The board of directors for the Sulphur River Basin Authority will spend the duration of Tuesday's regular meeting in a strategic planning session, something President Mike Sandefur says is much needed for the board to accomplish immediate and long-term goals to align with the organization's 1985 Enabling Act.
"Right now our goal is to have a written plan so that everybody knows what we are trying to do and there's not surprises," Sandefur said. "We would like measurable goals so that we can be judged on whether we are achieving the goals or not."
He became board president in June after Mike Russell resigned following the April release of the Sunset Advisory Commission's highly-critical staff report. Sunset met last month and agreed with the staff report, formally supporting all recommendations to hit the reset button on SRBA, including sweeping the board, requiring the organization to seek additional funding and work with regional stakeholders, hire an executive director and develop openness and transparency with both stakeholders and the media.
Those recommendations must be approved in the upcoming 85th session of the state Legislature before action will be taken on all recommendations, including the removal of all board members.
Sandefur is one of the newest on the board, along with Bret McCoy and Katie Stedman, who were all appointed in March by Gov. Greg Abbott. If the Legislature approves the board sweep, members would be allowed to reapply for their positions.
He became president just two days before SRBA members were called to testify before the sunset commission and initiated drastic changes in the board at that time-such as the election of Stedman and McCoy as vice presidents to oversee portions of the executive director duties and for Sandefur and Brad Drake to begin working on a funding plan.
During that meeting, the board also voted to reappropriate existing funds to address additional sunset issues, including $20,000 for sedimentation and $5,000 to develop a strategic plan.
Sandefur said organizations without a plan are doomed to fail and that SRBA has been floundering because it doesn't have one. Nor does it have a mission statement to guide board actions and decisions.
"I don't think anyone knows our goals," he said. "We will be drafting a mission statement that will be easily understood."
He's called in a longtime friend, James Henry Russell, to lead Tuesday's session. Russell is the president of Texarkana College and was hired for that position during Sandefur's tenure as president of the TC board of trustees. Russell said that together, he and Sandefur tackled a similar situation, turning the then-failing college into a success. That began with a defined goal and a strategic plan, and he said he's happy to be working with his friend again to organize the SRBA board.
"I credit the strategic plan as something that brought everyone together to focus on what's most important and gave us a goal to actually measure if we were making progress or not," Russell said. "We are friends and have done a lot together. I'm by no means an expert planner."
Yet Russell has worked to help several area companies and organizations with their strategic plans, including Texarkana Independent School District, Harvest Texarkana and the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce, just to name a few. Each year since becoming president at TC, he's guided his board to identify and refine their goals and mission statements.
"It's a pretty simple process that we know has worked before. It's a great way to get a wide range of people on the same page to do some great things," he said.
Even though the board designated $5,000 for strategic planning, Russell said he's not being paid to help SRBA with their plan.
"I don't want anything," he said. "I'll do anything I can do to help. Personally, I'm not getting anything out of it other than I always learn something when I lead a group of people. I am not a strategic planning expert. I am not a water expert. I am a fan of Mike Sandefur and he is my friend. He asked if I would help, and I am looking forward to working with him and see if we can make a little progress forward."
The meeting will be held at 1 p.m. in the Mount Pleasant Civic Center. 1800 North Jefferson Street, Mount Pleasant, Texas.T