On Thursday, July 27th, a Florida County Commissioner's Conference was held at the White House to provide counties with an opportunity to meet senior-level officials from more than a dozen executive-branch agencies from the Trump Administration to discuss various issues such as infrastructure needs, rural economic development, agriculture, CDBG, small business, transportation, the opioid epidemic, zika virus and veterans affairs.
Billy Kirkland, the White House deputy director of intergovernmental affairs, said his office organized this first-of-its-kind conference to fill the void between counties and the White House. The White House invited every county commissioner in the state. Kirkland said that was the main point: to strengthen relationships between the executive branch and counties. "We want them to know they have an ally here in the White House."
Approximately 100 County Commissioners from the State of Florida were in attendance, including Calhoun County Commissioners Gene Bailey, Danny Wise and Dennis Jones, who were able to meet with Congressman Neal Dunn and Senator Marco Rubio before the conference. Sentiments of the commissioners were that they were able to engage with government officials to better craft results for our needs, being hopeful that there will be positive results from these meetings. That it was nice to have a direct connection to the higher levels of government, rather than going through various entities in order to get to the same destination.
