HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 09-06-2022; 12-5 - Information Item - Memorandum - Draft Strategic Plan Request for Proposal 1
ORANGE COUNTY
NORTH CAROLINA
COUNTY MANAGER'S OFFICE
300 West Tryon Street Bonnie B. Hammersley,County Manager Phone(919)245-2300
Post Office Box 8181 Travis Myren, Deputy County Manager Fax(919)644-3004
Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278
August 25, 2022
TO: Board of Orange County Commissioners
FROM: Travis Myren
Deputy County Manager
RE: Draft Strategic Plan Request for Proposal
During the Board's 2022 Retreat, Commissioners requested that staff proceed with the development of
a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a consultant to assist in the development of a comprehensive strategic
plan for the County. A draft scope of services is attached for your review and consideration. A discussion
on the draft is planned for the September 20 Business meeting, but I wanted to get this to you well in
advance so that you have adequate time to reflect on the draft.
I also offered to provide examples of Strategic Plans from other jurisdictions. The RFP is currently drafted
to produce a plan that looks like the plans below.
Buncombe County
https://www.buncom becou nty.org/govern ing/comm issioners/strategic-plan/default.aspx
Durham County
https://www.dcomanagingforresults.org/about-us/about-the-strategic-plan
Gaston County
https://www.gastongov.com/970/FY21-23-Gaston-County-Strategic-Plan
Fairfax County,VA
https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/strategicplan/
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments prior to the presentation on the 20th. One
of the issues that we will ask the Board to consider at that meeting is how the Board or a sub-committee
of the Board is involved the oversight of plan development.
An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer
www.orangecountVnc.gov
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5.0 SCOPE OF WORK
The consultant will assist the Board of Commissioners and County leadership in developing a
comprehensive strategic plan for Orange County, North Carolina. The Plan is intended to direct efforts and
resources toward a clearly defined vision for the future using evidence based approaches. The Plan will
be grounded in the principles of equity, responsive to the priorities and concerns of the community, position
the County to address the challenges of the future, and is fiscally sustainable. The Plan will articulate a
vision, mission, core values, priorities,goals and objectives, implementation plans, performance measures,
and a procedure for Plan review and maintenance.
The County realizes that each proposer may have a different perspective, approaches, and models to
develop a comprehensive strategic planning document. The proposal should discern the approach that
will best enable the County to achieve its organizational and programmatic goals. With that flexibility in
mind, the scope of work should include but not necessarily be limited to the following elements:
• A process that allows for general alignment and focus among the Board of Commissioners,
County leadership, staff, residents, business interests, community groups, etc. to foster a sense
of inclusion and cohesion in the County's strategic direction.
• A timeline and schedule for the project that identifies major milestones, opportunities for
meaningful information sharing, and decision points.
• Data on demographic, economic, social, and environmental factors and trends that are impacting
County residents, institutions, programs, and services. The proposal should include the capacity
to conduct a statistically valid community survey that evaluates residents' demographics,
perceptions of the County, satisfaction with County services and communications, priorities for
core County services, and priorities that will be most important in the future. The survey should
be designed so that it also informs the upcoming update to the County's Comprehensive Plan.
• Comprehensive outreach and community engagement that gathers information from residents,
community groups, major employers, and key partners such as the University, school districts,
nonprofit community, and municipalities in the County. This outreach should also be designed to
be useful in the update to the County's Comprehensive Plan.
• A schedule to provide information and receive guidance from the Board of Commissioners
including an estimated number of meetings with Board of Commissioners in order to accomplish
the development of the desired strategic plan that complies with North Carolina's Open Meeting
Law.
• Engagement with County leadership and employees as stakeholders in the Plan and as subject
matter experts in strategy and initiative development and performance measurement.
• A framework to align other Countywide plans such as the racial equity plan, climate action plan,
transit plan, facilities plan, and others to the comprehensive strategic plan.
• A decision making framework that helps the Board of Commissioners set priorities.
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• An effective, considered, innovative, and fiscally sustainable strategic plan document that
prioritizes County initiatives and resources to achieve specific goals within a specific period of
time.
• Goals and objectives and/or initiatives that support the vision, mission, and values of the Plan.
• Analyses of any potential partnerships that could be leveraged to more efficiently and effectively
advance the Plan.
• An implementation plan that transforms conceptual goals into realistic, achievable targets.
• Performance measures or key indicators and outcomes that will serve as the basis for measuring
progress in Plan implementation.
• A communications plan to introduce the final strategic plan to the community, key stakeholders,
and the Board of Commissioners.
• Tactics for effectively communicating the outcomes of the strategic planning process and for
providing ongoing information on progress to improve transparency and accountability during
Plan implementation.
• A recommended process for periodic plan reviews, updates, and/or other plan maintenance
5.1 TASKS/DELIVERABLES
The successful consultant will be required to attend a kickoff meeting with the Board of Commissioners
and other key county personnel to explain the goals and purpose of the project, identify issues and
activities of the project, gather financial, demographic and related documents and data, and develop a
detailed timeline based on schedules of applicable personnel.
• The successful consultant will meet with a project management team as often as needed in order
to achieve the required project scope within the required project timeline.
• The successful consultant will to engage the Board of Commissioners in a facilitated process as
often as needed in order to achieve the required project scope.
• The successful consultant will prepare a comprehensive strategic plan including an executive
summary of the work elements outlined in the scope of services.
• A draft plan will be provided to the County electronically in Microsoft Word format. That draft will
be presented to the Board of Commissioners in a work session to receive final input and direction
to finalize the plan.
• The successful consultant will present the final plan to the Board of Commissioners and prepare
and execute a communications plan to introduce the final strategic plan to the community, key
stakeholders, and the Board of Commissioners.
• Project Timetable—To be determined
0 Issue Request for Proposal
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o Proposers Questions Due
o Responses to Questions Due
o Proposals Due
o Evaluation of Proposals and Possible Interviews
o Proposal Award
o Tentative Contract Execution Date
0 2023 Draft copy of Strategic Plan provided to County
0 2023 In-person presentation to County Board (Work Session)
o Presentation of Strategic Plan to Board of Commissioners (Business Meeting)
o Project Completion (Report and Deliverables)
5.2 PROJECT ORGANIZATION
Vendor shall describe the organizational and operational structure it proposes to utilize for the work
described in this RFP, and identify the responsibilities to be assigned to each person Vendor proposes to
staff the work.
5.3 TECHNICAL APPROACH
Vendor's proposal shall include, in narrative, outline, and/or graph form the Vendor's approach to
accomplishing the tasks outlined in the Scope of Work section of this RFP. A description of each task
and deliverable and the schedule for accomplishing each shall be included.