OUR COUNTY
D. GARY DAVIS
COUNTY MAYOR
Counting Our Blessings in Bradley County
As 2009 comes to close I have been doing a mental inventory of what has been accomplished over the past 12 months. We have faced some challenges but this is a good time to heed the words of the old church hymn "Count your blessings name them one by one.” It has been a good year for Bradley County in spite of the national economy and we are blessed to be leading the State in economic recovery.
A November 18th article on msnbc.com reports that the Cleveland Metropolitan Area… or Bradley County… is the only community among Tennessee’s top 10 metropolitan areas that is now in economic recovery mode. That joint study from Moody’s Economy.Com and Msnbc.Com was based on government data, industrial production, housing starts and home prices. While we are not out of the woods yet, this report is a ray of sunshine as we continue working hard to broaden our industrial and economic base in Bradley County.
The retention of the Whirlpool plant, the landing of the new Wacker plant in Charleston, and Volkswagen’s new plant just 5 miles from the county line, are prime factors in putting Cleveland/Bradley County at the top of the list of Tennessee communities in economic recovery mode.
A review of my list of blessings for 2009 also includes Bradley County’s system of good record keeping and organization, as well as the cooperation of other elected officials and department heads. These combined blessings are a major reason Bradley County has led the state in complying with GASB 34, a state comptroller mandate establishing financial accounting and reporting standards for state and local governments.
The new comptroller standards were mandated in 1999 and local governments the size of Bradley County were expected to be in compliance by 2003. Statewide compliance was not achieved until 2009. This was reported to the State General Assembly by Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Justin Wilson on December 1st of this year.
However, Bradley County reached compliance with the new accounting and reporting standards in 2002, one year before the 2003 deadline and 7 years before the rest of the state reached that goal.
I commend Bradley County Finance Director Lynn Burns and her staff for their hard work and leadership in putting Bradley County ahead of schedule on this issue. Failure to comply could have resulted in a lower bond rating. Thankfully, good record keeping, organization and cooperation made it easier to pull the information together and lead the entire state in conforming to GASB 34, which is considered the most far-reaching accounting standard ever issued by the Board and possibly the most difficult to implement.
Being compliant 7 years before the rest of the state is another reason I say…
Bradley County is Tennessee at its best.