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By MARK MILLER
As this year’s annual Progress Edition goes to press, the newly created Wells County Government Improvement Task Force is just getting underway.
The group had their first meeting May 30 and is slated to meet again on June 27.
“Our initial goal was to establish an identifiable direction that the group would pursue,” facilitator Ed Vessels reported after the first meeting. “We covered a lot of ground and got a lot accomplished.”
The task force has been charged to take a look at Wells County government and make recommendations on how improvements and efficiencies might be gained.
The initiative was unanimously adopted by the County Council early this year and then submitted to the county commissioners at their March 17 meeting, where it gained their approval. The vision was to form a task force made of government representatives from the county as well as the city of Bluffton and other incorporated towns in the county, representatives designated by the Wells County Chamber of Commerce and five “at-large” citizens.
Task force members include:
— Wells Superior Court Judge Everett Goshorn
— Greg Werich, Chief Probation Officer
— Beth Davis, Wells County Clerk
— Laura Brubaker, Auditor
— Bette Erxleben, Bluffton City Council
— Ted Ellis, Mayor
— Finley Lane, Town of Poneto
— Luann Martin, Town of Ossian
— Chris Spurgeon, Town of Markle
— Jason Hilty, representing the Wells County Chamber of Commerce. Hilty is the CFO at First Bank of Berne.
Also, these five “at-large” citizens were chosen from applications:
— Leon Gaiser, owner of Parlor City Cabinets
— Chris King, division manager for Heartland Products in Bluffton
— Bob Hayden, former Kroger executive and former economic development director
— Peter Confer, former Norwell school board president and former Ossian State Bank president
— Vicki Andrews, a former deputy treasurer for the county, now serving as corporate treasurer for Southern Wells Schools.
“We have a tremendous amount of experience and great variety of backgrounds on the task force,” Vessels said. “I’m looking forward to working with them.”
Vessels, a Roanoke resident, is president of HiValu, LLC, a leadership development and business consulting firm. He was hired by the county to facilitate the task force.
Wells County Commissioners appointed a steering committee for the effort, who will continue to oversee the project. They include Kevin Woodward, commissioner, county council members LeRoy Cramer, Jim Oswalt and Karolyna Farling, and State Senator Travis Holdman, who originally initiated the effort shortly after he joined the county council at the beginning of 2007.
The initial meeting was organizational, with Vessels leading the group in reviewing the vision and structure of the task force.
Each member had been mailed a set of documents that outlined the project and asked them to bring a list of “strengths and opportunities” that exist in Wells County.
Vessels summarized the strengths that the group generally agreed to be:
— the county is in sound financial shape.
— the county employees are generally dedicated and knowledgeable, as are the county commissioners and council members.
— there are, generally, good intergovernmental and inter-agency relationships.
— the county exhibits positive examples of applied technology, specifically the GIS system and the county-wide 911 dispatch center.
Opportunities or challenges that the group listed in their initial assessment of the county included:
— personnel could be better utilized.
— there is a need for improved priority and focus on providing taxpayers with customer service.
— there exists a potential for streamlining in the township trustee structure.
— technology could be better utilized to improve personnel utilization and service.
These assessments are not conclusions, it was explained, but rather will be used as initial discussion points for the group.
The task force then identified three specific areas that would be assigned to “sub-groups”:
1) Budget Review and Benchmarking
This team will look at details in comparing how Wells County stacks up to its peers, counties of similar size and demographics, and adjacent counties.
“On a very macro-level, an initial examination shows that Wells County isn’t doing badly,” Vessels said.
Using data from eight other counties, Vessels says that Wells County is second best (most efficient) in terms of total tax appropriations per person, and third in terms population per county employee.
“While these are good numbers — that is, they tend to show we’re pretty efficient — we don’t want to jump to any conclusions,” Vessels was quick to add.
“Remember, these are what I call ‘macro’ numbers. We have to dig into the details and make sure we’re making true comparisons. I notice that in some specific spending categories, Wells County appears to be the highest, but that’s what this sub-group will look into.”
2) Providing Consistent and Efficient Taxpayer Services
Vessels explained that this will boil down to “customer service.”
This sub-group may examine such things as skill levels and training, and whether the county has consistent policies and procedures.
“This initial discussion Friday brought out several comments of county government structure,” Vessels added.
3) Communications and Public Input
This group will focus on getting and receiving community input as part of the task force’s process.
“The task force wants to get public input, and we want to make sure we do it right,” Vessels said.
Preliminary plans call for public input meetings early this fall. There was also discussion in the initial meeting to possibly produce a “Taxpayer Satisfaction Survey” as part of the public input effort.
The task force intends to meet each month and have a set of written recommendations before the end of the year.
“At the top of our list of what we want to do, is that we want to do it efficiently,” Vessels said. “After all, a group charged with finding efficiencies ought to be efficient themselves.”