News from Across the Nation - May 2, 2016

MINNESOTA

HENNEPIN COUNTY illuminated its Lowry Avenue Bridge in purple on April 21 in tribute to the musician and native son Prince, who died last month. The Purple Rain singer was born and raised in Minneapolis, the county seat (seen in the background), and is one of the state’s most famous exports. Purple was the multi-talented entertainer’s signature color. Photo courtesy of Hennepin County, Minn.

 

ALASKA

Voters in KENAI PENINSULA BOROUGH won’t get the chance to decide whether commercial marijuana operations should be legal outside the borough’s cities.

Borough Assembly President Blaine Gilman pulled  a measure he sponsored to put  the question to voters, saying it should be up to citizen petitioners to place the issue on the ballot, according to the Peninsula Clarion.

“I expect that there will be sufficient signatures and it will be an issue that is on the ballot in October,” he said.

ARIZONA

The phrase “you’ve got mail” likely generated some excitement for certain inmates at MARICOPA COUNTY’s 4th Avenue Jail.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office discovered that methamphetamine sprayed onto legal papers — and allowed to dry — was being mailed to inmates.

In a similar case from Washington state, prison officials told The Columbian that inmates consumed the drug by eating the paper, smoking it or soaking it in water, heating the extract and then inhaling the fumes.

CALIFORNIA

SAN DIEGO COUNTY’s Housing Authority has approved using up to $400,000 for an incentive program for landlords who rent to homeless veterans.

Landlords may apply for leasing bonuses, security deposit and utility assistance, damage claim reimbursements and more.

According to the county’s 2015 homeless census, 15 percent of the region’s homeless individuals served in the military.

FLORIDA

The HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY Board of Commissioners has approved a $40 million deal to keep the New York Yankees’ spring training site in the Tampa area until 2046, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The vote was unanimous.

According to the newspaper, $13 million in tourism tax dollars will be committed to the renovation of George Steinbrenner Field, where the team plays exhibition games. The deal is still contingent on the state’s matching that amount through a spring-training retention fund. The Yankees would pay $13 million.

The deal still needs approval by Tampa’s City Council, the county’s aviation authority and Hillsborough Community College.

GEORGIA

CLAYTON COUNTY voters will be able to cast their ballots on Sundays for the May primary and November general elections this year.

The Board of Commissioners recently approved advance voting for May 15 and Oct. 30.

This is the second time the county has offered Sunday voting. In 2014, it joined Atlanta-area counties DEKALB and FULTON, and others, in allowing Sunday voting, news-daily.com reported.

ILLINOIS

This month, COOK COUNTY commissioners are poised to consider creating a registry for convicted animal abusers. Commissioners John Fritchey and Luis Arroyo are advocating for it.

“We’ve seen time and time again that people who abuse animals not only tend to be repeat offenders, but when you see this kind of  behavior, especially in younger individuals, it also leads to crimes against other people as they get older,” Fritchey told CBS Chicago.

Fines of up to $5,000 would be imposed on known abusers who obtain a pet or on pet stores that sell to an abuser.

INDIANA

Commissioners in WAYNE and SCOTT counties voted unanimously to seek the state’s permission to start or continue needle exchange programs. It’s part of an effort to slow the spread of the hepatitis C and HIV viruses from injection drug users into the general population.

Scott County wants to extend its existing program for another year. Wayne County’s program has been in the planning stages since 2015, according to the Associated Press.

Last year under a new state law, the state department of health approved one-year needle exchange programs for Scott and three other counties: FAYETTE, MADISON and MONROE.

NEW JERSEY

MONMOUTH COUNTY will maintain a voluntary countywide special needs registry to share information about vulnerable citizens with police officers in different municipalities.

The county prosecutor’s office, sheriff’s office and county chiefs of police will keep track of the needs of an estimated 10 percent of county residents, totaling more than 60,000.

The confidential information is available for dispatchers to communicate to responding officers. Families who join the registry will also be given stickers for their cars and homes so that officers can spot the decals when they arrive at the scene, the New Jersey Advance reported.

NEW MEXICO

CURRY COUNTY’s jail expansion plans are on hold while ROOSEVELT COUNTY commissioners explore the possibility of a four-county jail along with DE BACA and QUAY counties.

Both Curry and Roosevelt jails have been plagued with problems in recent years, including multiple escapes at each facility, the Clovis News Journal reported.

NEW YORK

After the state required pay increases for district attorneys, smaller entral New York counties are planning to demand that the state pay for them.

 CAYUGA, OSWEGO, MADISON and COURTLAND counties are considering passing resolutions to that effect.

The raises are “causing a great deal of chaos right now,” said Steve Acquario, executive director of the NEW YORK STATE ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard. “Local boards don’t have the salary in the 2016 budget. It’s hard to find that under property tax cap.”

This is the first time in history that the state hasn’t paid for raises that it required counties to give their district attorneys, Acquario said. It wouldn’t cost the state much to reimburse the counties: $1.5 million statewide, he added.

OREGON

Revised logging plans for western Oregon released by the Bureau of Land Management would increase the amount of timber harvest in forests but has not dissuaded 17 counties from their plans to sue to overturn the plans.

“We have no choice but to litigate, and we are on firm legal ground in doing so,” COLUMBIA COUNTY Commissioner Tony Hyde said in a statement. “The BLM refused to even consider revenues for counties as an objective in developing its plan.”

Hyde is president of the Association of O&C Counties, which is leading the lawsuit.

The current annual harvest level for those lands is 203 million board feet of timber, and the new plans increase the harvest to 278 million board feet. The association wants an annual harvest of 500 million board feet, The Register-Guard reported.

TEXAS

The MCLELLAN COUNTY attorney is advocating for a policy that will deter “intentionally abusive” open records requests and allow counties to charge high-volume requesters for staff time.

“There’s an inherent flaw where government assumes that people are going to use the (public information) act responsibly and for proper purposes,” Mike Dixon told the Waco Tribune. “All too often people use it as a means to inflict cost, inflict a lot of burden on governmental entities.”

The government can charge for the cost of materials needed to make copies of records but generally not for staff time required to process requests. Dixon would like the county to take advantage of a provision in the Texas Public Information Act that allows a governmental body to establish a reasonable limit, not less than 36 hours in a 12-month period, on the amount of time personnel are required to spend producing public information for an individual. If requests go beyond a formally adopted limit, the requester can be required to pay for the costs to produce the public information, including staff time.

VIRGINIA

PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY officials plan to change the way they notify the public of Board of Supervisors meetings.

The change would include sending out a public meeting notice a week ahead of a board meeting — instead of the full meeting agenda — before sending out the agenda and board meeting packet a few days later, County Administrator Clarence Monday told the Danville Register and Bee.

Currently, late additions to the agenda cannot be added unless all board members are present at the meeting and they vote unanimously for the agenda change, he said.

Under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the county is required to send out a public notice at least three business days before a meeting. 

News From the 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.