A gun regulation advocacy group filed a lawsuit in federal district court against a small Georgia town, its mayor and town council members because of its new ordinance requiring gun ownership by its residents.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, named after James Brady, who was permanently disabled during an attempt to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan, is a Washington based, filed its lawsuit in the federal court in Gainesville, Ga., against the town of Nelson on behalf of Harold Lamar Kellett, described in the complaint as “a longstanding resident of the City and a member of the Brady Center.”

Paragraph three of the complaint lists people exempted from gun ownership as those who “(1) ‘suffer from a physical or mental disability,’ (2) are ‘paupers,’ (3) ‘conscientiously oppose maintaining firearms as a result of beliefs or religious doctrine,’ or (4) have been ‘convicted of a felony.’”

Kellett claims he meets none of these criteria — he just doesn’t want to buy a gun.

“In this lawsuit we seek to establish that the government does not have the authority to compel Americans to buy guns or bring them into their homes,” said the Brady Center’s Legal Action Project Director Jonathan Lowy in a released statement, according to U.S. News and World Report.

“Forcing residents to buy guns they do not want or need won’t make the City of Nelson or its people any safer, and only serves to increase gun sales and gun industry profits. A gun brought into your home is far more likely to be used to injure or kill a family member, than to ward off an intruder.”

Nelson has one full-time police officer working a standard 8-hour shift each day. During the other 16 hours, the town has to look to others for support, according to WSBTV-2 News.

“When he’s not here we rely on county sheriffs — however it takes a while for them to get here,” said Nelson City Councilman Duane Cronic.

The problem lies in the fact that Nelson straddles two counties, making response times excessive. Hence the ordinance.

“It’s a deterrent ordinance,” said Cronic, who proposed it. “It tells the potential intruder you better think twice.”

© Copyright 2012 BizPac Review

The post Georgia town sued for mandatory gun ownership ordinance appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Longview residents could soon be seeing an unwelcome sign of summer: the city’s mosquito fogging trucks.

“We haven’t begun spraying for this year yet,” city spokesman Shawn Hara said Monday.

The city generally begins spraying once the temperature is consistently above 70 degrees at all hours of the day, Hara said.

“We’re still having some fairly cool temperatures overnight, but that will almost certainly change as we move further into May,” he said.

Mosquito vigilance is high after last year’s season became one of the deadliest on record for West Nile virus. Nationally, more than 240 people died from the mosquito-borne illness — about a third of them in Texas.

One Gregg County resident died and 29 others were infected with the disease that had relatively small outbreaks prior to 2012. Other East Texas deaths also were blamed on the virus.

Dallas County — the epicenter of the outbreak — resorted to aerial spraying during the height of the epidemic and began year-round mosquito surveillance and testing.

More than 1,000 cases of West Nile fever were reported in the state last year, as well as about 835 cases of the more severe West Nile neuroinvasive disease.

The city’s Environmental Health Department has been looking regularly for mosquito larva in stagnant water and water runoffs, Hara said. So far this year, Longview workers have not found any culex mosquitos, which carry the West Nile diseases.

The city sent a letter in April water bills reminding residents to begin taking early precautionary measures.

“Mostly, we’re trying to stress prevention,” Hara said. “That’s the biggest part, and that is what we wanted to put in there. The city can’t do everything and we can’t even do the biggest things.”

The city’s notices stress the importance of the four D’s: Staying inside between dusk and dawn; Dressing in long sleeves and pants, loose and light-colored clothing; Defending against insect bites with a repellent that contains DEET, Picaridin or Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus; and Draining standing water in yards and neighborhoods.

Buck Farrar, the city’s environmental health supervisor, said Longview is concentrating on larvicide applications, which are designed to kill mosquitos at the larval stage.

“We get the most reward for our efforts if we can destroy as many mosquitos as possible before they reach full maturity,” he said.

Residents with concerns about specific areas can contact the city’s Environmental Health Department.

Gregg County officials said they plan to begin spraying June 1 unless they hear from residents there is a need to start sooner.

“It’s been rather dry this spring, and we haven’t had any complaints that I’m aware of about mosquitos from county residents, so we’ll probably wait to start spraying,” said Anita Demby, administrative assistant for Pct. 3.

To request spraying in a specific area, Gregg County residents should contact their county commissioner.

Officials from Rusk and Harrison said they have not begun mosquito spraying for 2013.

There have been no cases of West Nile reported as of May 1 of this year, the most recent date for which the Texas Department of State Health Services has information available.

© Copyright 2013, Longview News-Journal, Longview, TX.

The post City of Longview to begin mosquito fogging soon appeared first on Municipal Insider.

RICHMOND — Dogged for two months by calls for her ouster since an independent investigation revealed she misused city resources, Human Resources Director Leslie Knight will resign effective July 1, City Manager Bill Lindsay announced Friday.

“Her remaining work with the city will be in the form of assisting during this personnel transition and the transition to a new fiscal year, ” Lindsay wrote in an email to top city officials late Friday.

The announcement comes after weeks of building outcry stemming from an early March investigation report revealing that Knight improperly received at least $400 monthly in a car allowance while also using a city vehicle; used paid city staff to make trinkets; and ordered a subordinate to access a whistle-blower’s emails after she lodged a complaint against Knight.

The report followed months of investigation by Sacramento-based Van Dermyden Allison Law firm, which looked into a 59-page complaint lodged last year by Stacie Plummer, 43, a finance manager in the Library and Cultural Services Department. Many of the allegations, including that Knight used city resources to profit from her trinket business, were found untrue. The trinkets Knight used city resources to package and store were given as gifts to city employees, according to a summary of the report provided by Lindsay.

But the misuse of some resources, including thousands from collecting a car allowance while also using a city car, outraged union officials and residents who demanded Knight be dismissed.

Lindsay, who brought Knight to the city in 2005 from Contra Costa County, where she was human resources director, consistently resisted calls to fire Knight. Lindsay said he calculated that Knight improperly took $10,800 in auto allowances.

“She paid the city $10,800,” Lindsay wrote in an email Monday. “She does not owe the city any additional restitution.”

But for reasons still unclear, Knight opted to resign. She could not be reached for comment.

Lindsay said Monday that Lisa Stephenson, currently the labor relations manager in the Human Resources Department, will assume management responsibilities for that department. “I do not have any current plans to hire anyone to fill Leslie’s vacant position,” he wrote in an email.

Knight’s critics welcomed news of her retirement.

“I’m hoping Ms. Knight’s resignation will help deter further wrongdoing, workplace bullying, harassment and retaliation that has become pervasive as part of the culture of the city,” Plummer wrote in an email Saturday. “Unfortunately, her resignation does not address her debt owed to the taxpayers from her sustained transgressions. Does this send a message to city employees that abuse of authority that appears to lead to embezzlement and misappropriation of public resources ends in a comfy retirement?”

In response to an email Friday asking for the terms of Knight’s retirement, Lindsay wrote, “There are no financial terms except what would go to any other employee (payout of vacation leave, etc.). I do not know what her pension is.”

The city has refused to release the full investigation report, citing attorney-client privilege. Lindsay released a two-page summary in March, saying the investigation rejected allegations that Knight “spied” on Plummer with surveillance equipment, and found that she did not abuse her power or retaliate, harass or treat subordinates unequally. This newspaper’s attorneys challenged the city’s refusal, and the city’s attorneys have promised to release some additional documents by Thursday.

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles, both of whom had expressed concerns with Lindsay’s earlier decision not to fire or demote Knight, said the resignation was a step toward restoring a sense of fairness to the city.

“It was the integrity of the city that was at stake,” McLaughlin said. “I’m glad closure is happening, and hope that lessons learned are taken to heart.”

Beckles said, “City staff who are responsible for enforcing the rules need to be without even the slightest appearance of violating those rules.”

Lindsay said

In his internal city note on Friday, Lindsay praised Knight for her service to the city and provided a list of accomplishments.

“During the recent recession,” Lindsay wrote, “Leslie helped steer a path that provided for fiscal responsibility, virtually all of which was accomplished without the devastating layoffs that happened in Richmond during 2003 and 2004 … Leslie’s strategies helped steer the City organization in this direction.”

Lindsay also noted that Knight in 2010 received the League of California Cities John Nail Award, given annually to an outstanding municipal assistant.

It is unknown whether the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office is investigating the matter, which Plummer has requested.

Knight’s base salary in 2011 was $220,000, with total compensation of $281,507, according to this newspaper’s public employee salary database.

Copyright © 2013 – San Jose Mercury News

The post Richmond’s second-highest ranking administrator resigns amid outcry over misuse of public funds appeared first on Municipal Insider.

The food truck business is heating up nationwide, and in anticipation of more inquiries into mobile food kitchens, the city of Spartanburg has developed policies and identified six potential downtown sites for the vendors.

Food truck vendors are known for selling affordable, fresh, unique delicacies — such as Asian barbecue or traditional burgers — out of bright, colorful, eye-catching trucks.

Councilwoman Cate Ryba said Spartanburg is ready for food trucks, and the policies drafted by city staff are fair to food truck operators and restaurants.

“We definitely want to see food trucks in Spartanburg,” Ryba said. “It’s a great way to support entrepreneurship even for those who are looking at opening a restaurant but aren’t ready to make a huge investment.”

City Communications Manager Will Rothschild said the city receives inquiries from food truck owners occasionally and crafted the policies in anticipation of future inquiries.

“Other cities have struggled to get their hands around the issue, and not to point the finger at any one city, but Greenville and Asheville have had some controversy, so we wanted to go ahead and get the policy written so everyone knows how we plan to handle them,” Rothschild said.

The challenge the city faces is how to fairly balance the needs of bricks-and-mortar restaurants that have more “skin in the game” with capital investments, employees and already paying their portion of taxes with requests from food trucks, which have less overhead and virtually little capital invested, Rothschild said.

The city of Greenville, for example, is grappling with the same issues. The city allows food trucks if they park at least 250 feet away from existing restaurants. The problem, food truck vendors contend, is that food trucks couldn’t park anywhere downtown under those provisions.

A proposed ordinance revision in Greenville would allow food trucks to park closer to restaurants, if the owner is in agreement.

Under the new policies in Spartanburg, food trucks could park in any one of six pre-selected downtown sites on North Church, North Spring, East Main, Commerce, Converse and East St. John streets. The vendor, however, can only park in one of the spaces once weekly, so the city encourages rotating spaces. Food trucks can also park in other lots, if the owner of the parcel approves.

In addition, food trucks must meet all state health regulations, obtain a city business license, remit hospitality taxes, have the mobile kitchen inspected by city building codes officials and not block traffic or be left unattended.

Ryba said if food trucks come to Spartanburg, it will encourage more restaurants and businesses to locate downtown.

“The message we want to send is the city welcomes food trucks, we want food trucks to come to Spartanburg and we will do whatever we can to facilitate that,” Rothschild said. “We think we’re able to strike a balance with this pilot program, but we might need to make some revisions or tweak it as we go along.”

A complete list of the city’s policies and pre-selected sites are available on the city website at www.cityofspartanburg.org/planning-zoning/food-trucks.

Copyright © 2013 GoUpstate.com — All rights reserved.

The post City of Spartanburg drafts policy, eyes sites for food trucks appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Inmates in the Marion County jail are more likely to be sexually abused by guards than inmates in any other jail in the United States.

That is the conclusion reached by a U.S. Department of Justice report released Thursday — a report that was immediately questioned by local officials but viewed as valid by outside experts.

The report says the Marion County Jail “had the highest reported rate of staff sexual misconduct” among 233 state and federal prisons, 358 local jails and 15 special correctional facilities reviewed from February 2011 to May 2012.

The rate of misconduct was 7.7 percent, while the average for all jails was 1.8 percent.

Kevin Murray, a lawyer for the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, questioned the sample size and said he had received no complaints about sexual abuse in the year in which the survey was taken.

Allen Beck, a Justice Department statistician and author of the study, said 62 inmates were interviewed, and five reported sexual abuse by guards: “That’s a big number: five out of 62.”

Copyright © 2013 www.courier-journal.com.

The post Study: Marion County jail’s rate of sex abuse is highest appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Monson, Mass. — When bad weather is closing in on Crawford County, communication is key in keeping the public safe, according to Allen Clark, director of Emergency Management for the Crawford County Office of Emergency Services.

Severe weather threats during the spring and summer often are thunderstorms and tornadoes, while snow storms are the winter time threat and flooding can happen year-round.

To get the word out to the public about potential weather emergencies, the Office of Emergency Services relies on area media outlets.

“We have the Emergency Alert System and Armstrong cable, and radio and TV,” Clark said.

The EAS is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable TV systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service providers and direct broadcast satellite providers to provide the communications capability during a national emergency. The system also may be used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information like weather information targeted to specific areas.

“Weather alert radios also are a good idea for homes,” Clark said. Those radios have a frequency band linked to the National Weather Service, which can activate weather warnings when they are issued by the National Weather Service.

“People can get weather information alerts sent to their smart phones with apps (applications) available free of charge,” Allen said.

The county also utilizes emergency sirens at the fire departments around the county to sound warnings during possible tornado activity. A tornado warning tone is a steady tone from an emergency siren for one minute followed by a one minute pause. That is then followed by another steady tone for one minute.

© 2013 Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc

The post Communication key in keeping public safe during disaster appeared first on Municipal Insider.

LAGRANGE — Lorain County’s school superintendents, as well as administrators from Sandusky City Schools, are speaking out against a proposed expansion to a state voucher program that would allow students to switch to charter schools on public dollars.

House Bill 59 is legislation established for Gov. John Kasich’s operating budget proposal. The bill passed the House with amendments in April and is before the State Senate.

Public school officials said they oppose House Bill 59 because it further reduces funds to public districts, while giving money to non-public entities which are held to lesser standards of accountability.

Charter schools received more than $800 million from the state in the past year, said Jay Arbaugh, superintendent of Keystone Local Schools.

“That is money that would be going to public district schools, that is being taken and given to charter schools,” Arbaugh said.

In Lorain County, performance index rankings for 2012 show the majority of Lorain’s charter schools perform below the county’s public school districts.

The Performance Index is a calculation that measures student performance on the Ohio Achievement Assessments and Ohio Graduation Tests, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

“Their performances are abysmal compared to public schools,” he said. “The results are not adding up to the investment.”

In Sandusky, school officials said they would be meeting with state officials and possibly testifying against the house bill.

“The Sandusky Board of Education is in opposition to any expansion of vouchers funded by reduction of public school funding,” the Sandusky administrators wrote in their own letter.”The Board of Education also believes in the fundamental concept of public funds remaining in the district where those funds were voted and that open enrollment should be dramatically changed to not negatively impact that school district’s overall financial condition.”

For every student who switches from a public district to a charter school, districts lose thousands in state funding. There are more than 1,000 students living in the Lorain City School district who attend charter schools, amounting to millions in lost funds.

The current voucher system adds further incentive to leave struggling districts by allowing students to obtain scholarships to attend charter schools in the event a school district is under performing. Students in school buildings ranked in “Academic Watch” or “Academic Emergency” for two out of three years are eligible, as well as those in districts ranked in the bottom 10 percent of the performance index ranking. The program awards 60,000 scholarships a year.

The new move would eventually allow students in kindergarten and first grade to obtain vouchers even when a school district is performing well, Arbaugh said.

“You would be able to use a voucher to go to a program that doesn’t have any track record,” he said. “There is no oversight for some of these places.”

In the letter signed by all of Lorain County’s superintendents, the officials stated that the move has little to do with giving students more “choice.”

“HB 59 would allow local tax dollars to be used for the support of private institutions, and the tax dollars that we all pay would be used to promote the financial gain of those same private institutions to the detriment of the value of local tax payer’s homes and communities,” the letter states.

The charter schools that would receive the public funding are not held to the same standards as public schools, the officials stated.

“As representatives of public schools and local communities, we have the responsibility to educate all of the children that walk through our doors and not only meet the standards set forth by the state, but also to excel at them,” the letter states. “Private institutions do not have the same requires, yet this fact is conveniently and continually ignored by current legislators.”

The bill would create “a playing field that is wildly distorted” in favor or “private for-profit institutions,” the authors stated.

Under Ohio law, consistently under performing charter schools can be automatically closed, but a report by PolicyMatters Ohio in January found that out of 20 schools closed since the law went into effect in 2008, eight were still operating, albeit under new names with largely the same staff. Public schools that hit the same low marks would be taken over by a state commission until scores could be increased.

“The charter schools should be held to the same standards and they’re not and that’s discouraging,” Arbaugh said. “The bottom line is that they’re not succeeding.”

House Bill 59 would also increase state funding to charters by setting a base for funding at more than $5,700 per student and by giving $100 per pupil for charter facilities.

The best to worst schools in Lorain County based on 2012 performance index data are Avon Lake; Avon; Amherst; Firelands; Columbia; Keystone; North Ridgeville; Constellation Schools: Lorain Elementary; Sheffield-Sheffield Lake; Constellation Schools; Elyria Community Elementary; Midview; Clearview; Wellington; Oberlin; Elyria; Horizon Science Academy; Mansfield Preparatory Academy of Excellence; Academy of Arts and Science; Constellation Schools: Lorain Community Middle; Summit Academy Secondary; Lorain City; Life Skills Center of Elyria; Lorain High School Digital; Summit Academy Middle School in Lorain; and Summit Academy Community School for Alternative Leaners.

© Copyright 2013 The Morning Journal

The post Lorain County school leaders oppose expansion of voucher program appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Franklin County officials are defending an agreement with local labor unions that would require anyone working on a $45 million renovation project to pay union dues and pay into union benefit programs, whether or not they are union members.

Members of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council brought the idea to commissioners.

In exchange for requiring all workers on the project to pay union fees, and for requiring successful bidders to recruit from local union halls if they need additional workers, the county gets a guarantee that union members will not strike or walk out and employers won’t lock out workers, to ensure that the project finishes on time.

Renovating the Hall of Justice building at 369 S. High St. on time and on budget is worth any bad feelings the agreement might spark, Commissioner John O’Grady said.

“Doing this memorandum of understanding provides for financial protection for the taxpayer,” O’G rady said.

The agreement already has spurred one letter to The Dispatch, in which the writer, a nonunion construction worker, wrote: “Commission President John O’Grady and the rest of the commissioners should be ashamed of themselves for abusing our tax dollars and submitting to this kind of forced wasteful spending.”

Commissioners have faced criticism before for what some said was a too-cozy relationship with unionized labor.

Low-bidders who were passed over for contracts on the county’s dog shelter, baseball stadium and new courthouse said the county’s previous evaluation process disqualified them because of minor wage disputes, which made it harder for non-union shops to get the jobs.

The Ohio Supreme Court later ordered the county to refine and clarify its vetting process, which it has.

County Administrator Don Brown said the agreement in no way makes it harder for non-union companies to bid on and get contracts for the renovation of the now-vacant, 10-story former court building.

He said while the employees of nonunion businesses would have to pay into the unions, the employers could choose to make that contribution so it would not come out of workers’ pay.

Because all workers on the project, regardless of union status, will be paid at the state’s prevailing wage, there’s no additional cost to taxpayers because of the agreement, Brown said. He said in reviewing other large county projects, it was clear that between 65 and 70 percent of the work was done by union workers.

That’s not because of preferential treatment, Brown said, but because projects of a certain scope and complexity often require the expertise of companies with strong apprentice and journeymen training programs. Because most of the work likely will be done by union workers anyway, he said, the memorandum makes good sense for the county.

“We think we got a guarantee that’s important to taxpayers,” Brown said.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, who signed off that the agreement meets legal standards, said that it was based on similar arrangements that have withstood legal challenge.

“We approved it as to form, but in addition discussed its terms with Don Brown as to its terms having been upheld by the Ohio courts in other cases,” he wrote.

© 2013 The Dispatch Printing Company

The post Franklin County officials defend deal with unions appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Marlene Cimons of Climate Nexus contributed this article to LiveScience’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

With at least 10 tornadoes ripping through North Texas in one night this week — leveling neighborhoods, killing six and injuring dozens — it might be tempting to call the twisters yet another instance of climate-fueled weather. But not so fast.

While most climate scientists agree that global warming is driving record heat waves, widespread drought, heavy rain and floods, intense hurricanes, and even monster snowstorms, tornadoes — at least for now — are a different story.

“With tornadoes, what we don’t know is as much as what we do know,” said Michael Wehner, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Global warming is making wet places wetter and dry places drier, and creating moisture-laden air that fuels hurricanes and snowstorms, making them much worse than they otherwise would be in a climate unchanged by human behaviors. [The New Normal: Deluge]

But we can’t necessarily say the same the same about tornadoes, at least not yet. The tornado connection to global warming is tenuous, and for several reasons. Chief among them is the fact that climate change apparently affects the two major factors influencing tornadoes — energy and wind shear — in completely opposite ways.

Tornadoes, violently rotating columns of air spawned by thunderstorms, occur when available energy — warm, moist air at low levels and cold, drier air above — meets vertical wind shear, which provides the source of the rotation. Climate change enhances the former, also known as “convective available potential energy,” or CAPE, and diminishes the latter.

As the planet warms, “the energy goes up, and the shear goes down,” said Harold Brooks, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory. “Thus, we have one ingredient expected to become more favorable and another expected to become less favorable.”

Furthermore, the enormous natural variability in tornadoes makes it difficult to sort out any viable climate trends. Also, what seems like an increase in excessive violent tornado activity in recent years may in fact be the result of other factors. [The Top 5 Deadliest Tornado Years in U.S. History]

“Tornadoes are small, and the observational record shows increases that are simply due to more people in more places seeing them,” said Kevin Trenberth, distinguished senior scientist in the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

There also is a dearth of information about what happens to tornadoes over time. Tornado reporting and record-keeping practices have been fraught with problems. “Our database for evaluating long-term changes in tornadoes is pretty awful, so we really don’t know how tornadoes might be changing,” said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for the Weather Underground.

Brooks agreed. “Tornado data collection has never been intended as a climate data set,” he said. “Large changes have taken place in reporting procedures that make interpretation of the past very difficult.”

Tornadoes can be terrifying and destructive, causing about 70 deaths and 1,500 injuries in the United States annually, according to NOAA. The strongest ones feature rotating winds of more than 250 miles per hour; they can be as wide as 1 mile and stay on the ground for distances as far as 50 miles. The year 2011 brought an onslaught of vicious tornadoes, including a catastrophic twister that struck Joplin, Mo., in May, killing 161 people and destroying a third of the city.

They can happen anywhere there is enough moist air at low levels, cold dry air aloft and strong vertical wind shear. “Tornadoes are spawned in particular environments that occur more in the United States than anywhere else,” Trenberth said. “It relates to the Rockies running north-south and the Gulf of Mexico being where it is. “Tornadoes are small in scale and not modeled in global models,” he added, explaining why it is so difficult to link them to climate change. “Meteorologists can find two storms that look almost identical and in similar environments, and one spawns a tornado and one doesn’t, so there is a large element of chance, evidently.”

Tornadoes are further complicated by the fact that certain small-scale processes — friction at the ground, and where and how much rain evaporates within the parent thunderstorm — also are critical. “Those are beyond our large-scale observational capabilities or predictions,” Brooks said. [Team Tornado: Chasing Twisters for Science]

No one knows whether tornadoes have increased in number or intensity, since the aforementioned changes in reporting practices “make the intensity question harder to answer,” Brooks said, adding, “If you take the dataset of reports at face value, it appears intensity has decreased over the years, but there are a number of things that have led to lower ratings for the strongest tornadoes.”

There always have been strong tornadoes, but the intensity picture has become further muddled because “warnings are so much better now and houses are constructed better,” Trenberth said.

Most climate scientists believe that clearer answers will be forthcoming with better climate modeling tools — and patience.

“Better understanding of the relationships between the large-scale environments and tornadoes would help, but the big thing is waiting long enough to get better trend estimates,” Brooks said.

Wehner agreed. “We need bigger computers, and better models,” he said. “But what we really need is time. We don’t yet have an answer. But, that doesn’t mean we aren’t thinking about it.”

Copyright © 2013 TechMediaNetwork.com

The post Is tornado intensity increasing? (Op-Ed) appeared first on Municipal Insider.

They saw it coming. And even though they were assured repeatedly the cash would be there to offset the costs of implementing federal health-care reform, St. Louis County officials started squirreling away money anyway.

And now they’re glad they did. As glad as every taxpayer in the county can be, from the malls of Hermantown to the shores of Lake Kabetogama. That’s because implementing at the local level the federal Affordable Care Act is expected to cost counties throughout the state and across the U.S. big bucks, despite the initial guarantees and reports to the contrary. In St. Louis County alone, it’s expected to cost a cool $1.5 million — just for the first year. That includes the hiring of 17 new county employees.

Even with federal money covering part of the tab, it’s a cost that rides on the shoulders of all us taxpayers.

“We’ve worked really hard to build our reserves,” St. Louis County Commissioner Keith Nelson of Fayal Township told the News Tribune editorial board last week. “You always put that money away for that rainy day. Well, guess what? It’s raining. And we’ve got that money there for the rainy day. But I don’t have the money there for the flood that might happen.”

“This is just the beginning,” predicted Commissioner Pete Stauber of Hermantown, the chairman of the county’s public health and human services committee.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” added Commissioner Frank Jewell of Duluth. “This wheel has to be reinvented as we go.”

In other words, what happens if federal health-care reform continues to cost counties? What if it becomes an annual expense rather than a one-time implementation surge? And what if promised state and federal dollars don’t come through to pay for the work being required by the state and federal governments? That’s something that happens often to counties. It’s what commissioners like Nelson, Stauber and Jewell mean when they speak of “unfunded mandates.”

Will local taxes have to be raised to cover ongoing costs related to America’s new way of offering health care and health insurance? Quite likely.

“There is a history of the state not fulfilling its promises,” Jewell said. “So there’s rightfully some worry.”

The county’s trepidation is only made more frantic when a leading health-care authority like Dr. Peter Person, CEO of Essentia Health, says at a public forum, “I think the implementation is going to be just a disaster. … I don’t know anybody that thinks this is going to work. This is going to be really messy and really complicated and really frustrating and really discouraging.”

At the same public forum this month in Duluth, St. Luke’s Hospital CEO John Strange said, “They’re underfunding it, and they’re way behind on the deadlines.”

Despite uncertainties, counties are stuck getting ready. Earlier this month, the St. Louis County Board considered a resolution to hire 16 financial workers and one administrative assistant to register and to screen thousands of Medical Assistance clients eligible for the first time because of federal health-care reform as well as thousands of others who’ll be transitioned from the state’s MinnesotaCare program to the county. The initial outlay in the resolution, for personnel and technology, is $660,069.76, of which the federal government is supposed to pay at least $310,232.79.

Other costs factored into the county’s expected $1.5 million outlay will be for office space, office equipment, computers and other expenses, according to Commissioner Nelson. That comes to $8 for every man, woman and child in St. Louis County, he said.

The County Board is expected to vote on the resolution June 11. Commissioners decided to hold off until after the Minnesota Legislature adjourned, in case any numbers change.

President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, sometimes known as “Obamacare,” into law in March 2010, expanding the availability of quality health care to lower-income Americans, some for the first time. And that’s a good thing. Every American deserves quality care.

The sticky part is how it’s being paid for. Some insurers predict workers’ premiums will have to go up 100 percent to 400 percent. Some part-time workers worry their hours will be reduced as their employers try to avoid having to provide insurance in accordance with the new law. And local governments are ramping up.

If federal health reform doesn’t work fiscally, federal, state and local leaders need to be ready to adjust quickly. They need to be willing to fail fast and then to regroup and take a more effective approach. Coming out of a recession with the massive expense of retiring Baby Boomers on America’s horizon, the nation can’t afford federal health-care reform to be the “train wreck” one Democratic U.S. senator has predicted.

© 2013 Forum Communications Co.

The post Our view: Costs of health-care reform will be borne by counties and states appeared first on Municipal Insider.

The stockpile of ammonium nitrate at West Fertilizer Co. was well known to farmers and firefighters around West. The explosive potential of that fertilizer was well known to experts for decades, codified in national fire standards.

But nowhere in the years before the April 17 explosion that ravaged West were the dangers of that stockpile reported in local emergency plans.

The explosion that killed 15 people and wrecked 37 blocks has revealed gaps in the federally mandated system for planning for hazardous materials incidents.

It’s a system that tends to pass the burden of identifying and mitigating chemical hazards to the lowest jurisdictional level, often resource-poor volunteer fire departments such as West’s.

The Emergency Planning Right-to-Know Act of 1986 requires “community response plans” to identify chemical hazards in each county, modeling how a disaster would affect nearby populations.

A “Local Emergency Planning Committee” in each county is supposed to review the plan yearly and educate the public about the hazards.

McLennan County does have a volunteer LEPC — though it hasn’t met since 2011 — and it has a plan for hazardous materials, rolled into an all-purpose disaster plan.

But that plan has little information about site-specific chemical risks around the county or their impact.

Among the hundreds of pages of the McLennan County Emergency Plan is a passing mention of potential dangers at the West Fertilizer Co., but it refers only to tanks of anhydrous ammonia, which ended up surviving the ammonium nitrate explosion.

A countywide map of major chemical hazards included in an appendix to the 2012 plan doesn’t include West Fertilizer at all. The map is dated 2005, a year before the Environmental Protection Agency cited the company for failing to apply for a permit for the anhydrous ammonia.

Disaster plan

It’s the responsibility of local fire departments in the county to identify specific risks in their own jurisdictions and prepare a plan to minimize those risks, said Frank Patterson, who oversees the planning process as coordinator of the Waco-McLennan County Office of Emergency Management.

“We have an interjurisdictional plan,” he said. “Every city is responsible for its portion.”

Patterson said his office, which is funded by the county and city of Waco, said the disaster plan worked well after the blast. Patterson has received praise from city, county and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials for his work as incident commander at the blast site.

But Patterson said his office does not require or review reports from local fire departments on chemical hazards in their communities. His office does receive federally mandated “Tier 2” reports from local facilities listing hazardous chemicals on hand, but it does not analyze those reports. State records show McLennan County has 251 facilities submitting Tier II reports.

West Mayor Tommy Muska, who is a member of the West Volunteer Fire Department, said he’s not aware that West has prepared any documents analyzing the chemical risks at West Fertilizer.

But he said that doesn’t mean that West firefighters were unprepared for the disaster.

“Everybody knew what was there,” he said. “We knew there were explosives there, that fire and fertilizer don’t mix.”

He said fire volunteers had toured West Fertilizer to familiarize themselves with hazards there.

Muska, who was heading to the scene when the blast occurred 
20 minutes into the fire, said firefighters were hastily retreating from the area. He said he believes that’s because they knew of the fertilizer’s explosive 
potential.

At least 20 of West’s 29 firefighters had trained and gotten certification from the State Fireman’s and Fire Marshal’s Association in basic fire suppression. They would have been taught that oxidizers such as ammonium nitrate are capable of exploding under the right conditions, association officials said.

Also, the firefighters who were attacking the fire were wearing self-contained breathing devices to protect against toxic gases, whether from the ammonium nitrate or anhydrous ammonia, fire officials said.

But Associated Press interviews with first responders suggest that firefighters’ primary fear was a toxic release of anhydrous ammonia from the tanks near the fire.

Doreen Strickland, president of the Abbott Volunteer Fire Department, pulled up to the scene just as the plant exploded, killing three of her department’s men.

She said she had heard no reports of ammonium nitrate before the blast, but anhydrous ammonia “was a major concern.”

Likewise, Dr. George Smith, West’s EMS director, told the AP he was thinking about a lethal chemical cloud, not an explosion. He ran to the nursing home to move residents to the side away from the plant, placed damp towels in the doorways and prepared to turn off the air conditioning.

Access to technology

The West fire department did not have the advantage of a commonly used technology, called CAMEO, that allows firefighters mobile digital access to information about chemical storage sites.

In Waco, firefighters en route to an industrial incident can use the system to map out chemical storage sites within various industries and model the chemical plume based on current weather conditions, said Waco Fire Department Deputy Chief Gary Davis.

The Waco Fire Department also has a hazardous materials unit that serves a multicounty area, but Davis said Waco didn’t get the call for help until after the explosion, perhaps because West and Waco are on different radio systems.

He said he’s not sure whether help from Waco’s hazmat unit could have saved lives at West.

“I’m sure every one of those guys knew about ammonium nitrate, and the properties of that,” he said, referring to the West firefighters. “But it doesn’t mean it’s going to blow up right then. They were doing what they were supposed to be doing.”

David Horowitz, who is leading an investigation of the blast as managing director of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, said his agency still is trying to gauge how much firefighters knew about the risks of the fertilizer fire.

But just knowing about the ammonium nitrate and its risks might not have been enough to prevent the tragedy, Horowitz said.

His agency is studying the blast to determine lessons to be learned for other industries that handle ammonium nitrate. He said the guidelines for ammonium nitrate are somewhat vague and unevenly applied around the country.

Ammonium nitrate is not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency as an “extremely hazardous” material, so plants aren’t required to submit a plan to the EPA on how to prevent a disaster with the substance.

The EPA issued an alert about the dangers of ammonium nitrate in 1997, three years after a deadly ammonium nitrate explosion at the Terra fertilizer plant in Port Neal, Iowa. But the EPA did not accept the recommendations 10 years ago by the Chemical Safety Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to adopt new ammonium nitrate standards.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security requires companies to report ammonium nitrate stores but mostly focuses on keeping it out of the hands of bomb-making terrorists.

That leaves local agencies in charge of enforcing any standards on ammonium nitrate storage, Horowitz said.

The National Fire Protection Association code, which many cities and counties have adopted, regulates the storage of ammonium nitrate, requiring it to be separated from combustible material by a one-hour firewall. That could have made a difference in West, Horowitz said.

Horowitz said that at West Fertilizer Co., the open-topped ammonium nitrate bin inside the 13,000-square-foot storage building, was close to large quantities of seed that could catch on fire. The wooden bins were not prohibited under the code but could also have contributed to the explosion, Horowitz said.

The codes also put extra restrictions on facilities near residential areas and allow fire departments to require sprinkler systems, which the West facility did not have.

Enforcing codes

But Horowitz said enforcing those codes requires training and personnel that may be beyond the reach of small fire departments.

“Enforcement is always a challenge, and in the case of Texas, rural counties don’t apply these codes,” he said. “Even going into states and municipalities where a lot of these codes are adopted, local firefighters often are short-staffed, and code enforcement is something they don’t have a lot of training resources for.”

By contrast, the Waco Fire Department has both a fire marshal’s office and on-duty firefighters to tour facilities, inspect chemical storage, do disaster drills and ensure that industries have adequate sprinkler systems.

“It takes a lot of time and effort,” Davis said. “We’re lucky in Waco to have that.”

Waco Fire Department has a budget of $20 million, while West’s fire department raises about $10,000 year.

Fred Millar, a well-known emergency planning advocate based in Virginia, said many small volunteer fire departments don’t have the resources to do hazardous materials risk analysis. He said that’s why it’s important to have an active county-level Local Emergency Planning Committee that can work with the departments.

Millar, who contributed to the 1990 Clean Air Act amendment as an official with Friends of the Earth, said the idea of LEPCs was to raise public awareness about chemical risks, but many have been inactive.

He said McLennan County’s plan doesn’t appear to have adequate information for an LEPC to begin to share hazardous material information with the public. He said it should include blast zones and plume modeling for hazardous chemical releases.

McLennan County’s hazard map pinpoints “extremely hazardous” materials sites, with circles showing one- and two-mile radius zones where people might be affected.

“That’s very rudimentary — that’s lazy,” Millar said, adding that some chemical spills could affect an area 15 miles away.

“Like most places in the country, they’ve been lowballing the risks,” he said. “The people who dominate these LEPCs are almost entirely local government and industry, and their one core value is, ‘Let’s not alarm the public.’ ”

Waco Mayor Malcolm Duncan Jr. said the West disaster should cause local governments to start communicating such hazards to the public. Duncan said it should also be a chance to look at how regional cooperation can be 
improved.

“I think what happened in West exposed some gaps we need to be proactive about,” he said.

© Copyright 2013, WacoTrib.com, Waco, TX

The post West blast reveals emergency planning weaknesses appeared first on Municipal Insider.

The county’s Department of Animal Services will offer pet microchipping, rabies vaccinations, dog licenses and discount spay and neuter coupons during a clinic from noon to 2 p.m. today at Woodglen Vista Park in Santee, in advance of wildfire season.

County officials said as wildfire season approaches, disaster preparedness plans should be updated and should include pet microchipping.

“We have rescued hundreds of animals during past fires and the first thing we do is check for a microchip,” county Animal Services Director Dawn Danielson said. “A microchip is the best way to reunite animals with their owners quickly after a disaster. It could save your pet’s life.”

Pet microchipping and rabies vaccinations will be available to anyone, but dog licenses and spay/neuter coupons will only be given to those who live in unincorporated areas such as Ramona, Julian and Santa Ysabel, or contract cities of San Diego, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar and Santee, according to the county.

Pet microchips will cost $20, which includes the registration. Rabies vaccines for dogs of four months and older and cats three months and older are $6. Dog owners who have not licensed their pet or allowed its annual license to lapse will be granted amnesty from late fees, county officials said.

Spay/neuter discount coupons will be $100 for female cats, female pit bulls and mixes and chihuahuas; and $75 for all females of other breeds and male dogs and cats, officials said.

County officials said dogs visiting the clinic must be leashed and cats must be in a carrier.

The post Disaster preparedness should include pet microchipping, says county appeared first on Municipal Insider.

FORT EDWARD — Washington County operated at a budget surplus in 2012 for the first time in years, even as the county floated $2 million in loans to Pleasant Valley nursing home and many revenue sources from the state continued to decline.

The county’s 2012 budget of $115 million finished with a $1.1 million surplus last month when the books were officially closed, according to County Treasurer Al Nolette.

County Budget officer Brian Campbell had projected a $2.6 million deficit when drafting the 2012 budget. That shortfall would have been plugged by using fund balance, a multimillion-dollar account of accessible cash from unexpected revenues.

“Going forward, we’re going to have to go back to building roads,” Campbell told the county Board of Supervisors Finance Committee on Thursday in reference to the Public Works Department’s depleted road maintenance account.

Medicaid and employee benefit costs continued to rise and Pleasant Valley and the now-privatized transfer stations bled millions.

But a nearly $1 million boost to sales tax revenue over 2011 figures and several departments coming under budget resulted in the unanticipated surplus, Nolette said.

Sheriff Jeff Murphy’s department, for example, was a half-million dollars under budget on its own, largely because of boosted inmate housing revenues at the county jail following Murphy’s decision to cut the per-day rates charged to federal law enforcement and other counties.

Nolette said the surplus boosted the fund balance — the rainy day account — by $2 million instead of depleting it by nearly $3 million, as was anticipated. The county general fund balance topped $15 million because of the cash influx, Nolette said.

The state increased highway funding and projections for pension and Medicaid costs have become known quantities over the past two state budgets, which have taken some guessing out of county budgeting.

The county’s 2013 sales tax revenues, an indicator of the local economy, is already $500,000 above where it was at this time last year, a pace that would easily shatter 2007’s $18.5 million revenue record if it continues.

Strong automotive sales and the opening of Big Lots in Granville are likely driving the sales tax increase, officials said.

And, if supervisors decide to augment the 14 miles of county road paving scheduled for 2013, the cash just might be there when drafting the 2014 budget later this year.

“The difference is knowing you need something and being able to do it,” Nolette said. “We just may be able to do something about it this fall.”

© Copyright 2013, Glens Falls Post-Star

The post Washington County closes book on 2012 budget with $1.1M surplus appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Iowa State Executive Director for USDA Farm Service Agency, John R Whitaker, announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has designated 14 Iowa counties as part of Presidential or Secretarial Natural Disaster Designation.

Farm operators who have suffered major production and/or physical losses caused by severe winter storms and continuing drought conditions may be eligible for low-interest emergency loans.

The Disaster Designations have been issued for the following counties and conditions:

A Presidential Major Disaster Declaration was issued for Dickinson, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, and Sioux counties as the primary disaster area for severe winter storms from April 9, 2013 through April 11, 2013. The contiguous counties are: Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clay, Emmet, Palo Alto, and Plymouth. The final date for making application under this designation is January 6, 2014.

A Secretarial Natural Disaster Declaration was issued for Plymouth and Sioux counties as the primary disaster area for drought conditions beginning May 1, 2013 and continuing. The contiguous counties are: Cherokee, Lyon, O’Brien, Osceola, and Woodbury counties.

Plymouth, Sioux, and Woodbury counties have also received a disaster designation as a result of being contiguous to disaster designated counties in South Dakota. The final date for making application under these designations is Jan. 8, 2014.

The Farm Service Agency may make Emergency Loans to eligible family farmers which will enable them to return to their normal operations if they sustained qualifying losses resulting from natural disaster. Physical loss loans may be made to eligible farmers to enable them to repair or replace damaged or destroyed physical property, including livestock losses, essential to the success of the farming operation. Examples of property commonly affected include: essential farm buildings, fixtures to real estate, equipment, livestock, perennial crops, fruit and nut bearing trees, and harvested or stored crops. For production loss loans, the disaster yield must be at least

30 percent below the normal production yield of the crop, on a crop or crops that make up a basic part of the total farming operation.

Applicant must be unable to obtain credit from other usual sources to qualify for the Farm Service Agency Farm Loan Program assistance. The interest rate for emergency loans is 2.375%. Each applicant applying for credit will be given equal consideration without regard to race, creed, color, marital status, or national origin.

The repayment for most disaster loans are based on the useful life of the security, the applicant’s repayment ability, and the type of loss. If the loan is secured only on crops, it must be repaid when the next crop year’s income is received. Loans to replace fixtures to real estate may be scheduled for repayment for up to 40 years.

Other programs may also be made available to assist farmers, including the Supplemental Revenue Assistance Program (SURE) due to this designation.

Interested farmers may contact their local County FSA office for further information on eligibility requirements and application procedures for these and other programs. Information can also be found online at www.fsa.usda.gov

© Copyright 2013 Spencer Daily Reporter.

The post USDA: 12 Iowa counties part of disaster designations appeared first on Municipal Insider.

WASHINGTON — Few regions will absorb the impact of future immigration reforms more than Los Angeles County, home to an estimated 1.1 million people in the country illegally, one-tenth of the nation’s total.

As the Senate Judiciary Committee began debating the bipartisan immigration bill last week, county officials voiced concerns that local taxpayers will be “left holding the bag” to pay for the brunt of healthcare and other services for multitudes of immigrants who apply for citizenship.

Local and state officials believe the overhaul bill will encourage those in the country illegally to come out of the shadows and turn to local services during the proposed 13-year-long pathway to citizenship.

“The one thing that’s really clear as day is that the federal government is going to be protecting itself against costs, and we’re going to be left holding the bag,” said Mark Tajima, an analyst with the county’s chief administrative office.

In Washington last week for the start of the debate, county officials, including Supervisors Don Knabe and Zev Yaroslavsky, warned of a “major cost shift” to state and local governments from the proposed legislation and pressed Congress to provide federal aid to help cover future costs.

Officials could not, however, provide a figure on the potential tab. Instead, as they made the rounds on Capitol Hill, they pointed to the $800 million the county received in the last big immigration overhaul signed by President Reagan in 1986.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), after meeting with county officials, brought up the county’s concerns at the Judiciary Committee meeting and directed her staff to look into the possibility of creating a “state impact assistance” fund, similar to the $4 billion provided to local and state governments in the 1986 bill.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a leading critic of the bill, has cited the potential costs to taxpayers in assailing the measure.

In its current form, the bill would bar most immigrants seeking legal status from receiving federal benefits, such as food stamps and Medicaid, during the years it would take to become legal residents or U.S. citizens.

The bill requires the federal government to have a plan to gain almost total control of the border, authorizing money for drones, customs officers and prosecution of illegal entries. People now in the country without legal status would be eligible for provisional status if they paid fees, fines and taxes. They could gain legal residency 10 years after the border was declared secure. After 13 years, they would be eligible for citizenship.

The National Conference of State Legislatures is urging Congress to allocate to local and state governments some of the fees paid by applicants for legalization. The legislation, however, calls for that money to be used to secure the border, a key element for Republican support.

The proposed bill also would bar most of those applicants from receiving subsidies to buy health insurance for 10 years. These subsidies, which are part of President Obama’s 2010 health law, will be available next year to millions of low- and moderate-income Americans and legal immigrants who do not get health benefits at work.

Many of the applicants for legalization also would be ineligible for other federal benefits for more than a decade. In contrast, legal immigrants are eligible for many federal benefits after five years in the country.

Immigrant rights advocates said that because applicants for legal status will pay taxes, they should be entitled to a safety net.

“If you give them lawful status, the hope is that they will have more opportunities to provide for themselves and their families without relying on benefits,” said Sonal Ambegaokar, health policy attorney with the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles. “Even hard-working Americans can’t afford basic necessities these days.”

A memo to the Board of Supervisors from a top county government affairs officer said some of the provisions of the bills “would be especially unfair because newly legalized individuals would be paying taxes, fines and fees to the federal government, but state and local governments, such as the county, would have to bear most of the cost of services provided to them.”

Although the county provides emergency care to all, regardless of legal status, county officials say the legislation could significantly increase its costs for non-emergency care. They point to an estimate that up to 446,000 of such immigrants in the county have no health insurance.

Los Angeles County spends roughly $600 million a year on healthcare for immigrants in the country illegally, officials said.

States are also concerned about how they will pay for services, including English proficiency classes sought by applicants for legal status at a time when funding for such adult school programs has been cut. Community colleges and other institutions will be flooded with demand.

“For states like California and New York, there is the potential of a lot of people coming to the state and local government for assistance,” said Sheri Steisel, senior federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures. “Just because the federal government has decided not to provide access to federal benefit programs does not mean that the need goes away.”

County officials want Congress to create a fund similar to the $4-billion allocation in 1986 or make applicants for legal status eligible for federal benefits sooner. Some 720,000 of the 2.7 million immigrants granted amnesty nationwide as a result of the 1986 overhaul lived in Los Angeles County.

But with Washington awash in red ink and conservative lawmakers attacking the bill’s potential costs, securing such increased spending would appear a long shot.

But Steisel is hopeful, noting: “This is now a 50-state issue…. Everybody has a stake in this.”

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times

The post L.A. County officials worried about costs of immigration overhaul appeared first on Municipal Insider.

David Bolling and his family are coming home.

Bolling, 39, a former Anderson County commissioner who served as Oliver Springs city manager for five years and ran for Anderson County mayor in 2010, has been hired as the new Kingston city manager.

Bolling, now town administrator for Newcastle, Maine, was hired in a 6-0 vote Friday by Kingston City Council.

He will begin his new duties June 1, Mayor Troy Beets said. His starting pay will be $70,500.

Bolling and another finalist, McMinnville City Manager David Rutherford, were interviewed Friday by council members.

“They were both excellent candidates,” Beets said. “Both scored highly on evaluations.”

Another finalist, Tracy Baker, assistant city manager in Sevierville, withdrew her name from consideration Thursday, Beet said.

The city utilized a consultant with the University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service to screen applicants and narrow the field to eight semifinalists.

Those contenders were interviewed by phone last week.

Bolling has served as town administrator in Newcastle, a town of 1,752, for just over a year.

He will be succeeding Kingston City Manager Jim Pinkerton, who retired in late April after 12 years on the job.

© 2013, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.

The post David Bolling hired as Kingston city manager appeared first on Municipal Insider.

(WICHITA, Kan.)— The April 2012 tornado that attacked the Oaklawn neighborhood is still fresh in people’s minds. But Dalana Morales says there hasn’t been much weather this spring to remind people of that terrifying night.

“I like this weather,” Morales says. “You can come out, have barbecues, let the kids play. You don’t have to worry about tornadoes.”

While scars of the storm remain, families in Oaklawn are enjoying a much calmer spring this year. That’s the case nationwide. The National Severe Storms Laboratory estimates there were only 197 tornadoes in the United States from last May to this April. That may be a record low. Compare that to the 2010-11 season, when there was a record number that topped one thousand.

Storm chaser Lance Ferguson says he can’t remember a year like this.

“I’m going nuts not chasing this year,” Ferguson says.

He’s been out chasing twice. Both times were busts. Normally he would been out six to twelve times by this point in the season.

Ferguson says it hasn’t been warm and humid enough this spring to spawn twisters.

Copyright © 2013, KWCH-TV

The post Record low tornado touchdowns this year appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Houston City Council has approved enhancements to the City’s 30-year old goal-oriented Minority/Women-owned/Small Business Enterprise (MWSBE) contracting program. Due to council’s action, women-owned businesses will be reinstated to the program, the citywide goal for construction contracts will increase from 14 percent to 34 percent and the participation requirements for disabled veterans will be relaxed. The changes are the end result of a new study comparing the number of MWSBE firms utilized on city contracts to the number of companies available in the marketplace.

The City of Houston implemented its MWSBE program in 1984. It remained largely unchanged until 2009 when a lawsuit required the removal and replacement of women owned businesses with small Business Enterprises until a comprehensive construction industry disparity study could be performed. The results of the study completed in April 2012 indicated a need for doubling of the citywide MWSBE construction contracts goal.

In addition to the reinstatement of women owned firms and the higher goal for construction contracts, OBO is implementing the following procedures to enhance the program’s effectiveness.

• Review the MWSBE Program every five years

• Expand the geographic boundaries to include two new counties: San Jacinto and Austin Counties

• Revise the Good Faith Efforts Policy

• Require contractors to submit their plans for meeting the Good Faith Efforts at the time of bid submission

• Implement a three-year MWSBE certification

• Standardize department accountability for monitoring of contract compliance and goal waivers

• Utilize the Disabled Veterans definition of the Department of Defense or Veteran Affairs when considering disabled veterans for inclusion in the Persons with Disabilities Business Enterprise portion of the program.

Only certified MWSBE firms are eligible to fulfill goal requirements on city contracts. City of Houston Certification is also accepted by the following agencies:

• METRO

• Port of Houston Authority

• Houston Independent School District

• Houston Community College

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• Houston Housing Authority

• Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts

• Texas Department of Transportation

• Airport Transportation Agencies Statewide

© Copyright 2013, Your Houston News

The post Houston adopts amendment to increase minority owned small business contracts by 34 percent appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Austin and Central Texas want to attract wealthy Chinese investors who are willing to trade investments of $500,000 to $1 million in exchange for an immigration visa.

The feeling is mutual, judging from a visit by 11 members of a Chinese delegation who met with state and local officials on Thursday and Friday to hear pitches for investments and get a first hand look at Texas for their wealthy clients back in China.

Chinese are the overwhelming participants in the federal EB-5 visa program, which attracted about 3,000 investors in fiscal 2012, but they mostly have invested and settled on the U.S. coasts.

Texas is getting new interest, however, thanks to its economy, its universities and Yao Ming, whose eight-year NBA career with the Houston Rockets introduced a generation of Chinese to Houston specifically and Texas in general.

Foreign investors already are financing a third of a $60 million hotel project in Georgetown and the city of Austin is considering participating in the federal visa program, which has been around since 1990.

Foreign investors can get visas for investments of $500,000 to $1 million that create at least 10 jobs. The $500,000 minimum must be targeted for rural areas or census tracts with high unemployment rates — 150 percent of the U.S. rate.

Leo Zhu, who works for Can-Reach (Pacific) Consultants, said Chinese investors initially were attracted to California because of its large Chinese-American population, but he said the younger generation is drawn to Texas.

“I’d personally prefer Texas,” Zhu said.

He echoed others in the delegation who like the state’s low taxes, friendly business climate and leading universities. But he also added a personal interest in hunting and fishing as well as the San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets.

“Yao Ming helps a lot,” he said of the retired basketball center and international marketing figure. “It makes our generation know more about Texas.”

Lindsay Martin, a San Antonio lawyer who represents Chinese clients coming to the U.S., said the EB-5 program took off after the 2009 recession as U.S. firms looked for new sources for capital.

“It’s attracting the ultra high-wealth global population,” Martin said of the EB-5 program. “The foreign investor is looking for a green card more than a return on investment.”

He said a wealthy Chinese investor typically invests $500,000 and sends his or her children to live and study in the U.S.

The real payoff, Martin said, comes if the entire family follows — or more of the family wealth is later invested in the U.S.

Under the program, the foreign investor can live anywhere in the U.S., not just where the investment is made.

For Americans, the program provides cheaper capital.

Martin estimated that the interest rate in the EB-5 program is half of what a bank would charge.

“It’s become a real powerful source of capital,” Martin said. “The EB-5 money puts a project over the hump.”

Dandan Zou is the CEO of Mainstay Global consulting firm in Austin and chairwoman of the Invest in Texas Initiative, a nonprofit that organized this week’s meetings with state and local officials at the Capitol.

“There is a huge demand in China for EB-5 projects and Texas needs to promote itself if it wants a seat at the table,” she said.

Zou translated the Capitol meetings with the Chinese delegation and local officials from around the state, including Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin.

Rodriguez is chairman of the city’s EB-5 task force that has been studying the program.

He said Friday the group is expected to recommend that the city apply to become an EB-5 regional center as have other major Texas cities. He said the city also could contract with private EB-5 regional centers that are already operating in Central Texas.

It was a private regional center that made a Georgetown project possible.

Ground is expected to be broken this year on a $60 million Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in Georgetown.

Foreign investors provided $21 million for the 225-room project being developed by Houston developer Gerald Hines at I-35 and Rivery Boulevard.

“The foreign investment was very critical,” said Jared Mermis with Mainstay Global, a consulting firm on the project.

Austin might seem a long-shot for EB-5 programs because of its 5.4 percent unemployment rate.

A minimum $500,000 investment must be in a census tract with an unemployment rate that is 150 percent of the national average. The U.S. rate is currently 7.5 percent.

But Rodriguez said he believes tracts with high employment rates in parts of East Austin could be joined with tracts with lower rates to comply with the EB-5 standards.

Otherwise, he said a $1 million investment can be made outside areas with high unemployment.

He noted Austin’s rising international image because of its technology economy, the arrival of Google and Apple, plus Formula One racing.

“If we can find the right projects,” Rodriguez said, “I don’t think foreign investment will be much of a problem.”

© 2013 Cox Media Group

The post Chinese investors checking out Texas, Austin appeared first on Municipal Insider.

The Norwalk City Council has approved an agreement with the County of Los Angeles that targets a program that focuses on obesity in youngsters.

Norwalk, and several cities in the Southeast Los Angeles County area are now making “childhood obesity” as a major issue including in Downey and Hawaiian Gardens who have established dynamic new programs during the past two years.

On Tuesday, the Norwalk City Council voted to approve a contract in the amount of $21,000 with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to participate in a program that city officials claim will “established a goal to improve the nutrition and physical activity environment in child care settings and reduce obesity among preschool age children countywide.”

“The Los Angeles Reduce Obesity in Child Care Setting (LA ROCCS), is being offered to child care agencies in Los Angeles County,” said Veronica Garcia, Director of Social Services and Gabriela Regalado, Child Care Program Manager for the City of Norwalk.

The two staff members told Mayor Luigi Vernola and other members of the city council on Tuesday night that the LA ROCCS grant is “designed to provide outreach and educational materials to parents and to provide tools to child care providers to help educate the families they serve to help reduce Early Childhood Obesity throughout Los Angeles County.”

Garcia and Regalado noted in their staff report this week before the city council, “a grant was awarded to the Child Care Resource Center, a sister agency to the City’s Child Development Program, to provide outreach services for Healthy Eating, Active Living Outreach and Training for Child Care Providers and Parents throughout Los Angeles County.”

“In order for the City of Norwalk Child Development Program to administer the program, a subcontractor agreement with CCRC is necessary,” Garcia and Regalado pointed out.

The program is a four year program and requires a commitment from the City, effective February 8, 2013 through June 30, 2016.

The total funding amount is $21,000, and the city can expect that the grant will allow for “outreach services to parents and child care providers in the Norwalk area.”

In Downey, city officials, including Mayor Mario Guerra has embarked on an aggressive community wide program that focuses on healthy eating, regular exercise as well as meal planning for the entire family.

In Hawaiian Gardens, city officials have targeted early school aged children in a program called “Activate Hawaiian Gardens.”

A study in 2012 by the LA County Department of Health claimed that childhood obesity rates in Norwalk and Hawaiian Gardens were registered as being some of the very highest throughout the county.

© 2012, Los Cerritos Newspaper Group/Hews Media Group

The post Norwalk City Council approves $21,000 to fight childhood obesity appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Most users of Enid’s public transportation system will have to call for a ride starting May 20, according to a new city policy.On that day, buses will show up only at fixed-route bus stops if someone has called requesting a stop, the city said Thursday.

There are three fixed routes in the city — Red Bird, Blue Bird and Black Bird — and drivers on all three will respond to bus stops only if someone calls the Enid Public Transportation Authority dispatch office.

The policy change is considered a temporary measure to offset state and federal funding cuts.

“This situation is projected to worsen in the 2013-2014 fiscal year, demanding that we find ways to operate more efficiently with our available resources,” said James Neal, EPTA general manager.

Paratransit, or “curb-to-curb” riders, will not be affected by the changes.

To schedule a ride, the city will ask the public to call EPTA at least an hour in advance. For those wanting a bus to stop in the early morning hours before the dispatchers go on duty, riders will be instructed to schedule a stop the day before.

The changes are meant to sustain the public transit service until the system can be overhauled.

“The end result of this process will be a leaner, more efficient system, that provides more service to the public within the constraints of our current budget,” Neal said. “We appreciate the public’s patience and input as we continue through that process.”

However, there is no timeline for full implementation of a redesigned transit system, Neal said.

EPTA had requested $55,650 from Community Development Block Grant funds for several solar-powered, lighted bus shelters, but the city decided against funding it. Instead, Enid City Commission on Monday approved $8,000 in expected federal grant money to pay bus fares for low-income passengers.

The Enid News and Eagle

The post City policy would force bus riders to schedule a pickup along bus route appeared first on Municipal Insider.

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Hernando County Commissioners are appealing to state and federal legislators for sinkhole relief.

The Tampa Tribune reports ( http://bit.ly/16jV26h) that since 2000, the property appraiser’s office has recorded 6,106 sinkhole properties in Hernando County. Of those, 2,726 were repaired and 3,380 were not repaired.

The commission will send a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for financial relief.

Officials say sinkholes are a drain on the local economy, and the outlook for 2013 remains grim.

Sinkhole-labeled homes continue to affect property values. Some officials think that the county must take action by appealing to state and federal legislators and declaring a disaster situation in Hernando County.

Copyright 2013 Miami Herald Media Co.

The post Hernando County officials want sinkhole relief appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Facing an audience of opposition, Colleton County officials attempted to assuage fears about a proposed ordinance that would outlaw the discharge of weapons in heavily populated portions of the county.

Councilman Steve Murdaugh, guiding Tuesday night’s meeting in the absence of Chairman Phillip Taylor, suggested officials give those in the audience some information about the proposed ordinance rather than routinely moving through the second reading with little or no comment.

Murdaugh said that since the first reading of the proposal at the April meeting, “I’ve had more calls about this than anything else since I’ve been on council.”

County Administrator Kevin Griffin explained the history behind the proposal.

Griffin said his office had been in communication with Sheriff R.A. “Andy” Strickland, some of the sheriff’s staff and Councilman Gene Whetsell “regarding firearms being discharged in subdivisions adjacent to the city limits.”

Based on those conversations, county officials crafted an ordinance to address the issue and turned the information over to the county’s planning department to create a map of the affected areas.

“We heard a lot that the actual ordinance was being applied county-wide; that is not the case,” Griffin said. “It just applied to these very urbanized areas around the city.”

Strickland said he sought the proposed ordinance because “we run into a lot of calls.

For example, in the Hampton Drive area, behind H&D, off S.C. 64. It is a well populated, highly residential area. You would be surprised by the amount of calls that come in about people shooting targets in a residential neighborhood.”

Strickland said that his office had worked hand-in-hand with county council and the administrator in coming up with this ordinance.”

“It is not going to take guns from anybody, we are not saying we do not want you to own handguns or shotguns,” the sheriff explained. “We want you to be able to protect yourself, but at the same time we don’t want people shooting in a reckless manner in a residential neighborhood.”

“We mean well,” Strickland said. “We don’t want to restrict the rights of anyone in Colleton County when it comes to firearms. We want to stay neutral there.”

At the same time, he added, “we don’t want people to feel afraid in their own house in reference to someone living next door shooting in a reckless manner.”

“The deputies who are going to be enforcing this ordinance are going to have good common sense,” Strickland promised.

When it came time for Whetsell to comment on the proposal, his first words were perhaps more likely to inflame than ease the fears of the audience.

Whetsell said he wanted council to consider adding a paragraph to the proposed ordinance that would enable other residential subdivisions to seek the same protection.

In his proposed addition residents in a residential subdivision could petition the county to have their neighborhoods added to the areas of the unincorporated portions of the county where the discharge of a firearm would be banned.

“It won’t be done unless the people in that subdivision request it,” Whetsell explained.

His proposed amendment, Whetsell added, was based on “requests from people out there, it is not something we are putting in the air.”

Councilman Evon Robinson asked Whetsell to clarify what he sought in the amendment.

He asked if what Whetsell was suggesting was that “any prospective subdivision that think they might want it in the future comes here and let us know.”

Whetsell said any petition with proper signatures would allow the residential subdivision to be covered.

Later in the discussion, Murdaugh said council would have to debate Whetsell’s amendment. He suggested that council would have to establish some guidelines for petitioning council to be added to the list of subdivisions where the ban was in effect.

“If 10 people want it and 20 people don’t, do we allow that?” Murdaugh offered. “Is there majority rule? These are things we have to define.”

“This has nothing to do with gun ownership, I probably own as many guns as any of you own,” Whetsell said, “but I still don’t think it is right to come to Hyde Park where houses are 75 feet apart and be able to shoot into a tree, shoot a squirrel.”

“If someone breaks in your house, that’s something different,” Whetsell said. The proposal under consideration would exempt someone discharging a firearm to protect themselves, others or their property. “There is something in this protecting yourself. You have a right to do that.”

“This ordinance is for discharging a firearm in a subdivision that is thickly populated, it has nothing to do with gun ownership, nothing to do with how you get registered.”

“If you have a permit to carry a handgun, good. I have one,” Whetsell said.

“But I still don’t think it’s right to go to County Estates or Hampton Drive or Hyde Park or any of those subdivisions and discharge a firearm. I think it is unsafe and I don’t think any of you in here believe that is the right thing to do.

“We have had people put this thing on Facebook saying you better be at county council meeting next Tuesday because they are going outlaw you having a shotgun in Colleton County,” Whetsell said. “That is not right, it is misinformed, that is what we are up against.

“If you think it is right to shoot in a subdivision, that’s your right. If you go do it, you will be facing a fine if you get caught.”

“I know there is a lot of questions,” Murdaugh told the audience, “I have questions of my own.”

“I don’t disagree with what Mr. Whetsell said, I don’t think that any of us believe that you should be able to discharge a firearm in a subdivision and we have defined subdivision in this ordinance,” Murdaugh added.

“ We also define what a commercial lot is. Some of these areas are zoned as commercial lots,” Murdaugh said.

“I am not sure I am there yet on the commercial lots.”

Murdaugh recollected that somewhere in the existing county code was a section in the nuisance law concerning shooting a firearm within a certain distance of a residence. He wondered how the two regulations would go together.

Murdaugh said he also had some concerns about the portion of the proposed law that exempts use of a weapon in defense of a person’s property. “If there is a snake and I shoot at the snake, am I in defense of my property? I may be getting too technical here,” Murdaugh suggested.

“The city already has this, (a county ordinance) gives you some continuity,” Murdaugh offered. The councilman offered that when riding around the city it is sometime hard to determine where the city limits end and the adjacent unincorporated areas begin.

“Generally I am in favor of this,” Murdaugh said. But between Tuesday’s meeting and the third reading scheduled for the June 4 meeting “I’ll be bending Griffin’s ear on this.”

Councilman Joseph Flowers called himself a farm boy who learned to shoot at an early age, a member of long standing in the National Rifle Association. “I certainly am not sitting up here wanting to restrict anyone’s rights to hunt or own a gun.

“I certainly feel we need to have something the sheriff can hang his hat on concerning the discharge of firearms, especially with as many shootings as we have had around the city in the populated areas.”

“Also there are some of these subdivisions that are partly in the city and partly in the county,” Flowers said. That, he added, produces “a big gray zone we are trying to clarify.”

“We are trying to make sure we are as safe as we can be but not infringe on anybody’s right to own arms or to hunt,” Flowers suggested.

Handling firearms in a safe manner “is what we try to teach our children all the time,” Flowers said.

The proposed law, Flowers suggested, “is not something that we want to do, it is something that is necessary in the times we live in.”

“Anybody discharging firearms randomly in very populated areas is a thing that is very frightening to all of us, especially those of us who treat the ones who are hurt,” the physician added.

© Copyright 2013, ColletonToday.com, Walterboro, SC.

The post County tries to ease concerns about gun ordinance appeared first on Municipal Insider.

San Jose’s city manager now has the authority to sell the city’s surplus properties that can’t be independently developed and are valued at less than $500,000, after a unanimous vote at the April 30 council meeting. This includes about 750 small lots, irregularly and odd shaped lots and other small parcels. the sale of which could provide money for the general fund.

Prior to the ordinance’s approval, the staff and council used a serial process that often took more than a year to complete one transaction even if it was a small, undevelopable parcel. In January 2012, the economic development staff offered a number of recommendations to streamline sales of surplus properties, and the council approved the measures in February 2012.

Real estate staff divided the surplus city-owned properties into three categories. The first category includes parcels capable of being developed and valued at more than $500,000, whose sale still requires council approval.

A second category includes land that can be developed for more or less than $500,000, which also still requires council approval. The third type is land valued at less than $500,000 that is not developable or can be used by a buyer to supplement additional parcels. The latter no longer needs council approval.

The parcels in the third category can be as small as 30 square feet or as large as 1,300 feet. Most are small pieces of land left from widening roadways which are too small to be used for developing homes or businesses.

“These are challenged sites, and it’s inefficient to deal with these properties by taking them to the city council,” says Nanci Klein, deputy director for the city’s economic development department.

However, concerns voiced by council members Sam Liccardo, Don Rocha and Rose Herrera led to unanimous passge of an amendment to the ordinance providing outreach to residents. Liccardo asked that before any sale, staff create a notice to local residents allowing them to express their concerns or hold a public meeting if they object to the sale.

“I was concerned about several small parcels where community residents might want to create a community garden or a basketball court,” Liccardo said in an interview. “I recognize that people in city hall might regard the land as worthless, but this will allow the community a mechanism for their voices to be heard, especially if they want to use the land.”

Klein noted that the initial ordinance includes placing “For Sale” signs and notifying nearby residents of the potential sale. The notices and the signs will include a staff phone number for residents to express interest in purchasing a parcel or to voice concerns, Klein added. Notices also will be posted in the San Jose Mercury News for two consecutive Saturdays, as well as on multiple listings sites.

Klein told council members the ordinance gives the city’s real estate staff the authority to sell these “remnants” quickly, providing extra money for the general fund and relieving the city of its obligation to maintain the parcels.

“It’s still going to be very transparent,” Klein said at the council meeting. “If there are any concerns by the public, these can be addressed with flexibility. The ordinance will help keep the process moving.”

Staff also will provide council members with a semiannual report describing the properties they are considering marketing, as well as any properties that are being marketed and any that have been sold during the past six months that are not being developed.

“We will respond to every phone call and keep concerned residents in the loop about the process,” Klein said at the meeting.

Copyright © 2013 – San Jose Mercury News

The post San Jose City Manager authorized to sell surplus land appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Three Colorado county sheriffs, including Weld County Sheriff John Cooke, on Monday evening called for citizen support for their planned lawsuit against the state to overturn new gun laws, which their attorney called “vicious, blood libel against law-abiding citizens.”

Cooke, El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith and their attorney David Kopel each spoke and received a standing ovation from the crowd of about 400 at the Rialto Theatre in Loveland. Cooke said 47 other county sheriffs are willing to sign as plaintiffs in the lawsuit against recently imposed gun laws, one of which limits ammunition magazine capacity and another that requires background checks for private gun sales.

“One of the most significant driving factors to me is I had the opportunity to grow up with a lot of freedoms, and I think we are all stewards of the freedom that has been passed on generation to generation,” Maketa said.

Cooke said Monday night’s event was meant to help raise awareness and funding for the likely pricey lawsuit. He said funding for the lawsuit will be independent of the sheriffs’ county and personal funds.

Brent Glenn and his son, Sean Glenn, both of Windsor, said they traveled to the event as supporters of the Second Amendment to hear what Kopel had to say about the lawsuit.

“I hope they negate all of this gun legislation,” Brent Glenn said. “It’s not what the people of the state of Colorado want; maybe down in Denver but not here.”

Kopel, research director for the Independence Institute, said he wanted to take the case because it has solid foundation, and it was “the right thing to do.”

“We’re right on the law,” said Kopel, an adjunct professor of advanced Constitutional law at the University of Denver. “We’re right on the facts.”

Kopel said he hopes the lawsuit will show the gun laws go against the Second Amendment and the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of it. He said the lawsuit, which could be filed as early as May, also focuses on the idea that the new laws have too broad a scope and therefore violate the 14th Amendment, which secures the right to due process.

“The goal is to have the court declare what we think to be correct, which is that because the Constitution is the supreme law of the land, these so-called laws were passed in violation of it, were never laws and have no force or affect,” he said.

Kopel added, “It’s always an uphill battle to show that a law is unconstitutional.”

Cook said the fight to overturn the new laws has received a great deal of support from both sides of the political spectrum.

“I think they woke a sleeping giant, and we’re going to fight back and I think we’re going to prevail and we’re going to win,” Cooke said.

©2005 – 2013 Swift Communications, Inc.

The post Other sheriffs join CO sheriff to oppose gun control legislation appeared first on Municipal Insider.

MONROE, N.C.

Another North Carolina county is being warned about a possible lawsuit because county commissioners frequently open public meetings with Christian prayers.

The Charlotte Observer reports that the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation renewed objections to Union County officials over what it called unconstitutional sectarian prayers. The group said commissioners should drop prayers from its meetings.

A federal appeals court in 2011 ruled Forsyth County violated the U.S. Constitution’s separation of church and state by opening meetings with sectarian prayers.

Kannapolis City Council members last year began opening meetings with silent prayer instead of praying aloud after the Wisconsin foundation wrote them about the issue.

The American Civil Liberties Union two months ago helped Rowan County residents sue the county because commissioners opened meetings with Christian prayers.

© 1993 – 2013 The Virginian-Pilot

The post N.C. county warned about lawsuit over public prayer appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Embattled East Orange New Jersey Mayor Robert Bowser has an interesting theory. In a press conference on Friday Mayor Bowser told reporters that his admission of a sexual affair with a subordinate in a sexual harassment deposition is a private issue and belongs between him and his wife. The mayor read a prepared statement and refused to answer any questions as a spokesman referred reporters to a written form of the statement the mayor gave and the contact information for the mayor’s lawyer.

But is this a reasonable assertion?

According to The Star-Ledger, which obtained a copy of the sealed sexual harassment deposition, the affair was between the mayor and a subordinate city employee and sex acts occurred inside the mayor’s office on government time.

According to the deposition obtained by The Star-Ledger, Corletta Hicks, Bowser’s former research assistant, gave him oral sex on multiple occasions, including in his city hall office, while she was working for him…

The mayor previously denied having a relationship with Hicks while she worked for him in city hall, maintaining they had “no personal relationship throughout her tenure in my office.”

The mayor also disclosed payments were made after each sexual encounter and that Ms. Hicks at one point resisted his sexual advances.

In the Jan. 3 deposition, Bowser, 77, admitted the affair started roughly four months into Hicks’ tenure and lasted until late 2010. He said he would give her money after the encounters, estimating he paid her roughly $3,000…

Bowser initially denied that he sexually harassed Hicks but admitted in the deposition that Hicks resisted his sexual advances on one occasion, according to the document.

Furthermore the mayor used money from his campaign fund to buy gifts for Hicks’ child according to the deposition.

According to the documents, Bowser wrote a $400 check to Erika Prince, the daughter of his former research assistant Corletta Hicks, who in 2011 filed a discrimination suit against the mayor which included claims of sexual harassment.

Bowser said the money was for a “book scholarship” for Prince “at the time she was taking some courses,” he said in the document, a copy of which was obtained by The Star-Ledger.

Bowser acknowledged in the deposition that the gift had nothing to do with his campaign. According to the Election Law Enforcement Commission, personal use of campaign funds could result in fines of up to $7,600 per violation and, in some cases, could become a criminal matter.

Is it really a private issue between spouses when one of the spouses violates campaign finance law to give gifts to his mistress’ child and engages in sexual activity inside his government office when he is supposed to be working for the taxpayers? Tough sell.

There are, of course, other issues in the campaign such as corruption in the town’s water commission, tax screw-ups, and a possible quota system for traffic and parking fines. Not that Mayor Bowser has much to say on those issues either. The entire Webster-Alexander-Bowser slate had gone quiet since the deposition story broke before Friday’s limited press conference.

Also, the taxpayers are on the hook for whatever settlement is reached in the sexual harassment case which, according to Bowser himself, could reach $1 million. The East Orange City Council spent $150,00 investigating Mayor Bowser but the investigation was thwarted by Bowser’s refusal to admit that any personal relationship existed between him and Ms. Hicks. And if the campaign finance violation – which Mayor Bowser admitted to in the deposition – leads to a criminal prosecution Bowser might not even be able to be mayor another term anyway. Far from a private issue.

The post Mayor says sex in government office and campaign finance violations are a private issue appeared first on Municipal Insider.

LIMA — City Council will be asked to approve two pieces of economic development-related legislation at its meeting Monday.

Council will vote on paying $4,350 to American Bottling Co., doing business as 7UP of Lima. The payment is part of the city’s New Jobs Program, and the incentive is for continued job creation. The program was initially authorized in 2003 and extended in 2008.

Council will also vote on receiving the minutes of the Tax Incentive Review Council, the body in Allen County charged with evaluating the performance of companies receiving tax abatements in exchange for job creation and retention, capital investments and expansion.

The tax review council evaluated two enterprise zone projects in Lima, one for Wannemacher Enterprises and one for Best One Tires, and voted to continue both. The council also evaluated 14 Community Reinvestment Area projects in the city. Twelve of those met or were progressing toward agreed upon employment and payroll projections, Community Development Director Amy Sackman Odum said. Two other CRA projects expired in 2012.

In other business, City Council will:

•Vote on accepting donations of property and purchasing property for right of way for the next phase of a citywide bikepath.

•Vote on amending the city’s employee wellness incentive program.

•Vote on a contract with Allen Soil and Water Conservation District for services related to the city’s storm water permit.

•Hear from Human Resources Director Vince Ozier, on health and safety policy; Police Sgt. Andy Green, on the department’s use of Facebook and social media; and Public Works Director Howard Elstro, giving an update on demolition activities.

© Copyright 2013, LimaOhio.com, Lima, OH.

The post Lima City Council tackles economic development legislation appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Faced with a homeless population that has quadrupled since the recession of 2008, Mayor Vincent C. Gray is seeking to quickly and without public input change city law to more easily move people out of shelters, such as the crowded and aging former D.C. General Hospital.

The idea, city officials said, is to rapidly get the homeless into stable housing, which will cost the city less and get families on their feet. Without the changes, which would save the city $5.3 million, Gray (D) warned that he would have to restrict three year-round homeless shelters to opening only in the winter.

But advocates for the homeless say the plan, which they contend was “snuck into” the mayor’s budget and took them by surprise, will make it harder for people to get into shelters and easier to get kicked out — with as little as 24 hours’ notice.

Stable housing is exactly what homeless people want, families living at the D.C. General shelter testified at a budget hearing before the council Friday. But the mayor’s reforms, they say, are “misguided and insulting.”

“In spite of what the Mayor believes, we are not a horde of lazy, unmotivated, greedy moochers,” the families said in a statement. “We are families. We are people. We are tax payers; we just don’t make as much money as you do.”

The mayor’s plan calls for giving families “provisional” placements in shelters, requiring them to move into their own apartments, with a temporary rent subsidy, through a “rapid rehousing” program. It also mandates that they save 30 percent of whatever income they receive in an escrow account.

Current law requires the city to place families in shelters before caseworkers can consider other housing alternatives. And once in, the city can’t force people out without cause. That, Gray said, has created a culture of dependence.

The mayor’s budget documents state that in the current system, “there is significant incentive for families to stay in shelter,” with no rent or utility payments, free meals and public assistance. The new plan envisions shelters for emergency use only, “instead of a way of life.”

City officials said shelter residents can now turn down rapid rehousing. Many homeless families, they say, choose to wait in the shelter in the hopes of receiving a permanent voucher for public or subsidized housing. That waiting list is 35 years long.

But families staying at D.C. General said living there indefinitely is the last thing they want to do.

“A shelter, even a well-run shelter, is no place to raise children,” the families said in their statement. “If you could see the number of depressed mothers and sick babies, you would understand that we want to get out of there as quickly as possible.”

LaToya Edwards, 29, showed up with her 3-year-old daughter, Grace, and her 9-month-old baby, Christopher, to testify. In the recession, she lost her $40,000-a-year job, her apartment and her car, and her fiance left her. After a year of living in a one-bedroom apartment with her grandmother and not finding work despite having an associate’s degree, she ended up at D.C. General in January.

“I just need an affordable place to stay. If I can work at Popeyes and pay the rent, I’ll be fine,” she said. “Otherwise, I’ll be in this shelter forever.

But if she did get a job at Popeyes, the problem, Edwards said, is that the salary wouldn’t pay the rent because costs have gotten so high and the city has lost half of its low-cost apartments in the past decade.

“The city is changing, and we are being left behind,” the families said.

A worker paid minimum wage would have to work 132 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Washington these days, said Patty Mullahy Fugere of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless. “The Gray administration is not acknowledging that reality.”

Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) is proposing that the mayor’s proposal be stripped from the budget and considered as separate legislation.

“None of the stakeholders were consulted on the substance of these proposals,” he said. “There may be things we want to embrace. There may be things we want to change. But we should at least have public input.”

David Berns, director for the district’s Department of Human Services, said the administration chose to change the law through the budget rather than a lengthy and contentious legislative process because the situation is dire.

“We have a great sense of urgency,” Berns said. “We have 280 or so families at D.C. General and another 140 sitting in hotels. They’re languishing. Until we can get this reform through and get the authority to use rapid rehousing for them, they’re going to be there, and we’ll have no capacity in our system to place other families.”

One homeless family living at D.C. General costs the city about $50,000 every year, he said. That same amount of money could be used to provide stable housing for at least three families.

Berns said 80 percent of the city’s homeless population could be shifted into a rapid rehousing program and that 91 percent of those who have already been rehoused in low-cost apartments remained in stable housing after one year.

Homeless families like Edwards’ worry that the rapid rehousing program only lasts four months, and if they can’t get back on their feet by then, they’ll be back on the street and, with the reforms, with only a short stay available at the shelter.

But Berns said the rehousing program can be extended indefinitely for occupants if necessary.

“Once you’re in your own housing, you have a much greater chance of getting a job, paying rent, becoming stable,” Berns said. “It’s almost impossible to get a job when you’re in a shelter. You have to do the housing first.”

© 1996-2013 The Washington Post

The post Homeless families protest mayor’s plan to move them out of shelters appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Criminals in Sedgwick County are “flunking out” of probation at a higher rate than the rest of the state, committing more crimes and jeopardizing public safety, officials said.

The reasons are piling up.

In part, it’s because offenders considered “very high risk” are getting sent to community corrections facilities instead of prison. In the past, the highest-risk offenders sent to corrections instead of prison landed in the county’s adult residential center, where they were closely monitored.

But budget cuts reduced the number of beds at the center from 120 to 65. Fewer spots for higher-risk offenders means they “now live in the community with less structure and supervision, high unemployment and association with other criminals,” Mark Masterson, director of the county’s department of corrections, said in a recent report.

“To say that services have not been compromised – the truth is they have,” Masterson said.

The rate of probation failure in fiscal year 2012, which ended June 30, in Sedgwick County was 55 percent, compared with 34 percent statewide. Of those highest-risk clients whose crimes carried a presumptive prison sentence but who were placed on probation, only three of 73 were successful under the program. Such clients would include offenders convicted of crimes as serious as second-degree murder, aggravated assault and battery and aggravated robbery.

That has a consequence. Corrections departments – state-mandated programs funded through an annual grant process – that don’t have a 75 percent success rate or don’t improve 3 percent over the past year aren’t eligible for some grants or unspent dollars.

The budget for community corrections in Sedgwick County is just more than $4 million, most of which comes from the state. Client fees and county funding make up the difference. For fiscal year 2014, the state has directed community corrections centers to provide no-growth budgets as well as the actual cost of providing services. There is a chance, however, that community corrections centers will receive more money from a bill known as the Justice Reinvestment Initiative, which Masterson said Gov. Sam Brownback has signed but whose funding is pending.

“Community corrections is a unique animal,” Masterson told The Eagle during an interview. Probation helps keep people out of costly prison, and “all of that makes sense so long as you’re funded at a level that you’re not jeopardizing public safety.”

County Commissioner Dave Unruh expressed concern about a “depreciation of public safety.”

“We can’t continue to service this population with a reduced funding stream,” Unruh said.

Masterson thinks there may be a solution, and it sounds as if it has buy-in from stakeholders in criminal justice.
Risk assessment

He is recommending that Sedgwick County district judges use a risk assessment tool when considering probation in cases where the presumptive sentence is prison.

The tool assigns a score to an offender based on his criminal history and a structured interview. The higher the score, the higher the risk.

Such tools have proven to be an accurate predictor of risk in juvenile cases, Masterson said.

Chief Judge James Fleetwood has been using the tool for about a year. He has found it beneficial, he said, but he stressed that judges can’t rely on it solely.

“Any scientifically reliable information that can be provided to a judge is always going to be for the good,” he said.

He said the scores have helped him determine, in some cases, that probation was not appropriate for an offender.

“The concerns of risk still outweigh the agreement of the attorneys” in some cases, he said. “The nice thing about the risk analysis tool is (judges) would have that information earlier in the process so a more informed decision can be developed earlier in the process.”

Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett said the assessment tool would be beneficial.

“I believe arming Judges with as much information as possible from as many objective sources is a positive,” Bennett wrote in an e-mail. “The two historical impediments to the use of the risk assessment tool earlier in the process have been who will administer and pay for the test prior to sentencing and the defendant’s right to silence prior to sentencing. Defense attorneys have historically held genuine concerns about granting probation officers access to their clients to administer a test of any kind prior to a sentencing.”

Judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers “have no access to ‘high risk’ determinations until after the sentencing has taken place,” Bennett wrote. “Even the pre-sentence investigation ordered by the court, which sets forth the defendant’s criminal history, is not generated until after the plea or conviction.”

When considering a plea agreement, prosecutors look at the nature and degree of the offense, any possible mitigating circumstances, the age and background of the defendant, the age of his or her prior convictions if any, the sufficiency of evidence, information available in police reports and forensic evidence analysis. Prosecutors also consider the availability and willingness of witnesses to testify, the safety of the community and individual victims and the recommendations of law enforcement before making any plea agreement.

“Every plea negotiation is unique, and all cases are determined individually on their own unique facts and circumstances. Judges then conduct their own review of the available record before determining whether to follow a plea recommendation,” Bennett said.

Fleetwood said the assessment tools have been made available to all district court judges within the past month.

“Judges are becoming more and more aware of the science of sentencing and supervision, and they’ve been open to the new trends of evidence-based management. I have no doubt that they will be using the tool now that it’s available to them,” he said. “We will probably see a jump in trials.”

And that will come with its own set of problems, he said.

“It’s a matter of balancing costs,” he said.

The post Sedgwick County officials seek ways to reduce probation failure rate appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Philadelphia City Council approved the use of advertising on municipal property yesterday with a unanimous vote to amend the city’s zoning and planning code.

“I’d love to see these trash trucks with trash bag wraps on them,” said City Council President Darrell Clarke. The financial impact could be a big net positive for the city. “When you are talking to different potential vendors, they talk anywhere upwards of 10, 20, 30 million.”

Clarke stated it depends on the amount of municipal property made available, and the contracts associated with the advertising. “There are some possibilites of getting up front dollars,” he said.

“I think it’s a great idea for the City of Philadelphia. I’m suprised it took this long to get approved,” said Steve O’Connell of Red Tettemer, a local advertising agency. O’Connell made note of the revenue potential.

“When ads are done beautifully they can enhance the cityscapes. It will be interesting to see how this turns into real life practice.”

According to Clarke’s spokeswoman Jane Roh, Clarke has worked to get the legislation passed for the past year and half. “The ball is in the administration’s court now. It’s a no-brainer. It’s non-tax generating revenue,” said Roh.

Rho said Council’s approval of the measure would require additional work– establishing a commission to see what city property would be appropriate for advertising.

Council voted 15-0 to approve the amendment. Councilwoman Marian Tasco was not present and Council Bill Green abstained. The amendment was first introduced on Feb. 14.

© 2013 NBCUniversal Media, LLC.

The post Philadelphia City Council approves use of advertising on city property appeared first on Municipal Insider.

After security camera footage helped track down the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Police Chief Greg Suhr said law enforcement here could live-monitor a network of private and public surveillance cameras to patrol large events.

The April 15 bombing in Boston has local law enforcement reassessing security measures for the 300 special events that occur in San Francisco annually. As this broader discussion continues, adjustments have already been made for the Craigslist Bay to Breakers footrace that is expected to attract 100,000 attendees to The City on May 19.

“These plans have been reviewed and revised to provide an even greater level of safety and security,” Deputy Police Chief John Loftus said during Thursday’s Board of Supervisors Neighborhood Services and Safety Committee hearing. Measures include bomb technicians, K-9 bomb-sniffing units, the use of 80 Police
Academy officers, security cameras and license plate recognition technology. Federal agents also will be deployed.

“FBI assets will be present and assisting with security measures,” Loftus said. He declined to provide specifics.

Suhr is examining a greater use of security cameras in the coming years for large events such as Bay to Breakers, the Pride parade and the Chinese New Year Parade.

“We have a lot of cameras right now in downtown San Francisco,” Suhr said, adding that he plans to have an engineer “map all the cameras up and down Market Street” and other areas of The City where there are large gatherings, such as Civic Center, to learn what private and public cameras already exist.

Suhr said mapping the camera locations would let police know ahead of time where they can turn to for footage, but also help figure out how to “privately or publicly cover up those blind spots so that we would have a continuing operating picture that would be in the best interest of public safety.”

He said that if technology existed “that could route all that video to one place, perhaps we would come back and ask permission of this body for an exception to The City’s policy for real-time monitoring in instances of large events, only those that are already on television.”

“But I am getting ahead of myself,” Suhr said. “I am not even sure that such a solution exists.”

In 2005, The City turned to security cameras to help reduce homicides when they were skyrocketing. There now are about 70 installed in crime-plagued areas. They are not monitored in real time.
Civil-liberties groups have expressed concerns about increased use of cameras.

While Supervisor David Campos said that “the cameras in Boston I think were very effective in preventing another bombing from happening,” he added that it was important to find the proper “balance” between public safety and civil liberties.

copyright SF Newspaper Company

The post S.F. police explore more options for monitoring public in wake of Boston bombing appeared first on Municipal Insider.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s $70 billion budget proposal for his final stretch in office is pointing up an issue that could linger for his successor: expired contracts with city workers.

The spending proposal he unveiled Thursday holds taxes steady and avoids major layoffs while grappling with rising benefit expenses, increased spending on schools and growing demand for aid to the homelessness and other social services, officials said. They credit an improving economy and a dozen rounds of belt-tightening since 2008, with holding the line on taxes.

“The news today is, I think, reasonably good, as good as it’s been in a long time,” said Bloomberg, who leaves office in December after 12 years.

His plan launches negotiations with the City Council over the spending scheme for the fiscal year that starts in July. This year, the budget dance is unfolding against a backdrop of questions about whether the city may have to find billions of dollars for retroactive raises if new labor agreements are reached.

Teachers, jail officers and many other city employees have been working with expired contracts, some for several years. Bloomberg’s budget proposal doesn’t set aside money to pay for the retroactive raises workers may be owed.

The city Independent Budget Office has estimated that reaching new pacts could cost the city $4.5 billion in retroactive wage hikes and add $1.8 billion a year to costs going forward. Bloomberg pegs the costs at nearly twice that.

“It’s just something the city cannot possibly afford” without a dramatic tax increase, he said. His administration said last month it would settle on contracts with unions if they agreed to forgo back raises and pay more for health insurance. About 95 percent of city workers don’t pay anything, Bloomberg said.

Many workers haven’t gotten cost-of-living raises since the contracts lapsed, although some get increases linked to longevity or acquiring new credentials. Bloomberg also noted the expense of employees’ health and pension benefits has also risen, with health insurance costs doubling since 2002, to $6.3 billion this year.

Union leaders say Bloomberg is turning his back on workers, and some mayoral candidates say he’s leaving a pricey problem for the next administration.

“The municipal workers of this city continue to contribute to making this city grow … and in playing that role, we should be and must be compensated for what we do,” Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association President Norman Seabrook said by phone.

He and United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew noted that the city has ended recent years with surpluses.

Some mayoral hopefuls criticized Bloomberg for letting the issue go unresolved.

“Leaving this until the end, and offering a settlement almost as he walks out the door, really is leaving this for the next mayor,” former City Comptroller William Thompson, a Democrat, said after an unrelated news conference. Current Comptroller John Liu, who’s also running for the Democratic mayoral nomination, said in a statement the budget plan left “a passel of problems” for the next administration.

Republican candidate Joseph Lhota, a former city budget director, called it problematic that Bloomberg’s proposal didn’t set aside money for resolving labor matters. But Lhota praised the plan as straightforward and said in a statement it “provides the next mayor an opportunity for transformative change.”

Council Speaker Christine Quinn, also a Democratic mayoral hopeful, praised provisions for increasing police recruits this year but frowned on some cuts, including to after-school and early education programs. The council has nixed such cuts before.

Another uncertainty is a challenged plan to raise money by selling new taxi permits, or medallions. While awaiting a state Court of Appeals ruling, city officials trimmed the amount of medallion money expected next year from $600 million to $300 million.

Some financial clouds have cleared, however.

While the city lost out on $250 million in state education money this year because of a standoff with the teachers’ union over evaluations, state leaders have agreed to let the money flow in future years. That averts a need to cut up to 1,800 teachers’ and counselors’ jobs through attrition next year, schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said.

And the federal government is expected to cover all of the city’s $4.5 billion in expenses from Superstorm Sandy, Bloomberg said.

©2013 Bloomberg L.P.

The post Contracts a question as NYC mayor presents budget appeared first on Municipal Insider.

In March, lawmakers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, including Mayor David Coss (D), urged the City Council to adopt a resolution clarifying that marriage for same-sex couples is legal. Indeed, nothing in the state’s law suggests otherwise. Wednesday night, the Council voted 5-3 to approve that resolution, which urges the attorney general and county clerks to recognize marriage equality.

Though the resolution received enthusiastic cheers from the crowd in attendance, it likely changes nothing for now. The city council has no authority over county clerks, and the Santa Fe County Clerk, Geraldine Salazar, has said she will not offer same-sex marriage licenses until the state acts. Nevertheless, momentum could be all that New Mexico needs. Because the law doesn’t prohibit it, any county clerk could arguably begin issuing same-sex marriage licenses at any time, as happened in 2004 when 64 same-sex couples married.

© 2005-2013 Center for American Progress Action Fund

The post Santa Fe City Council Approves Marriage Equality Resolution appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Remember the prison inmates who sued manufacturers of beer, wine, and spirits, claiming that “demon rum” was responsible for their criminal actions? Now a police officer fired for DUI has come up with even more hilarious grounds for a lawsuit. Opposing Views writes that on Friday, former Oregon police officer Jason Servo, who was fired for drunk driving in an unmarked police car while off-duty, filed a lawsuit against the city of Gresham. His suit asserts that his alcoholism is a disability recognized under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

‘Just as with any type of disability or disease, they should have made some kind of effort to accommodate that, or some kind of effort to work with him, and not simply sever all ties,’ one of his attorneys in the suit, Shawn Kollie said.

Alleging his rights were violated under the Americans with Disability Act, Servo, 43, says the city cannot fire him.

Much as any sane person might want to believe that Servo and his legal team are making this all up, the ADA actually identifies alcoholism as a disability, adding:

[A]n employer may not make job decisions based on the fact that an employee is an alcoholic, attends AA meetings, or takes medication to curb the urge to drink. However, an employer may prohibit drinking at work and may generally hold all employees to the same standards of performance and conduct.

Ultimately, the law goes on to note, “an employee who can’t meet those standards” can be terminated, but Servo’s attorneys are saying he was never given a fair chance to get help with his “disability.” In addition, they maintain, since Servo was off-duty at the time of the incident, the city had no reasonable expectations of job-related “performance and conduct.”

Servo was arrested in January 2011, when he crashed his unmarked police car into a ditch. Earlier the same day, he had conducted a firearms training session and then joined other officers for dinner and drinks.

The suit, which is seeking $6 million in damages, additionally alleges that Servo’s firing was a cynical ploy to save money. Said attorney Kollie:

I know it sounds kind of like a conspiracy theorist’s claim, but we do believe there was a funding issue in the Gresham police department at the time.

© 2006-2013 Clarity Digital Group LLC

The post Cop fired for drunk driving suing city, saying alcoholism is a ‘disability’ appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Frank Simpson, who was College Station’s city manager for less than a month, died Saturday of an apparent heart attack, officials said.

Simpson had worked as the city’s deputy city manager for two years before being named interim city manager to replace the departing David Neeley in January.

He was elevated to the position by a vote of the city council in late March.

He came to College Station after working from 2004 to 2011 as city manager of Missouri City, a suburb of Houston. Before that, he served for four years as city manager of Webster, another Houston suburb.

Simpson received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in public administration from Texas A&M. He and his wife, Kelly, had three children.

© Copyright 2013, The Eagle

The post College Station City Manager Frank Simpson dies appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Plymouth’s first female city manager is stepping down.

After a decade in the CEO-like city position, Laurie Ahrens announced her retirement last week, with her last day July 12.

“Much of my life has been devoted to this city, and leaving is no easy decision,” she said in a prepared statement.

In her 35 years in city government, Ahrens has worked in Plymouth, Mankato and North Mankato. In 1988, then-City Manager Jim Willis hired her as Plymouth’s city clerk. Over the years, she rose to assistant city manager and, in 2003, city manager, overseeing hiring staff and managing finances during the economic recession that resulted in unprecedented layoffs.

“You have been exceptional … not all cities are as fortunate as we are,” Mayor Kelli Slavik told her at the meeting.

The council will meet May 14 to determine next steps in searching for Ahrens’ replacement.

“It’s going to be a hard pair of shoes to fill,” said Willis, now a City Council member. “She’s had a good ride.”

© 2013 StarTribune.

The post Plymouth’s city manager, Laurie Ahrens, announces retirement appeared first on Municipal Insider.

SAN JOSE — Community activists have long accused San Jose police of disproportionately “curb sitting” minorities during routine stops and searches, but there has never been data to confirm or dismiss the charges.

Sometime in the next few months, after some internal wrangling, police say they will start collecting information that could shed light on the debate over alleged racial profiling by city police.

Since the beginning of the year, the breakthrough policy has been batted back and forth within police ranks. In one of his final acts as police chief in mid-January, Chris Moore sought to tackle the question head-on, ordering officers to start documenting age, ethnicity and location in traffic and pedestrian stops.

But soon after acting, Acting Chief Larry Esquivel suspended its implementation. The department said it needed to retool the plan, a move that came under fire this week when the annual report from the city’s Independent Police Auditor lamented Esquivel’s decision.

LaDoris Cordell, the independent police auditor and a retired judge, challenged the department’s assertion that the original policy was overly broad and would be difficult to implement. Its adoption was a milestone in police-community relations, she said, and the suspension ran the risk of eroding trust from minority groups.

“I respect Acting Chief Esquivel. He has immediately established a positive working relationship with our office,” Cordell said. “While I disagree with his decision to suspend (the policy) I remain hopeful that he will re-enact it without delay.”

Sgt. Jason Dwyer, a police spokesman, said the delay was necessary to update police computer systems to capture the data so it can be queried, and to narrow its focus to the most frequent instances. The department hopes to roll out the system over the next few months.

“If we have to experience a delay up front to do that, it’s a small price to pay for something that will be very useful in the future,” Dwyer said.

Moore’s act would add a section to the department’s duty manual, which guides police conduct. The addition, L-5108, mandates officers record the “justification, manner, duration and scope of the detention and/or search” even in instances where no one is arrested, according to the memo. It also required officers to record ages and races of those who are searched and detained without arrest.

“The primary purpose for documenting the detention and/or search is that it provides a record that can be used if the detention and/or search is the subject of a complaint, concern or questions from a member of the public,” according to a memo Moore issued.

Moore issued it Jan. 14, five days before he retired. Ten days later, Esquivel suspended it “until further notice.”

Moore understood the technological dimension wasn’t yet in place, but he declared the policy “effective immediately” in his memo because he wanted his officers to get in the habit of taking down the information, according to city officials familiar with the drafting process. Moore declined to comment for this story.

Some in the rank and file initially balked at the breadth of the policy, which covered a wide array of detentions and searches. It was criticized as overreaching and encroaching on the judgment of an officer, being referred to as the “Don’t-do-anything memo” in some circles with critics saying it would discourage officers from making stops to avoid burdensome paperwork. Dwyer said the policy is being narrowed to find a workable solution.

“The original memo covers everything,” Dwyer said. “As far as detentions go, this is something that occurs a lot. We don’t want to put officers in a position to de-police because it’s too cumbersome and time-consuming to do that.”

Dwyer said the revised policy will address three kinds of non-consensual searches and detentions: when a person is handcuffed, ordered to sit in the back of a patrol car or ordered to sit on a street curb.

Curb sitting has had a particular resonance in San Jose after “communities of color” complained about being targeted, Cordell said.

“They perceived an officer’s order to curb sit as demeaning, humiliating and unnecessary,” Cordell said.

The police auditor’s evidence is anecdotal; she pushed for the new policy to remedy that.

Documenting events like curb sitting is new in law enforcement; recording information about traffic stops has been widely practiced, but pedestrian stops were often considered informal acts by patrol officers looking to proactively keep the peace.

“It’s a newer field of data gathering. It’s a very unexamined area,” said Robert Weisberg, law professor and co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.

Raj Jayadev, coordinator of Silicon Valley De-Bug, a media, social-advocacy and business collective based in San Jose, said the policy and its execution are being closely watched.

“It’s critically important for building trust between communities and police to have quantitative data and measurements for those interactions to move us beyond anecdotes and entrenched political positions,” Jayadev said. “The community has been waiting for something tangible to hang their hat on to say this approach of working collectively with police creates a better environment.”

Copyright © 2013 – San Jose Mercury News

The post San Jose: Rollout of curb-sitting policy urged by police auditor, community groups appeared first on Municipal Insider.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — On Monday, city commissioners will take the first of two votes to decide whether to approve a tax reimbursement for City of West Palm Beach employees in domestic partnerships.

Currently, the partners of 16 city employees receive health insurance benefits through the city’s health insurance plan.

Since they are not legally married, the cost of the coverage is taxed as income.

Robert Telford, a producer and editor at West Palm TV, said he paid the equivalent of more than $8,000 of taxable income last year to cover his partner of 17 years, Jim Schramm.

“I do make a decent salary but it is a hardship for everybody.” Telford said. “This is an incredible step forward. I think this is a natural progression.”

The reimbursement, if approved, would be extended to same-sex and opposite-sex couples in domestic partnerships.

“Businesses are looking for cities that are progressive, for cities that take action and [for cities that] get things done,” Mayor Jeri Muoio said. “I think that this is a good indication of what we think is important.”

Timothy Gilbert, a professor at Northwood University, said the reimbursement made sense.

“The cities and the counties recognize that, increasingly, as benefits are a major portion of a negotiation for a job — and attracting talent — that they have to offer benefits that are equal,” Gilbert said.

West Palm Beach would become the second city in Florida — after Hallandale Beach — to offer the benefit, if it is approved.

“It’s not a gay issue, it’s a pay issue,” Rand Hoch, president and founder of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council said. “The tax code is unfair. So many federal laws are unfair. The City of West Palm Beach has found a way to equalize the tax burden.”

A city spokesperson said the benefit would cost the City about $17,600 annually.

A second and final vote is expected in mid-May.

Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc.

The post City of West Palm Beach considers tax breaks for same-sex couples appeared first on Municipal Insider.

PRESCOTT – After four days of vetting department budgets, the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors have ended the process over $5.4 million short of a balanced budget for fiscal year 2013-14.

That’s no surprise.

The county was already $4.3 million behind when they started the meetings. Department heads came to them with budgets at or slightly above the current fiscal year’s numbers, but nearly all had some “program changes,” or additional expenses they wanted the board to consider.

Monday morning, that number added up to nearly $4 million above the original $4.3 million deficit.

By Thursday, the board had heard all the departments’ re-quests, and, in the afternoon worked swiftly through them, voting in favor of keeping or eliminating the dozens of program changes. Some – about $415,000 worth – was assigned to be paid through the county’s “capital reserve” money, a fund made up of one-time contributions that Supervisor Tom Thurman likens to a “rainy day fund.”

That still left $1.17 million to stack onto the original $4.3 million shortfall.

There was a long silence when Thurman asked, “How are we going to make up that five-and-a-half million?”

No one had an immediate answer.

After the meeting Supervisor Rowle Simmons said, “I’m not going to speculate right now” on how the problem could be solved. “We’re going to have to take a look at every option that can be done. That’s our next task.

“I really don’t know,” he added. “There could possibly be more cuts.”

Chairman Chip Davis said the decision would be based at least in part on “what the state legislature decides to do to us,” noting that it could make decisions that could cut, or less likely, add, revenue to the county’s coffers. Davis said that the capital reserve fund, which the board used the last time they had a budget shortfall had already absorbed what it, by law, it could this time around.

He refused to rule out a tax increase, saying it was “too early” to make that decision.

But Davis told the board that among his “early lessons” as a supervisor was that it was wrong to “drink the Kool-aid” and that they should “stand up for the citizens” who elected them to office.

Supervisor Craig Brown said, “There is some fat still in those line-items. I know there is. You can tell by how much they haven’t spent up to the third quarter.”

“Did they do the sharpening of the pencils?” asked Supervisor Jack Smith.

The board will continue to hash out budget issues at future meetings. It will be completed by June.

© Copyright 2013 Western News&Info, Inc

The post County budget $5.4M short; ‘still some fat in line items’ appeared first on Municipal Insider.

The attractive pensions that municipalities have traditionally offered to police officers and firefighters could become another victim of tight times at City Hall.

Across Central Florida, cities are finding they can’t keep up with rising pension costs, which are outpacing property-tax revenues.

In Sanford, for example, Deputy City Manager Tom George recently told city leaders that next year, pension costs will jump nearly 13 percent, to $3.6 million. During the past five years, the annual bill for pensions has increased by more than $2 million while city revenue dropped by almost $4 million.

Sanford police officers generally can retire after 25 years with nearly 88 percent of pay. Firefighters get 77 percent of their pay.

“We’ve cut from every other general-fund department in the city of Sanford in the last five years in order to keep from cutting public safety,” George said.

Now Sanford plans to look at alternatives, such as possibly asking police officers and firefighters to contribute more of their pay to their pension. Officers now contribute 5.1 percent and firefighters 7 percent.

Other options include raising the retirement age, which is now 55, or switching new employees to a 401(k)-style plan, in which workers contribute to their own retirement fund with a contribution from the city.

In the private sector, 401(k) plans are common, but traditional pension plans have persisted for police officers and firefighters because of the jobs’ risks and physical demands.

Jim Preston, president of the Florida Fraternal Order of Police, which represents officers in collective bargaining, said pensions are one of the key benefits job-seekers consider. Cities that offer the best retirement benefits attract the best and the brightest, he said.

“It’s not an easy solution, and we’re fully cognizant of that,” Preston said. “But I’ve seen some cities where they say they’ve cut everything down to the bone, and then they want to build a new stadium. …. Being a police officer or a firefighter is a difficult and stressful job. And that’s evidenced with the bombings in Boston and the [fertilizer-plant] explosions in Texas.”

Sanford is not the only city struggling with pensions. Maitland will contribute more than $1.4 million to its pension fund for firefighters and police officers this fiscal year. Next year, the city expects to pay about $127,000 more, a 9 percent increase. Meanwhile, Maitland has recently frozen 21 jobs because of a drop in tax revenue. The city plans to hire a consultant to make recommendations about controlling pension costs.

“We want our first responders to have a good pension program,” said Mayor Howard Schieferdecker. “But we can’t continue on the same track. Something has to change.”

Deputy sheriffs and county firefighters have pension plans under the separate Florida Retirement System, which is managed by the state.

In recent years, cities’ pension funds have been earning less than the 8 percent rate of return that fund managers had expected before the downturn in the economy. That has forced cities to contribute more tax money.

There are a total of 320 police and fire pension plans in 200 Florida cities. Of those plans, 180 — including those in Sanford and Maitland — are funded at a level below what experts consider healthy, said Kraig Conn, a legislative counsel for the Florida League of Cities.

A 1999 state law backed by unions prevents cities from cutting retirement benefits, though the League of Cities has been urging state legislators to change the law.

Meanwhile, some cities have negotiated with unions to cut costs.

Mount Dora police officers and firefighters recently agreed to increase their pension-fund contributions during the next three years. The city had recently cut staff, including four positions in its Police Department.

Orlando officers and firefighters contribute 8.5 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively, of their pay to pensions. Even so, Orlando this year will contribute about $29 million to police and firefighter pensions, a $2.2 million increase from last year.

Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett said his city has to look for ways to make sure police and firefighters receive the pension benefits they were promised without affecting city services.

“But the question is: How do we keep that promise without taking the city under?” he said. “We just can’t afford to continue down this road.”

Copyright © 2013, Orlando Sentinel

The post Cities struggle with rising cost of police, firefighter pensions appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Stopping short of an outright ban on pit bulls, Broward County officials have crafted a list of recommendations they hope will help bring aggressive dogs to heel.

The recommendations include putting more animal control officers on the street and providing increased training for deputies who encounter unruly canines. They are scheduled for review by the County Commission at its May meeting.

The new tack came after County Commissioner Barbara Sharief in February dropped a proposal to ban pit bulls in Broward, as they are in Miami-Dade County. The measure met with strong public opposition.

Instead, Sharief formed a committee composed of dog owners, behavioral specialists, bite victims, adoption agencies and staff from the county’s Animal Care and Adoption Division. After two meetings, the committee came up with a list of five recommendations.

They are:

Develop a policy to regulate professional and “backyard” dog breeding. Currently there is none.

Increase funding in the county’s fiscal year 2014 budget for more animal control officers.

Provide training for Broward Sheriff’s deputies on animal control trends and methods.

Encourage a culture of mandatory spaying and neutering of dogs in the county.

Enforce citations and penalties for irresponsible dog owners.

“It may take new policies and programs to control the aggressive dog population and dog attacks,” Sharief said. “After hearing from all sides, we reached a consensus and that’s what I will bring to the full County Commission.”

In June, the County Commission will also discuss increasing fines for negligent dog owners.

Lazarus Rothstein, a Parkland pit bull owner opposed to a breed ban, approved of the direction Sharief was taking.

“The recommendations that she’s making, to me it sounds like she’s enforcing the laws already on the books,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Last year, animal control officers picked up nearly 4,800 stray dogs, many from South Broward near the Miami-Dade border. In 2012, there were 305 dog attacks reported in Broward, nearly half of them by pit bulls. Pit bulls or pit bull mixes accounted for 23 percent of the 1,411 dog bites last year in Palm Beach County.

Wendy Kaplan, of the Best Friends Animal Society in Fort Lauderdale, said the committee’s suggestions are an acceptable alternative to outlawing pit bulls.

“These proposed recommendations … put the responsibility on the dogs’ owners, which is where it belongs,” she said.

Rothstein, too, said responsible dog owners are the first line in keeping aggressive dogs on a tight leash. “It’s individuals taking control of their animals,” he said, “learning how to care for and love an animal.”

Copyright © 2013, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

The post Bad dog! Broward seeks to curb aggressive canines appeared first on Municipal Insider.

The mayor of Memphis said billboards put up by the Memphis Police Association are hurting the city’s image and calls the message, “selfish.”

The police union billboards feature the warning, “DANGER: Enter at your own risk; This city does not support public safety,” MyFoxMemphis.com reported.

Mike Williams, the president of the MPA, said the billboards are meant to target city leaders and are about protecting union’s jobs and benefits.

“I think it’s self-centered, I think it’s selfish,” Memphis Mayor A C Wharton said. “I think it has no place in our city.”

The mayor said the signs are driving away visitors and costing people who work in the tourism and hospitality industry, warning it may cost people their jobs, MyFoxMemphis.com reported.

“Our billboards are not aimed at the citizens. They’re not aimed at saying this really a bad, bad place,” Williams said.

Wharton said Memphis instituted a 4.6 percent pay cut to protect jobs, as opposed to issuing layoffs, but police officers want their pay reinstated and Williams said the signs are just the start of the union’s public campaign.

“This can be stopped at anytime,” Williams told MyFoxMemphis.com.

“The mayor has the power to stop it, so if in fact he wants to stop it then he needs to do right by the city employees, and definitely the police officers in this city.”

©2013 FOX News Network, LLC.

The post Memphis mayor says police union’s ‘danger’ billboards hurting city’s image appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Russell Allen, city manager of Raleigh over the pass 12 years was fired today. City council voted 6-2 to have Allen removed from his seat. Allen celebrated his 12th anniversary on the job yesterday. There was not a clear-cut reason as to why he was fired, but it was evident that council members wanted to go in a new direction.

Mayor Nancy McFarlane expressed her feelings towards Allen saying that. “He was very dedicated to the city. But we need a different skill set now, to move the city where we’re going. ” Members of City Council stated that “Just as Raleigh has grown and changed, so have the skills needed to manage and grow the city, ”

Two members of the council voted to keep Russell in office. Mary-Ann Baldwin recalled that working with him was an honor. “Russell took us through the recession without cutting services to residents,” were the words by Baldwin. Allen refused to respond to an interview request Wednesday but did release a statement in which he expressed his gratitude to the city of Raleigh.

“Raleigh is one of the most successful cities in the country and is poised for even greater achievements. As much as I will miss this job, I am thankful for the experiences and confident in the city’s future.”

Allen will work through June 30, under his contract that wasn’t supposed to expire until March of next year. He will receive the remainder of his $232,000 salary as well.

© 2013 The Session Magazine

The post Raleighs City Manager Russell Allen fired after 12 Years appeared first on Municipal Insider.

The city of Amarillo is placing a tax (they call it a fee) on any precipitation that runs off any impervious surface and runs onto the streets, alleys or drainage channels.

Why this sudden urgency to solve drainage problems in one massive tax that imposes a hardship on property owners?

While homeowners may think a small amount is not bad, think of those who don’t have an open-ended way of retrieving this cost.

The Amarillo Independent School District will be paying $139,500 a year. Churches are paying big bucks for their impervious surfaces. Let’s hope their pledges will increase equally.

I don’t think this is the last cost for citizens. Think about the retailers that have been hit with this additional cost. Are they going to just absorb this cost or are they going to pass it on to their customers?

It isn’t as though the city hasn’t known about this problem, which is evident when it rains a little too fast or too long.

The city’s Comprehensive Plan of 1989 made three recommendations:

■ Prepare and implement a long range Storm Water Master Plan.

■ Strictly enforce the Flood Hazard Ordinance.

■ Amend the Building Code to require elevated structural foundations and grading plans.

According to a study by HDR Engineering Inc., there have been 12 studies or reports produced from 1946 to 1989. In fairness to the city, we don’t know what was accomplished from those studies as they are in the archives.

According to a study completed in 2011 by Espey Consultants Inc., a plan was to determine implementation by: needs assessment; development of a customer billing rate; cost-of-services financial analysis; and coordination with the city commission.

It was estimated the replacement of current infrastructure inventory was $160 million. Currently, there are 55 projects estimated at approximately $66 million in 2011 dollars.

The city has completed four of the recommended projects since the 1993 Master Plan completion. One of the four was the McDonald Lake playa at $4.2 million.

Cost for the recommended 14 playa projects, 17 storm sewer projects and 14 channel projects is approximately $18 million compared to $15 million for storm sewer improvements projects, and more than $3 million for channel improvement projects at 2011 prices.

There are 17 playas within the city limits, and approximately 45 additional playas within five miles of the city limits.

In addition to the construction cost, you have the expense of the salaries, equipment rental and other necessities. The city operating budget for the 2012-2013 for the Utility Fund expenses is $1,805,576. The revenue obtained from drainage tax fees is $4.45 million. Fines and from bond proceeds totals $10.52 million.

The ordinance that created the Drainage Utility Fund gave the city an opportunity to create a new division that had been the responsibility of the street department.

There was a transfer of $808,054 from the general operating fund for nine employees, equipment and expenses to the drainage fund. The current budget has 17 full-time employees. In the first five years of this program, the total will increase to 21.

This is an enterprise fund, so the revenue produced will be used for expenses and payroll in the future.

Residents must realize that while the city speaks of the first five years, it can’t possibly get all 55 projects completed, and it was not the intention for it to be only a five-year plan.

This is a forever program.

In fact, you might say commissioners hit pay dirt with this fee idea — collect an extra $2 million with the difference from revenue less expenses; receive extra sales tax generated by higher prices of commodities; get an extra savings of $808,054 by transferring personnel, equipment, and expenses to the Drainage Utility Fund.

Thank God for the rain we do get.

While I am in agreement we should prevent flooding of residences and businesses, the attempt to eliminate any inconvenience caused by intersections being temporarily flooded is ridiculous and very expensive.

If this were a weekly event, this would be reasonable.

Is this any more inconvenient than our horizontal snow storms or occasional blizzards that block streets and snarl traffic? Is this the best thing commissioners can think of — spending this new-found source of money by taxing rain and snow? Are you ready to spend more than $160 million for being inconvenienced?

Roy Sooter is a resident of Amarillo. The information in this guest column was obtained from the city of Amarillo’s Comprehensive Plan of 1983, HDR Engineering Inc. 1993 Master Plan report, Espey Consultants Inc. 2011 report and the 2012-2013 city budget and city staff.

Amarillo Globe-News ©2013

The post Amarillo is taxing rain and snow appeared first on Municipal Insider.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—A second round of bureaucratic bickering has begun over the dismantling of California’s community redevelopment agencies.

Nearly 70 lawsuits filed by local governments, developers and affordable housing advocates remain active and are challenging how much redevelopment money the state can claim and redirect to local government entities.

A hearing in one of the most far-reaching lawsuits was held Friday, with a ruling expected within 90 days. That lawsuit, led by the League of California Cities, focuses on whether the state finance department can withhold property and sales tax revenue from cities if the parties disagree over the amount of redevelopment money owed to the state.

“It’s not slowing down,” said Patrick Whitnell, general counsel for the league. “I fully expect that lawsuits will continue to be filed for the foreseeable future.”

Gov. Jerry Brown led a push in 2011 to dismantle redevelopment agencies, which were established after World War II to combat urban blight. The state wanted the property tax revenue they generate to be redirected to local schools, law enforcement and other services to relieve pressure on the state’s general fund.

In December 2011, the state Supreme Court upheld the Legislature’s right to eliminate the more than 400 redevelopment agencies statewide. Since then, however, the state has had a hard time redirecting the redevelopment property tax revenue to local entities because cities say they need the money to pay for a variety of projects to which they have already committed.

While the lawsuits play out, the state controller’s office is reviewing the assets that were transferred by redevelopment agencies after the governor announced his intent to dismantle the agencies.

Among its findings so far, the controller has found that Fresno inappropriately transferred $41.5 million to the city’s housing agency and San Jose improperly transferred $148 million.

The audits suggest that the cities should not have kept that money for their own use but rather should have surrendered it to be distributed among various local government entities, as the Legislature intended.

In response, state finance officials have sent more than 40 letters warning cities that the state will begin withholding sales tax revenue if they do not transfer the amounts the state says they owe. Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer said withholding tax revenue was a last resort and that the state would rather negotiate with the local governments.

The Legislature gave the finance department the power to withhold tax revenue after the Supreme Court ruling. The League of California Cities views it as an unlawful raid on local government coffers.

“Property tax and sales taxes are the two biggest and most important revenue sources for cities,” Whitnell said. “If they lose that, particularly if it’s any significant amount, that’s going to affect their ability to meet other obligations.”

The league’s lawsuit was filed in Sacramento County Superior Court against the state Department of Finance, the Board of Equalization and the state controller.

Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, who is the league of cities’ president, defended redevelopment agencies as the most effective tool for improving downtowns and providing affordable housing. In a statement, he said the decision to eliminate them gave too much authority to state finance officials and never required them to adopt an administrative process.

In its legal filings, the state said the league was setting up roadblocks to allow “redevelopment to continue in perpetuity.”

The original idea in creating community redevelopment agencies was that property tax revenue generated within the redeveloped area would be plowed back into future developments to further improve the city.

Critics say the agencies evolved into a sort of slush fund for private developers. City officials, who also run the redevelopment agencies, distribute the money for all manner of projects, including affordable housing and commercial ventures such as restaurants and night clubs.

As the disagreements continue between the state and its cities, the amount of general fund money the Brown administration thought it would save has fallen short of expectations.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office said the administration’s budget projection for the coming fiscal year assumed a $3.2 billion savings over two years from dissolving the redevelopment agencies and redirecting their revenue to local services. That’s about $1.6 billion less than projected.

Copyright © 2013 – The Willits News

The post California: cities launch a new round of lawsuits in fight over redevelopment agency dismantling appeared first on Municipal Insider.

(WICHITA, Kan.)— The situation in Boston has Wichita officials reviewing emergency disaster plans.

Wichitans hope a similar crisis never happens in the Air Capital, but they know that tragedy can happen anywhere.

“I was like, ‘oh my god, it’s very terrible and crazy,’” Debra Hutton said. “I don’t know what this world is coming to.”

Randy Duncan, Sedgwick County emergency management director, said professionals have been watching the situation in Boston closely to learn from the crisis.

“If they come up with a unique or different way of making sure their folks are protected, we can incorporate that same type of thing into our response plan,” Duncan said.

Duncan called the Boston lockdown an extraordinary step by city officials.

“This is the first time in recent memory I can recall an action of this magnitude being taken,” he said.

Kansas state law requires every county in Kansas to have an emergency preparedness plan. Those plans are renewed and updated continually, Duncan said. Sedgwick County officials held an organized drill for biological weapons of mass destruction last week. He said their first priority is to keep the city safe.

“The first thing you want to do in any emergency or disaster is make sure people are protected,” Duncan said.

Copyright © 2013, KWCH-TV

The post Wichita officials monitor Boston crisis for disaster plan appeared first on Municipal Insider.

MADISON — On April 10, 2011, tornadoes ripped across central and northeast Wisconsin, tearing roofs off houses, toppling trees and snapping power lines.

In many places, the high winds were greeted by silence, as some Cold War-era warning sirens failed because of lost power and other issues — just when they were needed the most.

Today, people have a new way to find out about dangerous storms. And it doesn’t depend on the reliability of outdoor sirens. The latest in cellphone technology alerts people to take immediate shelter if they’re in the path of a potentially dangerous storm.

“Wow!” said Matthew Marmor, Calumet County’s director of emergency management, reacting to the new technology. “Wherever you are, once your phone is capable of that technology, you have that notice.”

County emergency officials aren’t ready to unplug tornado sirens yet. They say there’s value to having multiple warning systems.

But they acknowledge that new technology could someday silence the wails that accompany Wisconsin’s worst summer storms.

“The new technology works well … to me I tend to see a drift that way, to the newer technologies and away from the sirens just because of the cost and expense,” Marmor said.
The latest technology

Cellphone alerts, which were rolled out nationally last year, are called “wireless emergency alerts.”

“They are up and running,” in Wisconsin, said Tod Pritchard, a spokesman for Wisconsin Emergency Management. “It’s a great tool.”

Pritchard said a cellphone is like a mini-radio that gets signals from surrounding cellphone towers. When, for example, a tornado warning is issued for Wood County, every cellphone tower there would transmit a warning to phones that are in range.

“So if you happen to be in Wood County, even if you happen to live in Milwaukee or La Crosse, it doesn’t really matter,” Pritchard said. “If you’re in Wood County, in Wisconsin Rapids or wherever, it’s going to go off, letting you know there is an alert.”

A phone that receives a warning message will sound an alert.

“It’s not just a standard ring or the ring tone you’ve selected. It has a different sound to it,” Pritchard said.

Along with the tone, phones will display a short text message.

“A tornado warning for Wood County, (might say) ‘Take shelter immediately,’” he said. “It’s more of a red flag. It gives you that immediate warning.”

The storm alerts don’t work on older cellphones, and people should contact wireless providers to determine if their phones work with the new system. Pritchard said there is no fee to participate.

The system broadcasts three types of warnings: Alerts for life-threatening storms, including tornadoes; presidential alerts; and Amber Alerts for missing children.

The presidential alert system, which the White House could use in a national emergency like a terrorism incident, has been tested, but never used.
Are sirens still needed?

Outdoor warning sirens were installed during the Cold War to warn residents of an attack that never came. Over the years, communities used them to warn residents of impending storms.

Sirens remain common in most Wisconsin communities.

Rusty Kapela, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sullivan, said the issue of warning sirens is “always a political hot potato.”

“At the Weather Service we don’t activate the sirens, we don’t control the sirens, we don’t dictate policy to cities and villages,” he said. “But I am aware that some cities and counties have a lot of sirens and others don’t. That’s just a fact.”

Emergency management directors say the sirens have value despite their limitations — such as not being designed to be heard indoors. In addition, the sirens can fail.

During the April 2011 storms, which brought tornadoes and dangerous winds to a wide swath of Wisconsin, at least 12 sirens failed, according to a Gannett Wisconsin Media check.

In Brown County, four sirens failed during the storm, but Paul Gazdik, the county’s emergency management director, said all of his county’s sirens are working today.

“We have a county electrician that’s always checking on them to make sure they’re operational,” he said.

Gazdik said his county’s 54 sirens are activated via radio from the county’s 911 dispatch center and most have battery backups. .

In Marinette County, sirens are tested weekly, said Eric Burmeister, the county’s emergency management director. On Aug. 19, 2011, a tornado struck Wausaukee in his county, killing one person.

Burmeister said he received reports from residents a siren failed to sound, but he was unable to confirm the failure.
The expense factor

For local communities, part of the decision of whether to operate a siren comes down to cost.

“I think (sirens have) their place but sometimes folks think that’s the only way you can get notified, and obviously there’s many different ways to find out what’s going on,” Pritchard said. “That’s just one tool in the toolbox to use. They are helpful but they are not the be-all, end-all.”

In Brown County, Gazdik said, the county budgets $10,000 annually to maintain its sirens.

In Calumet County, according to Marmor, no communities have installed new sirens recently. He said new sirens carry a price tag from $20,000 to $120,000, depending on the system.

Three communities — Sherwood, Chilton and Brothertown — have authorized siren repairs in recent years.

“It’s a couple thousand dollars here, a couple thousand dollars there, plus getting a person out to fix it,” Marmor said. “It’s like getting a leak, perhaps in your gas tank. While it’s not all that much, it’s one more issue.”

In the village of Coleman, Marinette County officials decided recently to fix a siren that had been out of service for 25 years.

Dennis Gross, Coleman’s public works supervisor, said the project will cost about $2,000.

“It got old and broke,” he said. “Now we decided we should do something.”

Meanwhile, in the Lincoln County community of Tomahawk, city leaders haven’t bothered to operate the sirens in more than a decade because of the cost.

“They were very expensive to repair and when the sirens went off, not all of the city could hear them, only the central part of the city,” said Amanda Bartz, the city’s clerk/treasurer. “Every once in a while we get somebody requesting them and the council looks at it and it’s just not cost-effective.”

Bartz said residents don’t need a siren to know a storm is coming.

“With the new technology (the warning message) is out there anyways. It’s on the radio.”

Copyright © 2013 www.wisconsinrapidstribune.com

The post Tornado sirens may give way to new warning technology appeared first on Municipal Insider.

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Opponents of a proposed $240 million slots parlor have presented Worcester officials with nearly a dozen petitions demanding that no talks begin that would lead to an agreement with developers.

The Telegram & Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/XYAP2S ) that petitions want information about the impact of a slots gambling parlor on the poor, local schools and young people and businesses. Petitions also seek information about how a parlor might make gambling addiction worse and if gambling will lead to greater demand for social services.

The city manager also is asked to prohibit or restrict to $10,000 what Massachusetts Gaming & Entertainment, the developer of the proposed slots parlor, or its corporate affiliates can spend on referendums for a slots parlor.

The City Council could authorize the city manager on Tuesday to negotiate an agreement for slots parlor.

© 2013 NY Times Co.

The post Worcester residents petition city to block casino appeared first on Municipal Insider.

Tullahoma Regional Airport’s use and benefits extend well beyond the city limits, and the industrial efforts of Coffee County have led to a request by the Airport Authority to restore a $12,000 appropriation that has been pulled in recent years due to the county’s budget shortfalls.

According to Sharon Tinkler, authority chairman, Coffee County has said it will contribute $12,000 it previously had given to the organization’s budget. The last time the county contributed to the airport’s budget was on March 9, 2011, with no further appropriations made in the 2012 or 2013 fiscal years.

However, City Administrator Jody Baltz said the county’s budget hasn’t been approved and isn’t final.

County Mayor David Pennington confirmed later that the $12,000 has been included in the county government’s 2014 budget. He added that although the 21 Coffee County commissioners have not had their final say on the issue, he believes the funding will remain intact.

“I think it’ll pass,” he said. Jon Glass, the authority’s executive director, said that since April 2012, 112 turboprop and jet aircraft relied on the Tullahoma airport to distribute products to companies, mostly auto related, that are not in Tullahoma.

M-Tek Inc. in Manchester received 65 aerial deliveries, while Tepro Inc. in Winchester received 13. Nissan North America, with its manufacturing plant in Decherd and warehousing facilities in Manchester, received 13 aerial deliveries while Entec Engineered Resins in Manchester received four and three other deliveries were made to other companies.

The Tullahoma Airport Authority met with the Board of Mayor and Aldermen this week to discuss what it will need in the upcoming fiscal year.

Alderman Sandy Lindeman said that since Coffee County has relied strongly on the airport to receive industrial deliveries, it’s great that the funding is being restored.

Increased fuel sales have boosted the authority’s financial picture, leading to questions about what the organization’s annual funding request from city government should be.

The good news is when the Airport Authority got into the fuel business in February 2011, getting away from a privately owned fixed base operator system, sales increased tremendously due to selling fuel at a lower cost and being more competitive with surrounding airports also in the same business.

The authority sold 146,294 gallons in 2012, up from 117,223 in 2011, 97,893 in 2010 and 94,408 in 2009.

The authority is requesting $180,000 from the city — the same as last year.

However, Alderman Mike Norris, the city’s appointed representative to the authority, questioned why $150,000 wouldn’t be enough since the authority had sold more fuel than it had expected to.

Glass said that when last year’s budget was set, the authority expected to sell between 100,000 and 110,000 gallons, not the 146,294. He added that the authority buys aviation gas and jet fuel at wholesale prices with markups of about $1 on jet fuel but less on aviation gas to entice more general aviation aircraft, which are more abundant, to land and fuel at Tullahoma.

Authority members agreed fuel sales fluctuate, and there’s no guarantee they will be where they were in the most recent record setting year.

Norris said municipal and other budgets traditionally involve revenue sources that aren’t set and fluctuate. He added that the Airport Authority’s budget is no different.

Mayor Lane Curlee said the Airport Authority’s funding request will be considered, just like those from city departments and other government branches. He added that the Board of Aldermen has made no decision on what each will get.

“We’re in the process of collecting information right now,” he said, adding that the board will be deliberating on funding issues before the budget is adopted at June’s end.

The authority is also requesting city government chip in $74,500 to secure $2.29 million in grant money to fund seven projects, ranging from installing hangars to runway upgrades.

Glass said the grant money would be from the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Division.

Alderman Jimmy Blanks questioned how much the public would benefit from the improvements. He added that a perception exists that the airport is mainly used by a select few with higher incomes who own airplanes, and tax dollars go to support their aviation hobbies.

Curlee said the airport is a tremendous industrial recruitment tool and generates revenue for the city. He said the airport’s presence is directly related to job growth and with an airpark in its infant stages for business development the economic interests to Tullahoma are paramount.

Tinkler said those who use the airport for business and special events stay in Tullahoma’s motels and spend money on food and entertainment, bolstering the city’s economy.

Blanks said although the airport does help the economy, many residents don’t understand that. He added that it needs to be made clear the economic development role that the airport serves.

Copyright 2013 Lakeway Publishers, Inc.

The post Airport hopeful county will restore funding appeared first on Municipal Insider.