- October 11, 2024
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The Volusia County ECHO Advisory Board will create a strategic plan in the 2024 fiscal year as it seeks input on identifying future projects and improving the grant process.
The Volusia County Council OK’d the proposal to create the strategic plan in a 5-2 vote at its meeting on Tuesday, May 16, with the caveat that hiring a firm to lead the plan’s development must cost no more than $75,000.
The money would come out of the budget for the Environmental, Cultural, Historic and Outdoor Recreation Projects grant program, which is funded with tax money. In 2020, 72% of Volusia County voters voted to continue the program for another 20 years.
“They want to plan for the next 18 years to spend over $100 million — maybe even $200 million — as this county expands,” County Council Chair Jeff Brower said. “And they want to do it right, and I’m going to defer to them when they say, ‘We really would like to have this help in providing and crafting a longterm plan so that they don’t waste taxpayer money.’”
County Councilmen David Santiago and Don Dempsey, who voted no, said they were concerned about the strategic plan’s potential price tag.
Santiago said he believed the committee has done great work on its own so far. Though ECHO is self-funded, he thought an outside consultant would be a waste of those dollars.
“I think they’re fully capable, in my opinion, to do that visionary work and maybe work within staff resources to come up with these goals,” Santiago said.
There are talented people on the committee, Dempsey said, adding that outsourcing the strategic plan’s creation would take away from their responsibilities.
“I just think if we’re going to start coming up in the season of making cuts, the last thing we should be doing is expanding our expenses by doing this,” Dempsey said. “We should see how it goes without current appointments and see what kind of recommendations they come up with first before we start spending more tax dollars.”
Brad Burbaugh, county director of resource stewardship, said that when the county tried in the past to develop an in-house plan for ECHO, the county was not successful with its partners — the municipalities, which tended to be unengaged until it was time to propose projects for ECHO funding opportunities.
“We’ve talked about that, because they’re responsible to elected officials as well,” Burbaugh said. “But how do we get everyone in the room, including elected officials, to develop a 2040 vision for ECHO?”
Burbaugh had initially given an estimate of $75,000 to $125,000 for outsourcing the development of the strategic plan, a process he estimated would take about six months to a year, including a public input process with stakeholders.
