William Buchanan, County Manager
Welcome
I am William Buchanan, Sedgwick County Manager. Welcome to our Web
site. County staff and I are responsible for implementing the
policy decisions made by the Board of Sedgwick County
Commissioners.
Mission
Assure quality public services are provided for the present
and future well-being of the citizens of Sedgwick County by providing efficient
and responsive support to the Board of County Commissioners and effective
administration of the Sedgwick County organization.
Weekly Update - July 14, 2010
Today, I presented my 2011 Recommended Budget to the Board of
County Commissioners. The budget is a plan for how we will deliver quality
public services. The challenges in our economic situation also provide us
challenges in developing the budget for 2011. We know that key revenue sources
are down, including sales tax and mortgage revenue fees. And, citizens who have
been affected by the economy turn to us for additional services, so our workload
goes up. However, because of our financial planning and establishing “rainy day
reserves,” our organization is poised for signs of economic recovery. This
didn’t just happen by accident – it was a thoughtful approach to our
organization’s stability and financial sustainability. There is no
recommendation for a tax increase or reductions in service.
Today was the initial presentation of my budget recommendation to the
Commissioners and the public. There will be two public hearings and additional
time for Commissioners to make adjustments. In other words, this is a “starting
point,” where we can now make additions, deletions and changes as suggested by
the Board of County Commissioners prior to budget adoption on August 11. The
budget is available on the website at www.sedgwickcounty.org.
For employees, I addressed our plan for our “Healthy Benefit” package that we
adopted a few weeks ago. I am very pleased with the direction we are headed, as
it places greater opportunities to improve health and lower costs. I also
presented a plan for compensation for 2011. I am aware that it is a unique and
unusual recommendation as it is not a “certainty.” The plan is to provide funds
within the budget for the 4% performance pay pool – but we will continue to
monitor our financial situation and determine in mid-November if we are in a
position to provide “a raise” (through a pay performance pool) and/or how it
might be distributed. I strongly believe that compensation of employees, coupled
with a plan to deliver service and our financial reality are the 3-legged stool
of strategic management. We need to thoughtfully and deliberately understand the
consequences of our decisions. I do not believe we have all the financial data
and trend information today to make a decision that might be implemented six
months from now. This plan provides us flexibility to help our organization
remain poised for economic recovery in our community and competitive with other
organizations.
My Recommended Budget also continues our work on Sustainability – I am pleased
that it permeates our thinking and planning for how we deliver services,
including how we allocate resources for our four Sustainability components –
Economic Development, Institutional and Financial Viability, Social Equity and
Environmental Protection.
We are in strong financial position. I believe we continue to work, plan and
allocate resources so our citizens, partners and employees recognize that we are
a stable, consistent, dependable and sustainable organization. This is a
thoughtful and deliberate process to assure that we can continue to deliver
services that citizens need. I am thankful for what you do every day in helping
to make a difference for citizens in our community.
William P. Buchanan
News and Events
Enhancing the Delivery of Public Services by Nonprofit Agencies
The Enhancing the Delivery of Public Services by Nonprofit Agencies report was recognized as an ICMA
Innovation Award Winner in 2004.
The purpose of this report is to identify best practice
among nonprofit organizations that deliver public
services and to make recommendations to Sedgwick County
for improving its contracting procedures to enhance the
delivery of public services provided by nonprofit
agencies. Three content areas will be addressed -
governance, administration and financial management of
nonprofits - and recommendations will be made with
respect to prevention, warning signs and early
interventions.
© Copyright, 2010 Sedgwick County, Kansas
Please report problems to the webmaster
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED