Additional funding, time requested for Cobb strategic plan

Cobb Republican commissioners contest meeting minutes

Cobb commissioners will be asked Tuesday night to approve extra funding and a time extension for an outside consultant to complete a strategic plan for county government.

The Cobb County Manager’s office is seeking an additional $285,000 and eight weeks for Accenture LLP to develop the five-year strategic plan, which was approved by commissioners last fall.

The cost of the contract at the time was $1.45 million, and a draft plan was presented to commissioners last week.

But according to an agenda item, more time and money are needed after commissioners wanted the plan to be made public and discussed at a town hall meeting, and for final tasks to be completed.

‘Given the contract with Accenture has recently expired, funding and an eight-week time extension are required to accomplish additional tasks, including community engagement, and synthesizing the data,” the agenda item states.

Accenture is a management and professional services consulting firm that assigned several of its staffers to the Cobb strategic plan project.

Here’s what Accenture presented to the county in order to finish the job, which would include a revised draft plan, more public feedback and final publication.

The vote to approve the consultant was a party-line 3-2, with Democrats in favor and Republicans against.

JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill objected to the cost and questioned the need for such a study, which was designed to give policy makers a long-term (10- to 20-year) vision for meeting those future service needs.

Also on Tuesday, commissioners will honor the state championship basketball teams from Wheeler and Kell high schools and will recognize East Cobb’s Temple Kol Emeth synagogue on its 40th anniversary.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta). You can read through the full agenda by clicking here.

You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.

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