February 26, 2006 Proposals for Openness and Improvements in Hamblen County Government

A Strategic Planning Committee was named by the Chairman of the Commission several months ago. It recently held its very first meeting.

Committee Chairman Edwin Osborne asked each commissioner to submit five suggestions or priority areas for government improvement.

I submitted my ideas on Thursday, February 23.

I will just briefly sketch them here. In future posts, I will provide more detail.

1. Ethics--Formulate a thorough ethics policy and guidelines for Hamblen County government. Lots more to come on this. This will be a complicated, but very important process.

2. Policy Initiatives

A. Open up the solicitation process for professional services of engineers and architects in connection with work for the county by issuing requests for proposals when engineering and architectural services are needed and when the amount involved is significant. Seek input from a number of individuals/firms, examine their qualifications, charges, and experience, and then select the best-qualified individual/firm based upon a complete examination of all criteria. There are many good individuals and firms that should be asked and allowed to offer a proposal on county work.

B. Meetings policy: Provide that all meetings of county government are listed on the HC website and publicized in the newspaper at least 48 hours before they occur-- along with a list of major items to be considered. Eliminate the scheduling of meetings prior to 4:00 or 5:00 pm in order to provide the greatest opportunity for citizens to attend. We serve the citizens and their convenience should be uppermost in scheduling meetings.

C. Provide a county number that can be dialed (like 211 East Tennessee Information and Referral in Knox County) to serve as a one-stop referral service for people needing special assistance from government, health and community services, emergency food, substance abuse counseling, low-cost recreation for families or volunteer opportunities.

3. Financial planning:

A. Calculate the effect that OPEB's ("other post-employment benefits") will have on the upcoming 06-07 FY budget and beyond. Commissioners Osborne and Bruce have indicated that this is a huge cost area in the school system. Examples of OPEB's are where the school system makes a lump sum payment to teachers at the time of retirement and pays a part of their health insurance premium after retirement until they reach Medicare age of 65. Donald Gregg from the school system alone or along with Commissioners Bruce and Osborne could present a report before June 1, 2006, with current and projected costs of OPEB's.

B. Pay down the county's debt. Low interest rates are good but eliminating as much of the county debt as possible is even better and frees up money that would be paid out as interest for useful purposes such as equipment upgrades, employee raises, and the like. Don't borrow and spend or tax and spend and pass on the debt to our children and grandchildren unless it's absolutely necessary.

C. Consider creative solutions to education in Hamblen County.

Discipline: To really address school issues, one needs to address the problems created by children who don't want to be at school, are constantly disruptive, don't care if they or anyone else get an education, and are only there because they cannot drop out yet.

If teachers were allowed more time to teach, students would have a better chance of receiving quality education across the board regardless of funding levels.

The problems of the disruptive students should be addressed through a community-wide effort to provide student mentors, information about sources of help, and adult volunteers.

Curriculum: Requiring more math credits--particularly an additional course or at least a refresher course in the senior year before going to college, trade school, or work.

Block scheduling: Is it effective? Or does it just allow students to earn lots of credits outside of the core areas of math, science, English, and social studies? One weakness (trying to cram certain math courses into a semester) has been addressed by making certain math courses year-round. Should we stay with block scheduling? Should we modify block scheduling even further?

Year-round school: This has been kicked around forever. A study was done once. Nine-week sessions with 2-3 weeks off between and 8-10 weeks off in the summer. Is it effective? Is it desirable? Is it still being considered? What do parents think?

Early intervention: When a child K-3 is experiencing learning problems and is not up to grade level, there needs to be immediate detection and then help (not a label). Sending students on to the next grade when they can't read or perform math at their current grade level is a recipe for continuing academic failure and the growth of discipline problems. The problems don't go away. They just increase. Again, community involvement with help from teacher-ed students at WSCC or Carson-Newman, community volunteers (young and old), and student mentors could be a source of critical help for these students.

4. Openness and accountability: Provide complete detail reports of revenues and expenditures from all funds (not just gen, hwy, and garbage) as a standard practice at least quarterly. Placement and updating of this and certain other county financial data on the Hamblen County (HC) website would allow easy access for commissioners and the public. Place the most recent HC audits on the HC website (or provide a link on the HC website that takes one to the audits for certain years as they appear on the Comptroller's website).

5. Completion and indexing of a Hamblen County Code. I spoke to County Attorney Rusty Cantwell about this many months ago and mentioned this again to Commissioner Phillips in January. Numbering, grouping, and indexing resolutions is the key to an efficient record. Having to look back through an index of county commission minutes over a period of 10 years or more to find out whether there is a county resolution about billboards, or any other topic, is inefficient and should never happen. When we have an organized "code" such as other counties have and such as the state has (Tennessee Code Annotated), then it should be made accessible online as well as in hard copy form.

I have not tried to number these in order of importance. They are all important.

There are plenty of other ideas that should be considered such as a (1) local tipline for reporting fraud, waste, or abuse, and (2) a reward and incentive system for employees who come up with ways to save the county money or to improve services.

One other suggestion--let's invite the public to submit suggestions, too.