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Suncoast Pasco News

Tough times require candor, dialogue

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BY JOHN GALLAGHER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 11, 2009

The Pasco County Commission recognizes the difficult economic times facing our residents and the county. As you have probably read, Pasco County faces a $28.8 million shortfall in revenue because of the decline in property values. We want our residents and our employees to know that we are doing everything we can to proactively deal with these uncertainties and continue to provide quality service to our residents. As a result, we are looking closely at every service we provide to continue to serve our residents in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.

This is a process that began more than a year ago, when we launched the LEAP Into Excellence initiative. LEAP stands for Lean, Efficient and Accountable Pasco but it is much more than a fancy title or catch phrase. More than ever, the current economic downturn dictates that we eliminate activities that are not essential, streamline our processes and focus our increasingly limited resources on key priorities. Through the LEAP initiative staff identified efficiencies and cost savings that lowered operating budgets for the current, 2009, fiscal year. These departmental budget reductions, together with the hiring freeze, delay of capital expenditures and reductions in reserves, resulted in a budget decrease of 19 percent in fiscal 2008.

The LEAP initiative is also an ambitious strategic planning process that seeks to improve the way Pasco County does business. We need your help to do this. Over the next few months, we will conduct an extensive community outreach effort to determine what our residents want and need most - or what they think is the most efficient use of limited tax revenue. We will conduct surveys, both written and online, hold small focus groups and large stakeholder meetings to hear what our residents have to say. We need your input as we reshape the future of Pasco County and identify our key priorities and goals for the next several years.

To help us in this effort, we have contracted with a team of experts, the International City/County Management Association, to implement a proven model of performance excellence throughout county government.

These are difficult times that will require difficult and potentially unpopular decisions. Cuts to public services, the elimination of some county positions and an increase in the property tax rate are all options that have to be considered. We are doing all we can to minimize the impacts of these decisions on our citizens and employees. Over the next few weeks, the county's budget director, Michael Nurrenbrock, will author a series of columns explaining in more detail how the budget process works. These will also be posted to the county's Web site.

As we move through this process, we are committed to keeping the public informed every step of the way. To that end, we have created a page on our Web site dedicated to LEAP. You may find it by going to the Pasco County home page, www.pascocountyfl.net>, and clicking on the LEAP Into Excellence button on the left. Here we will post the results of our citizen surveys, along with periodic updates on the budget and strategic planning process. Also on this page is a link to a Customer Comment Card and an Employee Suggestion Form. We encourage you to use these to share your thoughts and concerns with us.

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