Behind-the-scenes team helps you participate in county government

Presenter The Lane County administrator recognizes the team that makes it possible for all of us to participate in county government. With the commissioners Jan. 27, Steve Mokrohisky:

Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County, administrator) You know, one of the things that distinguishes the public sector from private business is the fact that we do all of our business out in the public. We are by nature transparent in the work that we do. Meetings today are in public and are televised. The agenda that you have, that the board has, is available online. All the materials are available for the public to see.

This is a critical part of the work that we do as public organizations to make sure that that the business that our governing body does and the work that we do behind the scenes is all available and accessible to the public. So today, we’re recognizing the team whose work has transformed how we do our public meeting agendas.

You all know Jessica Gebb and Tawnya Ellis from County Administration. I’m going to introduce Nina Fox from Technology Services (just raise your hand behind me): Nina Fox, Jim Garner, Robin Mathison, Royce Tokar, and [confirming spelling] is not here today, but she was also part of this team. 

You may all recall, but the public may not see, usually how we used to do these meetings. It was a very manual, paper-intensive process where departments were submitting materials and everything would be scanned and compiled manually, and it was very time-intensive. We’ve moved that system to an automated system that strengthens efficiency, transparency, and consistency across our organization. 

So from concept to launch, this project spanned nearly two years and required both technical expertise and thoughtful collaboration. This team that I introduced, led by Jessica and Tawnya, who really spearheaded this effort and the support of our technology team, and then the engagement of all of our departments, because our departments submit information for all of our board meetings that the board needs to take action on. So it really was a countywide effort to launch this new software system. 

So this cross-functional team reviewed proposals, conducted vendor demonstrations, and completed reference checks to ensure that the right solution was selected. That’s the first step. Make sure that we have the right tool that we’re going to implement. 

Then after the contract was awarded, the team moved into implementation planning and system configuration, carefully aligning board workflows and approval processes with existing policies and procedures. I know that sounds like a lot of gobbledygook, but it’s—these are important things that we do. 

You think about all the work that has to take place behind the scenes for us to end up here today. There’s a lot of people and a lot of process involved in getting all of that information together, making sure that it’s accurate, that it’s reviewed by our budget team and by our contracts team and by our legal office. And that’s really important to make sure that ultimately, the decisions that the board makes are good decisions that have all of the information pulled together for them. 

So that was the process and then the work didn’t stop there. The team led extensive testing, staff training, and change management efforts to ensure the smooth transition before successfully going live with the public meeting software. You know, it’s really easy to purchase software and just plug it in and say, ‘Well, let’s see.’ But the important piece is making sure that we’ve tested, that we’ve done the training necessary for the staff that are engaged with it. 

I’ve seen, more times than not, implementations like this go sideways, cause real problems and disruption to a weekly system that we have to do. And that didn’t happen here, you know, not miraculously, because there was a lot of work. There was a lot of thought and intention, planning, and work that was put into place. 

Even now the post-implementation efforts continue through performance monitoring, vendor support, continuous improvement, all to ensure that we’re supporting transparent and efficient board operations. 

So this team was driven by a couple of key factors: really strong leadership from the outset, dedicated cross-functional folks who had technical expertise in the areas that were needed, and operational expertise in the areas that were needed. 

So the leadership, persistence, and lasting impact of the work that this team has done is—well, I would imagine it will probably outlast many of us. And it was time to do this. And it really has improved the way in which we operate our board, our board meeting. 

So I want to thank this whole team for their great work. It does take teams like this to implement change efforts to processes that are really critical. You can’t have one or two people do it alone. You have to have a team. But it does have to be led by champions. And so, our thanks and appreciation, particularly to Jessica and Tawnya for taking this on and really leading the effort…

Thank you for allowing this time to bring forward to you something that is really sort of a behind-the-scenes thing that we don’t, you know, the public doesn’t oftentimes really see, but it’s really, really critical. And we just want to make sure that folks are (1) appreciated for that, and (2) that our public and the rest of the organization knows the amount of work that goes into making these important board meetings happen seamlessly.

Presenter Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky praises the team that just fine-tuned democracy. Their countywide project ensures that we know what our government is doing before it does it.