Tazewell County meeting trims vision wording, removes 'secure'

An unidentified staff member at a Tazewell County meeting proposed removing the word "secure" from the county's vision statement and deleting the word "all" from a companion sentence, saying the term is redundant with "safe." "If you look up secure, it refers to being safe," the staff member said, recommending the phrase be revised to "a safe county with exceptional quality of life."

The suggestion was debated briefly for wording and grammar before meeting participants agreed to the edits. "We're going to take out all as well," the unidentified staff member said, and another participant identified as Patty urged terseness: "Less words is better."

The language under discussion was a proposed mission and vision intended to guide county priorities. The draft mission read in part, "to provide quality essential services and to protect the county and its resources through responsible stewardship while always keeping the people first in all decisions." Participants discussed tightening that wording to reduce redundancy and improve clarity.

Meeting participants directed staff to implement the agreed edits to the vision and mission text; the group signaled acceptance by moving forward with the suggested deletions during the discussion. No formal vote or ordinance was recorded in the transcript excerpts provided.

The changes are editorial in scope and do not, in the portions of the transcript reviewed, change substantive policy or allocate funds. The meeting's next steps were limited to updating the written mission and vision language for future use in county documents.