CNCounty News

News from Across the Nation - Jan. 9, 2017

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TEXAS

There’s a fence going up in South Texas and it’s not on the Mexican border. WILLACY COUNTY is hoping a chain-link fence will force ocelots to an underpass and keep the endangered cats out of traffic. There are only 80 in Texas, and seven had been killed by vehicles in an 11-month period ending April 2016, the Houston Chronicle reported.

 

 

ALABAMA

● The ASSOCIATION OF COUNTY COMMISSIONS OF ALABAMA (ACCA) has endorsed a 3-cent-per-gallon motor fuels tax increase to fund a $1.2 billion bond issue for local road and bridge projects. If approved by the state Legislature, it would take effect July 1.

Under the plan, bond revenue would be divided among counties using the existing gas tax formula, which is based partly on population. Every county would get a minimum of $10 million, according to drivealabama.org. Twenty percent of the money would be spent within local jurisdictions.

Bonds would be issued by a “cooperative district,” comprising each of the 67 county commissions. ACCA Executive Director Sonny Brasfield said, “We just feel like the only way to push this forward is for county leaders to advocate for a specific plan.”

 

● A bill to create a JEFFERSON COUNTY Cemetery Board will be in the legislative hopper when the 2017 Alabama Legislative session begins next month.

It would regulate privately owned cemeteries, The Birmingham News reported.

The bill’s sponsors say the board would receive complaints from residents and cemetery plot owners about cemetery upkeep.

The board, independent of the County Commission, would levy fines on cemetery operators or declare a graveyard as a public nuisance, if necessary.

The Cemetery Board would have five unpaid members, selected by the county’s legislative delegation.

 

CALIFORNIA

● A MONTEREY COUNTY judge has delayed implementation of Measure Z, which would limit oil-drilling operations in the county. The time-out will remain in effect while two oil-industry lawsuits challenging the measure are resolved in the courts.

“The oil industry wanted (a restriction) from implementing Measure Z, County Counsel Charles McKee told the Mercury News, and fighting that could have taken significant resources and taken away from real issues as to whether (the measure) is valid.”

 

● In the state’s Inland Empire counties, it can take over an hour for a patient to be transferred from an ambulance into hospital care.

SAN BERNARDINO and RIVERSIDE counties, which are in the region, also suffer from a shortage of physicians.

Last month, the counties implemented a policy that will allow ambulances to drop off patients sooner. An ambulance shortage during an offload delay would allow paramedics to drop off certain patients in a waiting room rather than waiting for hospital staff to see the patients.

From 2013 to 2015, about 35 percent of ambulance transports were delayed in San Bernardino County; 22 percent in Riverside County, according to county officials.

 

GEORGIA

More than a dozen counties filed lawsuits Jan. 4 against more than 50 telephone companies for allegedly failing to properly bill, collect, report and remit 911 charges, according to law firms representing the counties. Those fees fund local 911 operations.

The counties are: CLAY, CRISP, DEKALB, DOOLY, FULTON, MACON-BIBB, MARION, MUSCOGEE, QUITMAN, RANDOLPH, TALBOT, TAYLOR, SCHLEY, STEWART, SUMTER and WEBSTER. COBB and GWINNETT counties filed similar suits in December.

Former Georgia governor Roy Barnes is among the lawyers representing Cobb and Gwinnett. He said 37 suits have now been filed to recover more than $100 million for 21 different local governments.

Plaintiffs contend that the alleged underbilling practices mostly affect Georgia businesses in order to gain a competitive advantage.

 

ILLINOIS

ALEXANDER COUNTY is still recovering from flooding that occurred over a year ago. In January 2016, Mississippi River floodwaters left a three-quarter-mile hole in a levee in the county — destroying homes, businesses and farms in its path.

“I thought that we would’ve had it back by now,” County Board Chairman Chalen Tatum told KVFS News, “because other counties up and down the river have had theirs already put back with the [Army Corps of Engineers] but we’re on our own.”

The county recently learned it didn’t qualify for a $1 million grant it applied for through the Delta Regional Commission and has run out of options for outside help, Tatum said.

“We got shot down twice, three times,” he said. “We’re back doing it ourselves, so we got a lot of good farmers that’s going to pitch in (and) said they would help rebuild it.”

 

MINNESOTA

County officials want to delay implementation of a law designed to keep polluted storm water out of the state’s lakes and streams.

A 50-foot buffer of permanent vegetation would be required to filter runoff — mostly soil, fertilizer and chemicals from farm fields — before it flows into rivers and lakes, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

“I’m not suggesting that this should go away because I think this is part of the solution,” said ROSEAU COUNTY Commissioner Jack Swanson, “but I think we need to understand better what it is that needs to be done instead of rushing to put it in place.”

Last year, the state Legislature authorized $10 million to help counties cover the costs, but Gov. Mark Dayton (D) vetoed the bill, leaving the program unfunded.

“What I’m hearing from counties, especially in the north, is if the money’s not there, the county has no interest in taking on that enforcement role,” Swanson said.

 

NEW JERSEY

The New Jersey Council on Local Mandates rejected a request by the NEW JERSEY ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES to postpone implementation of a bail reform law that was scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

The association will continue to challenge the endeavor, claiming it represents an unfunded state mandate, projecting costs at $45 million to $50 million to implement.

The law will require counties to hire new assistant prosecutors, investigators, sheriff officers and correction officers, make capital improvements to court facilities and county jails, and purchase new information technology.

 

NEW YORK

Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has vetoed a bill that would have shifted the cost of indigent defense services to the state over seven years. The state currently contributes 10 percent of the 2010 costs and would have shouldered 25 percent of the costs starting April 1, The Times Union reported. Cuomo said the bill would cost more than $800 million annually.

He wrote in his veto message that the bill would force the state to pay for defense beyond that of indigent defendants.

 

OHIO

CUYAHOGA COUNTY is inventorying solid-waste disposal sites as possible solar farms.

The electricity generated by solar farms would be used to power county-owned buildings. As part of a power purchase agreement, the county will also buy some of the electricity that will be generated by an offshore wind farm planned for Lake Erie, The Plain Dealer reported.

 

PENNSYLVANIA

The ALLEGHENY COUNTY Board of Health will consider requiring mandatory lead testing for children at 9, 12 and 24 months of age, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. Lead testing is currently recommended at 12 and 24 months.

In November 2016, the department began opening investigations when children’s blood tests showed at least 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter, previously the threshold for investigations was 15 micrograms per deciliter or more.

The department also recently hired a new lead inspector and plans to train housing inspectors in lead inspection.

 

TEXAS

The HARRIS COUNTY Flood Control District will install rain gauges in surrounding counties to trace the path of floodwaters from WALLER, MONTGOMERY and GRIMES counties.

The data would allow county officials and emergency responders to better tailor warnings, provide estimates of how long people might be trapped in their homes and decide where to place high-water vehicles or boats, the Houston Chronicle reported.

 

UTAH

SALT LAKE COUNTY has launched two new “Pay for Success” social impact bond programs, aimed at approaches to finding housing for the homeless and keeping men with drug or mental-health problems from recycling in and out of jail.

The Pay for Success approach pays nonprofit service providers only after they have reached their goals, which are funded in the meantime by private investors and philanthropies. These projects budget $11.5 million to house 315 persistently homeless people and keep another 135 men out of jail on drug charges.

The county hopes the cost savings will cover the $11.5 million, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

 

WEST VIRGINIA

● MCDOWELL COUNTY, which has the highest drug overdose death rate in the county and the second-highest fatal prescription drug overdose rate, has sued Cardinal Health, McKesson Corp. and AmerisourceBergen, saying the drug companies shipped an excessive number of opioid painkillers to the county and fueled the drug epidemic there.

The County Board also sued a doctor who had been disciplined by the state Board of Medicine for his prescribing of controlled substances.

An investigation by The Gazette-Mail showed that drug wholesalers shipped a disproportionate number of highly addictive painkillers to southern West Virginia. McDowell County, which has 28,000 people, was shipped 9 million hydrocodone pills over six years, and another 3.2 million oxycodone (OxyContin) tablets, according to DEA records obtained by the newspaper.

● Repeated false alarms from home security systems could draw fines in PUTNAM COUNTY.

A new ordinance will fine homeowners and businesses that officers respond to for false alarms more than three times in a 12-month window. The first two false alarms are free, but after the third call there is a $50 fine. A fourth costs $100, five will cost you $200 and six and more will cost $300, according to WSAZ News.

In the 2015–2016 fiscal year, Putnam County officials recorded 704 false alarms.


News From Across the Nation is compiled by Charles Taylor and Charlie Ban, senior staff writers. If you have an item for News From, please email ctaylor@naco.org or cban@naco.org.

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