2006 Outstanding Small County

Speech presented by Jim Butler at June 6, 2006 CFSC Awards banquet

This year the awards committee spent many hours of debate on how to revamp the Outstanding County award. When all was said and done, I think we had the best quality competition in this category in years. Have we got it perfect? No. In fact, next year, we intend to mix in some improvement measures over this year's baseline and reduce the subjective portion of the voting even more. I'm interested in hearing your comments of how we can do better next year. Bend the ear of anyone on this year's or next year's board in the coming months and let us know your ideas.

The committee decided to select the best four counties in each size category based on 14 objective measures from the year-end reports. All the performance measures were broken down to a 'per FTE' figure for comparison. You can go on the website to see the details for the criteria. In fact, in the next week or two, I will post the most productive large, medium, and small county in each of those measures.

We then sent a letter to the administrator in each of the 12 nominee counties. We asked for a one-page response to just one question, "What did your county do that you think made it perform so well." Each of the award committee members, excluding me, then rated the administrators' responses. I then totaled up the score as follows:

20% for how well the county met the Task Force goals,
25% for the 12 non-financial per FTE measures
25% for how well the county collected current support
30% for the administrators' response.

Let's start with the small county award. The difference between our first and fourth nominee was a grand total of 15 points where a perfect score was 1000. Two of the nominees did not lead in any category but they were so close in so many that they made the final four. If we had taken the top five, the 18th Judicial District would have had all four of their counties nominated.

Our small county fast tracks contempts and modifications. Most modifications are filed in the first three days of the month so that a majority can be executed prior to month-end. Customers are constantly given informationof what their rights are and what will happen next. Hearing notices are given while in court which eliminates mailing and service costs. The county believes in customer service and asks for evaluations from their customers. They have even gone to the home to conduct DNA tests.

The recipient of the 2006 Outstanding Small County award is...
ELBERT COUNTY