Gardnerville, NV – The Douglas County Community Services Department has been named a finalist for the 25th Annual Cashman Good Government Award. The award honors government entities and individuals who combine workplace experience and ingenuity to make citizen services work better and faster at a lower cost.
Geoff Bonar, Douglas County Senior Budget Analyst, nominated the Community Services Department for the award for its staff’s resourceful approach to controlling long-term care costs for Douglas County taxpayers. The approach is a product of a variety of services offered to senior citizens and their caretakers, including congregate dining services, Meals on Wheels, homemaker services, DART transportation services, and the adult day club. These services help senior citizens to live independently, as opposed to in a skilled nursing facility. The costs of these skilled nursing facilities often fall on taxpayers to cover if the recipient of the services cannot pay for them. With their coordinated effort, the Community Services Department has been able to save the taxpayers of Douglas County tens of millions of dollars during the past eight years. More importantly, these services have allowed senior citizens to continue to enjoy an independent life and to remain in their own homes for their golden years.
Scott Morgan, Director of the Community Services Department, has been monitoring Douglas County’s long-term care costs, which are paid out of the County’s social services fund, for the last eight years. With the completion of the Douglas County Community and Senior Center, he noticed that for the last seven years the costs (approximately $500,000 per year) had been holding steady, while our neighboring counties have been doubling. At the conclusion of the 2022 long-term care billing cycle, Douglas County reduced its long-term care cost in half, saving Douglas County taxpayers more than $2 million in estimated cost and saving the State of Nevada an additional $2 million.
Finalists for the Cashman Good Government Award are recognized in six categories, based on population size and organization type. The Community Services Department was named as a Finalist in the “County/School District under 400,000” category. All finalists were invited to a dinner and reception on February 23, 2023, hosted by Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo.
This is the second time the Community Services Department was recognized by the Nevada Taxpayers Association. In 1997, Scott Morgan and the Community Services Department received a finalist award for innovations in privatization of recreation facilities. 1997 was the first year that the Cashman Good Government Awards were held.