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County executive outlines constituent‑services tracking and launches youth leadership board pilot
Summary
Washington County staff described a new constituent relationship management process that logged 529 contacts over four months and introduced a pilot youth leadership board targeting 15–20 students meeting twice monthly.
Washington County’s executive office told the Board of Supervisors it has tracked hundreds of constituent contacts since it began logging cases, and county staff introduced a pilot Youth Leadership Board aimed at engaging high school students in local government.
Eli Choudhour, project analyst with the county executive’s office, said the office began collecting metrics about four months ago and recorded “529 different people contacted us,” of whom about 200 required a case to be opened. “About 45% of our cases we were able to handle in under 3 days or less,” Choudhour said, a response time the staff highlighted as a success.
Why it matters: The county’s new case‑tracking system is intended to prevent constituent requests from falling through the cracks and to provide consistent follow‑up; the youth board is an outreach tool intended to educate students about local government and gather ideas from younger residents.
Choudhour described a five‑step constituent‑services process — listening, communicating, redirecting, researching and delivering — and gave examples including getting shared‑ride transit set up for an event within 24 hours and tracking citizen inquiries about UWMWC so the county can provide consistent follow‑up to stakeholders.
County Executive (unnamed in the transcript) said the county executive’s office has grown from three to four staff since the office was created and that daily constituent contacts have increased substantially since the executive position was created.
On the youth board, staff member Josh said the pilot will target mainly sophomores and juniors this semester with plans to move to juniors and seniors next year. The board is slated to meet twice a month on Wednesdays; staff are seeking an initial cohort of about 15–20 students and ask applicants for two references and a short statement about leadership rather than GPA or resumes.
Supervisors asked about program details. Supervisor Bastrop asked whether the board’s purpose was only educational; staff said the program aims to educate and to gather student ideas and could develop an advisory role in the future. Supervisor Schultheitz asked about mentorship; staff said the county hopes to bring in elected officials or cabinet members to speak and possibly provide future one‑on‑one mentoring. Supervisor Watson Conrad asked why seniors were not included this year; staff said schools recommended recruiting students who could commit to more than one semester.
Supervisor Mary asked whether the youth board would combine students from all county high schools; staff said it would be a single, countywide group. Several supervisors offered to volunteer as speakers or mentors.
Ending: The county executive thanked staff members — including Kayla, Tara Gundrum and Fran McLaughlin — and noted that the pilot is in its infancy; staff will continue developing the program and refining the constituent‑service tracking system.
