ARIZONA
• The MARICOPA COUNTY Elections Department presented a pre-clearance submission to the Department of Justice and received pre-clearance approval in late March on its Board of Supervisor, Justice of the Peace lines and Voting Precinct district boundaries.
The county will now have 1,030 precincts, increasing the previous number of precincts by 26.
“We felt Justice would grant our pre-clearance submission,” said Helen Purcell, recorder, “because we had solicited input through public hearings and through our Web site using redistricting maps as guides for citizens to voice their opinions. We are delighted that our submission has been approved and we can now move forward and conduct the primary and general election on the new redistricting lines.”
• Despite the nation’s somewhat shaky economy, low interest rates, a hot housing market and the disappearance of cheap land have boosted property values in PIMA COUNTY 10 percent. According to County Assessor Rick Lyons, that’s nearly twice as much this year as in the previous two years.
The spike in county-appraised values could lead to major increases in property tax bills for tax year 2003-2004. Lyons said that the county, the school districts and other governments that levy a tax on property wouldn’t have to raise their rates. They can simply let the rising values of the land they tax produce more money.
The biggest increases in 2003 assessments hit the county’s approximately 635 mobile home and RV parks. According to Susan Scherrer, supervisor of the Assessor’s Office’s land section, values rose at least 50 percent in 333 parks and at least 100 percent on 121 parks and at least 200 percent on 13 parks. Values declined in only 13 parks.
Tax increases in these parks are usually passed on to the tenants through increased monthly rents.
CALIFORNIA
• The future of 191,000 acres of agricultural lands throughout SAN DIEGO COUNTY may be at stake, including how much of that land may be developed.
The county Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider an amendment to the general plan that calls for one dwelling unit per 10 acres west of a line drawn by the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), and one dwelling unit per 40 acres to the east.
The line runs a zigzag course from San Diego’s boundary with Riverside County to the Mexican border, with the urbanized third of the county to the west and the rural two-thirds to the east.
Approximately 18,000 acres of land are located in the urbanized area. About 103,500 acres of the county’s total agricultural lands are theoretically available for development.
According to KGTV, the issue dates to the mid-1990s when the Board of Supervisors approved a plan allowing eight-acre minimum parcels. An environmental group filed a lawsuit in the state Superior Court claiming the figure was arbitrary and that the work on the environmental impact report (EIR) wasn’t adequate. The court agreed and placed a moratorium on the development of agricultural lands that continues today.
The county then came up with the 10/40 plan. The EIR is ready to be certified and the county is confident the court will see fit to lift the moratorium.
• A growing chorus of California officials support legislation that would scrap the federal government’s requirement that airport screeners be U.S. citizens, including the SANTA CLARA COUNTY supervisors.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, the county conducted a survey of the three Bay Area international airports and found that 75 percent of the San Jose screeners, 70 percent of the San Francisco screeners and 35 percent of those at Oakland airport would be affected.
By a 5-0 vote, the supervisors backed a resolution that would repeal the requirement that security screeners be citizens, extend the timeline of the naturalization, support measures that would speed up the naturalization process and find resources to help those workers make the transition into other careers.
COLORADO
DOUGLAS COUNTY is the wealthiest county in Colorado. And while that wealth brings with it good schools and well paved roads among other things, it has also brought an influx of homeless men and women looking for a few more dollars than they can collect in Denver. Many of the panhandlers solicit money on street corners and medians, often causing safety hazards.
At press time, the county commissioners were considering an ordinance that would prohibit panhandlers—and everyone else—from soliciting money at streets and on medians within unincorporated parts of the county. According to the Rocky Mountain News, the ordinance has been in the works for years.
“A lot of these guys are drunk, they enter traffic and fall down on their faces right in the middle of the street,” said county sheriff’s Lt. Brad Heyden, who helped draft the ordinance that would impose a $100 fine the second time a person is caught soliciting money. “We’re getting complaints nearly every day about them, whether it’s their trash or a fight over turf.”
Because there is no constitutional way to prohibit panhandling while allowing other types of solicitation, the ordinance would prevent all groups from raising money on the streets in unincorporated areas.
This could prove problematic for groups, such as the South Metro Fire District, that use the street corners and medians in fundraising efforts. Last year South Metro raised almost $100,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in three days of standing in the streets to collect money. While a spokesman for the department admitted that the ordinance would cut into their fundraising efforts, he said the department would not publicly denounce the ordinance.
FLORIDA
• In an effort to make lemonade out of lemons, BROWARD COUNTY is looking to the Internet auction site eBay to make a bit of cash off the debacle known as Election 2000.
In late March, the county put 100 “limited edition” punch style voting machines on the auction block. Commissioner Sue Gunzburger and the two other members of Broward County’s Election Canvassing Board who conducted the manual count signed the punch card ballots.
Other ballot machines were sold at a warehouse sale with the proceeds from both the online auction and the warehouse sale going to the purchase of new touch screen voting machines.
• As counties throughout the country look for ways to make up for their budget shortfalls, commissioners in MARTIN COUNTY voted to raise the county gas tax by 4 cents. This increase will raise the local gas to the 12-cent maximum allowed by the state.
The county hopes by raising the tax, they will cover a $2.6 million shortfall needed for local road projects.
Despite protestors waving banners outside the county administration building, the commission voted unanimously for the new tax that will kick in Jan. 1, 2003.
• Voters went to the polls on March 12 in PALM BEACH COUNTY, but the polls had a completely new look this time around.
The new touch-screen system was in use with only a few minor problems.
“Out of 939 machines, we only had about seven or eight that had minor problems with them,” Teresa LaPore, supervisor of elections told WPBF.
According to LaPore, some people struggled as the computers froze when voters attempted to select their language preferences. Poll workers were able to reset those machines.
The station also reported some trouble at election headquarters, trying to get the votes calculated. Workers in Boca Raton and Delray Beach left some computer cartridges in the computers at the voting precinct and had to go back and get them, which delayed the results.
HAWAII
When the Hawaii lawmakers first passed a traffic cam bill, they intended for county police to run the program. However, with the state still running the program four years later, a new proposal was made recently to turn the responsibility of the unpopular program over to the counties.
The state transportation director proposed county police take over the day-to-day management of the traffic camera program with the state continuing to fund and run the program.
“I think primarily it’s because the police department is in the business of enforcement, and that is appropriate for this program to be. And furthermore, they can also coordinate the program with their own police officers,” Department of Transportation Director Brian Minaai told KITV.
Local law enforcement officials said it was too early to comment on the proposal.
IOWA
RINGGOLD COUNTY received the Sheldon G. Hayes Award at the Asphalt Paving Association of Iowa 43rd Annual Workshop in Des Moines.
The Sheldon G. Hayes Award is the most prestigious award in the Hot Mix Asphalt pavement industry. The evaluation process begins when a highway pavement using more than 50,000 tons of Hot Mix Asphalt is nominated for a Quality in Construction (QIC) Award.
QIC winners are determined “by the numbers.” The nomination forms require test results for the pavements. The information submitted is evaluated by engineers at the National Center for Asphalt Technology, who assign each pavement a numerical grade. The nominated pavements whose test results meet or exceed a benchmark figure receive the award.
PENNSYLVANIA
Police and elected officials had mixed reactions to a government study that favors merging six CARBON COUNTY police departments into one regional force.
The study, commissioned by the Police Peer Management Program, a group of about 23 police chiefs who conduct regional police studies, concluded that a regional police force would be both feasible and workable.
According to an article in The Morning Call, the study states that a regional police force would provide cost-effective service 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the 25,288 people who live within the proposed region. The study suggested merging the East Penn, Franklin and Mahoning township police forces with the Jim Thorpe, Summit Hill and Lehighton borough police.
The biggest concern was over the cost of merging the forces. For some areas, their cost would increase by more than $100,000 per year.
However, H. Randall Dilling, chief of the Pennridge Regional Police Department in Bucks County, who conducted the study, pointed that for the extra money, areas would get a 24-hour-a-day, full-service agency.
