My 11-year-old daughter once said to me it must be great not having a boss, since I was the boss. I gently corrected her--I have 45,000 bosses--each and every resident of Lincoln County. I constantly remind myself I am in this job to serve the public and therefore value public participation and involvement in the process quite highly.
The Board of County Commissioners makes appointments to more than three dozen advisory boards, commissions and committees. We always want to encourage interested people to take a direct role in their government. We also do our best to keep the public informed about the services and programs their tax dollars are providing. Some of the developments during my time in office in this area include:
* A return to regular cable television broadcasts of our meetings. After the former organization providing this service ceased operations, we contracted with another provider for this service. I'm pleased that we have been able to reach agreements to have our meetings shown on several channels.
* The launch of our monthly TV magazine, "Inside Lincoln County," which features not only county government but a variety of our other government and private non-profit partner agencies.
* An expanded yearly budget insert in local newspapers. By law, we are required to publish detailed information about our budget in the papers. Until three years ago, the publication only included tables of numbers. We expanded it to include profiles of each county department as well as the partner programs we support.
* An improved county website that's more attractive and easier to navigate.
County government spends a lot of your dollars each year and is committed to serving you well. We believe it's important to make it as easy as we can to find out what we're up to.
