- National Association of Counties

WHERE
THERE’S
SMOKE...
A DC-10 air tanker drops retardant in Chelan
County, Wash., Aug. 14, as the latest wildfire
moves through the county. It’s among 78 or so
major wildfires burning this summer, mostly in
Washington (18), Idaho (15), California (13) and
Montana (12). The year is on track to be the most
destructive in a decade with more than 7.1 million
acres in flames compared to 6.7 million in 2012,
according to data from the National Interagency
Fire Center.
See FIRE page 9
Photo by Mike Bonnicksen /The Wenatchee World
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES ■ WASHINGTON, D.C.
VOL. 47, NO. 16 ■ AUGUST 24, 2015
Counties save on employee
prescriptions with foreign drugs
By Charles Taylor
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Flagler County, Fla. commissioners have approved a plan to
import prescription drugs through
a Canadian broker that officials
say could save employees 50
percent to 80 percent on some
medications.
The company, CanaRx, will
supply brand-name maintenance
medications — such as those for
high blood pressure or to lower
cholesterol. Participation in the program will be voluntary, according
to Joe Mayer, the county’s director
of community services. And the
county will continue to offer an-
Lisa Soronen
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STATE AND LOCAL LEGAL CENTER
See FOREIGN DRUGS page 2
Concerns remain about mine
spillage in Western rivers
By Charlie Ban
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The thick orange sludge that
filled the Animas River early
in August has faded, but local
concerns about the water’s safety
heading toward to the Pacific
Ocean have not.
The Environmental Protec-
Supreme Court rules in seven
significant cases for counties
tion Agency’s Office of Inspector
General is investigating the cause
of and the agency’s response to the
release of approximately 3 million
gallons of toxic water that spilled
from a mine in Colorado where EPA
contractors were working.
On Aug. 5, the sludge, containSee MINE SPILLAGE page 5
That same-sex couples have a
constitutional right to marry and
an intact Affordable Care Act will
forever outshine every other decision from this Supreme Court term.
But local governments will ignore
the rest of this term at their peril.
The court issued many decisions
affecting local governments — most
of which had unfavorable outcomes. From upsetting sign codes to
allowing disparate treatment claims
under the Fair Housing Act, this
was a term for local governments
to remember too. Following is a
summary of the top seven cases.
Content-Based Sign
Codes Unconstitutional
In Reed v. Town of Gilbert,
the court held unanimously that
Gilbert’s sign code, which treated
various categories of signs differently based on the information
they conveyed, violates the First
Amendment.
Gilbert’s sign code treated
temporary directional signs less
favorably (in terms of size, location,
duration, etc.) than political signs
and ideological signs. Content-based
See SUPREME COURT page 2
INSIDE THIS ISSUE 
County blazes trail to more pet
adoptions u Page 9
Mecklenburg County, N.C. shows off
its biking infrastructure u Page 3
Colorado commissioner comfortable
living off the grid u Page 4
Tiny houses loom large on some
county horizons u Page 6
CountyNews •
2 August 24, 2015 Big pharma leary of counterfeit meds Supreme Court rulings
in seven cases answer
questions for counties
FOREIGN DRUGS from page 1
other prescription benefit through
its onsite employee health clinic or
retail pharmacies for generics.
“Any of our employees that are
on those types of (maintenance)
meds can choose to participate.
And the carrot for the employee is
that there are no copays for them,”
he said. “They would get that free
of charge, and the county health
plan would pick up the cost.”
Flagler is projected to realize
savings of 54 percent, he added,
which offsets costs to the county.
The company makes a profit on a
“small” markup from the cheaper
foreign drugs, said Mark Mousty,
a spokesman for the prescriptions
broker. The program will be offered
to employees during open enrollment this month and is slated to
launch in October, the start of the
county’s fiscal year, Mayer said.
He says he was skeptical at first,
when he heard about the program
at a Florida Association of Counties meeting. Highland County,
Fla. has a similar program through
the same provider. But an analysis
CanaRx provided to the Flagler
County Board showed the potential
for significant savings.
The company, based in Windsor, Ontario, looked at the top
350 drugs being prescribed for
employees — without personal
data — and found that the county
spent $265,000 on them in 2014,
Mayer said, but that it could have
saved more than $145,000 through
the drug importation program.
Schenectady County, N.Y. has
had a similar program since 2004,
County Attorney Chris Gardner
said. As a result, the county is
spending less on prescription drugs
than in 2003. Back then, he said,
prescription costs were poised to
overtake medical costs.
Importation of drugs from other
countries presents a dilemma for
the Food and Drug Administration.
On the one hand, FDA says “…
it is illegal for individuals to import
drugs into the United States for
personal use.” The agency says
it can’t ensure the authenticity,
safety and effectiveness of drugs it
hasn’t approved. But it does make
exceptions.
At the same time, FDA policy
also states that it “typically”
doesn’t object to personal imports
of such drugs under certain
circumstances, including the following: The drug isn’t considered
to pose an unreasonable risk; the
individual importing the drug
verifies in writing that it is for
his or her own use and provides
contact information for the doctor
providing treatment or shows the
product is for the continuation
of treatment begun in a foreign
country; and “generally, not more
than a 3-month supply of the drug
is imported.”
Counties would be unable to
import medications for group
populations, such as nursing home
residents and jail inmates, Gardner said, “because that wouldn’t
be personal use.”
U.S. pharmaceutical interests
have not sat idly by as foreign
drug importation programs have
sprung up. In 2013, the Maine
Legislature passed what’s believed
to be the first-in-the nation law
that allowed residents to purchase
mail-order drugs from other countries. Pharmacy groups sued the
state, and in February, a Maine
federal judge struck down the law,
the Maine Pharmacy Act.
In her opinion, the judge said
the law “compromises the tightly
regulated structure set up by the
Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act and
the federal government’s ability to
‘speak with one voice’ when it
regulates foreign commerce.”
The global market for phar-
maceuticals is expected to grow to
nearly $1.3 trillion by 2018, according to Global Outlook for Medicines
Through 2018, a report of the IMS
Institute for Healthcare Informatics. With that kind of money
involved, there are opportunities
for exploitation, according to Bona
E. Benjamin, a spokesperson for
the American Society of HealthSystem Pharmacists.
“Drugs to our members are
therapy and treatment,” she said.
“But drugs to some people are a
commodity that has great value,
and so we’re concerned about
counterfeiting; we’re concerned
about adulteration, for example.”
Proponents of foreign drug
importation see irony in the
status quo, because many, if not
most, of the drugs prescribed for
U.S. residents are manufactured
abroad. Programs like Flager and
Schenectady counties’ are supplied with drugs from Canada, the
United Kingdom, Australia and
New Zealand, countries where the
government regulates the price of
drugs. Only about 20 percent of
the drugs imported by CanaRx
are from Canada, according to
Mousty, who made a presentation to the Flagler County Board.
Eighty percent come from the other
three “Commonwealth” countries.
Schenectady County’s Gardner
said, “It’s probably unfortunate
that the United States doesn’t
regulate the cost of prescription
medications, like most other
countries do. So we’re taking advantage of that regulation in other
countries to save money for our
employees and for our taxpayers.”
House and Senate versions of
the Safe and Affordable Drugs
from Canada Act of 2015 — a
bill that would permit Americans
to buy prescription drugs from
“an approved pharmacy” in
Canada — are currently stalled
in Congress.
SUPREME COURT from page 1
laws are only constitutional if they
pass strict scrutiny — that is, if
they are narrowly tailored to serve
a compelling government interest.
While the State and Local
Legal Center (SLLC) argued in
its amicus brief that Gilbert’s sign
categories are based on function,
the court concluded they are based
on content.
Gilbert’s sign code failed strict
scrutiny because its two asserted
compelling interests — preserving
aesthetic and traffic safety — were
“hopelessly underinclusive,” the
decision read. Temporary directional signs are “no greater an
eyesore” and pose no greater threat
to public safety than ideological or
political signs.
Many, if not most communities like Gilbert, regulate some
categories of signs in a way the
Supreme Court has defined as
content-based. Communities will
need to change these ordinances.
Hotel Registry Searches
Need Subpoenas
R
In City of Los Angeles v. Patel,
the court held 5–4 that a Los
Angeles ordinance requiring hotel
and motel operators to make
their guest registries available for
police inspection without at least
a subpoena violates the Fourth
Amendment.
The purpose of hotel registry
ordinances is to deter crime — drug
dealing, prostitution and human
trafficking — on the theory that
criminals will not commit crimes
in hotels if they have to provide
identifying information.
According to the court, searches
permitted by the city’s ordinance
are done to ensure compliance
with recordkeeping requirements.
While such administrative searches
do not require warrants, they do
require “pre-compliance review
before a neutral decision maker.”
Absent at least a subpoena, “the
ordinance creates an intolerable
risk that searches authorized by
it will exceed statutory limits,
or be used as a pretext to harass
hotel operators and their guests.”
In his dissent, Justice Antonin
Scalia cited the SLLC’s amicus
brief, which notes that local governments in at least 41 states have
adopted similar ordinances. Eight
states also have hotel registry
statutes: Indiana, Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, Wisconsin, and the
District of Columbia.
It is likely following this decision
that other record inspections done
by governments outside the hotel
registry context will also require
subpoenas.
Fair Housing Act
Disparate Impact Claims
Recognized
In Texas Department of Housing
and Community Affairs v. Inclusive
Communities Project, the justices held
5–4 that disparate-impact claims may
be brought under the Fair Housing
Act (FHA).
In a disparate-impact case, a plaintiff claimed that a particular practice
wasn’t intentionally discriminatory
but instead had a disproportionately
adverse impact on a particular group.
The Inclusive Communities
Project claimed the Texas housing
department’s selection criteria for
federal low-income tax credits in
Dallas had a disparate impact on
minorities.
In prior cases, the court held that
disparate-impact claims are possible
under Title VII (prohibiting race,
etc. discrimination in employment)
and under the Age Discrimination
in Employment Act, relying on
the statutes’ “otherwise adversely
affect” language. The FHA uses
similar language — “otherwise make
unavailable” — in prohibiting race,
etc. discrimination in housing.
This decision more or less continues the status quo for local
governments. Nine federal circuit
courts of appeals had previously
reached the same conclusion. But,
Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority
opinion contains a number of limits
on when and how disparate-impact
housing claims may be brought.
Reasons for Cell Tower
Denials Must Be in
Writing
In T-Mobile South v. City of Roswell,
the court held 6–3 that the Telecommunications Act (TCA) requires
local governments to provide reasons
when denying an application to build
a cellphone tower.
The reasons do not have to be
stated in the denial letter but must
be articulated “with sufficient clarity
in some other written record issued
essentially contemporaneously
with the denial,” which can include
council meeting minutes.
The TCA requires that a local
government’s decision denying a
cell tower construction permit be “in
See SUPREME COURTpage 3
• CountyNews
SUPREME COURT from page 2
writing and supported by substantial
evidence contained in a written
record.”
Local governments must provide
reasons for why they are denying
a cell tower application so that
courts can determine whether the
denial was supported by substantial
evidence. Council meeting minutes
are sufficient. But, because wireless
providers have only 30 days after a
denial to sue, minutes must be issued
at the same time as the denial.
Following this decision, local
governments should not issue any
written denial of a wireless siting
application until they 1) set forth the
reasons for the denial in that written
decision; or 2) make available to the
wireless provider the final council
meeting minutes or transcript of
the meeting.
No Dog Sniffing Allowed
In a 6–3 decision in Rodriguez
v. United States, the court held that
a dog sniff conducted after a completed traffic stop violates the Fourth
Amendment.
In a 2005 decision, Illinois v.
Caballes, the court upheld a dog
search conducted during a lawful
traffic stop stating that a seizure for
a traffic stop “become[s] unlawful
if it is prolonged beyond the time
reasonably required to complete
the mission” of issuing a ticket for
the violation. Officers may lengthen
stops to make sure vehicles are
operating safely or for an officer’s
safety. A dog sniff, however, is aimed
at discovering illegal drugs not at
officer or highway safety.
Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent
suggests savvy police officers can
skirt the court’s ruling by learning
“the prescribed sequence of events
August 24, 2015 3
even if they cannot fathom the
reason for that requirement.”
New Standard for
Pretrial Excessive Force
Claims
In Kingsley v. Hendrickson, the
court decided that to prove an
excessive force claim a pretrial
detainee must only show that the
officer’s force was objectively
unreasonable. He does not need
to show that the officers were
subjectively aware that their use of
force was unreasonable.
Tax on Internet Purchases
To improve its tax collection, the
state of Colorado began requiring
remote sellers to inform Colorado
purchasers annually of their purchases and send the same information to the Colorado Department
of Revenue
The Direct Marketing Association sued Colorado in federal
court claiming that the notice and
reporting requirements are unconstitutional under Quill Corp. v. North
Dakota Quill. In a 1992 decision, the
court held that a business had to be
physically present in a state before
the state could require it to collect
use or sales taxes.
In Direct Marketing Association v.
Brohl, the question the court was
asked to decide was whether this
case could be heard in federal court
(as opposed to state court). The court
held “yes” unanimously.
More significantly however,
Justice Kennedy wrote a concurring
opinion stating that the “legal system
should find an appropriate case
for this court to reexamine Quill.”
Many court watchers interpreted
his statement as skepticism about
whether Quill should remain the
law of the land.
QUICK TAKES
MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTIES IN AMERICA*
1. Ventura County, Calif. (below)
2. Humboldt County, Calif.
3. Santa Barbara County, Calif.
4. Mendocino County, Calif.
5. Del Norte County, Calif.
Riding Towards a Healthier Future:
Bike tour explores Mecklenburg County
*Based on the prevalence of physical characteristics
such as temperate climate, access to bodies of water,
mountains (natural amenities) most often mentioned
as desired in physical locales.
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural
Amenities Scale
Charlotte, N.C. Department of Transportation Bicycle Program Manager Ken Tippette (yellow vest, left) and
Mecklenburg County, N.C. Health Department Safe Routes to School Coordinator Dick Winters (yellow vest,
right), describe the investments made by the city and county to develop the Little Sugar Creek Greenway to
bike tour participants. The Greenway, through the heart of downtown Charlotte, is currently six miles long,
but will eventually stretch 18 miles to the South Carolina border. Photo by Nick Lyell
By Rob Pressly and Andrew Whitacre
COUNTY SOLUTIONS AND INNOVATIONS
DEPARTMENT
As part of the 2015 NACo
Annual Conference in Mecklenburg County, N.C., a group of 20
attendees from counties across
the country took part in a mobile
bike tour of Charlotte’s bike and
pedestrian infrastructure.
Ken Tippette from the Charlotte
Department of Transportation and
Dick Winters from the Mecklenburg County Health Department
led participants on a six-mile tour
over 2.5 hours, with stops to view
key components of their on-street
bike lanes, off-street rail trails and
greenways.
Through a partnership between
Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, the area has seen a significant
change in accessibility for cyclists
and pedestrians. In 2003, there was
only one mile of striped bicycle
lanes in Charlotte. In just over a
decade, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have dramatically
increased the amount of bike and
pedestrian facilities.
Today, there are 81 miles of
bike lanes and paved shoulders,
55 miles of signed routes and 44
miles of greenways and off-street
paths for a combined 180 miles of
bike and pedestrian infrastructure.
Supporters of increased bike and
pedestrian trails say these facilities
ease automobile traffic congestion
by increasing bike and pedestrian
traffic, improve on-street bike commuter accessibility, increase safety
for cyclists and pedestrians, and
create opportunities for residents to
use greenways and trails connected
to the area’s light rail system for
exercise and leisure.
On their Sunday morning bike
tour through Charlotte, participants learned about the city’s biking
and pedestrian improvements.
Highlights along the tour route
included the Little Sugar Creek
Greenway, on-street bicycle parking corrals, a former Interstate
access lane that was converted to
an exclusive bike and pedestrian
crossing, and an advanced stop
box — road markings at signalized
intersections — where sensors detect bicycles and allow them to get
a head start when signals change.
Participants gathered ideas
about opportunities to apply in
their counties. Sig Hutchinson
from nearby Wake County, N.C.
had a number of key takeaways
as his county undertakes efforts
to move its pedestrian and biking
infrastructure.
“It’s educational for county
elected officials to see how other
counties accommodate for cycling
and active transportation,” he
said. “In addition to an active bike
share program, I enjoyed seeing
how Charlotte and Mecklenburg
County repurposed their four-lane,
higher-speed roads into two-lane
corridors with a turn lane to make
room for bicycling and pedestrian
traffic.
“Known by some planners as
a ‘road diet,’ these newly redesigned corridors provide for slower
speeds promoting [safety], active
transportation options and more
vibrant shopping centers, as well
as developing corridors that look
more inviting and fun. They can
be difficult to do but are definitely
worth the time and effort once
completed,” he added.
NACo is highlighting the important connection between the social
and economic, health behaviors
and the physical environment and
community health. Accessibility
to safe biking and pedestrian infrastructure for both exercise and
active transportation contribute to
improve health factors in the annual
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
County Health Rankings.
For more information on
the County Health Rankings &
Roadmaps program, visit www.
countyhealthrankings.org.
CountyNews
President | Sallie Clark
Publisher | Matthew Chase
Public Affairs Director | Brian Namey
Executive Editor | Beverly Anne Schlotterbeck
Senior Staff Writer | Charles Taylor
Senior Staff Writer | Charlie Ban
Design Director | Leon Lawrence III
ADVERTISING STAFF
Job Market/Classifieds representative
National Accounts representative
Beverly Schlotterbeck
(202) 393-6226 • FAX (202) 393-2630
Published biweekly except August by:
National Association of Counties
Research Foundation, Inc.
25 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
STE. 500, Washington, D.C. 20001
(202) 393-6226 | FAX (202) 393-2630
E-mail | [email protected]
Online address | www.countynews.org
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services or messages advertised. Periodicals postage
paid at Washington D.C. and other offices.
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© National Association of Counties
Research Foundation, Inc.
CountyNews •
4 August 24, 2015 A THROWAWAY LINE IN LYNN PADGETT’S
BIOGRAPHY TELLS YOU A LOT ABOUT THE
OURAY COUNTY, COLO., COMMISSIONER.
“I LIVE OFF THE GRID”
By Charlie Ban
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
She bought a house at the end
of a three-mile dirt road 15 years
ago because it was perhaps the
only home under $200,000 on the
market. It’s unconnected to utility
lines and largely self-sufficient.
“I wasn’t interested in adding
to sprawl,” Padgett said. “So
many properties were ranches with
40-acre parcels that were split for
houses. This is really in the middle
of nowhere.”
“I always wanted to be on solar
power,” she said. “When I was a
kid, on a San Diego Navy base, I
thought it was odd we didn’t know
where our water or power come
from. Now I’m totally aware and
so is the rest of my family.”
The house’s temperature is regulated by passive solar power. The
windows are positioned to capture
the sun’s rays in the winter on the
sandstone floor, with a woodburning stove supplementing the heat.
“We can come home and it
will be 20–30 degrees outside but
60s–70s inside,” she said.
In the summer, the sun comes in
at a higher angle, one that the eaves
can block. With highs in the upper
70s and lows in the 40s and 50s in
the summer, along with cool air,
heat regulates pretty comfortably.
Electricity comes from solar
panels, which Padgett was able to
get at a discount on eBay.
“The first quote I got was
THE
GRID
$25,000 for a 300-watt system,”
she said. “On eBay, we got the
same setup for $4,000, still under
warranty, with an inverter thrown
in.”
Because the sun is out a little
less in the winter, the family relies
on the backup generator from
December to February. Once it’s
on, they take advantage by running as many of their electronics
as they want. And they do have
some — off the grid does not
mean “Stone Age.” The bread
machine, which allows the family
of four to make gluten-free loaves,
uses a ton of energy heating up,
but if the generator is on, it’s like
a divine dinner guest came over
and brought the bread.
They have a refrigerator, a television, satellite dish and computers, but avoid the ‘round-the-clock
devices like cordless phones and
clock radios. Everything is on a
surge protector.
“Our water heater works
on-demand,” she said. “There’s
no need to heat the water all the
time, especially when we’re out of
the house.”
They have a gas clothes dryer,
but also hang-dry their clothes.
“My kids are good about
checking the (electricity) meter
before asking if they can watch
television,” she said. “In general
they understand the footprint a
family brings to the environment.
How many gallons of water we
use and how much wastewater we
produce. They know it ends up in
a septic tank we need to service.”
The 200-pound tank of propane
that comes every year costs $400,
and makes up the majority of
the family’s utility costs. That,
and the trips to the supplemental
water tank.
Drilling a well in sandstone
bedrock is very expensive, so the
family supplements its supply
by driving a tank truck 20 miles
round-trip and fills up every week
for 25 cents.
“It’s an easy trip for us, but
not for a lot of Ouray County
residents,” she said. “They have
to travel a few hours to get water.”
She estimates 10 percent of
county residents live as she does.
“Either for economic reasons or
because they want to have a light
footprint,” she said. “It’s getting
more popular — we had a former
county attorney move in nearby
and a family doctor. I think it gives
people an appreciation for how
simple their lives can be if they try.”
• CountyNews
August 24, 2015 5
Waters may be clear, but worries linger over sediments
The Animas River is clear and at pre-plume levels in this photo taken Aug. 9, four days after 3 million gallons of toxic water poured out of an abandoned mine. The scene was different
earlier in the week (inset) at Cement Creek, the Animas River’s tributary into which the toxic water spilled. Large photo by Julie Westendorff, inset via Wikimedia Commons
MINE SPILLAGE from page 1
ing arsenic, lead, mercury and
cadmium, plus iron oxide for
coloring, made the water resemble
concentrated orange juice that filled
the river banks starting in San Juan
County, Colo. Immediately downstream, La Plata County, Colo.
closed the rivers to fishers and water
sports enthusiasts and got the city of
Durango to close its water intake.
Commissioner Julie Westendorff
took in the sight from a helicopter
Colorado River. But four days after
the plume arrived, it was gone, and
La Plata County, and its kin along
the river, started shifting their focus
to the river’s long-term health.
“This has given me a more
analytical look at the river than I
had ever taken before,” Westendorff
said. “I’d never looked at it in all
the ways that people and animals
use it. We have no idea how these
toxins are going to affect fish, birds,
beavers, deer. We’ll have to wait
and see.”
activities along the Animas and
San Juan rivers could resume, but
that may not assuage fears about
their dormancy in the river’s sediment. In New Mexico’s San Juan
County, Executive Kim Carpenter
is watching the weather to see what
happens.
“There’s a lot of anxiety about
a thunderstorm kicking up the
sediment and releasing settled
toxins back into the river,” he said.
“We’re worried about the runoff
after the next thaw in the spring.
“You couldn’t see any clear water,” she said. “It looked like apricot
preserves, baby food… nothing you wanted your river to resemble.”
and was aghast.
“You couldn’t see any clear water,” she said. “It looked like apricot
preserves, baby food… nothing you
wanted your river to resemble. You
got an immediate reminder of how
much you paid to natural science
and chemistry.”
Those images appeared in the
news across the country and got
extra attention in New Mexico,
Utah, Nevada and California —
where the plume would be headed
next as it traveled down the Animas
River to the San Juan River and the
The absence of the plume was
of little solace.
“What we’re worried about isn’t
the coloring — the toxic elements
of the plume are invisible, and it
will take a lot of testing over time to
determine when the water is safe,”
she said. “We have good looking
water right now, but that doesn’t
mean anything.”
Levels for the chemicals causing
the concern have largely returned to
pre-plume levels, and on Aug. 17,
New Mexico announced that drinking water systems and recreation
Things like that show you what
kind of long-term approach we
have to take in regard to the river.”
Economic concerns from the
fallout focus on agriculture, recreation and tourism.
“It’s one of our lifebloods,” Carpenter said. “It’s a natural resource;
it’s a draw for recreation and we
have 60,000 head of cattle near that
river. We have farmers who aren’t
able to irrigate their land.”
It was Westendorff ’s first emergency incident, and she was quick
to notice that training and virtual
drills were no replacement for experience in that situation.
“It was important to see what
my role was and how important it
was to stick to that role,” she said.
“The best thing we could do was be
as transparent as possible.”
Her role was to communicate,
fielding questions and trying to maintain the public’s confidence in the
county government, even when the
county wasn’t sure about the EPA.
“They were supposed to be fixing the mine leakage, not making
it worse,” she said. “They don’t
have any credibility around here.
I have no idea if they engaged in
negligence or not, but it’s hard for
people in La Plata County to trust
what they say. Right now, our expectation is that the EPA will cover
the costs associated with long-term
water monitoring.”
The EPA reported that while
excavating the Gold King Mine
during a remediation assessment,
the loose material gave way, opening a mine tunnel and spilling the
water, initially estimated to be 1
million gallons, stored behind the
collapsed material into a tributary
of the Animas River. The U.S.
Geological Survey updated the
estimate twofold.
Downstream, counties like
Coconino in Arizona, are taking
cues from their state agencies
determining whether the water
is safe.
EPA aerial and ground reconnaissance found there is no leading
edge of contamination visible in
downstream sections of the San
Juan River or Lake Powell, but
thorough waster testing has not
confirmed that the toxic materials
have not continued to travel down
the river.
The spill has been galling for
LaPlata County because it had
grown away from the industrial
area of 40 years ago, when a smelter
on the hillside polluted the river.
“There was a spill back in 1972
and people who were around then
didn’t have the same horrified
reaction because they’ve seen it
before,” Westendorff said. “Now,
there’s more of an expectation the
water quality is higher.”
Westendorff said despite the
environmental and economic
stakes, the national media coverage was probably exaggerated, but
it could focus Congress and the
EPA’s attention on successfully
cleaning up other defunct mines
along the river.
CountyNews •
6 August 24, 2015 If chairs could talk, these might be saying, “Welcome home to tiny living.” The Orlando Lakefront at College Park in Orange County, Fla. bills itself as a Tiny Home & RV Community.
Photo courtesy of American Tiny House Association
The tiny house
market grows
BIGGER
Counties vet micro-housing
as residents show interest
By Charles Taylor
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Tim Fitzgerald was surprised
by the turnout for a Tiny House
Forum in Staunton, Va. this
spring. He’s community development director for Augusta County,
which surrounds the city, the
county seat.
“When I went to this forum,
I was thinking maybe we’d have
10 or 15 people, and the room
was full. There were probably 60
folks there,” he said. “There was
quite a bit more interest in it than
anticipated.”
Whether the “tiny house movement” is a ripple or a wave, county
officials are looking at tweaking
zoning and building ordinances
in response to their residents’
interest in the structures. Others
are being proactive and considering tiny houses as a solution to
homelessness or the shortage of
affordable housing.
Tiny homes generally range
from 200 square feet to 500 square
feet in size — potentially on wheels
— but they can also be attached to
a foundation, according to Robert
Reed, president of the American
Tiny House Association. The
nonprofit is less than a year old
and has about 20 state chapters.
Depending on materials used,
the diminutive houses can cost
anywhere from $20,000 to about
$60,000 to build. Aesthetically,
they range from gingerbreadhouse-cute to Spartan. Many
are owner-built using “found,”
recycled or salvaged materials,
he said.
In Augusta County, homes are
required to be a minimum of 900
square feet, but they can be smaller
in areas zoned for agriculture if the
builder obtains an administrative
See TINY HOMES page 7
• CountyNews
August 24, 2015 7
An estimated
40,000
enthusiasts recently
attended the “the first
official” Tiny House
Jamboree in Colorado
Springs, Colo.
TINY HOMES from page 6
permit from the county, Fitzgerald
said. About 90 percent of the
county is zoned agricultural.
There are two recreational
vehicle parks in the county that
permit “trailerable” units, which
could fit the definition of tiny
homes, to lease year-round sites.
Like RVs, they must be licensed
by the Department of Motor
Vehicles and meet standards of
roadworthiness.
Are They a Fad, or Are
They the Future?
Both, as Reed sees it. “I think
that I would say it was a fad, except
for the number of people in it,” he
said, “I don’t think that it’s a fad
for them.” An estimated 40,000
enthusiasts recently attended the
“the first official” Tiny House
Jamboree in Colorado Springs,
Colo. earlier this month.
Reed has no hard data — one of
the association’s goals is to develop
some — but he said, anecdotally,
millennials and baby boomers
seem to be driving the trend.
For the younger generation,
economics and having a smaller
environmental footprint can
be a draw. Some empty-nested
boomers seek to downsize and
appreciate the mobility tiny homes
can provide.
Interest appears to be distributed throughout the United States,
he said, more so in rural areas than
in urban ones.
People interested in building
mini-homes can run into “a
myriad of regulatory hurdles”
in terms of building and zoning
codes that pertain to water and
sewer, he said. Part of the associa-
tion’s mission is to raise awareness
and help navigate ordinances that
vary from state to state.
Potential to Combat
Homelessness
Sonoma County, Calif. is
studying whether tiny houses
could aid in the rapid rehousing
of some 300 homeless persons.
Supervisor Shirlee Zane is spearheading the effort to determine if
it’s feasible to build a tiny house
village on county-owned property.
Public land is being considered
because California waives state
and federal codes for localities
that declare a “shelter crisis” to
house people “exiting homelessness,” according to Jane Riley,
the county’s supervising planner.
“One thing that public entities and counties have, we’re
often land-rich,” Zane said. “If
we can find a private funder, or
even through HUD, to help build
these small homes—less than 200
square feet—and place them in the
right place where there is access to
services, then maybe we’ve really
hit on something that’s going to
work for us.” The county envisions a pilot program of two to
three years.
Tiny houses can take many
forms, Riley said. “Most people
picture cute little things that you
might see at the county fair or in
some of those HGTV shows.”
However, for housing the
homeless, she said four small
structure types are being considered. One is a rigid tent—a
portable shelter or cabin such
as a yurt. Recreational vehicles
of 90 square feet to about 220
square feet also qualify. Third are
what are known as “park model”
homes that can be built on trailer
beds, 220 square feet to 400 square
feet, which are also considered
RVs. Fourth are tiny homes on
permanent foundations.
Much of the county is rural,
so a tiny home village would need
to be located close to services the
residents would need, perhaps
on the outskirts of Santa Rosa,
the seat of government and the
county’s largest city. But that’s
no guarantee of success.
“Being near services means
it’s more urban, and that means
there are more people to object to
it,” Zane said. “We’re thinking of
starting off small, to maybe have
10 homes.”
A coalition of county agencies
has been asked to report back to
the Board of Supervisors in late
September on the feasibility of
the idea.
Another type of tiny house has
been around for a while — accessory dwelling units (ADU), built
in the yard of a main home, also
fit the tiny house model. Think
granny flats or converted carriage
houses.
In unincorporated King County, Wash., ADUs can range from
220 square feet to 1,000 square
feet, according to Jim Chan, assistant director for permitting for
that part of the county. It must
be an accessory to a primary
unit, and the owner has to live
in the main home. He said there
hasn’t been much interest in them
outside of Seattle, which allows
them in the city’s residential
zones, properly permitted.
Like Sonoma, King County
is also exploring solutions to
homelessness. “We’re looking
at micro-housing as an option to
tent cities and for siting options
for the homeless,” Chan said.
Options could include stacking
cargo containers and having
shared community facilities such
as kitchens and lavatories.
“The code currently doesn’t
allow this,” he explained, so the
county is considering amending
its comprehensive plan, and
its zoning, building and health
codes.
The American Tiny House Association’s position on using tiny
homes to address homelessness is
evolving, Reed said. It may not
be the solution, but it could help.
“I think that the idea of the tiny
house community is … something
that could be adopted by a county
that could have very specific limitations on size and scale so as to
not create a potential problem,”
he said. “But also could accommodate these transient houses
on wheels that could be mixed
into that; that sort of model is
something that’s exciting.”
NACo on the Move
XNACo Officers,
County Officials
• NACo President Sallie Clark
was in Baldwin County (Orange
Beach) for the Association of
Alabama County Commissioners
Annual Conference Aug.18–20.
While there, she was featured at
a news conference covering her
“Safe and Secure Counties” initiative. Earlier in the month, Clark
and Executive Director Matt
Chase were featured speakers at
the South Carolina Association of
Counties Annual Conference in
Beaufort County (Hilton Head)
Aug. 2–5. Clark spoke about her
new Safe and Secure initiative,
while Chase discussed advocacy
at the federal level.
• NACo First Vice President
Bryan Desloge spoke at the
County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania’s Annual
Conference in Allegheny County
(Pittsburgh) Aug. 4 about NACo
membership, programs and the
Safe and Secure initiative.
XNACo Staff
• Cecilia Mills
has been promoted
to research associate.
Mills led the ground
research for the latest
county administration
analysis An Overview of
Mills
County Administration:
Appointed County Administrators
and has been instrumental in the
Research Department’s organization around NACo’s
major conferences.
• Brittany Raymond
takes on a new role at
NACo as the County
Solutions and Innovation Department
project coordinator.
Raymond
Raymond began as an intern
at NACo in April. She received
her bachelor’s degree in criminology, law and society from
George Mason University.
• Kathy Rowings, justice
program manager, participated
in panel discussions about
engaging law enforcement,
prosecutors and local partners
in pretrial reform, Aug. 17,
at the National Association
of Pretrial Services Agencies
Annual Conference in Indianapolis, Ind.
• Julie Ufner was one of
three panelists offering perspectives on water resource
issues at the general session
of the National Association of
Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies Conference
in Teton County (Jackson
Hole), Wyo. Aug. 18.
• Emilia Istrate, research
director, and Brian Bowden,
associate legislative director,
traveled to the Maryland
Association of Counties’
(MACo) Summer Conference in Worcester County (Ocean City), Md.
Aug.12–15. Istrate spoke
at two sessions: as a
keynote speaker at the
Women of MACo luncheon and as a panelist
in a transportation and
economic development
session. Bowden participated
in a panel discussion on the
“Cadillac Tax.”
• Chris Marklund, associate legislative director, represented NACo
in Ketchikan Gateway
Borough, Alaska at the
Alaska Municipal League
Summer Legislative Conference, Aug. 19–21.
NACo Immediate Past President Riki Hokama (l) traveled to the Association of Arkansas Counties Annual Conference in Washington
County (Springdale), Aug. 5, where he spoke about NACo and current
issues facing counties. He also presented AAC President Judy Beth
Hutcherson and Executive Director Chris Villines with a plaque recognizing Arkansas’ counties for their 100 percent NACo membership.
Photo courtesy of Arkansas Association of Counties
CountyNews •
8 August 24, 2015 ARE YOU ENGAGED IN THE
2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION?
LEARN HOW TO GET INVOLVED!
2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION INITIATIVE
63% 57%
of the
public
has a
Favorable
Opinion
of Local
Government
for state
28%
for federal
To learn more about NACo’s Counties Connect America initiative
and how you can get involved, visit NACo.org/CountiesConnect
2016. GET INVOLVED.
#CountiesConnectUS
PEW Research center March 13-17, 2013
WHY COUNTIES
MATTER TO THE
PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION
• CountyNews
August 24, 2015 9
COUNTY INNOVATIONS AND SOLUTIONS
A Walk in the Park Proves
Worthwhile for Shelter Pups
Bentley, a pitbull mix, with the boy who adopted him through Maricopa
County, Ariz.’s Wag ‘n’ Walk program.
Photo courtesy of Maricopa County Animal Care and Control
By Charlie Ban
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Pitbulls aren’t bad dogs, you just
have to get to know them.
Now, by holding walks in the
park for shelter dogs, Maricopa
County, Ariz. is giving them a
chance to show off their personalities and possibly find a new home.
“They’re one of the breeds that’s
harder to find homes for,” Melissa
Gable said about pit bulls and pit bull
mixes. She’s the spokeswoman for
the county animal care and control
department. “A lot of dogs are easy
to adopt, but others need to make
a bond with a prospective owner.”
That’s where field trips to Usery
Mountain Regional Park come in
handy. Once a month in cooler
weather, since 2013, volunteers take
sets of dogs there for walks, where
they can be paired with families
interested in adopting. It gives the
animal care and control department
all sorts of opportunities with the
dogs, and the parks and recreation
department demonstrates that its
parks are dog-friendly.
And it works, with 10 dogs
and counting finding new homes.
A recent pitbull mix, Bentley,
had been at the county shelter for
about six months.
“They’re resilient breed,”
Gable said about pitbulls. “The
shelter environment doesn’t seem
to affect them as harshly as other
breeds, which helps, because they
are around a little longer. They
carry a stigma of being vicious.”
But getting them out of the
shelter offers an opportunity to
imagine a life away from the cages
in which they live. It gives dogs
like Bentley a chance to socialize in a more relaxed setting, but
also offers the animal control and
care department a glimpse into
how the dogs react riding in cars,
walking on leashes and interacting
with children.
It turned out Bentley got along
pretty well with a young boy and his
dad who came to a “wag ‘n’ walk”
last winter. They had lost another
dog to cancer a few months before,
and the father told his son that
when he saved up enough money
for the adoption fee, they could get
another dog.
“They just gravitated to each
other,” Gable said. “It was pretty
clear they were right for each other.”
All of the requisite paperwork
is at the park already, so dogs could
conceivably go home with families
that day. But Gable also said the
department made it clear the absence
of a match wasn’t failure.
“Sometimes it will take a few
months for a dog to find a new
home,” she said. “We’re patient,
and so are they.”
Gable relies on a long roster of
volunteers and hopes roughly 10
can make it to each wag ‘n’ walk.
Those volunteers keep the costs of
the program minimal, but the impact
remains positive.
“Even if the dogs aren’t adopted,
they get time away from the shelter
and a change in pace,” she said.
“Nothing is wasted.”
The animal control and care
department is considering holding
similar events in the western part
of Maricopa County, and doing
similar one-day events at other
county parks.
County Innovations and Solutions
features award-winning programs.
Maricopa County’s Wag ‘n’ Walk
program was named best in category
for Parks and Recreation among 2015
NACo Achievement Award entries.
Take time to recognize your volunteers
By Kay Sibetta
NAVPLG president
GWINNETT COUNTY, GA.
The Aug. 28 deadline for nominations for the National Association
of Volunteer Programs in Local
Government (NAVPLG) awards
is fast approaching.
Each year, the National Association of Volunteer Programs
in Local Government (NAVPLG),
a NACo affiliate, recognizes
exemplary government volunteer
administrators, volunteer managers and volunteer programs. The
NAVPLG Awards are a great
way to bring recognition to volunteer programs and managers
of volunteers who work in local
government.
NAVPLG members can nominate their volunteer program or
volunteer managers for several
awards: Outstanding Volunteer
Administrator, New Volunteer
Administrator and Innovative
Volunteer Program. Past County
award recipients include: Arlington County, Va.; Leon County,
Fla.; Outagamie County, Wis.;
Riverside County, Calif.; and
Salt Lake County, Utah.
Not a NAVPLG member?
No problem. NAVPLG’s new
Award of Merit recognizes an
exemplary volunteer program or
administrator and doesn’t require
membership to apply.
The awards will be presented
at the National Conference
for Volunteering & Service in
Houston, Oct. 19–21. All winners
receive a plaque and a complimentary one-year membership
to NAVPLG. Nomination forms
and other details are available at
www.navplg.org.
Profiles in Service
Pat Irwin
NACo Board of Directors, Commissioner
Pershing County, Nev.
Number of years active in NACo:
I have been a Pershing County
commissioner, Nevada Association of Counties member and
NACo member for six years.
Years in public service: Six
years, but I have been a volunteer fire fighter EMT for 27 years
Occupation: Retired from AT&T
(32 years), and currently I work
for the state of Nevada as an
EMS Rep II running Region 3 in
Nevada
Education: Edward C. Reed High
School graduate, Certified Public
Official, University of Nevada –
Reno
The hardest thing I’ve ever
done: memorize a three-day
youth leadership class — verbatim
Three people (living or dead) I’d
invite to dinner: Ed Tribble (my
middle school science teacher),
the Wright Brothers and Neil
Armstrong
You’d be surprised to learn that:
I won the state championship for
the firefighter manipulative drill.
The most adventurous thing I’ve
ever done is: completed a 125foot freefall rappel into a cave
and climbed my way back out
after exploring the cave.
My favorite way to relax is:
lie on the beach — any beach!
(To be honest, it lasts about 15
minutes and then I am up doing
something.)
I’m most proud of: my kids —
they are awesome and make me
realize just how lucky my wife
and I really are!
A dream I have
is to fly a hot air
balloon over a
pyramid in Egypt.
— P. Irwin
Every morning I read: The Reno Gazette Journal.
My favorite meal is: chicken and dumplings.
My pet peeve is: a lack of honesty and integrity.
My motto is: “If you find or do something that makes
you smile, share it with someone else.”
The last book I read was: Gone Girl.
My favorite movie is: Jurassic Park.
My favorite music is: Pop/
Rock— Green Day’s Good Riddance (Time of Your Life).
My favorite president is: Abraham Lincoln.
My county is a NACo member
because: we have met the
greatest people in the world
attending NACo meetings
and have used the knowledge
gained from those people
and the resources at NACo to
enhance our county.
Aerial resources play critical
role in suppressing fire damage
FIRE from page 1
Chelan County Commissioner
Ron Walter says the concentration
of fires is straining Forest Service
resources. “They’re stretched real
thin with their aerial tankers. The
biggest issue is getting crews who
are qualified to fly the planes and
helicopters,” Walter said.
Aerial support has been instrumental in containing property
damage in his county. The fire
that erupted Aug. 10 in scrub and
sagebrush was fanned by 40 mph
winds. “Without air support we
would have lost a lot more homes
and other buildings.” As of Aug.
19, 35 homes and 20 outbuildings
had been lost.
Walter, who chairs NACo’s
Public Lands Steering Committee, said “The fires bring home the
need to get a message to Congress
about preventing fire through how
we mange our public lands.”
He also had another point
to make. “I was amazed at the
outreach from fellow commissioners as they heard about the
fires. We’re a good family, that
NACo family.”
CountyNews •
10 August 24, 2015 Financial Services News
Roanoke County, Va., Sonoma County, Calif. honored
for innovative leadership in retirement savings
by
Lisa Cole
SENIOR DIRECTOR, NACO FINANCIAL
SERVICES
Roanoke County, Va. and
Sonoma County, Calif. are the
inaugural winners of NACo’s
Deferred Compensation Retirement Program’s Aspire Award:
Honoring Innovations in Promoting County Employee Retirement
Savings. The two counties were
selected from among a number
of applications from counties
that are committed to helping
their employees understand how
personal savings can complement
other income sources during
retirement.
Roanoke County was awarded
the 2015 Aspire Award for its
program “Helping Employees
Achieve Their Retirement Goals
After the Economic Downturn.”
Its employees have participated in
the NACo Deferred Compensation Program for more than 20
years. In order to encourage employee participation, the county
offers a $25 per month match.
While this generated interest
and participation, the recession
that began in 2008 had two consequences: reluctance to sign up
or reluctance to increase deferrals.
No salary increases for several
years combined with the market
downturn which then combined
with a change in state law that
requires employees to contribute
to the state retirement plan all
helped lead to declining interest
in the deferred compensation plan.
As the county began to recover
from the recession, efforts to encourage participation in the plan
included:
• maintaining the $25 match
What’s in
a Seal?
■ Prince Edward County, Va.
Prince Edward County, carved from nearby Amelia County
in 1753, was named for Prince Edward Augustus, fourth son of
King George III.
His mother, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, was acknowledged in the names of nearby Charlotte and Mecklenburg counties,
as was his birthplace, Buckingham House in London, represented
by adjacent Buckingham County.
Prince Edward’s likeness graces the county seal, which was
designed by county resident Richard McClintock in 2002. The
seal also prominently displays a sheaf of wheat, historically a
prominent crop, and McClintock was deliberate in avoiding
contemporary agricultural products, such as cattle, tobacco and
sorghum, that went in and out of fashion. Aesthetic considerations
led him to exclude symbolism of the current manufacturing
industry. Wheat was also central to the original county seal,
adopted in 1830.
Aside from Prince Edward, the seal depicts, from the left, the
rotunda at Longwood University, in the county seat of Farmville;
the cupola at the current courthouse; the former clerk’s office in
Worsham, which was the county seat until 1871; and the bell
tower at Hampden-Sydney College.
McClintock included iconography from the colleges to “represent the enormous contribution Prince Edward County has made
to American culture,” including educating President William
Henry Harrison, who attended Hampden-Sydney.
• working with Nationwide
to present more workshops on a
variety of topics in different locations that are open to employees
and spouses
• including a focus on the deferred compensation plan and the
match in employee orientation
• providing monthly meetings
with Nationwide representation
throughout the county and allowing employees to participate
during work hours
• holding semi-annual meetings between county staff and
Nationwide to review plan status
and adjust the outreach as necessary, and
• including Nationwide during open enrollment benefits
sessions.
What are the results?
In 2013, there was as 76.8
percent participation rate and
58 percent of new hires signed
up. The participation rate for
new hires, however, dropped to
73 percent and only 24 percent
signed up in 2014 due to mandated participation in a state
plan. Despite these decreases, the
county’s commitment to working
with its employees continues to
show positive results.
Sonoma County was awarded
the 2015 Aspire Award for its
“Retirement Literacy 101: The
Nuts and Bolts of Constructing
a Lifetime Savings Plan” project.
The county recognized that
individual savings are extremely
important to post-retirement
financial wellness and wanted
to boost employee participation
in its employees’ voluntary
retirement savings programs
— specifically the NACo Deferred Compensation Program.
The goal was to ensure that
employees were fully aware of
the strengths and limitations of
the pension and Social Security
systems, and how personal savings complements these other
income resources.
The county deferred compensation plan staff launched a
series of six workshops — during
National Save for Retirement
Week in October 2014 — by
partnering with the county’s HR
department, the county pension
plan, local representatives of the
Social Security Administration
Roanoke County, Va. Aspire Award winners, Charlotte Moore (l) and
Rebecca Owens, show off their award trophy presented at the Annual
Conference Awards Luncheon. Photo by David Hathcox
and Nationwide Retirement
Solutions. By presenting a unified
message, employees were shown
how these various resources all
contribute to determining the
financial quality of their retirement.
In addition, the Board of
Supervisors authorized an Incentive Retirement Savings Plan
(IRSP) to motivate employees
to take the next step and begin
saving. The IRSP matches the
first 1 percent of an employee’s
salary saved in the deferred
compensation plan.
The results?
Countywide participation in
the workshops — particularly
those geared toward employees
just beginning to think about
retirement — was strong with
nearly 200 employees participating. The employees were engaged
and the county was able to iden-
tify where additional employee
education could be helpful.
The IRSP was also successful.
In the six months following its
implementation, the number of
employees contributing to their
deferred compensation accounts
increased by 10 percent, bringing
the county’s total participation
rate to 64 percent!
About the Aspire Award
The Aspire Award was created in 2015 to honor the 35-year
NACo Deferred Compensation
Program, administered by Nationwide Retirement Solutions and to
recognize county plan sponsors
that have gone above and beyond
in empowering their employees for
retirement success.
For more information about the Aspire
Award or the NACo Deferred Compensation Program, please contact David
Thompson, [email protected].
• CountyNews
August 24, 2015 11
News From the Nation’s Counties
XCALIFORNIA
munity Sustainability, collaborating with the Howard County Soil
Conservation District, will launch
the Farm Academy this fall.
• STANISLAUS COUNTY is
among several counties in the state
that are running out of the secure
paper used for birth, marriage and
death certificates.
The county clerk recorder’s
office is restricting residents to one
copy of such documents until it can
find a new supplier. Its longtime
source, Ohio-based Sekuworks
unexpectedly went out of business
last month, according to fox40.com
and The Orange County Register.
ORANGE COUNTY is in the
same bind. Officials there estimate
they have an eight-week supply of
the special paper. No formal restrictions have been imposed, but the
county’s clerk-recorder is encouraging people to limit the number
of copies they buy while county
employees find a new supplier.
• “We’re No. 1 … again” is the
boast from TULARE COUNTY,
thanks to its rank as the nation’s
premier agricultural county for
the second straight year, The Fresno
Bee reported.
The county’s crop values topped
$8 billion in 2014, an increase of
10 percent over the previous year,
according to the county’s Annual
Crop and Livestock Report.
“Right now we are standing
at No. 1 in overall value in dairy
and citrus, and in exporting,” said
Marilyn Kinoshita, Tulare County
agricultural commissioner.
Supervisor Pete Vander Poel
said the county has doubled its “ag
value” in less than a decade. Dairy is
the county’s top commodity, valued
at $2.5 billion in 2014.
XDELAWARE
NEW CASTLE COUNTY will
issue $15 million in revenue bonds
to build a new stock exchange in
Wilmington, the county seat. A
project of the Delaware Board of
Trade (DBOT), it can “offer new
businesses a more attractive alternative to traditional venture capital
funding,” said David Grimaldi,
the county’s chief administrative
officer, who put the DBOT deal
together.
DBOT also wants to create the
nation’s first “venture” exchange, a
crowdfunding exchange that would
allow startups and small companies
to access capital.
“This project may be the biggest
thing to happen to Delaware since
the Banking Act,” County Executive Tom Gordon said. “Our state
will not only be the best choice to
incorporate a new business, but
XNEW YORK
• For the first time in six years,
ALBANY COUNTY won’t have
to borrow to pay its short-term
operating expenses.
Local sales tax revenue dropped
to $219 million in 2009 from a high of
$237.3 million in 2008. It rebounded
and surged to $247 million last year,
according to the county budget office. The county keeps 60 percent of
the local sales tax — or an estimated
$151.6 million this year — and shares
the rest with local governments.
The county had been issuing tax
anticipation notes, known as TANs,
to pay its bills, County Executive Dan
McCoy said.
The borrowing ranged from $15.1
million in 2010 to $9.9 million last
year, with the related additional cost
in interest to taxpayers ranging from
$7,000 to $50,000, the Albany Times
Union reported.
XCALIFORNIA
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s natural amenities index, a measure of the best and worst places
to live in America based on scenery and climate, has judged VENTURA COUNTY to be the ideal.
The index combines “six measures of climate, topography, and water area that reflect environmental
qualities most people prefer.” Those qualities, according to the USDA, include mild, sunny winters,
temperate summers, low humidity, topographic variation, access to a body of water, The Washington
Post’s Wonkblog reported.
also to raise the money necessary
to fund it.”
XFLORIDA
Military veterans in CITRUS
COUNTY had a message for
county commissioners, and officials have taken it to heart.
The county’s veterans services
office was facing a budget cut of up
to 17 percent. At the invitation of
Commission Chairman Scott Adams, veterans and their advocates
attended a recent County Board
meeting to state their case.
John Wade, who chairs the local
watchdog group Citrus County
Council, said, “There are places to
cut in the budget, but this isn’t it,”
the Citrus County Chronicle reported.
Another speaker noted that one
in five county residents is a service
veteran — one in three counting
spouses and dependents.
Commissioners were moved
by what they heard, and each
promised that the cuts won’t happen. “We can do better than this,”
Commissioner Joe Meek said.
“We’re going to do better.” Added
Commissioner Scott Carnahan,
“We’re going to fight for you and
give you what you need.”
XILLINOIS
outlining how a parish president and
Parish Council would govern. It
will also determine how many seats
would be available on the parish’s
legislative body. Currently, there are
12 police jurors. The Police Jury set
aside $5,000 to fund the commission’s expected expenditures.
Forty of state’s 64 parishes
operate under the Police Jury
form of government. The other 24
parishes operate under home rule
charter; that two dozen includes
council-president, commission,
consolidated government and cityparish structures.
A COOK COUNTY ordinance
banning “puppy mills” will stand
after a federal court judge dismissed
a lawsuit filed by area pet stores,
challenging the law.
The ordinance allows only
rescue groups, humane societies,
government-run shelters or federally
licensed breeders who use no more
than five reproducing females to sell
dogs, cats and rabbits, the Chicago
Tribune reported.
Three pet stores and the Missouri
Pet Breeders Association were plaintiffs in the case. They contended that
the ban was unconstitutional because
it’s too vague, disrupts interstate XMARYLAND
A new HOWARD COUNTY
commerce and violates their right
Farm
Academy aims to increase
to equal protection under the law.
awareness and cooperation among
rural farmers and their suburban
XLOUISIANA
The Police Jury in POINTE neighbors. County Executive Allan
COUPEE PARISH has adopted rec- Kittleman said public workshops at
ommendations for how its proposed local farming operations will be a
Home Rule Charter Commission part of the effort.
“The Farm Academy will help
will be comprised, funded and operincrease
understanding and coopate. It’s part of an effort to shift from
eration
by
opening the barn doors
a Police Jury form of government to
for
farmers
to show the community
a parish president-Parish Council
how
they
operate
and conduct their
structure, The Advocate reported.
business,”
he
said.
Commission members will
The county’s Office of Comdevelop the policies and procedures
• The ERIE COUNTY Legislature passed a ban on the sale of
products containing microbeads —
the tiny plastic balls found in facial
scrubs and toothpaste.
Supporters of the ban say the
plastic particles are too fine to be
caught in wastewater treatment
plants and are flowing by the billions into the Great Lakes and other
waterways, where they are showing
up inside fish that are caught for
human consumption, according to
the Onedia Dispatch.
• Using state and federal grants
and county labor, ULSTER COUNTY has installed nine electric carcharging stations at county facilities
available for public use.
The stations, which were installed
earlier this month at locations including the county administration
building, law enforcement center
and public works department, allow
residents and visitors to charge up
their cars for free.
The service is expected to run
about $500 a year, and because the
county offers the service free of
charge, it isn’t required to pay to
have its sites listed on special apps
used by electric car owners to find
charging stations, according to the
Daily Freeman.
XNORTH CAROLINA
Farmers using county-owned
See NEWS FROM page 12
CountyNews •
12 August 24, 2015 Wake County
farmers might
need to pay rent
NEWS FROM from page 11
land for their operations may
soon have to pay rent to WAKE
COUNTY, but they will have more
stability in their arrangement with
the county.
Two dozen farmers — who
grow top exports such as tobacco,
soy and sweet potatoes — currently
hold rent-free, year-long leases on
852 acres of county property.
Many of the farmers had sold
the property rights to the county
15 – 25 years ago while the county
prepared a reservoir, plans for
which have halted. The Board of
Commissioners tentatively agreed
with a staff suggestion to strike
multi-year rental deals with the
farmers. That could bring peace
of mind to farmers worried about
the county abruptly taking their
land, they said, while charging rent
would make the farming market
more fair, the News and Observer
reported.
Wake County farmers pay
an annual rent of $25 to $50 per
acre, he said. The money, roughly
$34,000 a year, would go toward
the county’s fund for preserving
nature and open space.
XOHIO
Residents of three counties
won’t be voting this November on
whether to allow fracking, based
on a ruling by Ohio Secretary of
State Jon Husted, according to a
report in The Columbus Dispatch.
In a letter to the boards of elections in ATHENS, FULTON and
MEDINA counties, Husted said
that only the state has the authority
to regulate oil and gas activity in
Ohio. Two oil and gas companies
challenged a similar measure passed
by a CUYAHOGA COUNTY
township in 2012. A common pleas
court in that case ruled that only the
state could determine the location
of oil and gas wells.
All three counties had planned
to have questions on their ballots
this November asking residents
whether to amend their county
charters to ban fracking inside their
borders.
XTENNESSEE
• A ban on weapons at the
WIILIAMSON COUNTY Fair
can stay in place, despite a recent
opinion about a controversial new
law by the Tennessee attorney
general that has sparked debate
over which public facilities can bar
handgun-carry permit holders from
bringing in guns.
The guns-in-parks law, which
Gov. Bill Haslam (R) signed in
April, nixes any local bans on guns
in public parks.
At issue now is an opinion
from Tennessee Attorney General
Herbert Slatery that some legal
observers said opens the door to
guns being allowed at publicly
owned facilities that are operated
or leased by private companies.
But Williamson County Attorney Bobby Cook wrote in a
statement that the nonprofit Williamson County Fair Association
could prohibit guns at the event,
essentially because he believes the
law doesn’t apply to the Williamson
County Agricultural Exposition
Park, according to The Tennessean.
The H.R. Doctor Is In: Guest Column
Beating the Heat: Tips
to Keep Workers Safe and
Healthy This Summer
• All 95 counties are now part
of a victim notification service,
which will allow crime victims
to track the status of county jail
inmates.
The system, known as Statewide
Automated Victim Information
and Notification, provides access
to information concerning the custody status of offenders in county
jails. Victims and other interested
parties can register anonymously
by phone or online and be notified
in the event an offender is released,
transfers or escapes, WJHL News
reported.
XVIRGINIA
• FAIRFAX COUNTY is
launching a program to reduce the
number of mentally ill inmates
at its jail by diverting nonviolent
offenders experiencing crises into
treatment instead of incarceration.
About 40 percent of the jail’s
1,100 inmates suffer from mental
illness, drug or alcohol addiction, or
both, The Washington Post reported.
Diversion First, as the program
is dubbed, is scheduled to begin
Jan. 1, 2016 and will take about
three to five years to implement if
full funding can be secured. The effort will pursue work on a number
of fronts to keep the mentally ill
out of jail.
Officials plan to create a crisisintervention team to train law
enforcement officers to deal with
the mentally ill. An assessment site
will be created, allowing mentally
ill offenders in need of treatment
to appear before a trained officer
instead of going straight to the jail.
• Following
attacks on movie
theater-goers, SPOTSYLVANIA
COUNTY will station off-duty
officers in some theaters.
The theaters will pay for the
uniformed and plain-clothes officers. Recent attacks in Tennessee
and Louisiana have stoked fears,
according to WTOP News.
by
Heather Martin
Summer can mean fun in the
sun for many, but whenever there is
excessive heat, outdoor workers are
at risk for heat-related illness and
even death.
Every year, dozens of workers die
and thousands more become ill while
working in hot outdoor environments. Construction workers make
up about one-third of heat-related
worker deaths, but outdoor workers
in every industry — including agriculture, landscaping, transportation,
and oil and gas operations — are
susceptible to the dangers of heat.
Just last September, 41-year-old
Avery Haas died after working
four hours on a crew re-roofing
an apartment complex in Urbana,
Ill. Temperatures that day reached
90 degrees, with a heat index in
excess of 100 degrees. The crew
was working in full sunlight, which
increased the effective temperature to
approximately 105 degrees. During
their lunch break, coworkers noticed
that Avery’s speech was altered and
he became increasingly disoriented,
exhibiting irregular motor control.
Avery’s coworkers transported him
to a nearby hospital where he died of
complications related to heat stroke.
Avery’s employer did not have
an adequate heat illness prevention
program and did not ensure that
workers were getting enough water,
rest and shade. The employer also
failed to train workers about ways
to prevent heat illness. Avery Haas’
death and all heat-related tragedies
are preventable. That’s why OSHA
conducts a nationwide heat awareness campaign every year.
OSHA has resources available
in English and Spanish to help
keep workers safe this summer. The
smartphone app, the OSHA Heat
Safety Tool, gives users vital safety information when and where they need
it — right on their mobile phones. This
app, available for iPhone and Android
devices, has now been downloaded
more than 220,000 times.
Remember — water, rest and
shade could mean the difference
between life and death on the job.
Keep workers safe and healthy this
summer by following these simple
but important tips.
(Heather Martin is a safety and occupational health specialist.)
BEAT THE HEAT. EMPLOYERS SHOULD ENSURE WORKERS...
• are allowed water breaks every 15 minutes
• rest in the shade or air conditioning to cool down
• wear a hat and light-colored clothing
• know heat illness signs and symptoms
• report symptoms early and watch out for coworkers
• know what to do in an emergency, and
• gradually build up their heat tolerance using an acclimatization process.