Marietta Reorganizes Draft

Of County’s Strategic Plan

His Version Would Designate Responsibility,

And Set Deadlines For Getting Things Done

By JIM KEVLIN • for www.AllOTSEGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – By today’s deadline for comment, freshman county Rep. Andrew Marietta, D-Fly Creek, has reorganized the county’s draft strategic plan into an action plan.

THE LABERGE MATERIAL

THE MARIETTA REDRAFT

He noted a mission statement, typical in such plans, is missing, and he added examples from the Chenango and Broome plans.   He also developed a SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – from the Laberge material.

Finally, he extracted action steps, and set up a grid that would allow the county reps, if they chose to do so, to designate who is responsible for each action step, and set deadlines for accomplishing them.

“Today is the deadline for sending in feedback,” said Marietta, who has wide experience preparing strategic plans as regional director of NYCON, the state Council of Non-Profits.  From what he can tell, “”There’s no feedback.”

The strategic planning process was set in motion last fall by county Rep. Rick Hulse, a Republican whom Marietta defeated in the November elections, and county Board chair Kathy Clark, R-Otego.   With Hulse’s departure at the end of the year, the effort faltered.

When a draft was finally distributed to the full county board in April, it appeared county Rep. Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, who chairs the key Administration Committee, would lead the effort forward.  Marietta suggested a separate committee be set up to get the proposed plan in place.

Since, strategic-plan responsibilities have passed to the board’s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, chaired by county Rep. Craig Gelbsman, R-Oneonta, who was not immediately available for comment this afternoon.

“In my mind,” said Marietta, “the ideal next step would be to have every single committee, whether they look at the Laberge document or look at my document, take 30 minutes in the next round of committee meetings:  What’s in there?  What’s not?”

The comments would then be compiled for further discussion by the full board, he said.  “I could then see the consultant (Laberge) coming in and facilitating a discussion with us.”

In five months on the county Board, Marietta has observed that county department heads want to do what the county representatives want them to do, but there’s no clear direction.

Recently, he continued, the department heads, picking up on an idea in the Laberge material and on their own initiative, gathered in such a meeting and began discussing issues that had cross-department impact.

There needs to be an “internal component,” Marietta said, “a partnership between department heads and the county reps.  Our committees are silo-ed.  There’s not a lot of cross-conversations, collaboration.  We’re very much within our bubbles.”