News from Across the Nation - May 1, 2017

CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES COUNTY residents will soon have the option of joining a new government-run utility in hopes of paying lower bills and gaining access to cleaner energy. “It’s an alternative to Southern California Edison,” Supervisor Sheila Kuehl told the Los Angeles Times.

The longtime utility will continue to read meters, send bills and deliver the electricity through its wires, but the new entity will allow the county to “buy and create new sources of green energy while leaving more money in ratepayers’ wallets,” Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said.

The new entity, governed by the Los Angeles Community Choice Energy Authority, is expected to start providing electricity in 2018. The plan allows the new utility to develop community-based solar-generation such as installing solar panels on top of warehouses, the newspaper reported.

 

FLORIDA

Once a month, DUVAL COUNTY Court Judge Elini Derke wears yoga clothes under her judge’s black robes to teach a yoga class on the county courthouse lawn, even bringing extra mats for anyone who wants to join in at the last minute.

Derke, elected in 1994, took up yoga after the president of the Jacksonville Bar Association asked her to head up the health committee. “I thought, ‘What better way to stay healthy than to do yoga?’ So, I started teaching yoga on the lawn every first Friday of every month,” Derke recently told ABC’s Good Morning America.

Every day in the courtroom, handling misdemeanors, she hears lots of lengthy explanations from defendants, she said. “Just hearing these excuses, day in and day out,” she said. “I’ll walk out, do [yoga], come back a different person altogether.” She gets juries into the act as well, asking them to take breaks and leading them in breathing and stretching exercises. “No falling asleep on my watch,” she said.

ILLINOIS

â–  Residents can lower their electric bills in COOK COUNTY by “renting” solar panel space at community solar panel sites across the county. The pilot sites will be set up at schools, vacant lots and businesses. The county is trying to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent by the year 2050. 

It’s part of the Cook County Solar Market Pathways project, funded by a 2014 $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. About 75 percent of households can’t install solar panels on their roofs in the county because they rent, don’t get enough sun, have structural issues or can't afford the upfront installation costs, according to Elevate Energy, one of the county’s partners in the program.

â–  The ST. CLAIR COUNTY Prosecutor is suing two pharmaceutical companies, accusing Purdue Pharma and Abbott Laboratories of using deceptive advertising when selling opioid-based painkillers. The suit does not seek a specific dollar amount in damages but asks for a monetary judgment to be awarded at trial, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but the cost to county services in treating addiction and overdoses has stressed the budget.

INDIANA

JOHNSON COUNTY is setting up its first tourism office, after a new innkeeper’s tax brought in more than $500,000 last year to county coffers, according to a report by The Daily Journal. The new fee is a 5 percent tax on local hotel and motel stays in the county. The county has hired a new director for the job, who will create a list of local tourism assets and businesses, gather current data about county tourism and select a marketing firm.

MARYLAND

â–  The ALLEGANY COUNTY Board of Commissioners recently agreed to allow business owners in the county to take advantage of Maryland’s Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (MD-PACE) program. Through MD-PACE, commercial, industrial and non-profit properties can use private capital to finance 100 percent of efficiency and renewable energy upgrades which are then repaid as a long-term surcharge on the property.

The voluntary surcharge added to a property tax bill is similar to those used for new sewer or water lines. The goal is for energy upgrades to become more accessible, allowing owners to reduce energy and operational costs and improve their buildings values.

â–  ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY and the City of Annapolis are trying a different strategy to fight Maryland’s opioid crisis: the “Safe Stations” program.

Leaders recently announced that all police and fire stations in the city and county have been designated “Safe Stations,” places where people fighting heroin or opioid addiction can begin the recovery process any time of day.

At the station, treatment starts with a medical assessment; those in need of medical help will be sent to the hospital. The county’s Crisis Response Warmline will work with the person to find them the most appropriate services, according to WTOP.

MICHIGAN

KENT COUNTY recently unveiled an enhanced 911 program it's launched allowing residents to create an online profile with information on their home address, medical information, family makeup, home layout, pet descriptions and the location for gas or electricity shutoffs. RAVE Mobile Safety offers the program to local governments and has pointed out that when someone calls 911 using a cell phone, dispatchers can have a hard time pinpointing their exact location. The county is funding the first year of the program with a $40,000 grant.

NEBRASKA

PLATTE COUNTY is considering offering identity theft protection services to approximately 150 county employees. The Columbus Telegram reported.

NEW JERSEY

OCEAN COUNTY will share surveillance on cars’ movements with the Drug Enforcement Administration, once the DEA acquires software to curate the metadata.

Automated license plate readers on vehicles owned by the county sheriff’s office and 31 municipal police departments, plus fixed utility poles, will record information in “near real time,” the Asbury Park Press reported.

Those plate readers capture and record the plate numbers, times, dates and locations of all the vehicles they “see,” and perform a search of law enforcement records to determine if the registered owner or operator is wanted for any offenses.

NEW YORK

You can write an obituary for ULSTER COUNTY’s practice of passing memorializing resolutions, because legislators voted to end it. Supporters pushed the change because it would reduce “extraordinary amount of time of debate on the floor.” According to The Daily Freeman, that measure alone was debated for 50 minutes.

NORTH CAROLINA

â–  MECKLENBURG COUNTY commissioners voted to drop police coverage for 60,000 residents who don’t live in Charlotte or the county’s six small towns. The commissioners severed an agreement with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, to which the county had been paying $18 million.

The residents in the rural areas that will lose coverage have been paying a higher share of property taxes for the service, the Charlotte Observer reported.

â–  A handful of northeastern counties are putting a hold on solar farm development. PERQUIMANS COUNTY commissioners imposed a 120-day moratorium in late March and CAMDEN COUNTY began a 60-day halt. CURRITUCK COUNTY enacted a permanent ban.

Solar farms are anything larger than putting polar panels on a house’s roof, according to The Daily Advance. Residents complain that the construction noise and their lack of aesthetic appeal are problematic.

PENNYSLVANIA

All applicants hoping to work for ALLEGHENY COUNTY will now be subject to drug tests. Various departments had testing policies in place prior to the new policy. In addition, County 911 employees and anyone who operates a county vehicle or heavy equipment will be subject to random drug testing. WPXI News reported that applicants are eligible to reapply after six months following a failed test.

SOUTH CAROLINA

The HORRY COUNTY Council has tentatively approved extending a 1.5 percent tax that could pay for I-73, which is proposed to run from near Myrtle Beach to Michigan.

The tax on food and drink sales, accommodations and admission fees from hospitality businesses and was first approved in 1996, paid for parts of two state highways, the Associated Press reported.

SOUTH DAKOTA

Less than a month after allowing weapons to be carried into the courthouse, FALL RIVER COUNTY commissioners have rescinded that decision.

A vote in March set aside a state statute prohibiting weapons in the courthouse. Judges disagreed with the measure and closed the court for two days due to concerns about safety, the Rapid City Journal reported.

VIRGINIA

Here’s a new twist on Earth Day celebrations. Beginning on Earth Day, April 22, card-carrying library patrons in FAIRFAX COUNTY could borrow thermal imaging cameras from their local library to inspect their homes for cold or hot spots. Sealing the air leaks that cause the temperature variations can save up to 17 percent on utility bills, according to ENERGY STAR.

WISCONSIN

A collection of preserved animal cadavers will be on display at the MILWAUKEE COUNTY Zoo from May through September. It will be the first North American zoo to play host to the exhibit, dubbed “Animal Inside Out.” The cadavers will show the anatomy and physiology of more than 100 species, including skeletons, muscle systems, soft tissues and nervous systems.

WYOMING

TETON COUNTY’s high cost of living is creating a public safety hazard, Sheriff Jim Whalen said, but he hopes a housing allowance from the county will make it possible for his deputies to live nearby.

In a letter to county commissioners, Whalen pointed out that only five of his 23 deputies live in the Jackson Hole valley, which slows emergency response if the remaining 18 officers need to travel from their out-of-the-area homes, especially if snowfall complicates road conditions, as it did in February 2017, the Casper Star Tribune reported.

News from Across the Nation is compiled by Charlie Ban and Mary Ann Barton, senior staff writers. If you have an item for News From, please email cban@naco.org or mbarton@naco.org.