Hennepin County (Minn.) Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, Employment Steering Committee chair; Executive Director Larry Naake; Legislative Director Reggie Todd; and Associate Legislative Director Neil Bomberg met with Senator Nancy L. Kassebaum (R-Kan.) on March 20 to discuss work force development issues being considered by a House-Senate conference committee. On March 21, NACo First Vice President Randy Johnson, Hennepin County Minn. commissioner, addressed the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Hazardous Materials on behalf of Hennepin County. The committee was examining battery recycling legislation.
Johnson also participated in a three-hour dialogue, sponsored by the Freedom Forum in Arlington, Va. on March 25, with more than 40 Washington reporters and editors on how states and local governments plan to deal with “devolution,” the shifting of responsibility from the federal level to state and local government. The Iowa Association of Counties Spring School of Instruction, March 20–21, was attended by NACo President Doug Bovin and Technology Specialist Woodson Martin, who presented a workshop on accessing and offering World Wide Web services.
Bovin also attended the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania spring meeting, March 17–19, in Harrisburg, Pa. On March 20, Sandy Markwood, director of human services programs, participated in a televised broadcast on CNBC where she and other panelists discussed issues affecting the elderly. Earlier this month, Associate Legislative Director Ralph Tabor and Corporate Relations Director Tom Sweet, met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and Securities Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. at the Treasury Department to talk over county public investment policies in light of the financial difficulties that Orange County, Calif. experienced last year. Deputy Executive Director Ed Ferguson was in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) N.C., March 20, to meet with county officials on plans for NACo’s Annual Conference, which will be held there in 2000.
Later that week, Ferguson also met with the planning committee in Harris County, Texas, site of this year’s Annual Conference, July 12-16.
(NACo On the Move is compiled by Angela M. Sides, special correspondent.)