Board of County Commissioners adopts Strategic Plan Update 2024-2028

Washington County’s Board of Commissioners unanimously adopted a new version of the county government’s 30-year-old strategic plan last week after receiving input from staff, key advisory groups and members of the public. The updated 20-page document, adopted April 23, now includes modernized language for the organization’s vision and mission statements, guiding principles, fundamental approaches to services and department-by-department goals.

As described in the plan’s introduction, “The intent of this document is to illuminate the current state and the path forward for Washington County government.”

Updated vision and mission statements
The revised vision for the organization is expressed under the motto of “One Washington County:”

“One Washington County is our unifying effort that produces a vision for a special community and mission-focused organization that can better serve the community now and in the years ahead.”

The mission for the organization is labeled as “Design the Future,” an organization-wide initiative already in action to identify and implement human-centered improvements to the delivery of county services over time:

“Washington County is a leading-edge, mission-focused organization that successfully serves the community now and in the years ahead. We are a human-centered organization that integrates equity into decision-making and supports the health, effectiveness, creativity and talents of our employees as public servants and the residents whom we serve.”

Broad community engagement envisioned in 2028
The introduction to the plan goes on to explain why the proposed update to one of the county’s key guiding documents is limited to refinements to the organization’s current strategic direction.

“It is our hope that this document lives and provides foundational information and direction to the Washington County organization as we navigate our way forward together into 2028," the introduction states.

Nonetheless, staff, key advisory bodies and members of the public provided input over the last several months as a draft plan took shape. Stakeholders included: the county's Advisory Committee on Racial Equity (ACRE), Committee for Community Involvement (CCI), appointed and elected managers and county employees attending an all-staff briefing earlier this year. City and special district managers as well as Washington County’s mayors were briefed on the plan and members of the public in general were invited to provide input through an online survey.

County officials are anticipating a more extensive strategic planning process and broad community engagement four years from now, once significant Design the Future projects reach their conclusion. These multi-year projects, already underway, include:

• The replacement of the organization’s core financial and human resources planning tool, a project referred to as Enterprise Resource Planning Modernization;
• An inventory of the county government’s approximately 350 lines of public service, many of which are mandated by state or federal law, including the sources and levels of their funding as well as and the geographic parts of the community these services benefit the most;
• An organization-wide assessment of current and projected capital improvement needs across the categories of transportation, facilities and technology.

History of the county’s strategic plan
The original Washington County 2000 Strategic Plan was adopted in the late 1980s by the Board of County Commissioners. This plan identified service delivery roles, principles and priorities for the organization. The board adopted minor adjustments in the early 1990s, after a two-year review process and public hearings. The 1993-94 version was the last time the board officially changed the strategic plan. An effort to update the plan in 2005-2010 was not ultimately adopted by the board.

More information about the current process is available at the board's Strategic Plan Update page.

Washington County, Oregon, is supported by a budget of $1.7 billion and is staffed by 2,392 full-time equivalent employees serving a diverse and growing population of 610,245 on the western side of the Portland metropolitan area. More information about Washington County can be found at washingtoncountyor.gov.