Talk lively 
at session for planning

RINGWOOD – Most of county government’s work gets done in committee, and creating a plan to make McHenry County a better place to live is no exception.

Although they were not committees per se, McHenry County Board members and staff at a Friday planning session at Glacial Park Lodge divided into six groups to figure out short-term achievable goals to help bring county government’s vision for the future to reality. By 2030, its somewhat utopian vision statement calls for the county known nationwide for its quality of life, a balancing of growth, jobs, agriculture and open space, and an efficient transportation network to tie it all together.

“The vision statement was on everybody’s mind, but I think most people were thinking about what we can do in the next two to three years,” County Administrator Peter Austin said.

The board began developing a new strategic plan in December, shortly after the November election in which five new board members were seated. The results of Friday’s meeting will be narrowed down into a finished plan by county staff, Austin said.

Conversations buzzed around six different tables dedicated to transportation, growth, service delivery, revenue, quality of life, and economic development. All the subjects are related in one way or another. For example, increasing economic development means more local jobs, which helps the county’s transportation goals because it decreases the two-thirds of county residents that a 2008 study concluded commute elsewhere to work.

But in the throes of a deep recession, all subjects are tied to revenue, especially improvements with price tags on them.

Finance and Audit Committee Chairman Marc Munaretto, R-Algonquin, asked county fiscal staff members about ways the board can discuss with county departments just what operations are important at their current funding levels. Departments already are trimming costs in the present economy, according to data released this week – while revenue in 2008 dipped $1.4 million below what the county budgeted, the county spent $6.7 million less than it planned.

“But we have to be careful we don’t micro-manage,” replied member Scott Breeden, R-Lakewood. “We have to find a happy medium.”

Staff members seated at the service delivery table discussed the completion of the Integrated Criminal Justice Information System to link the databases of the sheriff’s office, state’s attorney, circuit clerk and public defender to increase efficiency. But the project has gone over deadline and over budget, a problem that the board’s Finance and Law and Justice committees will discuss next month.

Talk at the growth and planning table was lively, given the anticipated release this year of the county’s 2030 Land Use Plan and a groundwater management plan. Among the top priorities the group outlined was maintaining a good dialogue with municipalities, where most of the county’s growth is located and which use the most groundwater. Maintaining cooperation among governments also is important to secure federal and state funds, said Planning and Development Committee Chairwoman Tina Hill, R-Woodstock.

“If we don’t work together, we don’t get the outside dollars,” Hill said.