As December brings this year to a close, it is a good time to pause and reflect on some of the Association’s biggest moments of the year. I think the defeat of Amendment #4 tops the “most thankful” list for me, followed closely by an end to the election season overall! Seeing that Florida’s voters also rejected Amendment #3 made me glad, but I’m not sure it was the poor public policy reason as much as the voting-no-on-all-of-them mentality. The outcome, however, is still positive! With a new Legislature in place and newly formed committees starting to work, I’m also very thankful that FCCMA’s legislative committee will be coming to Tallahassee to meet with House and Senate staff directors next month so we can ramp up our assistance to the analysts who are responsible for local government bill analyses.
Our partnerships with the Center for Florida Local Government Excellence, the Alliance for Innovation and, of course, ICMA have made this a very strong year for educational sessions. The training formats continue to expand and the feedback has been good! The spring training calendar includes many opportunities for you and your management team. As we plan for the next program year, please let us know of topics we are missing from our schedule.
The strategic planning sessions for the Florida Local Government Coalition are also a 2012 highlight; we’re looking forward to new partnerships and new programs through this important network of professional associations.
A closing thought for the new year: John Wesley White spoke at the Sarasota Symposium two weeks ago, sharing his opinions of a career in public service. He shared the opinion that local governments are not seen as being proactive toward change; in fact, governments in general are criticized for their resistance to change. John Wesley posed a great challenge that I’m borrowing: how are you going to be a catalyst for change within your organization? Florida isn’t going to return to the boom times ever again, so how do we achieve excellence in policy, service delivery and in building community with the assets we do have? With several tough fiscal years behind us and maybe a few still-tough ones yet to go, most of you are experts at doing more with less. For 2013, I’m going to try and find change agent best practices as I believe it will be critically important for our cities and counties. Please know how much respect your FCCMA staff has for you as you serve the citizens of Florida – thank you for your public service in 2012!
