County Management Institute Honors 46 Counties for Safety

Forty-six counties and four special individuals were honored for their exceptional work in improving county safety efforts at a ceremony at TAC’s County Management Institute in Austin in early May.

TAC’s safety awards were presented at the recommendation of the safety and risk management specialists who work with counties around the state to decrease their accident rates.

Four individual employees from around Texas were honored with the highest honors, the “Making a Difference Awards:

• In West Texas, Cochran County’s Doris Sealy was honored for her commitment to her fellow employees and for having made an inactive safety program into one of the most active in the region;

• In North Texas, Denton County Risk Manager Gustavo Hernandez has conducted safety programs that have resulted in his county achieving a .53 experience modifier in 2006;

• In East Texas, San Jacinto County’s Michael Griffith has led the county’s effort to develop a safety culture in their workforce;

• In South Texas, Brooks County Commissioner Gloria Garza has been instrumental in the development and implementation of Brooks County’s safety program, including a new initiative in the sheriff’s office.

Nine Gold Star Awards were presented for overall improvement in county safety records.

These counties included Hutchinson, Carson, Fisher, Bell, Denton, Nueces, Orange, Brooks and Hays.

Thirty-seven Safety Awards were presented to the following counties: Armstrong, Cochran, Deaf Smith, Lynn, Sherman, Yoakum, Hockley, Garza, Scurry, Coleman, Fannin, Erath, Kaufman, McLennan, Montague, Nacogdoches, Rusk, Somervell, Gregg, Hunt, Wichita, Aransas, Brazoria, Brazos, Cameron, Colorado, Hardin, Kleberg, San Jacinto, San Patricio, Wharton, Bandera, Crockett, Jim Wells, Kerr, Live Oak and Comal.

Annual Conference will unravel legislative knots

TAC’s Annual Conference and Trade Show, held August 15-17 at the Hilton Hotel Austin, will feature several tracks devoted to reporting the results of the 80th Legislative Session, particularly those affecting county government.

Some of the issues to be discussed include:

• Open records and confidentiality of Social Security Numbers;

• Ongoing attempts to cap revenue for county governments;

• Indigent health care;

• Prison construction.

In addition to a general session for the broad picture, there will be meetings for each county office to hear about the specific changes that will affect their offices, and to discuss with their peers ways to incorporate those changes into their duties.

NACo Membership Up, But Not Enough

Fifteen more Texas counties have joined the National Association of Counties since last year.

That’s the good news, reported Denton County Clerk Cynthia Mitchell, chair of the Texas NACo Leadership Caucus. The less good news is that almost half of Texas’ counties are not members of the only organization that looks out for counties in Washington D.C. As of mid-April, 132 of Texas’ 254 counties were NACo members. “When people hear about what NACo does for counties, it’s almost a no-brainer,” Mitchell said.

In the legislative arena, she noted, NACo has played a key role in:

• Transportation formulas that guarantee local input through SAFETY-LIU;

• CDBG; public housing and Section 8 funding;

• Children’s health care funding through CHIP; and

• Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for counties with non-taxed federal properties such as military bases or parklands.

In addition, member counties can participate in NACo’s deferred compensation program that allows employees to save tax-free for retirement and its nationwide purchasing alliance. More recently, 42 Texas counties have distributed prescription drug cards to local citizens that grant a no-questions-asked discount on drug costs. Many counties used the card to purchase medications for jail inmates, saving taxpayers money. County Magazine published an article on the program in its last issue titled “Something for Nothing.”

Mitchell pointed out that if counties join NACo in the next few weeks, they will receive a free conference registration, which can be used to send a county official or employee to the Annual Conference July 13- 17 in historic Richmond, Virginia.

“Officials who attend the annual conference get a chance to learn not only from their excellent seminars but also by rubbing elbows with county officials throughout the country,” she said. “You can learn a lot by comparing notes with people from other states.”

Or, she noted, counties that join and obtain a free registration – but do not wish to pay travel expenses to Richmond – can pledge their county’s votes in care of TAC on behalf of Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, who is seeking the NACo Second Vice President’s position this summer.

New member counties that wish to go that route should register and send notification by fax to NACo’s Andrew Goldschmidt at 202-393-2630.

TAC offers County Investment Officer certification

TAC’s CIO Level I certification program instructs officials who invest county funds in how to make their money grow. The weeklong program (this year from September 30 through October 6) covers all the basics of good investing, including:

• The Texas Public Funds Investment Act; • Putting together an investment policy; • Allowable investment options; • Managing the various types of risk; • The math of finance; and • Computing investment yields.

All this and more will be presented during the 35 hours of instruction. CIO certification is awarded after the successful completion of the certification exam following the course. (The examination is not required of anyone who is not seeking CIO certification.)

Any official can attend TAC’s CIO training courses, however those who oversee public investment – such as auditors, commissioners court members, county investment officers and treasurers – are especially encouraged to participate.

Registration is available online at www.county.org, or by calling the TAC Education Department at 800-456-5974.

Texas Public Funds Investment Conference set for November

TAC has set November 15 & 16 as the dates for the 2007 Texas Public Funds Investment Conference. Anyone who has responsibility for the care and feeding of county tax dollars should attend. This includes not only County Investment Officers and committee members, but commissioners court members, auditors, tax-assessors and treasurers as well.

The conference will feature experts from across the nation, and will include two concurrent tracks – one for basic topics and one for advanced investors. The conference will be held at the Renaissance Houston Ho- tel at 6 Greenway Plaza in Houston.

This educational program will satisfy the state-mandated PFIA requirements for County Investment Officers, as well as 10 CEU credit hours, and it will not be duplicated anywhere this year.

TAC Creates Search Engine for County Best Practices

Every year, the TAC Leadership Foundation recognizes counties that develop “best practices” – exceptional delivery of services, outstanding achievements and superior innovations.

Now, via the TAC Website at www. county.org, county officials and their constituents have access to an easily searchable database of all those programs, as well as local leaders who have received the coveted Sam Seale Trailblazer award.

The County Best Practice Awards Program Website, online at http://www.county. org/cms/leader/practices.asp, includes a search engine of all winning Best Practices programs and Trailblazer winners since 2000.

Best Practices programs can be searched according to keyword, year, award class, category and county. Summaries and applications can then be viewed in .PDF format, which requires Internet users to have Adobe Acrobat.

The search engine shows summaries of the winning Best Practices programs from 2000-2004 and the full award applications of all nominees and award winners from 2005 and 2006. The applications include a project’s contact information, written description of the challenge and solution and a summary of the project or program, as well as any photos, newspaper clippings or other information the county submitted when applying for the award.

The purpose of the TAC Leadership Foundation Best Practices Awards program is to highlight innovation and distribute information on good programs and ideas implemented by Texas counties, and to help county government officials share their county’s successes and values with residents. “Helping counties share their projects and success stories among themselves in an effort to help the people of all Texas counties benefit as much as possible from county projects is one of the most important reasons for the search engine,” said TAC’s Interim Executive Director Karen Norris. She added that including recent nominees in the search engine helps promote those purposes.

“This was done to help people working in counties and thinking about projects for themselves to find information about projects that are already in place that may be similar to theirs, and to be able to get ideas for possible projects,” Norris said. “By including the entire nomination forms, we also hoped to provide models for writing award-winning applications.” To view the page, go to www. county.org and scroll over the “Member Service” tab across the top, then the “Leadership Foundation” menu item, and then click on “County Best Practices.”

BuyBoard membership continues to grow

Each month more counties take advantage of the savings in time and money they get simply by making their purchases through BuyBoard, a purchasing cooperative of counties, cities and schools. And as Buy- Board membership grows, so does the aggregate purchasing power with which the BuyBoard negotiates its contracts. The number of vendors vying for your business also grows as the membership increases. The end result is increased savings to county purchasers. To find out more about the BuyBoard, call Steve Fisher at 800- 695-2919.

‘netiquette’ Streamlines Listserve Effectiveness

Business is humming for many of the 19 listserves that the Texas Association of Counties has made available to specifi c county interest groups that have requested them. As usage grows, some listserve members report they’re getting more listserve messages than from any other source. Below are some common sense rules for listserve “netiquette:”

Th e subject line is there for a reason. Many users save messages on particular topics for future reference in a separate folder, but it can be hard to fi nd a thread of previous conversations if there is no specific topic associated with them. Sending a query out entitled “Question?” or with no subject at all makes it nearly impossible to discern the focus from looking at the subject line.

The same goes for switching topics in midstream. If a message thread starts out tagged “computer software” and then someone hits “reply” but changes the subject of the message to ask about pay scales, users not interested in the software issue may delete future messages unread, unaware that there may be interesting information about pay scales.

Limit personal comments to personto- person e-mail. Replies that inform 60 others that “it was good to see you at dinner Friday night” likely wastes the time of 59 people.

Listserve messages, like all email, are not private. Even the email of Bill Gates to his employees ended up as evidence in a courtroom, and for Texas county offi - cials, there’s also the open records law that has been interpreted to indicate that email on government computers is public record unless a message is exempted from disclosure for some reason. Keep in mind that a caustic comment about someone else in the courthouse could end up on the front page and a serious plea for help on a controversy that may well end up in a lawsuit could prove embarrassing on the witness stand. If it’s sensitive, pick up the phone and ask for advice the old-fashioned way.

Lack of input should leave a message unsent. Replies that answer a question with “I don’t know” or “me too” usually impart no information, so why send them?

One last edit usually improves any message. Reading a message carefully, to consider whether it will make sense to all readers and really addresses the concerns raised by previous senders, usually helps the communications process.

Contact the following individuals to inquire about listserve participation:

• County Auditors: Paul Sugg (pauls@county.org);

Please be aware that membership in some listserves is limited to particular offi cials or organizations. All listserves are free to offi cials and employees from TAC member counties.

Best In Class, Again

An article about cold case investigations earned County Magazine Assistant Editor Maria Sprow a rare “Best in Class” honor by the national Association of County Information offi cers. Th e article, “Is it Hot in Here?” was published in the november- December 2006 issue.

In addition, County Editor Jim Lewis received an Excellent Award for his January- February 2006 article, “no Brainer,” which explained the consequences of the termination of the regional drug task force program.

Since 1993, TAC’s Communications Staff has received 59 certifi cates in nACIo’s annual Awards of Excellence competition. Sprow’s award was the fourth “Best in Class” during that time.

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