Thursday, February 16, 2012
Contact:
Scott Varner, Franklin County Commissioners, 614/525-6638
As part of the continued partnership to modernize the management of Franklin County’s safety resources and investments, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners and Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott will launch in March an innovative assessment study of the Sheriff’s Office.
The ten-month assessment will review several aspects of the duties and operations of the Sheriff’s Office, including workload and staffing, technology resources and equipment needs, and crime statistics and the current law enforcement environment in Central Ohio.
In addition, the study will identify best practices of sheriff’s offices in similarly-situated jurisdictions across the country.
When complete, the assessment team will offer the County a series of performance improvement strategies to balance new opportunities for cost-efficiencies and the need to maintain community safety standards. “The safety and security needs of Franklin County have dramatically changed over the past decade and we want to work with Sheriff Scott to ensure that we are meeting those challenges head on,” said Board President Paula Brooks. “This study will help us identify where our investments are making the best impact.”
“The County Commissioners and I agree that safety is our top priority and that we need to have a Sheriff’s Office that is effective and efficient with taxpayer resources,” said Sheriff Zach Scott. “We look forward to working with the assessment team to identify our best opportunities to meet that need.”
“During these tight fiscal times, we appreciate Sheriff Scott’s commitment to working side-by-side with the County Commissioners to make smart business decisions,” added Commissioner John O’Grady. “These types of modernization assessments are common in the business community to look for innovative ways to improve operations and maximize investments.”
“By looking at the best practices of sheriff’s offices in counties similar in size and need of Franklin County, we can learn from the success of others and determine whether our safety resources are being utilized to their fullest capacity” said Commissioner Marilyn Brown. “Investing the time and money into this study now will inform our budget decisions moving into next year and beyond.
” At their February 28th meeting, the County Commissioners are expected to approve a contract with Voorhis Associates, Inc., a Colorado-based firm that has worked with public safety forces in cities and counties across the country.
The $89,000 expense will be shared by the budgets of both the Sheriff’s Office and Board of Commissioners. The assessment team will begin work in March and deliver the study and recommendations by this December.