Rural County Outreach to Special District Partners for Annual Compliance and Service Improvement

About the Program

Category: County Administration and Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2017

Coconino County is the largest geographic County in Arizona and the second-largest (by land area) in the contiguous United States, covering 18,661 square miles. There are a total of 17 independent fire districts within the County that are governed by Fire District board members. These board members are volunteers and many do not start their membership with preexisting government or board experience. Additionally, many of these districts function completely on the efforts of volunteers with limited budgets and no administrative assistance. This creates a challenging scenario for fire district members to maintain compliance with the myriad of state laws that govern budget, reporting, meeting conduct and records maintenance. In recognition of this challenge and with the goal of providing a more efficient service, during the summer of 2011, Coconino County launched a pilot program called to reach out to special districts. The program connects volunteer special taxing district board members with County staff in order to provide assistance and information to enable them to meet their obligations as defined in state law. The inaugural program was structured to provide a traveling presentation by relevant County staff. The presentation includes information related to: • State requirements for budget preparation and fund balances • Tax rate calculations • Fund management • Arizona’s open meeting and public records laws • Annual reporting requirements • Process for filling board vacancies Before this program, County departments would separately contact the 17 fire districts to advise them of services offered or to attain documents the districts are required to submit to the County. Since the inception of this program approximately 94% of fire districts submit required documents that are complete and accurate to the County. Before this program only approximately 25% of the districts were able to do that.