On Thursday, the Hillsborough County Commission goes on their annual one day retreat, with the idea being to talk about the goals and strategies they want to implement in 2011.
A sneak preview of what Interim County Administrator Mike Merrill plans to propose was unveiled on Tuesday at a joint meeting between the BOCC, the Tampa City Council, the Hillsborough School Board, and members of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.
Merrill believes that in terms of improving customer service, county officials should go out into the community, instead of having them travel from points far and wide to descend to Kennedy Boulevard in downtown Tampa. He says the county has facilities like libraries, fire stations and service centers which could be utilized.
And he dropped a mini-bomb when he said that there was a possibility to sell the county center, or at least lease it out to commercial tenants. "A lot of equity is trapped in this building, " he said. "We've paid off the debt on this building."
Merrill says he will lay out his four major initiatives at the retreat. Those are community building, identifying the board's core mission, changing the culture, and the organization culture itself. "What are our essential services in county government?" he asked, saying that is something that department heads need to be challenged on. Also questions like "Why are we doing what we are doing?", and/or"can somebody else the job more efficiently? "
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.