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Sedgwick County Manager's Office... working for you.

Sedgwick County...working for you
County Manager's Office

525 N. Main, #343  ▪  Wichita, KS 67203  ▪  Tel: (316) 660-9393  ▪  Fax: (316) 383-7946
www.sedgwickcounty.org/manager

525 N. Main, #343  ▪  Wichita, KS 67203  ▪  Tel: (316) 660-9393  ▪  Fax: (316) 383-7946
William Buchanan, County Manager

Welcome

County Manger William BuchananI 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.


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