By SALINA POST
The Saline County Commissioners will meet tomorrow at 9 a.m. for a study session and discuss Vision 2023, the county's strategy to combat issues in the Salina community.
Instead of at its normal location, the commission will meet at the Saline County Health Department conference room at 125 W. Elm St.
Some prioritized actions included building plans for workforce succession, building community trust and enhancing economic development.
Key Focus Areas
County Workforce
Strategy: Recruit high-quality employees
Actions: Evaluate incentives to attract new employees and implement best-fit incentives. Continue to use all possible outreach efforts to communicate vacancies to potential candidates. Keep competitive salaries and benefits to attract the best candidates.
Specific Tasks: Study the potential for County-provided childcare as an employee benefit
Strategy: Plan for Workforce Succession
Actions: Prioritize retention of good employees by incentivizing attendance. Continuously re-evaluate departmental staffing needs to prepare for succession planning shift responsibilities at appropriate opportunities to make the department and workflows more efficient.
Consider employee safety in building and policy design.
Strategy: Plan for knowledge transfer
Actions: Examine job requirements to ensure there is a match with needed skills through a fluid review process and career ladders.
Communication and Outreach
Strategy: Conduct outreach throughout the community and within the County organization
Actions: Enhance relationships and build trust with media partners, and develop internal processes to build confidence in County staff to engage with the media.
Strategy: Build Community Trust
Actions: Identify a tool(s) or method(s) that can be used to measure the community's perception of work completed by the Commissioners.
Specific Tasks: Use agenda structure to facilitate Commission reports on community activities.
Working Relationships
Strategy: Continue to improve relationships with key partner organizations
Actions: Build coalitions to address housing needs in the community. Create an inventory of existing efforts by July 1, 2023, identify gaps in those efforts and potential partners to address those gaps by Aug. 31, 2023, and convene a group of partners by Nov. 30, 2023.
Strategy: Continue to develop relationships with staff
Actions: Define the Commission culture.
Specific Tasks: Create a policy on governance expectations and conduct. Change the agenda to give Commissioners advanced notice of upcoming items.
Physical and Economic Community Health
Strategy: Support public health
Actions: Coordinating the response to the opioid crisis so we have ongoing data and a stronger understanding of the crisis in Saline County across all partners and service providers to make data-informed decisions.
Strategy: Enhance economic development
Actions: Conduct research with community stakeholders to identify potential partnerships to expand childcare options in Saline County.
Strategy: Ensure that local taxes enhance and not distract from economic vitality
Strategy: Plan for alternatives to incarceration
Service and Infrastructure
Strategy: Provide high-quality customer service
Actions: Program rehabilitation of County buildings and roads.
Obtain a list of potential building and road/bridge projects to use alternate funding sources.
Identify resources and plan for and implement clean-up litter on County roads. Additionally, consider alternatives for litter cleanup outside of Saline County staff.
Specific Tasks: Report back on the potential use of bond funding to support county infrastructure.
Strategy: Cultivate a culture of continuous improvement/efficiency
Specific Tasks: Rewrite the purchasing policy and adopt a policy on seeking and managing grant funds.
Strategy: Refine the role of the County
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