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NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES ■ WASHINGTON, D.C. VOL. 40, NO. 16 ■ SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

See WANTED page 8

See WATER PROJECTS page 7

Counties reach new audiences with their social networking Inter-net sites. >> Pages 2

A distinct style and history mark Pershing County, Nev.'s court-house. >> Page 4

Louisiana parishes are taking steps to ensure that future killer storms like Hurrican Katrina don¹t do as much damage. >> Page 5

The Celebrate Safe Communities project in October will strengthen the partnerships between law enforcement and communities to stem the rising tide of violence. >> Page 5

SURVEY RESULTS

Best Counties Best Counties to Raise a Familyto Raise a Family

1. Hamilton County, Ind.2. Ozaukee County, Wis.3. Johnson County, Kan.4. Geauga County, Ohio5. Delaware County, Ohio

Forbes magazine, July 2008

Mortgage foreclosures up; county revenues down

BY ERIK JOHNSTON

ASSOCIATE LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR

Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer recently announced the investment of $547 million in loans and grants to provide safe drinking water and improved wastewater treatment systems for rural communities.

A majority of the funding for the 232 projects across the nation became available after NACo and its partners in the Campaign for

BY CHARLES TAYLOR

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Almost all of the nation’s large urban counties — 96 percent — saw an increase in mortgage foreclosures during the past year, according to a recent NACo survey.

At the same time, 52 percent of responding county officials said they’re experiencing revenue shortfalls, either as a result of foreclosures or declining housing values.

“Urban county budgets are stressed due to a number of fac-tors, including fuel prices and a general economic slowdown,” said Jacqueline Byers, NACo’s research director. “However, the majority of survey responses’ citing the housing situation gibes

with what we’ve been hearing from counties, anecdotally, for the last few years.”

The survey was sent to 112 coun-ties with populations of 500,000 or greater (NACo’s defi nition of large urban county). Twenty-fi ve counties in 17 states responded, representing all geographic regions of the country.

Of survey respondents, 64 percent said that foreclosures in-creased by up to 50 percent for all of last year. Thirty-six percent saw foreclosure numbers 1.5 to 2 times higher than the previous year. The breakdown is as follows:

24 percent of the respondents • (six counties) reported an increase of up to 10 percent. Twenty percent (fi ve counties) reported an increase of between 10 and 25 percent,

and the same percentage reported increases from 25 percent to 50 percent.

16 percent (4 counties) said they • have experienced increases between 50 percent and 75 percent. Twenty percent of respondents (5 counties) said they have experienced increases in foreclosures between 75 percent and 100 percent.

More than half of county offi -• cials, 56 percent, expect foreclosures to continue to rise. Forty percent expect them to remain about the same.

Declining housing valuesFifty-six percent of respondents

blamed foreclosures for declining housing values; 44 percent cited

Wanted posters nab delinquentparentsBY MATTHEW FELLOWS

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Parents who have dropped off the map in order to dodge child sup-port payments in Hamilton County, Ohio are now resurfacing, thanks to the Job and Family Services Depart-ment’s annual Most Wanted Poster, a part of the county’s August Child Support Month activities.

The posters are designed to make the public aware of parents in their community who refuse to support their families financially. They feature a picture of the delinquent parent, how much they owe to how many children, their age and last known address.

To appear on the poster, the whereabouts of the parent must be unknown and the custodial parent must sign a waiver. The delinquent parent must also have a child

$547 million awarded for rural water projects

See SURVEY page 6

Photo courtesy of Suffolk County, N.Y.

This all-access playground in Suffolk County, N.Y. means a lot to kids with disabilities and is featured as this issue's Model Program from the Nation's Counties on page 8.Best Counties

to Raise a Family

2 September 1, 2008 CountyCountyNews News •

BY CHARLES TAYLOR

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

After St. Lucie County, Fla. opened a new skate park last month, amateur video began to pop on YouTube, the wildly popular video-sharing Web site. Erick Gill, the county’s public information offi cer took note.

The county’s cable channel had also shot a 10-minute video of the park’s grand opening and ribbon-cutting. “We thought, ‘Why don’t we post our video on YouTube as well?’ …Because it will reach that demographic we’re trying to reach — because a lot of skateboarders probably aren’t watching the gov-ernment access channel, not yet anyway,” Gill recalled.

In its fi rst three weeks, a six-minute version of the video was viewed 368 times. That same month, a video lecture on the county’s video-on-demand site received 175 hits in three weeks.

Increasingly, counties are using free social networking Web sites to connect with their residents “where the eyeballs are” — online — on sites such as Friendster, MySpace, YouTube, Bebo and Facebook.

“We’re moving with the times, and there’s not really a downside to it,” said Owen Torres, a Miami-Dade County, Fla. media relations special-ist. He and several others noted that the sites’ only “cost” is staff time to create and maintain the pages.

Once considered largely the province of teens, social networking sites are reaching that group but are also attracting growing numbers of adults across a range of ages. “We’ve seen a positive side as to bringing messages to our youth,” Torres said. “We’re also touching 30-year-olds as well, who use these pages more and more, we’ve come to fi nd out.” Facebook’s fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older, according to the company’s corporate Web site. A Fairfax County, Va. spokesman said its YouTube site has drawn viewers “from 13 to 70” years old.

Social networking sites build virtual communities of friends who share interests and activities, or who want explore the interests and activi-ties of others. People invite friends to join their network or a friend can request to be added.

Fairfax County set up pages on MySpace, YouTube and Facebook earlier this year. Some sheriff ’s departments are using video-sharing Web sites to run recruitment videos. The police department in Arlington

Counties enter MySpace-YouTube generationSocial networking sites reaching new audiences, younger generation

ternet generation already is, rather than “having them come to us.” The county’s most popular video on YouTube is a police department recruiting video, posted in May that has been viewed 2,000 times. “So that’s 2,000 in four months who may not have otherwise have seen that video.”

Public safety agencies have been among the early government adopt-ers out of necessity. Miami-Dade’s police department (MDPD) set up a MySpace page last year to discourage sexual predators who visit the popular social-networking Web site, which appeals to a younger audience.

Visit the page, and you’re greeted by a pounding soundtrack: the themes from TV shows The Unit and Cops — Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when

badge logo to their personal pages as a deterrent against sexual preda-tors. The department has more than 4,000 friends, said Joe Cabado, a detective with MDPD’s Internet Crimes against Children Squad.

The page has tips on safely using social-networking sites and links to public safety Web sites such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). It’s also monitored by the department’s Sexual Crimes Bureau.

Arlington County police use MySpace similarly. It notes that nationally, one in seven youths ages 10 to 17 has been sexually solicited or approached online, according to NCMEC.

“We don’t want to mislead any kids or their parents into thinking this will completely protect them online,” Police Chief Doug Scott

ing to the National Crime Preven-tion Council’s online newsletter, Catalyst, June 2008.

In Miami-Dade, Cabado said, “I’ve helped out the local prosecu-tors here prosecuting gangs because they create pages on MySpace. These guys had everything from the drugs and guns that they use — they were bragging on it on MySpace, and I guess they do it to intimidate other gangs.”

It isn’t all doom and gloom in Miami-Dade. The county is also using social networking sites to recruit elections volunteers and to connect kids to cheap tickets to local entertainment events.

A county-maintained MySpace page called CultureShockMiami is “a way for students ages 13–22 to get $5 tickets to Miami-Dade’s top performing arts groups, live

theater, cultural institutions and destination events,” according to the Web page.

An ElectionReady page informs youths: “You can pre-register at 16 years-old and you’ll be able to vote if you will be 18 on or before Election Day.”

Fairfax County’s Lasich said it’s not hard to get such pages up and running. “It’s content that’s already on our [county government] Web site; it’s content we’ve already sent out in news releases. It’s content we’ve already pitched to the media, and we’re just repurposing that information and getting it to an audi-ence that may not have seen it the fi rst time we tried to promote it.”

Lasich and St. Lucie County’s Gill agree that on video sites, shorter is better. “We aim for probably two to three minutes,” Lasich said. “We know, again through research, that attention spans are really decreasing these days. Usually people who are on YouTube are watching multiple videos.”

His advice for anyone contem-plating taking the social networking plunge: Work very closely with the county attorney’s offi ce. “There are issues that private organizations may not have but government or-ganizations do, even with accepting the terms of use that usually you just go onto these sites and click ‘yes, I agree.’ For a government, there are certain challenges to just clicking ‘accept’ on some of those” in terms of the rights one might be waiving.

Since these sites are linked to a network of “friends,” counties are careful to distance themselves from what may be on friends’ personal pages. Fairfax County’s YouTube page comes with a disclaimer: “The county is not responsible for the content provided on ‘related’ and ‘promoted’ videos that are acces-sible from this county’s YouTube channel.”

Lasich further advises: Work closely with county IT departments and establish policies regarding whether employees can access the sites from their work computers. Many employers block access to such sites.

Because county employees can be some of local governments’ best ambassadors, it’s useful for them to have access to the same information the public has.

“Our motto here is ‘common message, many voices,’” Lasich said. “So this is essentially another voice for us, another avenue for us to get the word out.”

SpeedRead »»»

» Social networking sites free to counties, except for staff time

» Most counties ‘repurpose’ existing content from their Web sites or cable access channels

» Law enforcement among early adopters

» Users over age 25 among fastest growing demographic

County, Va. posts crime scene sur-veillance videos on YouTube and solicits tips from the public.

Fairfax’s use of social networking sites is part of an effort to expand the county’s online presence and reach a younger audience, said Jeremy Lasich, a county spokesman.

“We know in today’s Internet so-ciety, it’s very hard to draw eyeballs to county government Web sites,” he said. “The younger generation probably isn’t spending its time going from county site to county site to fi nd out what’s happening in their backyard.” Research, he added, shows that sites like Face-book and YouTube are where the young eyeballs are.

It made sense “from a business case” to migrate to where the In-

they come for you? Its graphic design might be hard on aging eyes, but its bold colors are designed to grab attention.

MySpace members can “friend” MDPD — a verb in social network-ing parlance — and add a police

said in a news release. “But if they link to our page, hopefully the police emblem will scare off anyone with unscrupulous motives.” College in-terns in the Criminal Investigations Section designed the MySpace page and help monitor and maintain it.

As the popularity of social networking sites has grown, so has the innovation in the ways they’re being used, and not just by the men and women in blue. Gangs have also moved online. The practice has come to be known as “net banging” — a play on the term “gang banging.”

“With a simple click of the mouse, anyone, including young children, can take a tour of the life of a gang member, view someone brandishing a gun, painting graffi ti, and many other activities,” accord-

Arlington County (Va.) Police Departmentwww.myspace.com/

acpdmyspace

Butte County (Calif.) Sheriffs Department

www.myspace.com/buttecountysheriff

Fairfax County, Va.www.youtube.com/

fairfaxcountygov

Miami-Dade County, Fla.www.youtube.com/

MiamiDadeTV

A Sampling of Counties’ Social

Networking Sites

• County CountyNewsNews September 1, 2008 3

President | Don Stapley

Publisher | Larry Naake

Public Affairs Director | Tom Goodman

Executive Editor | Beverly Anne Schlotterbeck

Senior Staff Writer | Charles Taylor

Staff Writer | Elizabeth Perry

Graphic Artist | Jack Hernandez

Editorial Assistant | Matthew Fellows

ADVERTISING STAFF

Job Market/Classifi eds representativeMatthew Fellows

National Accounts representativeBeverly Schlotterbeck

(202) 393-6226 • FAX (202) 393-2630

Published biweekly except August by:National Association of Counties

Research Foundation, Inc.25 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20001

(202) 393-6226 | FAX (202) 393-2630

E-mail | cnews@naco.org

Online address | www.countynews.org

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© National Association of CountiesResearch Foundation, Inc.

BY ELIZABETH PERRY

STAFF WRITER

County health departments seem to understand the need to address the public health challenges of climate change, but few have been able to take action due to a lack of expertise to assess local health impacts, and a lack of additional funding and staff. That’s the crux of a recent survey report, Are We Ready? Preparing for the Public Health Challenges of Climate Change, by the National Association of County and City Health Of-fi cials (NACCHO), Environmental Defense Fund and George Mason University.

“Local health departments recog-nize that climate change imperils the health of their communities,” said Patrick Libbey, executive director of NACCHO.

“It is essential that they gain the new knowledge and sustained resources needed to help them prepare for the increased severity of health-threatening problems that we can expect, from long-term heat waves to increased populations of disease-bearing mosquitoes.”

The three-month telephone sur-vey of 133 county health directors from different regions across the

Health directors: climate change should be immediate priorityUnited States ended in February 2008 and yielded some interesting results:

Almost 70 percent believed • climate change already has occurred in their jurisdictions;

78 percent thought their coun-• ties would experience changes in their climates over the next two decades, and

More than half thought it was an • “important priority,” however only 19 percent said it was a top priority in their health departments.

Edward Maibach, professor and director of George Mason University’s Center of Excellence in Climate Change Communication

Research and coauthor of the report, said climate change is competing for attention along with many other programs in county health depart-ments.

“Local public health depart-ments are responsible for so many programs,” he said. “Even when understood to be a top threat in need of response, climate change is going to be vying for health depart-ment resources, specifi cally staff time and budget, against so many priorities.”

What it will take to put climate change at the top of the list involves getting additional staff, money and access to expertise. He said public

health offi cials will have to convince those in charge of funding that climate change is an important and immediate health threat to people in their counties.

“At the very least, they need to identify the specifi c threats to human health in their jurisdiction and begin developing programs to minimize or eliminate the harm associated with those threats,” Maibach said.

Dallas County, Texas, is already feeling the effects of climate change in the form of seasonal weather ex-tremes. John Carlo, medical director of the Department of Health and Human Services, said the potential impact of climate change on his area of the country is unknown, but since Dallas County is already dealing with some of the challenges of global warming, they could fare better than other areas that have not been impacted before now.

He said the Dallas County area is experiencing signifi cant health effects from very hot summers — heat strokes and deaths from heat exposure.

“We also have an environment which is favorable for several species of disease-carrying mosquitoes,” he said. “As a result, we have continuously seen human cases of West Nile disease and St. Louis Encephalitis.”

To stay on top of the continuing encephalitis threat, the county has a vector control program which looks

for potential diseases spread by mos-quitoes that could affect residents. Carlo said the Health Department works with municipal partners to watch for mosquitoes carrying dis-eases during the summer months.

“This program is currently geared towards the surveillance of West Nile disease, but can easily be altered to search any newly emerging vector-borne threats that could be introduced to this area as a result of climate change.”

Another way the county is meeting the challenge is through a heat injury prevention program that offers free air conditioners, utility and weatherization assistance for low-income home owners. During heat waves, local energy providers keep electrical services running.

“We also continually track heat-related morbidity and mortality as observed from area hospitals and medical examiners,” Carlo said. “We issue media alerts and educational resources during the summer to the public and assisting agencies.”

Carlo said every region of the United States is most likely feeling the effects of climate change already as weather patterns continue to change and grow more extreme. Since so much is still unknown about the health effects of climate change, he said “the best practices are ones which are working today to reduce the health effects due to weather and climate.”

BY MATTHEW FELLOWS

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

At the NACo annual confer-ence in Jackson County, Mo. an organizational meeting took place to form a new Northeast Counties Caucus within NACo. More than 20 county commissioners and other county offi cials from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Maine attended.

The July 14 meeting was or-ganized by Cumberland County, Maine Commissioner Malory Shaughnessy; Essex County, N.J. Freeholder Carol Clark; Cum-berland County, Maine Manager Peter Crichton; Erie County, Pa. Commissioner Joe Giles; and Arm-strong County, Pa. Commissioner James V. Scahill.

As NACo board members representing the region, the group decided to formally request rec-ognition and staff support from NACo.

The caucus now plans to hold conference calls with other northeastern county offi cials over the winter months and to hold a follow-up meeting at NACo’s 2009 legislative conference in March in Washington, D.C. Tentative bylaws and a nomination slate for offi cers will be discussed.

The caucus’ goals include working collectively on issues of importance to the Northeast, such as aging infrastructure and other regional issues such as signifi cant job losses in recent years. They will be encouraging northeast county

Northeast Counties Caucus forms at NACo annual conference

membership in NACo and col-laborating to enhance the role of counties in the region as they seek more localized answers to service delivery.

(For more information, contact Com-missioner Malory Shaughnessy at 207/871-8380 or shaughnessy@cumberlandcounty.org.)

4 September 1, 2008 CountyCountyNews News •

BY ELIZABETH PERRY

STAFF WRITER

Roger Mancebo, chairman of the Pershing County, Nev. Board of Commissioners, says working in a round courthouse does make life interesting.

“If you’re against a wall you can talk in a whisper and hear it come all the way back to you on the other side,” he said. “If you’re sitting in the jury box, which sits in the middle of the room with chairs for the audience around it, it’s very hard to hear.”

The distinctive county court-house on Main Street in Lovelock, Nev. was built in 1919 and sports a controversial history in addition to an unusual design.

The controversy began at the ruins of the Humboldt County Courthouse in Winnemucca, which burnt to the ground in 1917. The Winnemucca townspeople assumed a new courthouse would be built to replace the one lost to fi re. How-ever, the residents of neighboring Lovelock wanted the courthouse built in their town. The tug-of-war for the courthouse caused so much controversy that a bill was passed to split Humboldt County, thereby creating Pershing County in 1919. Both sides were free to build their own courthouses.

Humboldt County’s new square courthouse was designed by well-known Nevada architect Frederick J.

DeLongchamps, who also designed Pershing County’s building. The original fl oor plan for the Pershing building was the same one used for the Humboldt building.

Not unsurprisingly, Pershing County sent the plans back to the architect with instructions for him to design a building that was com-pletely different from the Humboldt Courthouse. DeLongchamps sent back a second set of plans for a building that was completely dif-ferent. A Classical Revival building, it was modeled after the Pantheon

in Rome, complete with six Ionic columns and Doric pilasters — and it was round. Construction began in June 1920. It was dedicated a year later at a total cost of $77,533.

The round part of the structure houses a meeting room on the fi rst fl oor with a display of state history and memorabilia. All the offi ces in the round section have triangular-shaped closets built into the walls. Bars on the fi rst fl oor windows suggest its use as a jail, although it was never actually used for that purpose.

Round county courthouse born in controversy

» Joe GilesChairmanErie County, Pa.

NACo Board of Directors

Profi les Profi les inin ServiceService

Number of years active in NACo: An active member of NACo’s Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee for 25 years.Years in public service: 27Occupation: Elected member of county councilEducation: Bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s University, Baltimore, Md. and master’s degree from Gannon University, Erie, Pa.The hardest thing I’ve ever done is: assisting my mom with pancreatic cancer and caring for my baby sister Kerry, a Down syndrome adult of 49 years with double pneumonia. Each passed away a year apart. Three people (living or dead) I’d invite to dinner: Jon Stewart, comedian; Oprah Winfrey, business woman; and Billy Collins, National Poet Laureate. A dream I have is to: someday have a retirement beach house on Cape Cod.You’d be surprised to learn that I: have studied, taught and speak Latin.The most adventurous thing I’ve ever done is: attempted skydiv-ing.My favorite way to relax is: getting some Chinese take-out and going for a long walk along our beaches.I’m most proud of: As the oldest of eight siblings, I am proud of my entire family.Every morning I read: The Erie Times and The New York Times.My favorite meal is: any Italian food, especially homemade pasta.My pet peeve is: folks who whine.My motto is: Carpe diem.The last book I read was: Final Salute, a Story of Unfi nished Lives by Jim Sheeler and Washington’s Rules of Civility.My favorite movie is: To Kill a Mockingbird.My favorite music is: classical, especially Copland and Mahler.My favorite president is: George Washington, the fi rst of a kind with no precedent or prior model.

The showpiece is the round second fl oor courtroom, with its domed ceiling, original 1920s-era furnishings and peculiar acoustics. Mancebo said sound seems to travel around the room, bouncing off the walls. People sitting across the room from each other can hear each other fi ne, but everything else tends to echo.

One of the most famous cases tried at the courthouse was in the early 1980s, when a married couple was tried for the molestation and murder of several young women from Sacramento, Calif. The couple drove them to Pershing County, where they tortured, killed and buried them.

Suddenly Lovelock had some 40 television stations descend upon them.

“We’re a small county and a trial

like that was very expensive,” he said. “But we were getting money in envelopes from all over the country — fi ve, two and 10 dollars — to help us with the fi nancing of this trial.”

In the end the husband got the death penalty, but he kept appealing his sentence until he died in prison of cancer. His wife turned state’s evidence and was released a few years ago.

With a scenic circular park that rings the building, Mancebo said the courthouse is also a venue of choice for couples looking to get married. It is also home to an unusual custom behind the courthouse, where a circle of green metal pillars draped with chains and thousands of heart-shaped locks is located.

“Couples write their names on a lock and secure it to the chain, hence locking their love together.”

Photo courtesy of Pershing County, Nev.

Because of the Pershing County Courthouse’s distinctive architecture, sound travels around the courtroom instead of across, making it diffi cult for jurors to make out what is said from all directions around them.

• County CountyNewsNews September 1, 2008 5

Photo courtesy of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority

Terrebonne Parish, La. wants to collaborate with neighboring St. Mary Parish on a slurry pipeline, like one in Lafourche Parish, above. It would pump sediment to help build up Terrebonne’s receding Gulf marsh land.

BY CHARLES TAYLOR

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

As the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approached, many Louisiana parishes were still cleaning up from the storm’s devastation. But offi cials were also taking steps to ensure that future killer storms don’t do as much damage.

And in some cases, tired of waiting for federal action, parishes are taking matters into their own hands.

“We’ve got [federal] projects starting in Plaquemines Parish that have been planned eight, 10, 12, 15 years. We don’t have 15 years,” said Billy Nungesser, parish president. “But if you can see a plan out there that in three years, we’ll never see a tidal surge like Katrina again, you could sweat three years.”

Nungesser says his proposal could be accomplished within that time. The plan? Build up barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico and plant them with cypress trees and other vegetation. “We’re going to run a pipe from the river into the marsh and strategically pump these berms, levees, islands. And then the fi rst goal is to knock down tidal surge to where our levees will withstand them,” Nungesser said.

PJ Hahn, the parish’s director of coastal restoration, added, “Plaque-mines Parish is hoping to control its own destiny by developing a plan, funding it and implementing its de-sign.” The parish could use offshore

oil and gas revenues, approved by Congress, which the state is due to begin receiving in 2017, Nungesser said. “Hopefully, some time we can start leveraging that out and start spending it.”

He added, “This plan will not only protect lives and property in Plaquemines Parish, but protect other parishes such as Jefferson, Orleans and St. Bernard.”

Louisiana’s coastal parishes are pursuing a variety of strategies, individually and in concert, said Dave Frugé, deputy assistant direc-tor of the state’s Offi ce of Coastal Restoration and Management in Baton Rouge. “Particularly after Hurricane Katrina, everyone realized that hurricanes don’t respect political boundaries, and people were looking for regional solutions.”

In Terrebonne Parish, one such solution has received a big boost from the state. Gov. Bobby Jindal recently announced plans for more than $1 billion in coastal protection and restoration projects in the state. This includes $40 million for a system of levees, fl oodgates and a canal lock from Morganza in Lafourche Parish through Terrebonne to the Gulf of Mexico. Terrebone has no fl ood-protection levees, only drainage levees, said Parish President Michel Claudet. The Morganza levees, as the proposal is known, would mitigate or prevent the kind of fl ooding Ter-rebone experienced from Hurricane Rita in 2005.

Claudet said another proposed collaboration involves neighboring St. Mary Parish, whose Atchafa-laya River Basin is “the largest delta-growing area of Louisiana” because of silt deposits. “They have to dredge their area. They’ve gotten to the point where there’s not a lot of places they can put their dredge material,” he said.

A proposed pipeline from Mor-gan City in St. Mary Parish would pump excess sediment in a slurry 21 miles to Terrebonne’s retreating marshes.

“Truly, it seems to me we could be benefi ting them by using this benefi cially. And once the pipeline is in place, it’s just a matter of redirect-ing it to areas that have really been decimated by land loss,” Claudet said. “This is what I think is going to be one of our future projects.”

Earlier this year, Terrebonne au-thorized $200,000 to hire a consult-ing fi rm, Halcrow and Associates, to determine if the parish’s coastal restoration projects remain viable as coastal erosion continues to take its toll — and to develop new projects for

the area. Claudet said Hurricane Rita “decimated coastal wetland areas” and barrier islands. At a recent town hall meeting in Houma, the parish seat, Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said the Louisiana coastline is losing a football-field-sized amount of land every 38 minutes, according to Houma Today.

“It’s inch by inch, foot by foot, and it’s getting to be yard by yard,” Claudet said.

He and Nungesser have been frus-trated with the pace of federal help. And the Army Corps of Engineers is reevaluating many projects that were on the books before Katrina, to see if they’re still viable.

“The bottom line is all of this stuff is being studied, but there’s no work that’s being done,” Nungesser said. “So we’re saying listen, this isn’t rocket science; we want to put dirt in the marsh, that’s it, it’s very simple.”

Claudet wants the federal gov-ernment, and all Americans, to understand his region’s value to the rest of the country. Hahn said 50 percent of the nation’s seafood and 20 percent of its oil and gas pass through Plaquemines Parish.

“The message,” added Claudet, “is that we have such a treasure down here, that we have actually been a source of bounty for the rest of the nation… particularly from our oil and gas efforts, our seafood industry, our culture and our heritage, and all of that is being destroyed as we speak, not by men with guns but by the sea.

“If it were men with guns, we would be able to get whatever money we could have to fend them off, but because it’s the sea, people are just letting us go gradually.”

Parishes take steps to prevent future hurricane damage

National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) and the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) have teamed up with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of Justice to tackle the rise in violent crime that is affl icting a growing number of cities across the United States. They have named their initia-tive Celebrate Safe Communities.

The Celebrate Safe Communities project will help kick off October as Crime Prevention Month, an annual celebration. The project will strengthen the partnerships between law enforcement and communities to stem the rising tide of violence. Beginning October 2, communities across the country will host crime prevention events in neighborhoods, with schools and in collaboration with local businesses.

In preparation for Crime Pre-vention Month 2008, the three organizations will:

promote the Celebrate Safe • Communities project to law en-

Organizations join forces to tackle violent crimeforcement agencies throughout the country, especially those in com-munities hardest-hit by the recent spikes in violent crime

provide educational materi-• als with crime prevention tips for every age from children to teens to adults

encourage other public safety • agencies, including fi re and emer-gency medical services, to partici-pate in the celebrations

share planning tips for organiz-• ing successful events that promote year-round involvement in com-munity safety initiatives

develop an online resource • center, including tools to help reach out to residents, recruit local support and mobilize volunteers

highlight local crime preven-• tion success stories, and

recognize outstanding local • initiatives through an annual awards program.

“The nation’s sheriffs’ offi ces have long recognized that crime

prevention is a crucial component of any law enforcement effort. At NSA, we gladly embrace this new and ex-citing partnership with BJA, NCPC and our nation’s communities,” said Aaron Kennard, executive director, National Sheriffs’ Association.

The Bureau of Justice Assis-tance, a long-standing supporter of efforts to increase public safety and educate residents about crime prevention, is providing resources and assistance for the Celebrate Safe Communities project. “Preventing crime is everyone’s business and this celebration gives local law en-forcement agencies the opportunity to recognize the vital efforts that residents and businesses make every day in keeping our communities safe,” said Domingo S. Herraiz, director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

“This new partnership helps put the spotlight on Crime Prevention Month, a time when we focus on what works to prevent crime and

recognize those communities help-ing to ‘take a bite out of crime’ every day,” said Alfonso E. Lenhardt, NCPC president and CEO. He continued, “Together, BJA, NSA and NCPC will encourage citizens to do their part to watch out and help out in the fi ght against crime.”

NSA and NCPC together have more than 90 years of experience in preventing crime and mobilizing communities, most notably through their tireless efforts to expand citizen involvement in their local neighbor-hoods. They will apply that knowl-edge and long-standing relation-ship to bring together businesses, residents, and law enforcement to coordinate local crime prevention events beginning October 2 and throughout the year.

(For more information contact Mi-chelle Boykins at 202/261-4184 or mboykins@ncpc.org, or Robbi Wood-son at 703/836-7827 or rwoodson@sheriffs.org).

6 September 1, 2008 CountyCountyNews News •

For many governmental em-ployers, autumn is benefi ts season. As governmental defi ned contribu-tion plan participation levels sug-gest, employees often leave their retirement decisions for last, often after the dollars they think might be available for plan contributions are gone.

Because it recognizes America’s public employees need help with promoting their supplemental retirement plans, the National Association of Governmental De-fi ned Contribution Administrators (NAGDCA) created and sponsors National Save for Retirement Week. Set for the third week of Oc-tober, National Save for Retirement Week reminds plan sponsors and providers to offer their employees what they need — the information to act.

NAGDCA recommends gov-ernmental employers become highly visible champions for their defi ned contribution retirement plan. Here’s what you can do:

Saving for retirement spotlighted in OctoberGive your supplemental retire-•

ment plan or plans a high-profi le promotional effort.

Use e-mail. Fliers. PA an-• nouncements. Get the word out.

Be visible. Talk it up. Make • sure employees know your personal commitment to the plan.

Encourage employees to learn • how they can use plan participation to help prepare for fi nancial security in retirement.

Why this is important for counties and their employees

It’s easy to see why some county employees frequently don’t put a priority on saving for their retire-ment. Most counties offer a very good traditional pension plan, often with a cost-of-living adjustments clause (COLA), that provides a solid foundation for employees’ retirement-income needs. “Why do I need more?” goes the thinking.

Indeed. Why do your em-ployees need to do more for

retirement? Two words: longev-ity and inflation.

We’re living longerIn 1900, the average American

woman could expect to live to be about 51 years of age. The average man could expect to blow out at least 48 candles on his cake. In 2006, the average American woman is likely live to age 80 and a half while a man, almost 75 and a half.

Meanwhile, as a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts documents, we’re living longer in retirement:

“A December 2005 study from Wisconsin’s Legislative Services Council noted that […] of 87 [pub-lic] plans studied across the 50 states, 85 allowed retirement with full benefi ts at age 62 or earlier for individuals with long service, and 57 provided retirement at age 62 or lower with only 10 years or fewer of service. Only two plans stipulated that it was necessary to reach age 65 to receive full benefi ts.”

Today’s workers are likely to live a long time in retirement. At age 65, average life expectancy is 17 years for American men and 20 years for women. Thirty percent of all women and almost 20 percent of men age 65 can expect to reach 90.

It’s costing moreAfter nearly a decade of his-

torically low infl ation, the United States is now seeing sudden and somewhat dramatic spikes in the cost of living. But the real story is where infl ation is, and is not.

“Excluding food and energy prices, May’s annual inflation rate was just 2.4 percent,” Robert Kuttner, co-editor of The American Prospect and senior fellow at Demos, wrote June 21 in the op/ed pages of The Boston Globe. The outliers were oil, higher education and health care. In fact, while fi nal data have not been calculated, in 2007 total national health expenditures were expected to have risen 6.9 percent — two times the rate of infl ation.

Unfortunately, medical costs for retirees more than 65 years old not covered by Medicare may exceed $1 million for a couple over their lifetimes. According to a recent report by The Commonwealth Fund, over the period 1980 – 2005 annual infl ation in the U.S. for all items has ranged from 1.1 percent to 8.9 percent, and has averaged 3.3 percent. For medical care, the annual average has been 6.4 percent.

The challenge for future retirees

Most defined benefit plan COLA clauses are pinned to some overall infl ation marker, such as the Producer Price Index. If the government reports an overall annual infl ation rate of 3 percent but health care is ballooning at 7 percent, what’s going to cover the gap?

That’s where defi ned contribu-tion plan savings can make a big difference.

Unfortunately, experience across the industry suggests em-ployees won’t easily arrive at this conclusion, which is why public employers need to act. Employees need to know what plan participa-tion offers them and why it is so important that they enroll and actively participate.

Employees face three other challenges inhibiting their decision to participate:

Not knowing where or when • to start

Ask new hires to join the • plan before they receive their fi rst

paycheck, andask current employees to enroll •

as they’re making their benefi ts decisions.

Not having enough income

Most public sector plans make entry easy by requiring low mini-mum contributions. Especially early on, just a few dollars a week invested can lead to a tidy sum at the end of a 30-year career. In addition, the federal government wants low-to-moderate income employees to take advantage of employer-provider retirement plans. The Saver’s Credit offers them up to 50 percent of their contribution as a tax credit, just for investing for retirement. Work with your plan provider to “get the word out.”

Not having enough self-control

The evidence shows that em-ployees are less likely to procrasti-nate if they are given a plan rather than left to their own devices. If your plan has not adopted auto-matic features to help overcome this barrier, you can have materials prepared with “default decisions” already fi lled in.

What Nationwide is doing to help county employees

Nationwide, administrator of NACo’s Deferred Compensation Program, has developed a highly visible enrollment plan designed to succeed. The National Save for Retirement Week campaign is an initiative that complements NAGDCA’s efforts by offering resources that can be used to lever-age established benefi ts-enrollment processes to promote the impor-tance of individual retirement saving.

The campaign — headlined as “Get ready now. Be ready later” — includes materials that lead eligible employees through the enrollment process. It not only informs, but also engages them to act. The decisions are theirs. But decisions are easier to make when you have all the information mapped out for you in small, easy-to-understand steps.

For more information about Nationwide’s National Save for Re-tirement Week Campaign, contact Louie Watson, vice president of strategic relationships, by e-mailing watsonL2@Nationwide.com or by calling 614/854-8895.

(This article was written by Bob Beasley of Nationwide Retirement Solutions, administrator of NACo’s Deferred Compensation Program.)

other reasons. Among “other rea-sons,” county offi cials listed:

the impact of the overall econo-• my (45 percent)

an oversupply of housing (27 • percent)

slow housing sales (36 percent)•

Addressing revenue shortfalls

With revenues down, counties are looking to a number of possible solutions to make up their shortfalls,

Have foreclosures in your county increased during the last year?# Answer Response %

1 Yes 24 96%2 No 0 0%3 Stayed about the same 1 4%

Total 25 100%

Have housing values in your county declined as a result of the foreclosures in your county?

# Answer Response %1 Yes 14 56%2 No 11 44%

Total 25 100%

Is your county experiencing revenue shortfalls as a result of foreclosures and/or the declining housing values?

# Answer Response %1 Yes 13 52%3 No 12 48%

Total 25 100%

Fresno County, Calif.Kern County, Calif.Orange County, Calif.Riverside County, Calif.San Joaquin County, Calif.Jefferson County, Colo.New Castle County, Del.Broward County, Fla.Gwinnett County, Ga.City and County of

Honolulu, HawaiiCook County, Ill.DuPage County, Ill.Lake County, Ill.Montgomery County, Md.Prince George’s County, Md.Oakland County, Mich.Middlesex County, N.J.Bernalillo County, N.M.Mecklenburg County, N.C.Franklin County, OhioDenton County, TexasHarris County, TexasSalt Lake County, Utah Fairfax County, Va.King County, Wash.

Survey Respondents

Survey Questions and Results

SURVEY from page 1

Counties consider strategies to make up revenue losses without increasing property tax

such as hiring freezes, and raising fees and charges. However, increas-ing property tax rates appears to be off the table. Only one county cited this as an option.

Fifty-two percent said they won’t be able to make up the shortfall from other sources. Of the 48 percent that have other sources, the most popular choices were (respondents could select more than one category): increase fees/charges (53 percent), decrease service delivery or delay infrastructure repairs (each cited by 47 percent), and freeze hiring

(41 percent). Twenty-nine percent said they would tap into the previous year’s reserve.

The survey was conducted in mid-June 2008.

• County CountyNewsNews September 1, 2008 7

a Renewed Rural Development successfully called upon Farm Bill negotiators this past spring to rein-state mandatory funding for rural development that was dropped during conference negotiations.

Farm Bill Conference Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) worked with NACo and other rural develop-ment advocates to reinstate some mandatory funding for rural devel-opment in H.R. 2419, the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 or Farm Bill, which became law May 22. Mandatory funding is especially important in the cur-rent budget climate of increasingly limited resources.

The bulk of the secured manda-tory funding is for the $2 billion backlog in pending water and wastewater loan and grant appli-cations from rural communities. The law provided $120 million in mandatory funding for these pend-ing applications, which leveraged into $250 million in loans and $81 million in grants. The Bush administration supported this mandatory funding in its Farm Bill proposal and is combining it with another $191 million that is being distributed as part of the normal 2008 state allocation funding process to reach the $547 million total.

WATER PROJECTS from page 1

Despite good news, other rural development needs remain unfundedBoard Chair Keith Langen-

hahn of Marathon County, Wis., who serves as chair of NACo’s Agriculture and Rural Affairs Steering Committee, praised the announcement.

“The awarded projects are located in our nation’s most rural counties and will provide an imme-diate economic stimulus in terms of jump starting ready-to-go con-struction projects,” he said. “The infrastructure will provide many of our nation’s rural residents safe, reliable and more affordable water and wastewater systems. This type of infrastructure is a basic building block for any community seeking to expand, attract and retain a strong workforce and economy.”

For example, in west Alabama, the Sumter County Sewer Author-ity will receive more than $2.9 mil-lion to construct a sewer system for the towns of Gainesville, Emelle and Geiger. In the city of Port St. Joe, Fla. (Gulf County), $8.6 mil-lion will bring the city’s wastewater treatment plant into compliance with state environmental regula-tions. In the rural community of Taylorsville, Ind. (Bartholomew County), the Eastern Bartholom-ew Water Corporation will now have $4.8 million to upgrade the water transmission main for 5,377 customers. To access the full list of the 232 awarded projects visit www.

rurdev.usda.gov/rd/newsroom/2008/FBWWFR-List.pdf .

USDA Rural Development’s Water and Environmental Pro-grams (WEP) provide loans, grants and loan guarantees for drinking water, sanitary sewer, solid waste and storm drainage facilities in rural areas, cities and towns of 10,000 or less. Public bodies such as counties, nonprofi t organizations and recognized Indian tribes may qualify for assistance.

WEP also makes grants to nonprofi t organizations to provide technical assistance and training to assist rural communities with their water, wastewater, and solid waste problems. To learn about the grant and loan funding available in your state, visit www.usda.gov/rus/water to locate contact information for your state offi ce and general infor-mation about WEP programs.

Farm Bill implementation efforts to continue

Despite the good news about this additional funding, the over-all picture for rural development funding is still incomplete because the Farm Bill does not provide additional mandatory funding for the infrastructure backlog in com-munities served by USDA Rural Development. Commissioner Bill Kennedy of Yellowstone County, Mont., who serves as chair of NACo’s Rural Action Caucus, commented on the future outlook for rural development funding.

“NACo lobbied extensively for mandatory funding for the Rural Development Title throughout the Farm Bill process, and I am pleased that many rural counties will benefit from the recently announced water and wastewa-ter funding. However, this is a Band-Aid for a cut that requires stitches,” said Kennedy. “Congress missed an opportunity to provide a truly robust Rural Development Title, therefore the Rural Action Caucus will bolster our grass roots advocacy efforts.”

The law authorizes more than $50 billion in discretionary spend-ing for rural development programs over the next fi ve years, but this funding is subject to the annual appropriations process. Commis-sioner Colleen Landkamer of Blue Earth County, Minn., who serves as chair of the Campaign for a Renewed Rural Development, stressed the need for continued advocacy.

“Another Farm Bill isn’t going to come around for another fi ve years, so rural counties are going to have to fi ght for limited discretionary funding for rural development ev-

ery year during the appropriations process. We’ll also have to work to educate the next administration and Congress about the critical in-vestments that are needed to renew rural America,” she said.

Most appropriations decisions will be put on hold until the next administration, but it is already clear that rural development is tak-ing a back seat to congressional ap-propriators’ interests in additional funding for nutrition and food safety within USDA’s budget.

In addition, the Bush admin-istration recently sent Congress a budget amendment request that seeks to cut the other two rural de-velopment programs that received mandatory funding through the Farm Bill. Both the $15 million for the Rural Microenterprise Assis-tance Initiative and the $15 million

for the Value-Added Agricultural Market Development Program Grants are in jeopardy of cuts.

“NACo members were very en-gaged during the Farm Bill process and played an instrumental role in securing much needed funding for rural development and many other key areas such as energy, conserva-tion and nutrition. We’ll need even more engagement in the future in order to boost the federal commit-ment to rural development.

“I urge my fellow rural county offi cials to become more engaged in NACo’s advocacy efforts and to join NACo’s Rural Action Caucus,” said Kennedy.

(For more information about RAC visit www.ruralcounties.org or contact Erik Johnston at 202/942-4230 or ejohnston@naco.org)

Counties in Pictures

Photo ContestA picture is still worth a thousand words, even in the age of digital photography. Share the moments when your county was at its fi nest through the 2008 Counties in Pictures Photo Contest. County News is now accepting submissions!

Request Submission guidelines by contacting Jack Hernandez at 202/942-4250 or jhernandez@naco.org.

8 September 1, 2008 CountyCountyNews News •

Model Programs FROM THE NATION'S COUNTIES

BY ELIZABETH PERRY

STAFF WRITER

Dominic Pace, 15, loves to go to the park near his Suffolk County, N.Y. home on the weekends. So many other times at other parks he sat in his wheelchair watching the other kids play, but at Lake Ronkonkoma Park’s first all-access playground he gets to swing and play on the jungle gym with everyone else.

An experience like that means a lot to a kid with disabilities, says his mother Terri. “Particularly on the jungle gym, the kids are all running around and swinging,” she says. “While he can’t do the swinging part, he can be up there playing on the tic-tac-toe board with the kids. Sometimes just being able to go where they are and be close to them is all he wants to do.”

Suffolk County is home to more than 12,000 children with special needs and 20 parks with a few handicapped accessible features, however there were no fully accessible playgrounds in the county before the one at Lake Ronkonkoma opened in 2006.

Terri Pace says her son has multiple handicaps, poor mo-tor skills and gets tired quickly. Mostly nonverbal, Dominic understands everything that is going on around him and uses augmentative communication devices to help him speak.

“We try to give him as much exposure to what society has to offer and keep him included,” she says. “He’s very social and absolutely loves to interact with other kids, and he’s a big fl irt with the girls.”

A ramp enables Dominic to be wheeled to the top of the jungle gym, where his friends hang out. His wheelchair can also be securely chained and turned into swing, so he never even has to leave his seat to soar in the air and back. There is also a handicapped-accessible ramp leading to a fi shing pier, where he can look out on the lake, watch the boats and feel the breeze.

Before Lake Ronkonkoma

All-access Playground Lets Kids with Disabilities Play, Too

Park opened, obstacles to park access included parking lots and paths made impossible for wheelchairs and walk-ers to navigate because they were lined with woodchips and gravel. Sandboxes were too low and climb-ing bars were too high for children in wheelchairs to reach, swings did not offer proper back support and slides were out of the question.

Meryl Zaglan, Suffolk County’s director of Services for Children with Special Needs, says the idea for an all-access playground was inspired by a conversation she had with the mother of two physically disabled sons, who she said had never been to a playground before.

“We started looking at the play-grounds that are in the county and we decided that maybe we could make one of them more accessible, so children and grandparents with motor disabilities could participate,” she says.

A consortium of county depart-ments and parents of handicapped children put together a plan to build a playground with accessible walkways, shade areas, parking, bathrooms and ramps.

The capital project was completed in eight months. It cost $187,441 to construct and $577,628 to equip.

The playground, which borders three townships and serves 72 school districts, was gated and run down

before the renovation, but now it is so successful that families are still playing at closing time each night, Zaglan says. Since Lake Ronkonkoma County Park playground was built, three more playgrounds in other Suffolk County parks have also been renovated to be fully ac-cessible.

Zaglan advises counties interested in renovating or devel-oping their own all-access parks to look at all the big and small details from the perspective of someone who is handicapped or a caregiver, making sure ground surfaces are level and considering access to the playground itself. If wheelchairs and walkers cannot get to it, nobody can play in it.

“The one thing I would tell them is to interview the parents and fi nd out what they struggle with most,” she said. “That is where I got most of my infor-mation.”

For more information about all-access playgrounds, e-mail meryl.zaglan@suffolkcountyny.gov.

(Model Programs from the Nation’s Counties highlights Achievement Award-winning programs. For more information on this and other NACo Achievement Award winners, visit NACo’s Web site, www.naco.org.)

WANTED from page 1

Wanted posters effective in recovering child support

support-related warrant for failure to appear in court.

“This group, they have gone off the map and this is one of our last resorts in hopes of helping their children,” said Moira Weir, director of Hamilton County’s Job and Family Services department (HCJFS).

The program has been largely successful. Begun in 2005 as a part of Child Support Awareness Month, the program was so popular with custodial parents that by 2007 HCJFS added a monthly Most Wanted Poster that features one delinquent parent.

In its fi rst year, the poster found four of the eight most wanted. The following year, all eight delinquent parents were found and, because they were caught so quickly, a second poster was released in April. Five out of eight parents on that poster were found. Two of eight were captured in 2007, and this year there have already been two parents found.

More than $138,000 in child support has been recovered using the posters. The county handles approximately 92,000 cases a year, and last year it collected $142 mil-lion for families.

Brian Gregg, Hamilton Coun-ty’s communications manager, said the local media have been helpful in getting the images from the posters across the county. “One or two local news stations will take video of the posters and broadcast the story throughout the area,” he said,

and this helps to raise awareness in the community of delinquent parents.

The posters are also sent to com-munity partners, post offi ces and are mailed to surrounding counties in the tri-state area. They’re found in county buildings and on the agency’s Web site, www.hcjfs.org, as well. Gregg added that the posters blanket the community, and this increases the chances of recovering money because ordinary residents can call in or visit the HCJFS Web site to anonymously report seeing a delinquent parent.

The wanted poster is one of many tools Hamilton County employs in recovering child support money. Measures, such as driving suspensions, passport denials, tax liens, bank account seizures, tax re-turn and economic stimulus check intercepts, are complemented by rehabilitative measures for parents who are willing to help support their children and families.

“The REAL Dads program and Seek Work program really go beyond the traditional collection methods — these are programs designed to help people fi nd work and build relationships with their children,” said Gregg. “If that happens, we’ll be able to collect the support.”

(For more information on the Most Wanted Poster, other child support collection programs and Child Support Month in Hamilton County, contact Brian Gregg at greggb@jfs.hamilton-co.org or call 513/946-1728, or visit www.hcjfs.org.)

Photo courtesy of Suffolk County

Two children in their wheelchairs make their way up the ramp to the top of the jungle gym in Lake Ronkonkoma Park, located in Suffolk County, NY. The all-access park enables kids with disabilities to be in the middle of the action, instead of watching from the sidelines.

• County CountyNewsNews September 1, 2008 9

The Lancaster County Board of Commissioners, on Jan.10, 1979, adopted as its seal a heart within a heart, a symbol which signifi es the heart of man living in the heart of God and so recog-nizing the freedom and diversity of religion in the county and its strong infl uence for virtue, truth and honesty.

Within the heart is a Conestoga wagon, a product of the ingenu-ity and craftsmanship of the county, surmounted by Pennsylvania rifl es, a similar product.

The fertile earth is displayed in the base of the heart to mark the appreciation of its benefi cence and the stewardship of Lancaster County’s families.

Piles of husked corn lie on the ground in tribute to this native grain.

(If you would like your county’s seal featured, please contact Matthew Fellows at 202/942-4256 or mfellows@naco.org.)

News From the Nation’s CountiesCALIFORNIA• The LOS ANGELES COUN-

TY Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance effective Sept. 18 that holds parents liable if their chil-dren are caught tagging property with graffi ti. The Mercury News reported parents will be fined “hundreds of dollars,” if they are held responsible. The total cost to apprehend each tagger and remove the graffi ti is $1,185. A similar ordi-nance was approved in ORANGE COUNTY, where parents may be jailed for six months and fi ned $1,000 if they provide a place for underage drinking.

• MARIN and SAN FRAN-CISCO counties were voted the fi rst and second skinniest counties in the nation, according to Money magazine. The list rated localities based on residents’ average body mass index, which compares height and weight ratios. Another hilly locale, SAN MATEO COUNTY, came in eighth on the list.

ILLINOIS• Vision Energy recently proposed

the construction of a 300-tower wind farm that would span IRO-QUOIS, FORD, LIVINGSTON and KANKAKEE counties. If approved the K4 Wind Farm would begin construction in the fall of 2009, and would take a year to complete and become operational. The Daily Journal reported each tower will cost $2.5 million to build and will produce 1.5 to 2.5 megawatts of energy, enough to power 400 homes.

• LAKE COUNTY Sheriff Mark Curran had himself booked and thrown in jail for a week to raise awareness of the need for more programs to reduce recidi-vism. As he was fi ngerprinted and photographed, he told reporters that incarcerated prisoners turn to gang activity before they are released back into society, but reentry programs offer a more constructive use of time and reduce the recidivism rate. Curran continued to serve as sheriff while he was “incarcerated,” and wore a prison-issued uniform and listened to inmates concerns.

MARYLANDBALTIMORE COUNTY could

be the only school system in area to go completely wireless this school term, however the Baltimore Sun reported that CARROLL and HOWARD counties are consider-ing the idea. All school buildings in Baltimore County were expected to have high-speed Internet capabil-ity by the time school started last month. The move to wireless came

about because of increasing use of laptop computers and Web-based teaching tools in the county’s 171 schools.

MINNESOTARepeat DWI offenders in HEN-

NEPIN COUNTY are fi nding they literally can’t drink and drive, thanks to an ignition interlock sensor that disables the car if it detects alcohol on the driver’s breath. The device is part of a new 18-month DWI court program. Fourth District Judge John Holohan, who heads the DWI court, told the Star Tribune the program is saving lives — “Not only the lives of the repeat offenders;

… a lot of those people are out-of-control alcoholics. And their fate, if they don’t get help, is an untimely death.”

NEW MEXICOThe RIO ARRIBA COUNTY

Commission has extended by 180 days a ban on new oil and gas drilling in the county that has been in effect for four months.

County commissioners want more time to develop new regu-lations to protect the county’s watersheds, the Associated Press reported.

The county also wants to review special rules Gov. Bill Richardson

recently ordered the state’s Oil Conservation Division to write specifi cally for parts of the county, said Commission Chairman Al-fredo Montoya.

First approved in April, the moratorium was drafted to ad-dress a Fort Worth, Texas-based company’s plans to drill test wells for oil east of Tierra Amarilla, the county seat.

NEW YORKWESTCHESTER COUNTY is

giving free, radio frequency track-ing bracelets to 100 Alzheimer’s or dementia sufferers in the county.

“We’ve all heard heartbreaking stories about someone who disap-pears and isn’t found for days or weeks,” County Executive Andrew Spano said. “This program will make it easier to locate them and, at the same time, give caregivers some much needed peace of mind.”

Under Project Lifesaver, a pilot program, county police hope to re-duce the time and money spent on searching for persons with memory disorders who are prone to wander, according to the Journal News.

For those entering the program later, there will be a $300 fee for the bracelet, which can be waived or paid on a sliding scale, depending on income. There’s an additional charge of about $85 for the fi rst year of batteries. Six other counties in the state offer the Project Lifesaver program.

OREGONAdd MULTNOMAH COUN-

TY to the menu of localities that have passed restaurant labeling regulations to help combat the obesity epidemic. After a packed, 5 1/2-hour hearing, county com-missioners recently voted to require national chain restaurants and coffee shops to list calorie contents for menu items, The Oregonian reported.

The rule applies to restaurants with more than 15 outlets na-tionwide and would affect about 90 chains in the county. It makes Portland the fourth major U.S. city to require menu listing; the others are New York, Seattle and San Francisco.

PENNSYLVANIAALLEGHENY COUNTY

offi cials recently celebrated the fi rst anniversary of a family activity center at the County Jail. It’s said to be one of the fi rst family-friendly waiting areas in a major U.S. jail

Since opening last year, the Gwendolyn June Campbell Elliott Family Activity Center has had more than 3,800 visits from children and 3,200 visits from adults accompany-ing children as they wait to visit loved ones, according to a news release.

“I want to congratulate the center and its volunteers for a successful year of providing education, services and

Photo courtesy of the Kansas Sampler Foundation

KANSASThe CHASE COUNTY Courthouse has been named one of the 8

Wonders of Kansas Architecture by the Kansas Sampler Foundation. The foundation noted: “Its striking French Renaissance (Second Em-pire) style and red Mansard roof make it one of the most recognizable buildings in Kansas!”

Built of local limestone, the courthouse includes a three-story spiral staircase made from walnut trees from the Cottonwood River. Completed in 1873, it’s the oldest county courthouse still in use in Kansas and the second oldest in continuous use west of the Mississippi River.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and is presently undergoing a $2.4 million renovation and restoration.

The Kansas Sampler Foundation is a nonprofi t organization whose mission is to preserve, sustain and grow rural culture by educating Kansans about the state, and by networking and supporting rural communities.

»Lancaster County, Pa.

What’s in a Seal?

www.co.lancaster.pa.us

See NEWS FROM page 10

10 September 1, 2008 CountyCountyNews News •

NEWS FROM from page 9

Wisconsin counties, Milwaukee to install portable video surveillance

Research News

You may have noticed that build-ing codes have been getting some good press lately. With reports on earthquakes, hurricanes and global warming, there have also been stories showing how codes that promote or require new building practices are paying off in terms of dollars or lives saved.

Most recently, in July, a moder-ate earthquake shook hardest in an area of San Bernardino County, Calif. that had experienced high levels of population growth over the last decade. The mostly new buildings in the area were built under California codes that had been revised in response to the earlier Northridge quake of 1994. With minimal damage resulting from this July’s quake, reporters and local offi cials highlighted the positive impact of state codes in that outcome.

In most of the U.S., state govern-ments adopt statewide standards or model codes relating to structural integrity, fi re hazards, mechanical systems, electrical systems and en-ergy effi ciency. States may mandate local adoption of the codes and vary in whether they give local governments options for adopting more stringent or area-specific features. Municipal and many

Some Good News about Building Codescounty governments across the U.S. ultimately administer and enforce the codes for their jurisdictions.

Quakes, fi res and hurricanes often spur changes in both state and local codes. Florida, for in-stance, adopted a more stringent

some local codes thought to be the strongest were inadequate against certain major hurricane threats.

By 2001, Florida moved toward implementing model national codes. The current edition of the state code starts from International Code Council (ICC) models but is amended to meet Florida-specifi c needs. Parts of the code apply to specifi c areas. For example, Miami-Dade County adheres to the more stringent High Velocity Hurricane Zone chapter. Also, under certain conditions, local governments may amend code requirements to be more stringent in a local context. Again, Florida’s local governments administer and enforce the code.

Hurricane Katrina also pro-vided a powerful motivation for promoting change in building practices throughout Louisiana. Floods made the boldest headlines during the storm, but analysis after the fact also showed that a quarter-million Louisiana homes were damaged by the hurricane’s high winds.

A study by Louisiana State University indicated that 80 per-cent of the wind damage related to poor construction. According to cost scenarios in the report,

mitigation measures such as debris impact-resistant windows, shutters, garage door protection, hurricane clips, and better roof deck sealing and fastening would have dramati-cally reduced the losses.

In the aftermath, Louisiana adopted a mandatory uniform code based on ICC models. Moreover, hurricane-prone parishes were man-dated to take quick action to ensure that homes and businesses built along the coast would withstand

winds of 130 to 150 miles per hour. For the last several years, parishes and municipalities, now charged with administering and enforcing the code, have been putting systems in place to comply.

According to the Police Jury Association of Louisiana, many jurisdictions did not previously have code enforcement functions. Smaller jurisdictions also have a

comfort to children who visit fam-ily members in our jail,” said Dan Onorato, county executive. “More than 40 volunteers have donated in excess of 2,000 hours of service to the center.”

SOUTH CAROLINACHARLESTON COUNTY’s

goal of reducing air and water pollution received a fi nancial boost recently from the U.S. Environmen-tal Protection Agency. The $236,498 competitive grant is part of EPA’s Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE) Program, a community-based program that builds partnerships to help the public understand and reduce toxic risks from numerous sources.

“EPA’s fi nancial support gives Charleston County the opportunity to expand our environmental edu-cation efforts throughout the com-munity,” said Tim Scott, Charleston

County Council chairman. Since the program began three

years ago, CARE has provided a total of $7.75 million to more than 49 communities nationwide. Charleston County’s project is one of only four awarded in the southeast region.

WASHINGTONThe Washington State Histori-

cal Society has recommended that SNOHOMISH COUNTY receive more than $880,000 in grant money to renovate the county’s Carnegie Building, which will become the home of the Museum of Snohomish County History.

“This grant allows us to make certain improvements, which will allow this historic site to have an-other life,” County Executive Aaron Reardon said.

Following approval by the legislature and governor — both expected — the money will be available next July.

NACo on the Move»NACo Officers and Elected Officials

Don Stapley, NACo president, was quoted in a Washington Post article Aug. 4 about the move toward hybrid fl eets in Howard County, Md. “The technology is just becoming so much better that [hybrids] make a lot of sense. We’re saving money, and we’re cleaning the environment,” he said.

Sue Baldwin, recorder, Broward County, Fla., was presented the Public Offi cial of the Year Award at the National Association of County Recorders,

Election Offi cials and Clerks (NACRC) Annual Conference July 12 in Jackson County (Kansas City), Mo. Each year, the Public Offi cial of the Year Award honors a person who has exemplifi ed leadership, ingenuity and excellence in his or her offi ce.

Barbara Ford-Coates, Sarasota County, Fla. tax collector and NACo Board Member, was named the 2008 Outstanding Tax Col-lector in the U.S. by the National Association of County Collectors, Treasurers and Finance Offi cer (NACCTFO). Ford-Coates said that she accepted the award on behalf of her “fantastic staff of 88 people.”

»NACo StaffEmily Landsman is NACo’s new state as-

sociation liaison. After more than fi ve years in the membership department, Landsman replaced former NACo President and County Services Representative Kaye Braaten as the association’s representative to the state associations of counties upon Braaten’s retirement.

Kati Guerra has joined NACo as a senior associate in the Community Services Division. She will work on projects in the justice program area, including juvenile justice, methamphetamine and criminal justice/mental health. Guerra studied criminal justice and criminology as an undergraduate and is currently working to complete her master’s degree in criminology, criminal justice at the University of

Maryland, College Park. While attending graduate school, Guerra interned at the Justice Policy Institute and at the Alliance for Consumer Education where she helped launch a statewide initiative for Inhalant Abuse Prevention.

Tylette Wilson has joined the Conferences and Meetings Department as a meetings coordinator. She has been the NACo receptionist for three years. Prior to NACo, she was a design consultant for Storehouse.

(On the Move is compiled by Matthew Fellows, editorial assistant.)

WISCONSINFive counties and the city

of Milwaukee are purchasing portable security cameras, using $350,000 in federal anti-terrorism funding. Offi cials say the cameras will be used to monitor crowds at large public events.

Milwaukee and the counties of MILWAUKEE, OZAUKEE, RACINE, WASHINGTON and WAUKESHA will own and oper-ate the equipment.

William Stolte, emergency management coordinator for Waukesha County, told the Journal Sentinel: “It’s very, very rapid deployment. You can set it up, take it down and move to the next event.”

(News From the Nation’s Counties is compiled by Charles Taylor and Elizabeth Perry, staff writers. If you have an item for News From, please e-mail ctaylor@naco.org or eperry@naco.org.)

Hurricane Katrina also provided a powerful

motivation for promoting change in building

practices throughout Louisiana.

statewide code in 2001 after being hit hard by successive hurricanes during 1990s. Notably, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 caused $26.5 bil-lion in damages, mostly in South Florida. In 1995, Florida was hit by a near record 19 storms and in 1996, six major storms caused billions more in damages. The storms, combined with substantial changes in building technologies and practices, led to calls for a comprehensive review of the state building code system. The review revealed inconsistent code adop-tion and enforcement. Further,

See RESEARCH page 11

Kati Guerra

Tylette Wilson

Don Stapley

Emily Landsman

• County CountyNewsNews September 1, 2008 11

Financial Services News

County News invites

Do you have a com pli ment, com plaint or diff er ent point of view? ... LET US KNOW.

Please in clude a phone num ber with your letter. Mail, fax or e-mail to: Coun ty News, NACo, 25 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Wash-

ing ton, DC 20001; 202/393-2630; cnews@naco.org.

Letters Letters to the Editor to the Editor

BY KATHRYN REED

(This article is fi rst in a series about the fi ndings of the plan sponsors.)

NACo’s Deferred Compen-sation program offers county employees a way to save for their retirement with the advantage and distinction of oversight by program participants, state associations of counties, and NACo leadership and staff.

In early June, 10 plan sponsors

NACo Deferred Compensation Reviewed by Plan Sponsors

further enhanced these advantages by attending a special program review meeting in the Dublin, Ohio home office of program administrator Nationwide Retire-ment Solutions.

The plan sponsors (individuals in their counties who have day-to-day responsibility for management or oversight of their deferred compensation programs) were selected to represent geographi-cally diverse counties of varying sizes. In addition, about half of the plan sponsors represented counties

whose employees have more than one choice of deferred compensa-tion providers.

All of the meeting’s expenses were paid for by NACo. The meet-ing’s primary purposes were to offer Nationwide and NACo additional oversight of the program and to identify ways in which the program can offer even greater benefi ts to participants.

The agenda included a brief program history and a tour of the

RESEARCH from page 10

Natural disasters test new building codes’ efficacy

limited amount of construction taking place each year. For these reasons, building local administra-tive capacity, supported by revenues from the permitting process, will be a challenge for many communities. State and federal governments have provided support, and some special-ized organizations have also assisted with training and setting up code enforcement operations to bolster local capacity.

Regional or third-party partner-ships are also options as the state law allows local governments to contract with third parties for code administration and enforcement services. The Institute for Build-ing Technology and Safety (IBTS) — an organization with board representation from NACo — is currently working with 18 parishes and more than 12 municipalities on technical and building-department related services. It also provided on-the-job training and a certifi cation assistance program for building code enforcement personnel of the 11 parishes most affected by Katrina.

Will adoption of codes, admin-istration and enforcement pay off in light of future development and

rehabilitation? Some sources high-lighted in the press suggest a positive response. According to a 2005 report by the nonprofi t National Institute of Building Sciences, one dollar spent on the kinds of mitigation strategies noted above saves society an average of four dollars.

On the ground and after 2004 storms, a Manatee County, Fla. homebuilder association president noted that homes built to Florida’s new code withstood the hurricanes. In addition, an evaluation report issued by Miami-Dade County after Hurricanes Wilma and Ka-trina concluded that weaknesses of older structures and those with poor workmanship were exposed, however construction, alterations, additions and repairs built under the new codes fared “very well.”

These stories provide some positive views of the capacity of state and local government to adapt governance systems in light of past disasters and changing information. Challenges certainly lie ahead. In the meantime, reinforcing long-term governance strategies is a critical part of the equation.

(Research News was written by Alex Welsch, associate research director, awelsch@naco.org)

The H.R. Doctor Is In

Did I get that backwards? Un-fortunately, the answer is that in many cases we act faster than we think. We act before we deliberate on what could perhaps be better courses of action.

The concept of slow deliberation and contemplation has given way in much of our culture to the desire to act fast…to “call in the next 15 minutes!” We want to get what we want, or think we want, with the greatest possible speed.

We seize the Latin phrase Carpe Diem and apply it by adding the word “fast” to many of the actions we take or we value in society. We eat — or overeat — at fast food restaurants. We abhor waiting in lines in doc-tors’ offi ces and in banks or, God forbid, the post offi ce or DMV. We complain too quickly if we do not get what we feel is our entitlement. We are fast to blame and slower to accept personal responsibility and accountability.

A fi rst cousin to acting without contemplation is a perceived ineq-uity. “I am a victim. I whine. It is all because of what other people did or failed to do, rather than what I did.” Perceived inequity, by the way, is one important characteristic of a threat assessment related to enhanced risks of workplace violence. That behavior can also be extended to violence and bullying in school yards or in our own homes in the form of domestic abuse.

With the base desires in our culture to “have it now, have it my way, blame others and whine incessantly when things don’t go

Shoot or I’ll Stopas I feel they should,” comes the availability of popular tools to help me “get it now!”

Highly popular among them is the omnipresence of lawyers. We are less willing than in prior gen-erations to resolve our differences

of decision-making that seems to fi t the mold of “act fast, worry later” about minor details such as long term consequences, debt for the next generation and what might be needed for a long-term civil society. Instead of a long-term vision about what could be, we opt for a short-term, immediate gratifi cation model of “what is.”

Without getting into an argu-ment sure to lead to more argu-ments about the freedom to have the wind blow through your hair as you “head” to the pavement in a motorcycle spill or the right to keep and bear arms to protect America in the parking lot of Disney World, it is important to point out that making it easier to take irrevocable actions in our lives is often not a good thing.

In making decisions as leaders in local government organizations, within families and within com-munities, we also come to choose, consciously or unconsciously, a style of decision-making which, if left unattended, will tend by inertia toward action now rather than more quiet deliberation.

The American leader is praised for being a person of action rather than the quieter person living at Walden’s Pond or in Innisfree. In American history, the default to ac-tion has served to shape the character of the country and of its people. We have come out well on the whole. In the 21st century, however, in the way we work in business and govern-ments, and the way we interact in society, the HR Doctor’s experience

suggests that the balance between thinking before acting as opposed to acting before thinking will have to be reconsidered and readjusted.

The consequences of continuing to act in certain ways involving our use of energy, our style of eating, being sedentary rather than mov-ing around and in how we choose to use our precious life moments (e.g., watching television instead of participating in the lives of our children and our spouses) will not be positive. Contemplation and

nurturing of long-term positive outcomes becomes more important every day in our world. Nurturing is a form of action whether we see it that way or not. Action without serious contemplation in a complex society will create disruption in the offi ce, in the neighborhood and in the world.

Phil RosenbergThe HR Doctor • www.hrdr.net

Hurricane Katrina also provided a powerful

motivation for promoting change in building

practices throughout Louisiana.

by direct and positive interactions in getting to know our neighbors, learning about other cultures and other languages. Rather, it is easier to dial “1-800-LAWSUIT.” This might well explain why America is not only the land of the free but is the home of the attorney.

We have about 5 percent of the world’s population but about 70 percent of the world’s lawyers. Spend a quiet few minutes — or a few hours — painstakingly thumbing through the many, many pages of lawyers in the phone book in case you have any doubts.

When you watch state legislators pass laws that say it’s okay not to wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle, or that it’s okay to carry a gun in the car at your workplace no matter what the employer feels is proper on employer property, you gain additional ammunition, if you will pardon the expression, into the kind

See FS NEWS page 12

12 September 1, 2008 CountyCountyNews News •

Job Market / Classifi edsCITY MANAGER – CITY OF

WICHITA, KAN.Salary: DOQ.Wichita is the largest city in Kan-

sas (pop. 357,698). Residents enjoy a central location, a diverse population, a strong local economy and four distinct seasons. Quality of life amenities, including education, are excellent, and the cost of living is below the national average. Wichita provides a full array of services, including an airport, art museum, central inspec-tion, environmental services, fi nance, fi re, housing and community services, human resources, information technol-ogy, law, library, municipal court, parks and recreation, planning, police, public works, transit, water and sewer. The city covers 155.3 sq. mi. It has operated under the Council-Manager form of government since 1917. Wichita enjoys a highly stable government and has had only three managers since 1975. The City Council is composed of a mayor, elected at large and six council members who are elected from districts to four-year, overlapping terms. The council appoints the city manager who is responsible for managing municipal operations. The city’s current total budget is $496 million. There are 3,300 municipal employees. Qualifi cations include 10 years of experience in a posi-tion of management responsibility in local government or in a closely related line of work and a bachelor’s degree in municipal management; prefer 15 years of experience and a master’s degree. Confi dential resumes will be accepted until the position is fi lled. Please send your resume without delay to: Robert E. Slavin, President, Slavin Management Consultants, 3040 Holcomb Bridge Road, Suite A-1, Norcross, GA 30071. Phone: 770/449-4656, fax: 770/416-0848, e-mail slavin@bellsouth.net. www.slavinweb.com. An equal opportunity recruiter/employer.

CONTROLLER – MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD.

Salary: DOQ.This position will serve as the con-

troller for the Montgomery County, Md. Government Department of Finance. Employee will report to the director of Finance and be responsible for managing and directing the activi-ties of the Division of the Controller, including overall supervision of a staff of approximately 40 professional and clerical employees. Employee will oversee the accounting and fi nancial re-porting for a large complex government with General Fund revenues of more than $2.5 billion, with government-wide net assets of $2.2 billion, and with 40 published funds comprising all fund types. Position requires a bachelor’s degree and seven years of progres-sively responsible experience in the

fi nancial accounting or auditing fi eld, including three years of which were in a supervisory or executive capacity. Strong preference will be given to those holding an active CPA license. In order to be considered, all applicants must apply online at the county’s website at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/careers. Further details about the position including specifi c duties, preferred criteria and about the Finance Depart-ment and county government can be found on the site as well. The position is considered open until fi lled, but the county is anxious to fi ll the opening. For prompt consideration please apply online and also submit a resume and salary history to: Robert E. Slavin, President, Slavin Management Con-sultants, 3040 Holcomb Bridge Road, Suite A-1, Norcross, Georgia 30071, phone 770/449-4656, fax 770/416-0848, e-mail slavin@bellsouth.net, visit www.slavinweb.com.

COUNTY MANAGER – SAN MATEO COUNTY, CALIF.

Salary: up to $270,234, DOQ.Located in the heart of the San Fran-

cisco Peninsula, San Mateo County is one of the most dynamic and beautiful places in the country to live and work. Incorporated in 1856, the county has grown to an ethnically diverse popula-tion of more than 735,000. The county employs more than 5,800 people and has an operating and capital budget in excess of $1.7 billion. The fi ve-member Board of Supervisors is seeking highly qualifi ed candidates with a strong record of accomplishment and the highest integrity and professionalism. Bachelor’s degree from an accredited school with major course work in business or public administration or a related fi eld is required; master’s degree is preferred. The current salary maxi-mum is $270,234 annually; appoint-ment will be DOQ. Please send your cover letter and resume electronically to Peckham and McKenney, apply@peckhamandmckenney.com. Call Bobbi Peckham at 866/912-1919 for more detailed information or to request a detailed brochure. The brochure is also available on our Web site at www.peck-hamandmckenney.com. Filing deadline is September 15.

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR – GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, MICH.

Salary: DOQ.Grand Traverse County in Tra-

verse City, Mich. has an opening for an individual who can serve in a leadership role to 500 employees and 35 departments. Major functions include employee relations, recruit-ing, classifi cation and compensation, labor relations, staff development and training, employee benefi ts programs, and development and enforcement

of personnel policies and procedures. Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources or related fi eld required, with a master’s degree preferred. Ten years’ progres-sively responsible experience in H.R. management and employee relations experience, including fi ve years of su-pervisory or managerial responsibility required. Labor negotiations experi-ence preferable. Further information and required on-line application form accessible via the Web site at www.grandtraverse.org and must be completed by September 19 at 5:00 p.m. Further inquiries can be e-mailed to hr@co.grand-traverse.mi.us. EOE.

HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR – LANCASTER COUNTY, PA.

Salary: DOQ.Exceptional opportunity for a

dynamic Human Resources director responsible to strategically and effec-tively lead the development, implemen-tation and coordination of policies and

programs encompassing all aspects of Human Resources to ensure a proac-tive and legally compliant environment for 1,600-plus full-time employees and 400 part-time employees of the county of Lancaster. This position will direct and have oversight of the employment process, labor relations, collective bargaining, negotiations, benefi ts administration, compensa-tion and performance management, wellness initiatives, HR data systems and outcome measurements, budgeting and fi nancial reporting, compliance to local, state, federal laws, strategic planning and organizational develop-ment, optimizing relationships with component agencies, supervision of Human Resource department staff and duties, implementation of effi cient systems and structures and orientation and training of staff. Requirements: Bachelor’s degree in related field, PHR/SPHR certifi cation, eight or more years of senior-level experience in

governmental/political environment, extensive labor relations experience, strategic thinker, high integrity and confi dentiality, evidence of strong data and reporting ability, exceptional com-munication and interpersonal skills, demonstrated background in imple-mentation of effi cient systems and structures, and advanced knowledge of Human Resource principles and su-pervision. Salary is commensurate with experience. Deadline for application: Sept. 12. Resumes must be directed to Andrea McCue, Chief Clerk/Deputy County Administrator, County of Lancaster, 50 North Duke Street, PO Box 83480, Lancaster, PA 17608-3480 or e-mail mccuea@co.lancaster.pa.us. An EEO employer.

(If you would like information about advertising your job openings in County News and County News Online, please contact Matthew Fellows at 202/942-4256 or mfellows@naco.org.)

Nationwide facility, as well as a discussion of what plan sponsors are experiencing in their counties as they see older employees retire — maybe without enough saved — and younger employees who don’t necessarily appreciate the reasons for supplemental retirement savings.

What plan sponsors sayIn order for county employees to

appreciate the benefi ts of deferred compensation and to participate in the program, education and access are essential. Employees who don’t participate cite a variety of reasons, according to the plan sponsors. These include:

I can’t sit through a workshop • (employees have different learning styles).

I can’t take time off for a • workshop.

I don’t make enough to save.• I don’t understand — it’s too •

complicated.I’m too young. • I’m too old.• The market is too risky.•

How do counties respond?

In Monmouth County, N.J., about 70 percent of the approxi-mately 3,500 employees are in the Nationwide/NACo deferred com-pensation plan. The county does not offer a matching contribution.

“We just offer Nationwide, which I think is why it’s as successful as it is,” explained Mark Acker, county fi nance director. “The major thing we do is allow the [Nationwide] rep total access to our county employees. We have facilities all over the place. The rep has access to all those facilities.”

Another county with a high par-ticipation rate is in Sonoma County, Calif. at 80 percent. This is because the county contributes to the plan for the majority of workers, according to Jonathan Kadlec, manager of the revenue and debt division of the county.

“We went to one provider years ago. We were looking for simplicity in the plan. We wanted to make it as accessible as possible for our participants,” Kadlec said. A sole provider offsets much confusion for employees, he continued. It also helps that a county employee is dedicated to working on the Nationwide program for the roughly 4,000 employees.

Tulsa County, Okla., is another

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FS NEWS from page 11

Counties share their experiences with employee retirement saving plans

county with a 70 percent participa-tion rate. The county matches up to $50 per monthly paycheck for the approximately 1,700 employ-ees. Nationwide is the exclusive provider. Management support of the program combined with a county match offers signifi cant en-couragement for county employees to participate, said Terry Tallent, director of personnel services for Tulsa County.

In Ada County, Idaho, about half of the workers participate in one of the three deferred comp plans — and that number keeps going up.

“We saw an increase of 10 to 20 percent [in participation] because of the bump to a 3 percent match,” said Karen Watkins, manager of the employee benefi ts division. Until October 2007, the county matched 2 percent.

The next article in this series will talk about the education tools coun-ties and Nationwide use to encour-age employee participation.