NACo Officers & County Officials
• President-elect Karen Miller presented an update on NACo issues at the Police Jury Association of Louisiana 79th Annual Meeting in Orleans Parish (New Orleans) Jan. 23-25.
• NACo President Ken Mayfield spoke at the National Association of Home Builders International Builders Show in Clark County, Nev. (Las Vegas) Jan. 18-24.
• John Howard, outgoing Western Interstate Region president and commissioner, Union County, Ore. and Ron Christensen, NACo Public Lands Steering Committee chair and supervisor, Gila County, Ariz. represented counties at a meeting of the Wildland Fire Leadership Council in Orleans Parish Jan. 13. The Council oversees the implementation of the National Fire Plan.
NACo Staff
• Steve Gross has joined NACo as director, Retirement and Public Finance Services Department in the Financial Services Center. Gross has nearly 25 years of Wall Street experience working with various investment banks and broker-dealers, including Dean Witter Reynolds, EF Hutton, Bankers Trust and Prudential Securities. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Binghamton University in New York and a master’s degree from Adelphi University in New York.
• Beth Bleil has joined NACo as an associate in the Community Services Division. She will focus on indoor air quality, energy efficiency and environmentally preferable purchasing. Bleil received a bachelor’s degree from Juniata College in Pennsylvania and most recently worked for the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington D.C.
• Tiffany Black has been promoted to assistant director of administration and finance. She will primarily be responsible for all Financial Services Center bookkeeping, and executive and director expense reports and payment. She will also have duties within the Accounting and Human Resources departments.
• Emily Landsman has returned to NACo as membership coordinator. She previously interned at NACo as a research assistant in 2001. Landsman is originally from Long Island, N.Y. and received a bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Her last position was with Safe Shores, the D.C. Children’s Advocacy Center.
• Executive Director Larry Naake presented an update on NACo programs and discussed pending federal legislation at the New Jersey Association of Counties Reorganization Meeting in Mercer County (Trenton) Jan. 24.
• Paul Beddoe, associate legislative director, discussed the benefits of NACo membership at the Iowa State Association of Counties’ New County Officials School in Polk County (Des Moines) Jan. 22-23.
• Fred Burrell, NACo extention fellow, recently led a field tour to the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station at the Wye Research Center on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. NACo staff learned about the operation of the research center, how it is funded and how various environmental research projects are conducted.
