Brittany Kelley
SAN MARCOS — Community feedback was presented for the county’s Strategic Plan at the Sept. 29 Hays County Commissioners Court meeting.
According to Hays County administrator Kandice Bouetté, the court previously tasked the Administrator’s Office with creating a Strategic Plan, which has been in development since last year. After discussing with department heads and completing an analysis of strengths and weaknesses, five strategic pillars were created:
• Community well-being: Investments in preventive care, behavioral health support, housing stability, nutrition access and public health capacity to improve outcomes and foster a healthy community.
• Governance, workforce and organizational capacity: Build a responsible, efficient and transparent organization.
• Infrastructure and sustainable growth: Address the opportunities and challenges that accompany fast growth.
• Partnership and collaboration: Create meaningful partnerships and collaboration to address community needs.
• Criminal justice modernization: Proactive planning, strategic investments, strong partnerships and data-driven decision-making across the justice system.
Arin Gray from LJA Engineering stated that an online public engagement survey was promoted through social media, emails and news releases. Additionally, eight virtual listening sessions were held with participation from 30 communities, though overall feedback amounted to more than 2,500 responses over the course of a month.
“During the listening sessions, we asked people — as an icebreaker — what they loved about the county. It was really quite lovely,” said Gray. “It was all very similar answers: the natural beauty and environments, community spirit and culture and small-town charm with an ideal location, close to other cities.”
Gray then summarized the responses. She stated that community members believed the county should first prioritize housing stability and homelessness prevention, followed by animal services and shelter improvements, preventative healthcare and wellness programs and mental health and substance use services.
The last two could also be tied into criminal justice modernization, said the participants.
Surveys also detailed that communication and transparency, as well as operational efficiency and customer service are ways the county can increase its ability to serve residents.
“[For] infrastructure and sustainable growth, I could sum this up with one word: water. It was a big priority. ‘Which infrastructure should Hays County prioritize most?’ It was water supply and infrastructure, followed by roads and transportation, natural resource conservation and parks and open spaces,” said Gray, adding that responses stated that water conservation and protecting and expanding natural areas were also important.
Regarding partnerships, community members shared that environmental, animal welfare and housing organizations could benefit from stronger relationships with the county.
Overall, 75% of responders stated that the Strategic Plan identified priorities that the county should be focusing on.
“I know that a lot of the department heads have spent a lot of time working on developing the Strategic Plan and the pillars and doing the workshops internally to really try to capture what we want the county to look like in the future,” said commissioner Michelle Cohen. “There are some areas that we probably need to work on, but the purpose of the Strategic Plan is to tell the community, show the community, ‘Here is our vision for the county in the next three to five years.’”
While working on the budget over the past few years, continued Cohen, she felt as though there was a disconnect on the goals, so this is providing a clearer goal.
The majority of the feedback came from the big cities in the county, so her hope would be that in the future, more of the rural residents can provide feedback.
“I’ve only gotten through 49 of the 69 pages of comments, but the recurring theme first and foremost is water and water conservation. I would encourage the court to continue to address that as one of its top priorities and just the overall theme of efficiency in county government,” said commissioner Walt Smith. “I really appreciate all the work that has gone into this. We started off with a lump of coal; we started polishing it [and] it’s not a diamond yet, but it’s getting a lot better than it was.”
The plan will be updated following the community feedback and be brought back before the court at a later date.
The Hays County Commissioners Court will meet next Oct. 13.
