Santa Rosa County Commissioner Jim Melvin earned the Advanced County Commissioner (ACC) designation by completing a study program developed by the Florida Association of Counties (FAC). “This certification allows our citizen electorate to become experts in county government improving their communities,” said FAC Executive Director Chris Holley. “Through FAC’s education programs we are able to teach commissioners how to advance their policies through the complexities of government bureaucracies.”
The ACC program is organized as a series of three seminars with 27 hours of course work, according to Joy Tsubooka, SRC public information officer. The course content focuses on leading within Florida’s counties. Participating Commissioners must commit to fully participate in all three seminars in order to graduate. Melvin said the ACC courses taught navigation of bureaucracy, agencies like FEMA, who took time to speak during a meeting with FEMA. “It was a tremendous help,” he said. “You don’t have to redefine the wheel. We just learned what successful strategies are and what they are not.”
Three of the seminars Melvin attended included: Tough Policy Choices in Florida during Tumultuous Times; Leading Your Communities during Turbulent Times; and, Understanding and Working with Stakeholders and County Decision Makers during these Turbulent Times. Considering these courses, Melvin said a lot of this training was crisis management, natural since Santa Rosa County is a hotspot for hurricanes and floods.
Melvin received the designation along with 12 other county commissioners during an awards ceremony held at the FAC annual conference in Orange County, FL.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Commissioner Jim Melvin levels up