County Needs a Strategic Plan

When you entered 9^th grade what did you do?
Set Goals and what classes will it take to help reach your goal.

Now you have a plan all laid out for 4 years.
Hopefully this is what you did again, if you went to college.

When you decided to run for supervisor you must have set a plan, set up a campaign committee, raised money and recruited helpers so you could reach your goal to win. You looked ahead to your future and what you thought needed to be the future of the county.

Why did you all Stop planning when you were elected?

You reached your goal, but what about the future of Mariposa County?

There is No Strategic Plan for Mariposa County. There are no plans for where Mariposa County is going, next year, 5 years, 10 years, except deeper in debt. This county has to have a strategic plan this coming year or Mariposa County is going to be another Vallejo, CA that is the first California city considering filing bankruptcy. Council member Gomes said, "This has been happening for quite a while. For 15 years the city council has been putting Band-Aids on the problem. Council person Shively said, “The problem is basically bloated union contracts,"

A couple of months ago during the discussion of supporting our county fire department, Supervisor Bibby was concerned about where the money was coming from, cause the county just finished agreeing to a 4% increase. If the county keeps giving into union demands and doesn’t keep their eyes on the future of the overall county, Mariposa could be another Vallejo, CA.

Mariposa County does not have much of a positive future if the county doesn’t create a Strategic Plan ASAP. Mariposa County School District recognized a need for a Strategic Plan. Their creating one right now.

The supervisors need to start by directing each department to plan their future 1, 5 and 10 years, get community inputs, making the school a part of the county plans, schedule/plan town meetings and listen to everyone’s comments. Remember there are a lot of professional people, retired and working, in Mariposa that have a lot of experience that can help create a great Strategic Plan for Mariposa County and its future.

I remember last year seeing Supervisor Turpin look down at the board from his chair and saying, “We talk a lot, but we do nothing.”

Some of the items that could be addressed to head Mariposa toward a great strategic plan is to look at county Infrastructure, too much county bureaucracy, micro managing, working more with MCSD, working with local county businesses, putting what is best for the future of the county first, too much red tape in our county government operations, not looking to the future, the people are not being heard, the people are not being asked and things that others may think of.

Please give deep thoughts to what I have just said and start planning the future of our great Mariposa County.
Thank you for listening.
Richard C. Hutchinson