3-Point Goal shoots for redefined partnership

County relationship with state – believed by many to be broken – is focus of strategic goals team

By Todd McGee
Director of Communications

For years, county officials have lamented the fraying of the relationship between state and county governments. One of the common themes identified in the strategic planning process involved examining this relationship and finding solutions to improve it.

Three-Point Goal team members (from left to right) Ed Wooters, Michael Kelly, Rebecca Troutman, Terry Chance, Judy Rhyne and Carolyn Meiners present some of the team’s project and task ideas to the NCACC Board of Directors during its Dec. 8 meeting. (Photo by Jason King)

“Our current relationship dates back to the 1930s, and we have not had a comprehensive clarification of state and county roles since,” said Rebecca Troutman, director of research and public technology and team leader for 3-Point Goal, a group of NCACC staff tasked with facilitating methods of improving this relationship. “This goal will take that holistic view of responsibilities for public services – who provides what service, and where do the funds come from.”

This topic will be front and center at the NCACC’s 2006 Annual Conference, which will be held Sept. 7-10 in Forsyth County. The conference will serve as the kickoff for a year-long examination of the state-county relationship. Workshops and general sessions will feature speakers who are experts on state-local relationships.

Among the tasks that 3-Point Goal will undertake is reinvigorating the new commissioner’s mentoring program and helping improve the Association’s grassroots advocacy efforts through better use of technology. Three-Point Goal will work to identify and collect information about relationships between legislators and county commissioners, such as who went to school with whom.

After the kickoff at Annual Conference, the team will be working with the School of Government to incorporate the examination of state-county roles into the curriculum for the 2006-07 Essentials of County Government schools, co-sponsored by the NCACC and SOG. Program leaders will discuss, among other issues, what is broken about the relationship, and why did it break?

The team will also create a joint visioning process to include the Office of the Governor, General Assembly, school boards and municipalities for examining the future of North Carolina.

“Our team believes that up-to-date, factual information is critical to gird discussions of the state and county relationship and responsibilities,” Troutman said. “Our team will ensure that appropriate white papers are developed around key points of discussion. These will be personalized to tell the individual county story and shared with individual legislators so they can understand what the impacts are in their communities.”

Three-Point Goal’s efforts will culminate with a legislative goal that asks the General Assembly to convene a legislative study commission in January 2008 to examine state-county roles from a legislative and county perspective.

“It is our hope that this commission will result in significant clarification in the relationship between counties and the state,” Troutman said.