County commissioners shift to strategic mode

Whitman County commissioners are meeting this week away from daily distractions to discuss strategic planning for the county.

“We’ll discuss topics that affect us county-wide,” Commission Chair Art Swannack said Tuesday afternoon.

The commissioners met Wednesday and will continue to meet today (Thursday) at the new Residence Inn by Marriott in Pullman. This is the second strategic planning workshop the board has scheduled.

The last strategic planning workshop was two full days in Clarkston last July. Along with the three commissioners, the clerk, county administrator, finance administrator and public works director were included in the Clarkston session. This week’s sessions include the three commissioners and the clerk.

The meetings are open to the public.

Swannack said two topics the board will discuss include the finance department and the budget.

“We’ll sort subjects out to what we can work on now and what we can put on the back burner,” he said. “We’ll talk about what steps we need to take and what we need to research and what will be our goals.”

One goal Swannack said is to pass the state audit.

The latest state audit report for the Whitman County financial statements for 2012 highlighted several issues that the county’s finance department, which is under Auditor Eunice Coker’s direction, must correct.

The county’s credit rating with Standard & Poor’s was dropped in May which means that if the county tries to borrow money, it likely won’t be able to.

County officials told state auditors that they are in the process of correcting accounting processes and will be trained by state auditor staff within the next few months.

The next state audit could begin at any time.

Swannack also said they will discuss Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Center.

“We’ll talk about our goals as far as juvenile care in our county,” he said.

Swannack said the commissioners likely will also discuss Whitcom, regional transportation planning and budget planning.

“We want to talk about how to plan for cuts depending on what the state legislature does,” Swannack said. “We don’t want to be in panic mode if something happens.”

Swannack said these meetings will help each commissioner in the areas they’ve chosen to concentrate in.

“We need to take a step back every once in a while,” Swannack said.