success of the VW recruitment. The county will focus a number of hours of managing the infrastructure improvement for the VW site.

As noted in the April newsletter, much work took place related to VW recruitment.

Further, the county worked with various partners to host an Industrial Inventory Summit at Roane State Community College in April. Additional information about the Summit will be provided in the May 2012 newsletter, and the presentation can be found on the county website under Executive Summary #23.. A position statement was further developed in April related to funding industrial infrastructure assets and that statement may also be found on the county website.

(14) 2013 Budget (began March 2012)
 

Each spring we begin intensive work on the upcoming annual budget. Work takes place on the budget each week and month throughout the year as we analyze, monitor, and amend the county’s management focus and direction but intensive work begins each spring. We anticipate that the annual budget shall always become a primary focus of the five-point star management system in the spring of each year.

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Some of the original points may stay on our primary focus throughout our administration but our goal is to solve points identified and replace the focus with an additional point. It is possible that a point could be temporarily replaced as more important points become a focus of the administration.

Below are areas which we have identified as potential future points on the 5-Point Star System of management.

· Asset review and management

· Industrial Property Inventory

· Plateau Industrial Park

· Recycling

· Solid Waste Landfill Contract

· Tourism Opportunities

· TVA relationship

· Fire prevention and loss

· Employee professional growth

· Livability issues

· Animal and Litter Control

· Building Inspection and Long Term planning

· Existing Business Development