James Jones
Case Study Summary Windham County once started as traditional manufacturing town, but local and state officials attracted new types of workers such as banking and insurance centers. The town’s long and spacious land as become full of new structures and an influx of vehicles. The demands for more schools, protective services, medical facilities, and supplies have greatly increased. The majority of the responsibility for this growth has come from county government. Although there are sever small cities that belong to the county, many of the responsibilities of primary services fall on the county government. The Windham County government is made on a strong executive model. The council executive is elected on a term of four years. The responsibilities are everyday administration, appointing administrative officers, and preparing annual budget. The legislative branch is made up of six council members lead by an elected president. The registration in the county is closely split between democratic and republicans. Executive and legislative office control has alternated between the two parties. The last true green space in the county has caught the eyes and pockets of developers based on the demographics. The area is filled with potential to make large amounts of money. The recommendation from the County Economic Development office approved a principle in plan to swap out the course, in which both sides can make a decent profit from, and move it to more attractive facilities. In place of the old course would go a new mall with shopping stores, restaurants, and movie theaters. Several proposals have been sent to the County’s Executive Office of which have floated, sunk, and refloated. The public disclosures of some of the outlines of the ideas have created a more problems within the politics. These plans were supposed to be kept confidential to the special committee, but the circulation has cause citizen groups to begin to positions against more development in the area. Everyone had different ideas. The golf association wanted to preserve the historic land, the Emergency Housing Action Coalition insisted on development of affordable housing, another group opposed any development that would threaten the uniqueness of the land, small merchants association feared big malls would only benefit big businesses, and major businesses painted pictures of economic benefits of growth. Every time a decision on a plan would come close, a story would leak out. This created controversy between the council members, and one was even indicted of renting his vote to developers with a pending plan. After three years of commotion, a decision to was set to settle the problem. Sealed proposal were to be sent in to be viewed by a small team of county officials and are only to consult with their senior staff to negotiate any changes with developers. Theya re to be submitted on October 1st and one is to be recommended to the full council by November 1st. The Council will then have two months to hold hearings and vote proposal up or down.