Meeting Notes 8-6-20 // Strategic Meeting
Strategic Planning Session: At today’s Planning and Strategy session, the Board was asked to go through various exercises and analyses to get a better sense of where we would like to go as a Board. This was broken down into basically two devises, Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat analysis as well as a Priority Ranking exercise.
SWOT Analysis - Above is the complete list of areas Commissioners* listed in the SWOT analysis. My inputs for the various categories were as follows:
Strength - Dedicated, highly competent staff here in Ottawa County government.
Weakness - Lack of Housing choice and opportunity.
Opportunity- My opportunities for Ottawa County are how we as a Board can be a more proactive force for Equity in Ottawa County, as well as how Ottawa County and the Housing Commission can impulse greater Housing opportunities for Ottawa Residents.
Threat - Educational and economic impact of Covid.
Development of Objectives - My contributed objective was to examine eliminating standing committees in favor of committee of the whole. I do feel this will open up a lot of opportunities, among them opening up the board so that commissioners have more opportunities to bring forth proposals and better represent their constituencies.
My top three ranked objectives were the Standing Committee examination, Prepaid Postage for Absentee Ballots and Countywide Broadband access.
Prepaid Postage for Absentee Ballots: We did have a follow-up discussion regarding completing the cycle that we began when we sent out absentee Ballot Applications by setting up a mechanism by which the County can Pre-Pay Postage for Absentee Ballots. It is clear that sending materials that would be used to accomplish this back to the printers would be cost prohibitive at this point. However, a workaround could easily be found through which the County reimburses jurisdictions who may receive Ballots that do not carry sufficent postage. I am supportive of this, I do not believe it will bea large expense, but it will be a valued contribution to enhance the voting process, and further protect the constititional right to vote.
There was a brief discussion about whether the Board could legally undertake any measure to enable pre-paid postage. I believe that as Commissioners, we have the right and duty to make sure our departments and facilities have all the tools they may need and that we may choose to offer to carry out their functions. I believe that an Elections department that can offer Pre-Paid Postage to its residents is offering a valid and valued service. Further, if the Board can’t or won’t take steps like this, it will struggle to sufficiently be able to take the steps necessary to arrive at a more equitable County.
Note that Commissioner Holtvluwer was not present due to a family emergency and his contribution will be forthcoming.
