Accomplishments 2011
- Evaluated two of the signature programs launched by the Partnership: the Douglas County Youth Initiative, and the Douglas County Housing Authority. As a result, both the Youth Initiative and the Housing Authority have gone through intense review by their respective boards, realigning their efforts for a changing economic and social environment.
- Encouraged economic development efforts throughout the county. The CEO Roundtable, the Broker’s Showcase videos have helped all our governments to be cognizant of today’s business needs, and to market our county as a good place to do business.
- Better coordinate emergency management at the governing level. As result of efforts this year, all Partnership members signed a ground-breaking Intergovernmental Agreement, bringing greater clarity and coherence to our ability to response to disasters and emergencies.
- Established on all Partnership websites a common presentation of transparency – easy access to essential government information. All member websites now offer a transparency link, greatly aiding the ability of citizens to understand the governing, policy, and financial structure of their governments.
- As the year came to an end, the Partnership is closing in on an agreement for establishing a common, countywide curfew, and as such the fulfillment of another Partnership Goal for 2011.
Accomplishments 2010
Economic Development Forum
A sub-committee of the Partnership of Douglas County Governments, the Economic Development Forum coordinated efforts and implemented goals approved by Partnership leadership. The Forum met monthly and focused its efforts on the following initiatives:
- Development of Douglas County Economic Development Website. Site creation, content and design was based on input by an international survey of site selectors regarding the most used source for information about important considerations for a business location. ED Forum members evaluated the site design and content. Each community also has a page on the website that highlights their assets and serves as a portal to their individual economic development and municipal sites. The site has had 7,379 unique page views since March for all pages within the site.
- 2010-2011 Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation (MDEDC) Economic Profile. A full-page, four-color ad was produced and ran on the inside front cover of this internationally-distributed publication. The ‘heroes’ of the ad are the Economic Development website, the members of the Forum, and the messengers for the message which are successful CEOs who have already made the decision to locate in Douglas County. Approximately 50,000 editions of the publication were printed in October 2010. They were distributed to MDEDC member investors by mail, at the organization’s meetings, events where the MDEDC is present, to the Colorado General Assembly, and Colorado Congressional representatives.
- The Broker Showcase and virtual video commercial site tour was a major marketing effort organized by the Forum and implemented by County staff. The Showcase provided an opportunity for all the communities of the Partnership to identify the top two commercial properties they wished to highlight at the event. These properties, along with surrounding community amenities were highlighted in a virtual video tour. Following the event the video was placed on the Economic Development website in its entirety as well as edited to include specific community amenities videos on individual community pages and the individual featured commercial properties on the site ready page
- CEO Roundtable. Held in January this event had a goal of generating feedback from a small focus group of business executives in the County. Nine executives attended the event and their feedback identified three areas critical to business that merit attention and improvement: 1 - future water supply, 2 - transportation, and 3 - enhanced broadband service and infrastructure. The potential for developing a manufacturers association in Douglas County was discussed with local manufacturers and it was found that there was limited interest in the current economy to pursue the concept.
- Bankers Panel. One of the primary purposes of the Economic Development Forum is to solidify the connections between private and public sector economic development activities. The Forum assembled a Bankers Panel to inform the Partnership of Douglas County Governments about the availability of business financing.
- Build Communication and Trust Among Economic Development Entities. Forum members have been able to speak openly about the inherent areas of competition among their communities. This frank conversation has helped to build trust and understanding among the entities while at the same time recognizing that they will not always share the same points of view on various issues. Yet the group’s top priority is to provide the most effective delivery of services to relocation prospects and businesses, whether jointly or individually.
- Fund Mutually Beneficial Resources for Use by All.
- The SiteStats database has been licensed from Development Research Partners to provide each community with a community-specific tool by which to analyze the economic impact of proposed projects. The County has provided a license for each community along with several training sessions for the users.
- Xceligent, the searchable commercial property database available via the County’s business website, has been funded by the County for each community.
- The County has contracted with an outside economics firm, Development Research Partners, to produce the quarterly Douglas County Economic Indicators Report which is placed on the County’s business website and shared with all the Economic Development Forum partners for their distribution.
Douglas County Youth Initiative
This group is an integral part of the County’s Human Services organization addressing the needs of families and youth throughout the County receiving a large portion of its funding from Partnership members.
WrapArounD: This program serves approximately 400 people per year (about 100 families) helping them address family situations working with adults and youth to come up with solutions and follow through to overcome hardships.
- This summer, the wait list was in single digits - - nice!
- mostly funded with grant monies
- SUCCESS STORY: One Castle Rock family was struggling - - a single mom raising two teen daughters at home and a couple of adult children who moved back in with her. The two teens had serious truancy issues, and the youngest girl landed in Truancy Court. At one point, she had missed so much school that her probation officer asked the court to review her situation and send her to jail - - WrapArounD and the family put together a plan to present to the court, providing for regular school attendance and supervision at home. The teen girl presented her own plan to the court and the judge accepted the family's plan, preventing an expensive resource (jail) from being used. The family's natural supports and the Wrap Family Support Partner made sure the girl got to school every day and she continues to have improved attendance.
Youth Congress: The 3rd Youth Congress took place on September 24th with increased attendance and a better location, at the state capitol. This event continues to grow with more partners and more volunteers this year.
- Feedback from youth delegates has been great, and they're excited about continuing their policy analysis work.
- The Suicide Prevention / Intervention Protocols group presented their suggested policy changes to the Suicide Prevention Alliance, and that group expressed interest in implementing their suggestions.
- The Sexting & Sex Offender Registries group presented their issue analysis to the Partnership of Douglas County Governments in October, and the Partnership is going to assist them in pursuing the policy recommendations that they put forth.
- Follow-up from Youth Congress 2009 has continued.
Problem-Solving Coalitions:
- Substance Abuse Coalition - - had its second resource fair and
continues to support the social norms marketing campaign (DCSD)
as a large-scale prevention effort. The social norms marketing project
has seen excellent results as it completes its 3rd survey of participating schools - - rates of initiation of use (tobacco, alcohol, marijuana) all decreased over the past three years of the project. Perceptions of use by other youth (which tends to drive substance use initiation) had corrected as well.
- Juvenile Justice League - - developed a white paper recommending
systemic changes in detention screening in the 18th Judicial District,
ideally allowing for more youth to be released to the community if
they do not pose a safety or flight risk. The JJL is additionally looking
at providing restorative justice resources and training to businesses,
schools and street law enforcement officers in order to save money
and provide a developmentally more effective intervention for youth
who allegedly commit low-level offenses.
- Teen Driving Coalition - - just completed the Fall Teen Seatbelt
Challenge with three high schools in Douglas County, an event that
puts youth in charge of developing awareness and media campaigns
to change seatbelt compliance in their school. Our three schools are
competing with a number of other high schools in the metro area;
results are pending. Douglas County High School won the spring
Seatbelt Challenge!
- Parenting Coalition - - examining how to revive and support Parent
University and Family Leadership Training Institute.
- Suicide Prevention Alliance - - hired a coordinator using grant
funding; efforts are more synthesized as a result.
- Student-to-Adult Transitions Team - - created a resource manual
and consulting team available to the school district and the
community to wrap around youth who are moving from secondary to
post-secondary life but have some barriers that they have to
address. The resources are posted on the school district's website.
- Resource Guide: A 30-page update was completed part way through the year and the Guide
went from 150+ pages to 180+ pages. A major update is currently underway and the improved Guide will be rereleased in December of this year.
Medical Marijuana
One of the Partnership’s adopted 2010 goals was a collaborative effort on medical marijuana local regulations and state legislation. An organizational meeting was held in January with representatives from the Partnership which led to creation of a Regional Working Group the objective of which was to collaboratively support efforts on creation of local regulation and actively provide input and influence state legislation with a focus on ensuring local control of dispensaries and grow operations. Douglas County, Castle Rock, Larkspur, Lone Tree and Parker were active participants and contributors to this working group and met weekly from January through May (the legislative session time frame).
The group was successful being heard by Senate Bill 10-109, sponsor Senator Chris Romer and House Bill 10-1284 sponsor Tom Massey. Our collective efforts resulted in amendments to HB 10-1284 that allowed for the local control sought by the Group.
Reference Guide to Amendment 60, Amendment 61, and Proposition 101
The creation of this reference guide was the outcome of the PDCG initiative to discover and report out the impacts of Amendments 60, 61 and Proposition 101:
This reference guide provided a comprehensive examination of Amendments 60 and 61, and Proposition 101, not advocating for or against these three ballot questions. Instead the intent was to provide factual information, as well as a variety of perspectives on impacts anticipated should there be voter approval of one, two or all three items in November 2010.
Working together, the finance staff for each Partnership entity developed model predictions based on the ballot language to help us better grasp the potential affect of Amendment 60, Amendment 61 and Proposition 101. These financial models provided an illustration of interpreted affects on various local government funding sources. The reference guide also included a sizable assembly of both pro and con perspectives on all three ballot measures.
Douglas County Housing Partnership (DUCHY) NEXUS Study
In October 2009, the Partnership of Douglas County Governments agreed to support the creation of a Sustainability Task Force for the Douglas County Housing Partnership (DUCHY). The stated goal of the task force is: Establish sustainable funding for DUCHY operations and also funding for affordable housing programs. Thus far, the committee met once – in February 2010.
Commissioner Bound suggested a nexus study be conducted to provide a legal basis for any fee the county (or any other entity) may someday decide to charge to support affordable housing. In March, the County Commissioners agreed to fund the nexus study and the Town of Castle Rock agreed to contribute $5,000 toward the study.
Nexus studies examine the relationship between development and its impact on the demand for affordable housing. The analysis determines if there is a correlation between development and affordable housing and, if there is, what the magnitude of the correlation is. In nexus studies, the impact is quantified both in terms of the number of units and the subsidy assistance needed to make units affordable.
An RFP was issued and a firm was selected; the study kick-off meeting was to be held November 15. In addition to providing a rational nexus, the study will include some important economic profile information for the county including employee recruitment and retention information; recruitment and retention of businesses; high transportation costs and long commutes; creation of new (including many low-wage) jobs.
Green Partners Sustainability Framework
The Sustainability sub-committee of the Partnership presented a framework of practices for Green Partners leaving it up to the individual jurisdictions to adopt elements of the framework with changes to fit local needs and preferences.
Accomplishments 2001 - 2007
- Recipient of the 2003 International City/County Management Association’s (ICMA) Program Excellence Award for Outstanding Partnership in Intergovernmental Cooperation. This award recognizes the outstanding programs developed out of cooperative actions or strategic partnerships between or among jurisdictions.
Press Release - Partnership receives ICMA Program Excellence Award
- 2007 Annual Report
- Joint Sales Tax Collection between Town of Parker and Town of Castle Rock
- Development of a Regional Emergency Management Plan.
- Cooperative Land Use Intergovernmental Agreements between Partnership members.
- Cooperative work on an environmental plan based upon requirements surrounding the Prebles Jumping Mouse related to the endangered species act.
- Cooperative work on a multi-jurisdictional Housing Authority led to the creation of the Douglas County Housing Partnership. A down payment assistance program started in January 2005 and as of October 2005 nine families have been provided assistance; 90 families have attended a homebuyer’s education class; and the Partnership is working on the development of affordable rental housing that could result in nearly 600 affordable rental units.
- Common concern for our County’s youth led to a collaborative Youth Initiative. The process concluded in 2005 with the funding of a Douglas County Youth Services coordinator who will be responsible for coordinating and enhancing the outcomes of programs for all Douglas County youth.
- Program initiated between the Douglas County Housing Partnership and the Douglas County School District. School District employees now have access to a variety of resources such as flexible mortgage products, down payment assistance, and other approaches to help school district employees with home ownership in Douglas County.
- Intergovernmental Agreement between Douglas County and Douglas County School District. The IGA formalizes the long-standing relationship between Douglas County Television and the Douglas County School District for the creation of the Douglas County Television Academy. This will be a collaborative effort to foster greater student participation in the creation of broadcast quality television programming toward the creation of a dedicated Douglas County School District Television channel, which launched on the Douglas County Television Network on October 1, 2006.
- Creation of the Douglas County Communications Council in which the more than two-dozen community relations, public affairs and communications professionals working with and for Partnership members collaborate to maximize collective communications effectiveness.