2007 Outstanding Large County

Speech presented by Julie Tande at June 12, 2007 CFSC Awards banquet

Even though the administrator responses were all awesome, the large county contest was a runaway blowout. The winning county improved in so many measures from an already excellent base that the administrator responses made no difference in the scoring. The runner-up county had to receive a score of 106 out of a maximum 100 and the winning county had to get a zero through the subjective portion of the judging to have made a difference. Our recipient was the best in 9 of the 14 categories and most improved in 8. That’s before we found out that they had overstated their staff on the MMR by 20%.

Administrators, listen up, a bit of bad news for your job security. They lost their administrator half way through the year and were forced to move to an empowering style of management within their staff. The smallest staff among the large counties, had the largest caseload increase – 5% - while maintaining the highest cost effectiveness ratio of over $8.

They felt their success came from a concentration on foster care cases, participation on state committees that kept the staff informed on the latest procedures and changes, and a deep community outreach program. Winner of the “Going for the Gold” award, the recipient of the 2007 Outstanding Large County award is...

MESA COUNTY