Keep up with Legislative Developments

Via www.county.org Homepage

The TAC Government Relations Department is hot to track the daily activities of the Texas Legislature throughout this year’s session and the best way to keep up with each week’s developments is by logging in to www.county.org.

On the www.county.org homepage, officials will be able to read the most recent news updates from the Capitol as well as find links to pages that keep up with the status of major bills, bills of particular interest to individual officeholders and upcoming committee hearings.

Officials who subscribe to the TACNEWS e-mail newsletter will continue to receive regular notification of news articles posted at www.county. org as well as recent committee hearings and major county events. County officials are encouraged to use www.county.org as their primary source for important information related to the legislative session.

And, the U. S. Post Office will continue to deliver the biweekly issues of County Issues, TAC’s hard-copy legislative newsletter.

Management Institute to Focus on Ethics

The County Management Institute will be held April 3-5 at the Hyatt Regency Austin. The Institute is designed to help county officials and key staff become more effective managers of county business. This year, CMI is offering four specialized tracks that address the diverse needs of county government in general management, finances for small and mid size counties, human resources and risk management. During these tracks, county officials can learn about personnel issues, controlling increasingly expensive risks and budgeting, depending on their area of interest.

The theme of the Institute is ethics and accountability. Notable speakers will shed light on the often-gray areas of ethics in public service, with a focus on effective leadership.

Keynote speaker is Max Sherman, who brings a distinguished record of service in higher education and government that included seven years in the Texas Senate, 14 years as dean of the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs school and four years as president of West Texas State University. The Institute’s other keynote is Mac McGuire, who is a highly motivational speaker with an uncanny sense of humor. MacGuire served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Texas National Guard and is now instructing a variety of subjects related to quality, leadership, and communication for Fortune 500, educational, and governmental organizations.

Register online or for more information call Alice Kanelos with the TAC Education Department at 800-456-5974. Concurrent tracks include

• General Management. Managers and their staff will acquire valuable information to help them perform more effectively. Sessions include the “Company You Keep,” “System Thinking” and “Management in Government.”

• Human Resource Management. Texas attorneys will clarify and update the Fair Labor Standards Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

• Finance Management. This session gets to the nuts and bolts of budgets for small and midsize counties. Sessions will examine the budget process, hear from an authority on the new county fiscal reporting model and obtain information about financial reporting that must be complied with in each county.

• Risk Management. This track explores the costly issue of mold in the workplace, ways to provide affordable health care for employees’; examines escalating costs of Workers Compensation and what can be done about it, and looks at accident investigation as a way to prevent severe injuries or fatalities.

Leadership Classes Support Community Development

The Texas Association of Counties has joined with the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and a wide array of Texas organizations and educational institutions in sponsoring the Texas Leadership Institute (TLI). The Institute's primary focus is to promote community and economic development by providing educational and training opportunities for local elected public officials, professionals, community leaders and volunteers.

“These classes are intended to provide a broad-based knowledge of various elements of community and economic development; everything from affordable housing to preventing juvenile crime; grant writing to recruiting or retaining existing businesses; or just plain leadership training for elected public officials and community leaders,” said Ray Alvarez, executive director of the non-profit educational consortium. “Our course evaluations are always positive and that’s a good sign that we’re on the right track. I know we’re having a positive impact because folks have gone back to their communities and implemented what they have learned in these seminars.”

In 2003, the Institute will offer over 40 seminars covering a wide range of topics. It kicks off at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin on Feb. 21 with a seminar on techniques for land development and tax increment financing.”

Since it’s creation in the 1995, more than 7,000 have attended TLI classes. A one-day, 6-hour credit course is $99 and includes lunch. The majority of TLI’s classes take place at training facilities located at LCRA’s Lake Buchanan Training Center and at LCRA’s Riverside Conference Center in Bastrop. However, classes are held at other locations throughout the state, primarily at local college and universities and other community facilities. To view course offerings and register online go to www.texasleadership.org or call Ray Alvarez at 800-776-5272 (ext: 3252 or 3399) for questions or to receive a program brochure.

The New Year Starts with Some New Presidents

Welcome aboard the following new presidents of Texas county official organizations. Harris County Judge Robert Eckels will head up the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas and Ector County Auditor David Austin takes the reins of the Texas Association of County Auditors.

TAC’s Spring Law Enforcement Regionals Focus on Prisoner Rights

In February and March at 11 locations throughout the state, a two-day law enforcement workshop will offer 16 hours of TCLEOSE credit, which is a requirement for intermediate certification. Best of all, the workshops are free to county law enforcement and jail staff from TAC member counties. At the workshop, correctional case law will be examined within the context of prisoner rights as well as the role of the courts in protecting those rights. Civil liability issues will also be discussed, including the various state and federal remedies available to the inmates and its impact on jails. The Texas Association of Counties produces the workshops in conjunction with The Texas Jail Association. Education co-sponsor is Sam Houston State University. For more information, visit the Education Center to register online. Those with questions can call Jan Halverson 800-456-5974. TAC’s Spring Law Enforcement Regionals will be in the following locations:

• Feb. 19-20: Austin, Norris Conference Center, 2525 West Anderson, 512-451-5011;

• Feb. 19-20: Lubbock, Holiday Inn Hotel, 801 Avenue Q, 806-763- 1200;

• Feb. 26-27: Odessa, Holiday Inn Centre, 6201 East Business Loop 20, 915-362-2311;

• Feb. 26-27: Waco, Waco Hilton, 113 South University Parks Drive, 254-754-8484;

• March 5-6: Conroe, Lone Star Convention Center, 9055 Airport Road, 936- 538-8000;

• March 5-6: Abilene, Ambassador, 4250 Ridgemont Drive, 915-698-1234;

• March 12-13: McAllen, Casa De Palmas, 101 North Main Street, 956-631-1101;

• March 12-13: Tyler, Sheraton Tyler Hotel, 5701 South Broadway, 903-579-8208;

• March 19-20: Victoria, Holiday Inn Victoria, 2705 East Houston, 361-575-0251; and

• March 19-20: Amarillo, Ambassador Hotel, 3100 IH-40 West, 806-358-6161.

NACo Moves Legislative Conference

The National Association of Counties Annual Legislative Conference is being held in a new location this year. It’s still in Washington D. C., but for the first time in decades the host hotel has been changed away from the Washington Hilton. This year’s conference will be held Feb. 28- March 4 at the Marriott Wardman Park.

More information is available from NACo at www.naco.org /events/leg/index.cfm. Registration by Jan. 30 offers a $50 discount.

For more information, contact NACo’s Patrick Cokley at 202-942-4293 or via email at pcockley@naco.org.

Navy Awards Medal to TAC Analyst

Since 1999, Tim Brown has gathered and analyzed data about Texas counties for the TAC County Information Project. For 13 months of that time, beginning shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, he was called away for reserve duty in the U.S. Navy.

Apparently, he was doing good work while he was away. Last October, Lt. Commander Timothy W. Brown was presented with a Joint Service Commendation Medal for meritorious service for the armed services of the United States.

Stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, Brown was honored for skillfully directing the examination of imagery by 160 analysts who were supporting 160 U.S. forces in the war on terrorism.

“He led production of over 71,000 intelligence reports, time-sensitive strike recommendations and physical damage assessments in support of strikes on al-Qaida and Iraqi forces,” according to the commendation.

In addition, he produced evidence for the Secretary of Defense to disprove Taliban assertions of collateral damage, which officials used to garner international support for actions in Afghanistan.

And, he designed an automated database to track personnel actions, saving over 50 man-hours a week of work.