Tarrant Judge Takes On National Duties

Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley has made several trips to Washington, D.C., recently, acting in his official capacity as the National Association of Counties 2nd Vice President.

One trip occurred during the inauguration of President Barack Obama. On the morning of Inauguration Day, Whitley helped to host a reception at NACo headquarters for county officials from across the country. There was an unmistakable optimism in the room, he said. “There was a renewed sense of hope that local governments would again be able to work well with the federal government, restoring a cooperative spirit and partnership between all levels of government,” Whitley said. “The officials I talked with seemed more interested in solving problems, than in determining who should get credit for the solution.”

Like many others who witnessed the historic event, Whitley said he was deeply moved by the installation of an African American as the president, as well as the government’s ability to have a peaceful transfer of power.

“It made me so proud to live in the greatest country in the world and so proud of the core values of our country,” Whitley said. “The ideas embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the guarantees of liberty and freedom enhanced by the long struggle for equal rights, has served our country well for more than two centuries.”

As the NACo 2nd Vice President, Whitley will serve as a voice for Tarrant Judge Takes On National Duties local government issues and concerns before Congress and the White House.

In early January, before the inauguration, the NACo executive committee met with Cecilia Munoz, Obama’s White House director of intergovernmental affairs, to emphasize the role that counties play in local government and the need to strengthen the relationships between the local, state and federal governments.

“We discussed NACo priorities and the stimulus legislation,” Whitley said. “Counties always need to have a seat at the table as important policy decisions are debated and decided in Washington. Ensuring that counties are able to participate in those debates and decisions is one of NACo’s most important functions.”

NACo staff working with the various steering committees will continue to meet with Munoz.

Among the NACo legislative priorities are continued opposition to unfunded mandates and regulatory initiatives that undermine local government decision-making authority. Other priorities include health system reform and reauthorization of federal transportation programs, Whitley said.

The implementation of the stimulus package is of particular concern because it is important to make sure dollars flow to the local government level and “don’t get hung up” by the states.

Members of the NACo executive committee also hoped to meet with a number of Congressman and the White House officials during NACo’s March legislative conference, which was held March 7-11 — after the County publishing deadline for this issue.

Deadline for Best Practices Nominations Nearing

Counties that have recently developed innovative programs to better serve taxpayers are encouraged to nominate the program for a prestigious Texas Association of Counties Leadership Foundation Best Practices Award. The Best Practices Awards Program honors innovative county-driven solutions in the areas of technology, public safety and corrections, health and human services, financial and general management, and community improvement.

To be eligible for a Best Practices Award, the program must have been established within the past 36 months of the April 15 deadline and must currently be fully operational. The program should also be replicable in other counties and show measurable results. The deadline for nominations is April 15.

The goals of the Best Practices program are to distribute problem-solving information to county officials across Texas and to improve the public perception and awareness of county government services and programs. Counties honored via the Best Practices Program will have their programs detailed in County magazine and will be announced at the TAC Annual Conference in August, and press releases will be sent to local media outlets. In addition, TAC will create short video segments for the winning programs, and the video segments will be hosted on TAC’s www.county.org Web site.

Best Practices nomination forms are available online at www.county.org/cms/leader/practices. The site also contains videos of the 2008 honorees, a video tutorial on how to successfully describe county programs and a searchable database of past winning program applications. County officials who would like more information can contact Kali O’Neill at kalio@county.org.

Help Promote April as Child Safety Month

The Texas Office for Prevention of Development Disabilities (TOPDD) is encouraging counties and county officials to help promote April as Child Safety Month. Child Safety Month should focus on the need to educate the community about the problem of childhood injuries and the dissemination of information on preventative measures. The TOPDD is offering educational materials and coloring books free-of-charge to counties that will sponsor a child safety event sometime during the month. The office can also help facilitate local government partnerships with the Texas Medical Association’s Hard Hats for Little Heads program, which can provide additional materials.

“County officials can play an important leadership role by encouraging others to take action to keep children safe,” said TOPDD Executive Director Carolyn Smith. “Elected officials can pass resolutions proclaiming April as Child Safety Month in their respective counties and encourage existing volunteer organizations to plan an activity where information about riding bicycles safely or other safety practices can be shared with children and parents.”

Some simple and easy-to-disseminate child safety tips include:

• Always check that children are wearing their helmets properly by making sure no more than three fingers fit through the chin and helmet strap;
• Never allow children to play nearan lawn being mowed and always clear all objects – including rocks, trash and branches – before mowing the lawn, to prevent injuries from flying debris;
• Maintain constant supervision around any water environment and make sure children wear a U.S. Coast Guard approved life jacket when on a lack, river or ocean while boating, swimming, skiing or tubing.

Counties can also use their Web sites to link to child safety information portals such as the Brain Injury Association of Texas, the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute. The TOPDD Web site has a list of such resources at www.topdd.state.tx.us/ resources.php.

Counties interested in hosting a child safety event can contact June Villarreal at june. villarreal@hhsc.state. tx.us to receive coloring books and educational bookmarks or a copy of the concurrent Child Safety Month Resolution for cities and counties.

Registration Open for National County Government Conference

County officials looking for a national perspective on county government can now register to attend the 2009 National Association of Counties Annual Conference, scheduled for July 24-28 in Davidson County, Tennessee. Davidson County is home to Nashville.

Conference organizers are still finalizing the conference agenda, but any county official is welcome to attend NACo’s legislative steering committees and affiliate meetings, which are scheduled for July 24-25. There is also an advanced preconference seminar co-sponsored by the National Association of County Information Officers on communicating with the public via the Internet, titled “In Command of Your Own Press: Getting the Most from the Internet.”

The following days are filled with concurrent educational sessions on model county programs and nationwide county-related challenges. There will be a special focus on green government.

The annual conference also includes the election of NACo’s next 2nd Vice President, a leadership position that eventually progresses into the association’s presidency.

More information on the NACo annual conference, including registration information, is available at www.naco.org

Risk Management Pool Board Elects Executive Committee

The TAC Risk Management Pool Board has elected its Executive Committee members for 2009. Cooke County Judge Bill Freeman will serve as the Board’s chair, while Erath County Judge Tab Thompson will serve as the Board’s vice chair. Rounding out the executive committee are Denton County Clerk Cynthia Mitchell and Burnet County Auditor Kevin Smith.

County Government Week Set for May 3-9

Texas county officials are urged to enjoy a barbecue on the grounds of the state Capitol to celebrate County Government Week May 6.

With just a few weeks left in the Legislative Session, the timing will be perfect for officials to visit with their lawmakers about issues affecting local government. In addition to the outdoor meal, counties are expected to be recognized via resolutions under consideration by the Senate and House of Representatives and County Best Practices winners will be on display in the Capitol.

That week – May 3-9 – has been designated by the National Association of Counties as National County Government Week (NCGW). First held in 1991, National County Government Week raises public awareness and understanding about the roles and responsibilities of the nation’s counties.

More than 1,000 counties annually participate in NCGW by holding a variety of programs and events. These include tours of county facilities, presentations in schools, meetings with business and community leaders, recognition programs for volunteers, briefings on environmental projects and adoption of proclamations. NACo has established “Greening Our Future” as the theme for this year’s week-long observance.

A booklet explaining ways to commemorate County Government Week is available on their Web site, www.naco.org, by pulling down the “County Resource Center” tab and clicking on “Public Awareness Campaigns.”

County Management Institute Features Expert Speakers on Leadership

TAC’s County Management Institute focuses on leadership for county officials and employees. Keynote speakers for the April 15-17 conference will include Eric Greitens and Dr. Geoffrey Tumlin, both leadership experts in their fields.

Greitens is a senior fellow at the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri. He’s a celebrated author and an expert on how to lead teams, communities and organizations through situations of extreme hardship and challenge. He’s also a Navy SEAL and a Rhodes Scholar. Greitens will speak on leadership and social responsibility.

Tumlin is the assistant director of the Center for Ethical Leadership in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He will discuss the role ethics plays in today’s leadership environment. Other topics for the conference include disaster preparation, stress management strategies, making the right choices in decision making, prevention of common workplace accidents and how to organize a successful criminal justice committee.

Online registration is available at the TAC Education Center on www. county.org. For more information, see page 18.

TAC Suggestion BoxTAC Box

TAC is an organization led by county officials, for county government, and we strive to seek solutions that are custom-tailored to county needs as they rise. To do that, TAC must obtain suggestions directly from all county officials. No one knows better than you, our members, what services we should address as we plan for the future. Beginning with this issue of County, we are encouraging county officials to participate in our “TAC Suggestion Box” as a way to propose improved delivery of TAC services or to propose ideas that we can take on to improve county government in Texas.

Officials who have suggestions or proposals are encouraged to shoot an email to Executive Director Karen Ann Norris at executivedirector@county.org or send an old-fashioned letter to Executive Director, P.O. Box 2131, Austin, TX 78768.

www.TexasCounties4U.org has successful debut

More than a 1,000 Web-surfers visited the new county government public awareness Internet page in the first few days it was online in late January.

Those visitors viewed an average of four pages on www.TexasCounties4U. org, many with an interest in viewing brief videos on paying property taxes, getting exemptions and setting up delinquent payment plans. Those videos were hot topics because of the end-of-January state law deadline for property tax payments – TAC circulated press releases to televisions and newspaper Web sites across the state promoting the insights available on the public awareness page.

The site also features information about Texas county government generally as well as descriptions of county offices, county demographic profiles and how to find Texas county Web sites.

With the assistance of counties whose Web sites are sponsored by TAC’s County Information Resource Agency, www.TexasCounties4U.org is now linked on more than 170 county Web sites so far. A number of Internet pages for Tax Assessor-Collectors also link to the new site. For those counties whose Web sites are not yet linked to the page, officials are encouraged inform their county Web administrators about linking to the page..

TML, TAC Seeking City-County Cooperation Award Nominees

In the spirit of promoting inter-local cooperation, TAC and the Texas Municipal League are once again joining forces to honor cities and counties that have worked together to meet local government challenges.

To nominate a program for the 2009 City-County Cooperation Award, someone from the participating city or county must mail a 1,200 word description of the project to the TML City-Cooperation Award Program at 1821 Rutherford Lane Suite 400 in Austin, TX 78754. There is no official application form, so descriptions must include the names and populations of the involved cities and counties, as well as the signature and printed names of the county judge and chief city official. Descriptions must also include contact information regarding the project.

The project description should include information on why the project was needed, how it was accomplished, who the project benefitted, how local governments worked together to achieve the project’s goals, the resources necessary to develop and implement the project, and the future impact the project will have on the community.

Award winners will be honored by both TAC and TML at the TAC Annual Conference in August and the Texas Municipal League Annual Conference in October, as well as the Texas Association of Regional Councils Annual Conference in September. Winning projects will be also recognized in both County and Texas Town & City magazines. Past projects have included a partnership between Burleson County and the City of Somerville to create a health resource center; collaborations between Parker County and the City of Weatherford to create a special crimes unit and a regional animal shelter; the Keep Titus County Moving partnership between Titus County and the City of Mount Pleasant; the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter; and a consolidated preventative public health care system in Bexar County.

More information about the City-County Cooperation Award is available online at www.tml.org/city_county_award.html. The deadline for nominations is May 1.

Agencies Discuss Full Impact of Hurricane Ike

State, federal and local agencies have mostly concluded their damage assessments from the 2008 hurricane season, which saw Hurricanes Ike, Gustav and Dolly and Tropical Storm Eduardo breeze through Texas.

Most of the county-related damages sustained stemmed from Ike and Dolly. According to insurance claims filed with the TAC Risk Management Pool, Brooks, Jim Hogg, Cameron and Willacy counties all sustained significant property damages from Hurricane Dolly; as of Feb. 20, the Pool had so far paid those counties $1,635,621 to repair insured buildings and content. Other appraisals were still pending. For Hurricane Ike, the Pool had paid $219,895.96 for property damages and other expenses, as of Feb. 20, as well as an additional $20,000 for damaged countyowned vehicles hit by fallen trees. However, the Pool expects to pay an additional $7.5 million for property claims that are still in process.

Special attention has been focused on the impact of Hurricane Ike, which is expected to become one of the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history. More than 15 federal agencies and departments worked with the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management to compile the Hurricane Ike Impact Report, a “firstever attempt to comprehensively compile the damage assessment and impact information of federal, state and local governments for use in the long-term recovery process,” according to a foreword by Stephen DeBlasio Sr., a federal coordinating officer with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The report includes information from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Texas Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, among other agencies. It’s intended to address Ike’s impact on infrastructure, the environment, social services and industry, as well as other areas.

“Communities that call the coast their home may be able to reduce or even avoid many of the impacts of these storms by examining the effects (and) areas of vulnerability and incorporating these elements into their recovery,” the report states.

According to the report, Ike had a large impact on the state’s social, natural, built and economic environments.

In terms of social services, Ike caused major damages to six Houstonarea hospitals and three Beaumontarea hospitals; the University of Texas Medical Branch-Galveston sustained an estimated $710 million in damages.

Public health concerns following Ike include mental health issues such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression, and physical health concerns from smoke inhalation and lead poisoning. Infrastructure and housing were badly damaged by Ike. The report estimates that wastewater plants and related infrastructure suffered about $1.7 billion in damages, and that $131.8 million is needed to repair damage to the state’s transportation system, while the state’s waterways and ports have about $2.4 billion in needed repairs. In addition, assessments from cities and counties regarding housing damage totaled $3.4 billion; about 27 percent of the wind damage and 61 percent of the flooding damage was uninsured.

Environmentally, saltwater intrusion caused an ecological upheaval in Gulf Coast wetlands and other natural habitats. Oyster beds, which contribute to the overall water quality since they remove algae and pollutants through their feeding process, are covered by sediment from the retreating storm surge. Land flooded by saltwater may take several years to become fertile, which will impact ranchers and livestock. Economically, “Ike has impacted numerous industries in the area, including petrochemical, health care, agriculture and forestry, fishing, tourism, nonprofit and small business sectors,” the report states.

“Flooding from Ike’s surge will require the replacement of machinery, computers and other equipment crucial to the operation of business. In addition, hundreds of miles of fencing, farm machinery and equipment also sustained significant damage.”

Despite all the bad news, the report stated that local officials and community organizers have helped their areas recover quickly and that “economic development professionals remain positive.” The complete 64-page document can be found online at www. fema.gov/pdf/hazard/hurricane/2008/ike/impact_report.pdf.

TACNews Keeps Officials Updated

During Legislative Session Elected officials looking for county-related updates during the legislative session can check their email inboxes for a copy of TACNews, TAC’s new online newsletter.

The newsletter includes information from TAC’s legislative department and other sources about bills going through the legislature and initiatives to bring home dollars for county services, such as the Texas Sheriff’s Association’s and the Texas Conference of Urban Counties’ joint Feb. 11 press conference about the need for more mental health dollars. When available, the newsletter links to related videos and news clippings from around the state.

Officials who accidently deleted the newsletter or have not received an emailed version of TACNews can simply visit the TACNews Web portal, http://newsletter. county.org, which includes current and past editions.

TAC’s Legislative Department will also continue to publish its monthly report of County Issues, available online at www.county.org/resources/library/cissue.

County Library Offers Public Health, Fitness Activities

Public health and wellness programs are gaining popularity across the country as one way to reduce health care costs.

Last year, the National Association of Counties launched an online “healthy counties” database, filled with information on county-driven programs created to promote community wellness and curb childhood obesity.

This year, the Montgomery County Library System launched a new community wellness initiative called Library LITE — LITE standing for Lose weight, Increase confidence, County Library Offers Public Health, Fitness Activities Tone your body and Exercise and energize. The program allowed library patrons to sign up for the Walk Across Texas challenge and offered a variety of free health and wellness activities at the library’s branches. It received positive press via local media outlets, including The Houston Chronicle.

The county library worked with area fitness trainers and other healthindustry experts to create a series of wellness seminars and other activities. The trainers volunteered their time and information so that patrons could stop by the library for a beginning yoga or low impact aerobics class, then sign out a work out video or a book on healthy nutrition. Other classes included seminars on bone health, cooking with herbs, preschool exercises, childhood eating behaviors, belly dancing and child health screenings with blacklight handwashing demonstrations.

Library Lite organizers said the program helped draw attention to health-related resources available at the library and increase the breadth of library patrons.

“This will draw attention here to resources we’ve always had. People don’t think you can go to the library and get free workout tapes and other resources,” Melissa Baker, the marketing and program coordinator for the library system, told The Houston Chronicle. “There’s a whole different audience the library hasn’t reached out to before. We can help them work on their new year’s resolution and let them know we’re not just for picking up James Patterson novels and free internet access,” added Librarian Abbey Dunlap.

Texas counties who have launched community health programs can have their program added to the nationwide Healthy Counties database by emailing Christina Rowland at crowland@naco.org. The database includes programs geared toward reducing childhood obesity, increasing residential physical activities, promoting healthy eating and living, growing local food systems, and public-private health or wellness partnerships. The database is online at www.healthycounties.org/database.

Join TAC for Tuesday Breakfasts, Legislative Speakers

County officials of all stripes are welcome to join TAC’s legislative staff and others Tuesday mornings at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast and discussions on county-related bills going through legislative committees.

The breakfasts will take place in the Fourth Floor TAC Board Room at 1210 San Antonio Street in Austin and will allow county officials the opportunity to meet with Capitol staffers and legislators. While anyone interested in county related issues is invited to the breakfasts, each week will feature one invited speaker who will talk about a pre-determined topic. County officials can then leave their vehicles parked at TAC while attending committee hearings or other functions at the Capitol.

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