[0:00] Hello folks. I'm Fairfield [music] County Commissioner Steve Davis. This is [0:03] another an opportunity for me to share some information with you about what's [0:06] going on [music] in the county. [0:15] » [music] >> The honors that the county receives, [0:18] I think 21 [music] or so over the last 10 years, and that's just the national [0:22] ones. Most recently, [music] we've been [0:24] recognized for having a strategic plan. I think the current plan we're in right [0:29] now goes from 25 [music] to 28. Probably one of the more interesting things about [0:33] that plan is it's full of stuff that county commissioners [music] [0:36] aren't required to do under the Ohio Revised Code. [0:39] You know that Commissioner Lavasci's out there on workforce [music] development. [0:42] You know Commissioner Fix's out there trying to get some plan development in [0:46] terms of residential and and multi-residential housing that that can [0:50] help change that [music] supply and demand situation that our community's [0:54] been dealing with. You know, I've been trying to be helpful [music] on transit. [0:58] There's just a tremendous amount in there in our effort to plan for the [1:02] [music] future and to see that nationally recognized is really cool. [1:06] The other award we got has to do with our stop-loss [music] program. One of [1:11] our primary responsibilities to be good fiscal stewards, and we've all seen the [1:15] [music] 15 and 20% increases in health insurance costs over the years. And so [1:21] we've worked with our consultants and our staff in an effort to try to control [1:24] those costs. [music] Been very successful over the last many [1:28] years in doing that. And this adjustment to our stop-loss process is [music] [1:32] really helpful fiscally. Employees share in the cost of their health insurance. [1:37] [music] All of our employees pay 15% of the total cost of of their health [1:42] insurance. [music] And so keeping those costs down is also helpful to our [1:46] employees, who by the way have recognized us as one of the finest [1:49] places [music] to work five years going. But anyway, we're very sensitive to the [1:54] cost and exposure of our employees for for that health insurance. So, [music] [1:58] very beneficial to them as well. One of the things that we've tried to figure [2:02] out in our strategic plan [music] is there are so many ways that the county [2:06] can be a facilitator to to enable communication between [2:10] disparate [music] governments. Where our strategic plan comes in is we've got a [2:14] formal mechanism, an opportunity to bring these people together [music] and [2:19] to facilitate conversations, to promote development, to promote plan [2:23] development, [music] and to do the job for the taxpayers as a whole instead of [2:29] well, this township does this and this township does that and the county's [2:32] nowhere to be [music] found. We're trying to put that all together and [2:35] we've been nationally recognized for doing that. I think one of the reasons [2:38] we [music] we have attacked that strategic plan issue is you'll see [2:44] things where this state of [music] New York or this state of California is [2:48] losing population, even some cities in Ohio losing population. [music] [2:52] Fairfield County, not so. For almost two decades now, we've been the fourth or [2:56] fifth fastest growing county in the state of Ohio and accounting for that [3:00] growth and the consequences of that growth and and trying to deliver for the [3:04] taxpayers, [music] you need a plan to do that. We got one. [3:08] Well, one of the things that that you haven't heard from the county [music] [3:10] commissioners and I'm always talking to people about this, but you cannot go [3:14] back one time in the [music] last 10 years where a county commissioner or Fix [3:18] or Levisy or Davis said, "Hey, we're [music] going to X, Y, or Z." and then [3:22] you never heard anything about it again. We generally [music] don't come out and [3:26] say, "Hey, we have an idea." unless we see our way through to an exciting [3:29] conclusion and a finish. We've been doing [music] that for years now and [3:33] that's our plan to keep on doing that. [3:39] » [music]