CALIFORNIA

• VENTURA COUNTY intends to recover $250,000 in damages from the families of four teenagers who allegedly touched off a 600-acre blaze in January. The foursome won’t face charges, because they reportedly acted without criminal intent as they drove a van into heavy brush the day after Christmas last year. According to published reports, the county could bring civil suit to recover damages, if it cannot get payment from the families’ insurance companies.

FLORIDA

• Florida’s 67 county election supervisors presented a united front on Election 2000. Meeting for the first time since the contested presidential race, the supervisors asked the state legislature to back legislation establishing uniform voting technology statewide.

IDAHO

• Grazing livestock in CASSIA and TWIN FALLS counties’ Sawtooth National Forest will be banned for three years in an effort to let the land replenish itself after last summer’s wildfires that devastated thousands of acres.
  
  A cattlemen’s group said in national media that they hope to reach an alternative solution with the U.S. Forest Service rather than have livestock turned away from the grazing lands.

ILLINOIS

• COOK COUNTY is attempting to stem the tide of county employees leaving to take higher-paying private sector jobs. The county is in the final stages of offering employees day care for their children at the county administration building, which is scheduled to open in June.
  
  The cooperative plan between the county and the city of Chicago involves splitting the $1.7 million remodeling costs for the 13,000-square-foot day care center planned to accommodate 112 children.
  
  “A lot of people take parenthood seriously,” said Cook County Commissioner Peter Silvestri, “and we are losing a lot of good people.”

MARYLAND

• Noted with pride: The owner of the Baltimore Ravens football team, Art Modell, didn’t just thank “the fans” after he accepted the Vince Lombardi Super Bowl trophy following the Ravens’ win over the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. Modell thanked supporters in the city and the COUNTY OF BALTIMORE and the state of Maryland for the win. Mr. Modell knows his local governments.

MICHIGAN

• Counties and cities must pony up more than $100 million in matching funds for a state road fixup program called Build Michigan III. The project is tagged at close to $1 billion.
  
  Counties and cities here are claiming they’ve been blindsided by the state regarding matching funds for the repairs to state roads. According to published reports, counties and cities said they had little time to respond to public hearings.
  
  “There certainly is some question of whether or not the counties were fully involved in the selection process in the first place,” said John Niemela, director, County Road Association of Michigan. “With all this match money,” said WAYNE COUNTY public services department spokesman John Roach, “I don’t know if we’ll be able to fix any of our roads.”
  
  The state claims that the practice of matching funds from counties and cities should come as no surprise since they pay into 99 percent of state roads projects, according to state officials.
  
  The issue will be discussed at the statehouse when lawmakers convene.

OHIO

• HAMILITON COUNTY’s director of human services has an old-fashioned way to possibly solve the tardy distribution of thousands of child support checks: let the counties do it. Don Thomas, the county’s director of human services, wrote a letter with 10 recommendations to state officials stating that all 88 of Ohio’s counties should be responsible for the payouts, as they once were, not the state.
  
  The controversy is fueled by glitches in the Support Enforcement Tracking System (SETS). Thomas’ proposals include emergency funding to assist those who don’t get their checks on time and hiring an ad hoc seven-days-a-week staff to process late checks expeditiously.
  
  
• MONROE COUNTY expects to get about 150 new jobs this summer from the private sector. The automobile insurance company jobs are in a 10,000-square-foot industrial park facility and are welcomed. The county posted a 7.7 percent jobless rate last December. That’s nearly double the state unemployment rate.

UTAH

• DAVIS and UTAH counties reported increases in income expressed in double digits. DAVIS COUNTY reported a 37 percent increase in tax rolls and business income and UTAH COUNTY tallied a 27 percent increase, both for last year.
  
  WEBER COUNTY dipped slightly in new growth to $333 million compared to $377 million in 1999.

VIRGINIA

• FAIRFAX COUNTY supervisors are taking a hard look at accepting ads on the county’s Web site to pay for e-government services. Following the lead of the CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU, county officials may want to take the plunge, but are torn, according to published reports.
  
  “If the ads bring in revenue to pay for the Web site, fine. But, it has to be ads that are in good taste,” said Fairfax County Supervisor Elaine McConnell. “It make me queasy. There are First Amendment issues here … ,” warned Supervisor Gerald Connolly.
  
  The county is talking with a company that contracts to provide advertisers, design and maintenance for government Web sites.
  
  
• PULASKI COUNTY supervisors are up in arms against the state’s governor, James Gilmore III, after he went on record encouraging voters to kick them out of office for increasing personal property taxes.
  
  Supervisors told the press they demand an apology and that the tax hike was necessary for construction of an industrial park and for school renovations.

WASHINGTON

• All 39 counties here would be affected by passage of proposed legislation sponsored by State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen that would formalize step-by-step procedures for the formation or consolidation of counties.
  
  The state constitution already provides for the creation of new counties and the consolidation of established ones, but traditionally has left the details up to the legislature.
  
  There has not been a successful attempt at creation or consolidation of counties since PEND OREILLE COUNTY in 1911, according to published reports. The bill is being discussed in a legislative steering committee.

(News From the Nation’s Counties was compiled by Terry King, senior staff writer and Bev Schlotterbeck, County News editor. If you have news from your county, please e-mail to: cnews@naco.org.)