QuickTakesFive Large Counties with

the Greatest Decrease in Weekly Wage

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2nd quarter 2008 – 2009 average, reposted January 2010

Santa Clara County, Calif. -$79Weld County, Colo. -$68Douglas County, Colo. -$55Trumbull County, Ohio -$53Brazoria County, Texas -$44

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES ■ WASHINGTON, D.C. VOL. 42, NO. 2 ■ February 1, 2010

See HEALTH REFORM page 3

INSIDE >>

NACo’s Justice and Public Safety Steering Committee sets policy agenda for 2010 >> Page 2

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to release county health rankings>> Page 3

Broward County, Fla. is working hard to get the census count right. >> Page 4

Scam artists on the run in San Bernardino County, Calif. >> Page 8

See DR. KESSLER page 7

See NETWORKS page 12

County commissioner uses his surgical skills in HaitiBY CHARLES TAYLOR

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Howard Kessler survived an earthquake in the Dominican Republic some 30 years ago during his medical training. Last month, the Wakulla County, Fla. com-mission chairman was back on the island of Hispaniola — this time in Haiti — volunteering to mend the broken bones of Haitian earthquake victims.

Dr. Kessler is an orthopedic surgeon, a specialty in great demand after the disaster struck. Upon his return to Florida last week, he recalled the heartbreak of having to perform an amputation on a 2-year-old “beautiful girl.”

“Can you imagine giving permis-sion to a stranger to cut off your leg

BY CHARLIE BAN

STAFF WRITER

Communicating directly with individuals is easier than ever with the proliferation of social media Web sites, but a NACo survey shows 55 percent of counties don’t make use of these tools.

Facebook and Twitter, among other Web sites, allow users to release information directly to the public into a community of people who have demonstrated interest by becoming a fan of or following a county on those sites, respectively. Rather than relying on a resident to visit a county’s Web site to read news releases, updates forward directly to user’s accounts. Of 121 respondents, more counties use Twitter (50 users) than Facebook (43 users), but many use both.

The majority of counties that have a social media presence delegate the responsibility for administrating them to their public information offi cers or whichever department maintains the account.

Teresa Hamilton Hall, Roanoke County, Va.’s public information

Social Web sites catching on in counties

Dem leaders weigh options for moving health reform legislationBY PAUL V. BEDDOE

ASSOCIATE LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR

President Obama called on Congress to pass comprehensive health reform legislation in his fi rst State of the Union address without laying out a specifi c path to achieve that end.

Four options — and variations thereof — appear to be on the table

or hand? Or giving permission to a stranger to cut off your child’s limb?” he wrote, replying to County News’ questions via e-mail. “How does the surgeon cope? He copes sometimes well and sometimes not so well, but how does the parent cope?”

After the quake struck Jan. 12, Dr. Kessler knew that with Haiti so near to Florida, he had to go.

“I had never traveled to another country to respond to a national disaster. I felt I had the skills that were needed to really help in this tragic event,” he said, “and I felt I could not stand by without trying to help.”

That comes as no surprise to his wife, Anne Van Meter. Years ago, she said, a physician told her husband, “You’re a doctor, that’s what you do.”

Dr. Kessler went to Haiti as part of a medical team assembled by Mission Possible (www.ourmission-ispossible.org), a relief organization. As he would fi nd out, it was a giant step from “wanting to go” and fi nd-ing a way to get there. He contacted numerous elected offi cials, state organizations and relief agencies. In the end, it was a temporary county employee, Teresa Mercer, who put him in touch with someone con-nected with Mission Possible. They left Florida on Jan. 17.

The group was bound for Saint-Marc, a coastal town in western Haiti, about 60 miles from the capital Port-au-Prince. But fi rst, there were innumerable hurdles to overcome.

Photo by Charles Taylor

Fairfax County, Va. Emergency Services offi cer Tim Dingess and his dog Lago accompanied Virginia Task Force 1 to Haiti to search for survivors. Lago was previously deployed after an earthquake in Iran. For more reports on how counties are contributing to the Haitian earthquake relief, see page 5.

FeaturesCountyNews

Model Programs

News From the Nation’s Counties

NACo on the Move

Profiles in Service

Research News

The H.R. Doctor Is in

What’s in a Seal?

In Case You Missed It

In My View ...

Financial Services News

Job Market / Classifieds

2 February 1, 2010 CountyCountyNews News •

Photo courtesy of Bexar County, Texas

David Hudson (l), chair of NACo’s Justice and Public Safety Committee, presents NACo’s Distinguished Service Award to Leon Evans, president and chief executive offi cer of the Bexar County, Texas Center for Health Care Services. He was honored for his work in justice and health reform. Evans is the immediate past president of the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors.

CountyNews

This Month in ...

County News celebrates NACo’s 75th Anniversary with a look back at the issues and events that affected counties

over the past several decades.

● February ●1982

NACo, the Stanford Research Institute and the U.S. Conference • of Mayors launched the Public Policy Options Project to collaborate in developing public policy options to serve the aged.

1992NACo First Vice President John H. Stroger Jr. told the House •

Budget Committee that fi scal problems were ravaging county govern-ments and that federal action, including eliminating federal tax cuts, might be needed to stimulate the economy. A NACo survey showed three out of four responding counties had to reduce services or cut staff to balance their budgets.

1998

Reaffi rming NACo policies adopted in 1981, the NACo Justice • and Public Safety Committee called for major new alliances between counties and state governments to reduce jail and prison overcrowding. Citing misuse of jails and prisons the last 15 years, NACo established policy calling for the creation of a statewide sentencing guideline system that determines who goes to jail or prison and who should be placed in an alternative program.

President Clinton’s $1.7 trillion budget request called not only for • a balanced budget in FY99 but also projected a $9.5 billion surplus FY00 and $1.1 trillion over the next decade. The administration proposed major initiatives to expand Medicare to individuals under 65 years of age, a $24 billion increase in tax credits over fi ve years for child care, school construction and the environment.

(This Month in County News is compiled by Charlie Ban, staff writer, and Christopher Johnson, editorial assistant.)

designing policies to lower jail and prison populations.

Related issues discussed included “justice reinvestment,” which creates partnerships to lower jail and prison populations and takes the savings for making reinvestments in prevention, treatment, housing and other re-entry services.

Justice reentry and reinvestment are JPS committee priorities this year. Through the committee’s work, NACo will urge Congress to lower jail recidivism and reinvest the savings by reauthorizing the Second Chance Act and adopting companion legislation (Justice Reinvestment Act).

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics, there are ap-proximately 13 million admissions to county jails each year. And of that number approximately 700,000 to 800,000 individuals are committed to state prison. An estimated two-thirds of jail inmates are in “pretrial status,” meaning they are being held without conviction at a great cost to local taxpayers. Further, statistics show that of all the un-convicted inmates, the majority (65 percent) are nonviolent offenders and are prime candidates for effective pretrial services programs.

Hudson said the annual policy meetings of the JPS committee have been enormously helpful in shap-ing NACo’s policies based on the

Counties look for strategies to reduce jail populationsBY JIM PHILIPPS

MEDIA RELATIONS MANAGER

Alleviating overcrowding in the nation’s county jails and state prisons was the focus of discussion during the NACo Justice and Public Safety (JPS) Steering Committee policy and strategy meeting Jan. 20–23 in Bexar County (San Antonio), Texas.

The annual policy and strat-egy meeting enables members of NACo’s JPS committee to meet with national experts and discuss important criminal justice, public safety and homeland security issues on behalf of the nation’s 3,068 counties. The JPS commit-tee is responsible for developing NACo policy in these areas. The committee is chaired by David Hudson, county judge, Sebastian County, Ark.

The meeting’s keynote speaker was U.S. District Court Judge Jack Zouhary, Northern District of Ohio. Zouhary discussed “Build-ing Reentry Bridges” relating to the Second Chance Act. The legislation, along with the $2 billion addition to the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant Program under the Recovery Act, provides assistance to counties, and other state and local governments in developing programs that will help persons leaving jail, prison or juvenile facilities to successfully re-enter their communities.

Other featured guest speakers included Dan A. Naranjo, a na-tionally renowned mediator, and Dr. Allen T. Craddock, St. Mary’s University attorney-mediator. Both spoke about effective strategies for using mediation by state associations of counties and state governments in

knowledge of committee members and some of the top experts in the country.

“NACo had a signifi cant role in developing the re-entry and reinvest-ment legislation and making the case for a strong local government involvement and an expansion of pretrial services,” Hudson said. “Counties spend more than $70 bil-lion each year on criminal justice and billions more on health and human services, so even a small reduction in

recidivism could produce billions of dollars in cost savings.”

As part of the JPS committee meetings, committee members toured Bexar County’s two primary crisis jail diversion facilities for per-sons with mental illness and sub-stance abuse. These programs won the Gold Medal of the American Psychiatric Association.

For more information, contact Donald Murray at 202.942.4239 or dmurray@naco.org.

take to fi gure out that newspapers are this era’s dead horse and it’s time to get off ?

Schumpeter would marvel at companies such as GE, which was established in the 1880’s as a light bulb manufacturer and today is one of the world’s 10 largest corporations. He would probably shake his head at Kodak or Chrysler and wonder why they did not understand how important creative destruction is in the life of a corporation.

While there are many, many corporations that Schumpeter would admire, what might he think about the operations of govern-ment? My sense is that he would shake his head and write another book about how slow government is at practicing creative destruc-tion. He might talk about how we buy computer capacity but yet

Is it time for your county to think about a little ‘creative destruction?’BY JIM MULDER

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,

ASSOCIATION OF MINNESOTA COUNTIES

In 1942, Joseph A. Schum-peter, an economist, published a book entitled Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. In that book he expounded on a concept which he called “creative destruction”. This concept suggests that for new ideas to be adopted (created), old ideas (modus operandi) need to be destroyed. He used examples such as the disappearance of the mail wagon with the ascendance of the airplane. The horse and buggy being replaced by the automobile. Schumpeter would be ecstatic at the rapid changes made today and how creative destruction is alive and well. Whatever happened to the fax machine, camera fi lm and thermal paper? How long will it

still use paper to maintain records. He might note how we dispatch emergency services from hundreds of dispatch centers around each state when it could be done from regional systems.

A key goal for each and every county offi cial is to encourage a culture of creative destruction in their county. As leaders of their communities, they have a respon-sibility to seek out opportunities to set aside the ways we have always done it and look for the next great opportunities. We need to have a little bit of a Bill Gates attitude about how we can change how we provide services. We need to quit doing what we have always done and be the innovators of our day.

America’s counties are a vital part of the future of America’s future; let’s get started with a little creative destruction.

In My View ...

• County CountyNewsNews February 1, 2010 3

President | Valerie Brown

Publisher | Larry Naake

Public Affairs Director | Tom Goodman

Executive Editor | Beverly Anne Schlotterbeck

Senior Staff Writer | Charles Taylor

Staff Writer | Charlie Ban

Graphic Artist | Jack Hernandez

Editorial Assistant | Christopher Johnson

ADVERTISING STAFF

Job Market/Classifi eds representativeChristopher Johnson

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.,

Ste. 500, Washington, D.C. 20001

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

E-mail | cnews@naco.org

Online address | www.countynews.org

The appearance of paid advertisements in Coun ty News in no way implies support or en dorse ment by the Na-tional As so ci a tion of Counties for any of the products, services or messages advertised. Pe ri od i cals post age paid at Wash ing ton D.C. and other offi ces.

Mail subscriptions are $100 per year for non-mem bers. $60 per year for non-members pur chas ing mul ti ple cop- ies. Ed u ca tion al in sti tu tion rate, $50 per year. Member county sup ple men tal sub scrip tions are $20 each. Send pay ment with order and address chang es to NACo, 25 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Wash ing ton, D.C. 20001.

POSTMASTER: send address changes toCoun ty News, 25 Massachusetts Ave. N.W.,

Ste. 500, Washington, D.C. 20001

(USPS 704-620) ■ (ISSN: 0744-9798)

© National Association of CountiesResearch Foundation, Inc.

NACo grants available for coastal countiesNACo announces the fourth year of funding for the Coastal

Counties Restoration Initiative (CCRI). The initiative provides fi nancial assistance on a competitive basis to innovative, high quality county-led or -supported ecosystem restoration projects.

Community-based applications that are willing to work in partner-ship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will be given special consideration, as NOAA’s Community-based Restoration Program is providing major fi nancial support for this partnership. This year’s grants will range from $50,000 to $100,000, based upon a project’s demonstrated need.

CCRI is currently accepting applications through the NACo Web site. The deadline for applications is March 29. For more informa-tion and to access the full RFP and application instructions, visit www.naco.org/ccri or call Carrie Clingan at 202.942.4246 or e-mail at cclingan@naco.org.

In Case You Missed It ...News to Use from Past County Newsas congressional Democrats try to

decide how to move health reform legislation without the 60 Senate votes required to end a potential Republican fi libuster. Some have called for passing a smaller bill or bills that would provide modest reforms and partial fulfi llment of Democratic campaign promises.

Alternatively, the House could take up and pass the Senate bill (H.R. 3590) — although after a meeting of her caucus immediately following the Massachusetts special election which handed the GOP its 41st senate seat, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced that approach could not command the 218 votes needed for passage.

Another idea that seems to be

No direction set yet for advancing health reformHEALTH REFORM from page 1

BY JIM PHILIPPS

MEDIA RELATIONS MANAGER

How confi dent are you that the majority of residents in your county fully understand the roles and responsibilities of county government? Especially during these tough times, how certain are you that the persons most in need are aware of the various county services available to assist them and their families?

In good times and tough times, it’s always important for county officials to promote essential and effective county government services and programs available to

Promote ‘Healthy Counties’ during 2010 National County Government Month

residents. An effective and fun way to accomplish this is to celebrate National County Government Month (NCGM) in April.

Since 1991, the National Asso-ciation of Counties has encouraged counties to actively promote county government services and programs. Formerly National County Gov-ernment Week, the designation was expanded to a full month to offer counties more opportunities to participate. Counties aren’t expected to hold public awareness activities throughout the month, but can schedule activities any time during the month.

This year’s theme is “Healthy Counties.” Throughout the month of April, counties across the coun-try will be celebrating NCGM by promoting their essential health care services and healthy living and recreation programs.

NACo President Valerie Brown is urging all counties to celebrate NCGM and consider focusing events and program highlights around the Healthy Counties theme.

“Promoting Healthy Counties during NCGM is a great oppor-tunity to educate the community about counties’ unique responsi-bilities to both fi nance and deliver health services,” Brown said. “The ‘Healthy Counties’ theme is im-portant to me since I have made advocacy for national health reform that works for counties and

their residents a hallmark of my year as NACo president. I am also excited that NACo will establish the ‘Healthy Counties Initiative’ later this year to highlight the essential role counties play in the health care system.”

NACo is also proud of its new partnership with the National As-sociation of County/City Health Offi cials (NACCHO), a NACo affi liate, and Trilogy Integrated Resources.

Trilogy’s “Network of Care” modules help people fi nd and access high-quality health infor-mation and resources including services, news, state-of-the-art li-braries and social networking. For more information on Network of Care, contact jsawyer@naco.org.

NCGM activities do not have to be limited to health care. Does your county participate in the NACo Prescription Discount Card Program? If so, why not visit community centers and hold public events highlighting the success of the program? Point out the savings and how easy it is for residents to obtain and use the free discount cards. NACo can provide you with the specifi c statistics from your county about money saved and the number of prescriptions fi lled.

The options to celebrate NCGM are numerous.

Noteworthy, too, is that Presi-dent-elect Glen Whitley’s upcom-

ing presidential theme will be “Raising County Awareness.”

“If we strengthen what people know about counties and the work counties do, then we build a stronger partnership between local government and the Ameri-can people,” said Whitley, who becomes NACo president at the conclusion of the NACo Annual Conference in July.

A booklet is available from NACo which provides ideas for a variety of ways counties can celebrate NCGM. For example, you can hold an open house or offer public tours of county facilities; visit schools, parks, community or-ganizations and business groups to discuss county services; announce new programs or highlight accom-

Juniata County, Pa. was • incorrectly identifi ed in the Jan. 18 crossword puzzle “Counties that begin with J.”

Clackamas County, Ore. • Commissioner Jim Bernard was incorrectly identifi ed in the Jan. 18 “News from the Nation’s Counties.”

CORRECTION

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Release County Health Rankings

A county health rankings list will be released on Feb. 17 in Washington, D.C. by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. “County Health Rankings” is a fi rst-of-its-kind collection of 50 reports — one per state — that ranks all counties within each state on their overall health.

The rankings aim to show how counties measure up within each state in terms of how healthy people are, how long they live, and how important factors affect their health, such as tobacco use, obesity, access to health care, education, community safety and air quality.

County offi cials interested in viewing county rankings in their state ahead of the Feb. 17 public release should contact their county health director. Health directors will be given password-protected online access to view the full rankings on Feb. 8.

gaining traction is one that has the House passing the Senate bill and both chambers passing an additional bill that would bridge the differences between the two initial bills on a range of issues.

These might include the excise tax on “Cadillac” health plans, af-fordability credits for lower–income individuals and small businesses to purchase insurance and how to ensure that federal dollars do not pay for elective abortions. That second bill would have to be passed under “reconciliation” rules, which permit expedited consideration and require only 51 votes in the Senate.

Of course, the fourth option would be to drop the effort entirely, although there seem to be strong political arguments being made against that approach.

plishments of existing ones, and issue a NCGM proclamation.

This booklet also provides information about media outreach strategies and NACo’s online Media Resources Kit.

The booklet is available by contacting NACo’s Public Affairs Department at 202.393.6226 or visiting the NACo Web site www.naco.org under County Resource Center.

NACo wants to know what activities and programs you have planned for NCGM. It will share this information with other counties to help them have a successful celebration. Send your activities to Jim Philipps via fax at 202.393.2630 or e-mail at jphilipps@naco.org.

4 February 1, 2010 CountyCountyNews News •

» Carol H. HoldenCarol H. HoldenNACo Board of DirectorsCommission Vice Chair Hillsborough County, N.H.

Profi fi leles in Service

Number of years active in NACo: 12

Years in public service: 26

Occupation: teacher, legislator, commissioner

Education: B.A., Trinity College, Washington, D.C.; M.A., Boston

College

The hardest thing I’ve ever done: is to climb the pyramids when the

lights went out

Three people (living or dead) I’d invite to dinner: my college profes-

sor Jeanne Kirkpatrick, my great uncle Joseph A. Maynard (Collector

of the Port of Boston), and my great-great grandmother Josephine

Vary Maynard.

A dream I have is to: cruise through the Panama Canal.

The most adventurous thing I’ve ever done is: walk on the Great

Wall of China.

My favorite way to relax is: to go sailing.

I’m most proud of: my children and grandchildren.

Every morning I read: my e-mails and the Wall Street Journal.

My favorite meal is: lobster.

My pet peeve is: people who are two-faced.

My motto is: Carpe Diem (seize the day).

The last book I read was: Cape Cod by William Martin.

My favorite movie is: The Molly Maguires.

My favorite music is: rock and roll.

My favorite president is: Ronald Reagan.

SpeedRead »»»

» Broward County 2010 Census Complete Count Committee will assure a more accurate count

» Undercounting of county resi-dents would mean a loss of mil-lions in population-based funding over the next decade

» 800,000+ housing units will receive census forms this March

NACo Hosts Pakistani VisitorsLocal offi cials from Pakistan, who are traveling around the country to observe how state and local

governments function in the U.S., are briefed by NACo research director Jacqueline Byers. NACo frequently conducts briefi ngs for international delegations as they visit and travel around the

United States. In conjunction with the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitors program and the Unites Stated Agency for International Development (USAID), the association hosted approximately 25 visiting delegations during 2009.

These delegations include local elected offi cials as well as high-ranking appointed offi cials who generally want an overview of the federalism structure and how counties function in this environment. They also want to hear about how NACo represents counties at the federal level and how it develops its policy positions.

Occasionally these delegations, which often include academics, want to know detailed information about how the counties conduct their business and how they raise revenue.

During 2009, NACo hosted four delegations from China, and groups from Japan, Uganda, Nigeria, Denmark and Australia, among others.

BY CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Broward County, Fla. is step-ping up efforts for an accurate 2010 Census count to ensure it receives maximum population-based funding.

Since 1790, the U.S. Bureau of the Census has counted residents across the country every 10 years. All residents must be counted, including people of all ages, races, ethnic groups, citizens and non-citizens. A correct count for Broward County is critical because census numbers are used to deter-mine congressional representation and funding for important projects in the local community.

“Our last [census] count was 1,900 short,” said Scott R. Medvin, Broward County administrative co-ordinator and 2010 Census liaison. “The mission with this count is to improve the accuracy to ensure maximum funding to the county.”

The 2010 Census Complete Count Committee, formed in November 2008 and chaired by Ilene Lieberman, Broward County commissioner, includes broad representation from businesses, the media, human service agencies, not-for-profi t agencies, community groups and local governments. It has nine subcommittees, broadly charged with exchanging ideas and avoiding duplication of effort within the county.

The Subcommittees• Countywide Coordination

Subcommittee – formed in De-cember 2008, is specifi cally tasked with avoiding duplication of effort within Broward County.

• Cultural/Ethnic Subcom-mittee – formed in January 2009 to involve members of the county’s various cultural and ethnic groups, and to further enhance the aware-ness and benefi ts of a complete census count. This will be done

through community channels used by the cultural and ethnic groups to promote the census, specifi cally targeting community-based orga-nizations, child care centers and one-stop centers (food banks, etc.) This will help inform the cultural and ethnic groups about the posi-tive impact of the count.

• Education Subcommittee – formed in June 2009 to coordinate the Broward County educational community’s effort to raise aware-ness of the U.S. Census and the importance of obtaining an ac-curate count of Broward County. This will be done by using paid

and free media to advertise and publicize targeted messages to the general public.

• Hard-to-Enumerate Sub-committee – formed in November 2008 to raise awareness of the Census by coordinating with hu-man service and nonprofi t agencies to identify, locate and reach out to mobile families, ethnic groups, minority groups, the homeless, and other hard-to-count populations to increase their participation in 2010 Census.

This subcommittee has three objectives: 1) Identify and engage hard-to-enumerate population; 2) Identify and engage organizations, which serve these populations; and 3) Develop a speaker’s bureau using various languages.

• Promotion Subcommittee – formed in October 2008 to aid in recruitment by promoting aware-ness of the census among all county residents, with a special focus on areas of undercount.

This will be done by conduct-ing public outreach to increase awareness, using key messages consistent and relevant to the target audience, developing partnerships

Broward County, Fla. focuses on 2010 Census countto maximize free publicity and enhance the county’s ability to educate about the census, use paid and free media (emphasizing ethnic media) to advertise and publicize targeted messages to the public, and incorporate electronic, social mar-keting and non-traditional venues into promotional efforts.

• Recruitment Subcommit-tee – formed in January 2009 to assist the Bureau of the Census in hiring enumerators with appropri-ate ethnic and cultural sensitivity, language skills and local knowledge to effectively enumerate residents in Broward County’s diverse neigh-borhoods. Workers, recruited in fall 2009, continue to update the 2010 census recruitment information on the county’s census page when it becomes available.

• Religious Institutions Sub-committee – formed in October 2008 to involve the members of various religious institutions in Broward County to further en-hance the awareness and benefi ts of the 2010 Census complete count. The committee contacts

See CENSUS page 8

Photo by Jack Hernandez

• County CountyNewsNews February 1, 2010 5

BY CHARLIE BAN

STAFF WRITER

Indispensible members of search and rescue teams that operated in Haiti treated the rush-to-find survivors like a game.

The dogs that many of the urban search and rescue teams used were trained to fi nd a live human scent before they get to play. It’s a technique Ca-nine Search Specialist Jennifer Massey said has been effective in helping train many dogs for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, which is part of Virginia Task Force 1, a Federal Emergency Man-agement Agency-coordinated international search and rescue team now deployed in Haiti. The training in Fairfax County mir-rors that done in counties across the country, Massey said.

The key is fi nding a dog with a strong play drive, plus the species’ typically acute sense of smell. “You want an over-the-top, crazy, obsessive dog,” she said. “If that dog really wants to play, he will work ridiculously hard to earn his playtime.”

Massey said the most popular search and rescue breeds are Labrador retrievers, German shepherds, Belgian Malinois and golden retrievers.

She has been a volunteer with the county since 1999, and is now training her third dog. He likes to play by tugging, so his reward for making a fi nd is to pull on a leather

tion, because time spent “play-ing” after fi nding one survivor would be to the detriment of others still buried alive.

“You don’t want to stop every time the dog fi nds someone and play with them — it could be construed as being disrespect-ful,” Massey said. “Handlers wait until the end of the shift to take the dogs aside and play with them.”

After fi nding a dog with the right attitude, Massey said the second component that makes a successful search dog is a temperament to work in stress-ful situations and handle rough terrain.

“Working with a dog on a pile of rubble is a lot different from walking on level ground,” she said.

Fairfax works with seven dogs in its task force, which has made 16 rescues in 10 days in Haiti. The county has maintained a dog search team since 1993.

Dogs typically work until they are nine years old, though smaller dogs can tend to be able to work longer. FEMA certifi es search dogs for three years.

County-trained Dogs Aid Haiti Search Teams

Counties’ Urban Search and Rescue teams help in HaitiBY CHARLES TAYLOR

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Fairfax County, Va.’s Urban Search and Rescue team came home to a hero’s welcome after its two-week deployment to Haiti. It was a scene replayed in only a select few U.S. communities — Los Angeles County among them — that are fortunate enough to be home to these highly skilled crisis responders.

“These are extraordinarily well-trained individuals,” said Sharon Bulova, chair of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, who greeted the team at Dulles International Airport Jan. 28. “Fairfax County benefi ts from participating in the USAR program.”

The Fairfax team, Virginia Task Force 1, along with L.A. County’s California Task Force 2, were involved in one of the most dramatic rescues in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 23. Eleven days after the earthquake, French and Greek rescue teams — working with L.A. and Fairfax crews — helped rescue a survivor from the rubble of the Hotel Napoli.

“Timing is crucial in getting

there. It defi nitely makes a dif-ference and it shows,” said David Conrad, a Fairfax fi re captain who serves as a search manager when deployed with the team. “We were able to make 16 saves, which is more than we’ve made on any

other deployment. So it made the team feel real good.” He was personally involved in two rescues from an elevator at the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince.

During their time in Haiti, Conrad said the Fairfax unit

worked with counterparts from France, Spain and “several of the U.S. teams.”

Two days after the massive temblor, Florida Task Force 1 (FL-TF1) members “were able to extricate four victims from rubble piles,” according to Miami-Dade Fire Rescue. “US&R team mem-bers and local residents were able to utilize hand tools to rescue three trapped victims. In a different location, members of FL-TF1 and of the Fairfax, Virginia task force had to create a tunnel to rescue an adult male who was buried.”

Virginia Task Force 1 (VATF-1) was activated by the United States Agency for International Develop-ment (USAID) Jan. 12. The team sent 114 personnel, including search and rescue canines, search and technical rescue personnel, physicians, paramedics, structural engineers and other support per-sonnel. They deployed with ap-proximately 70 tons of equipment and supplies, and are self-suffi cient for approximately 14 days.

The task force previously deployed to Haiti in November 2008 for a school collapse in the town of Petionville.

Los Angeles County, Calif.

On Jan. 22, California Task Force 2 (CA-TF2) rescued a woman who had been trapped in a collapsed bank in Port-au-Prince for several days. “A voice was heard; she was yelling ‘Jesus, help me,’” Dennis Cross, a CA-TF2 team member told CNN in an on-air interview. “We brought in our canine search and our techni-cal equipment we had with us… We were able to pull her to safety, and it was an amazing sight to see her come out after fi ve days and burst into song and tears with her husband and her son there to witness it.”

The 70-person unit includes Los Angeles County Fire Depart-ment fi refi ghters and paramedics, rescue specialists, emergency room physicians, structural engi-neers, heavy equipment specialists, K-9 search dogs and handlers, hazardous materials technicians, communications specialists and logistics specialists.

The team responds with 55,000 pounds of prepackaged search and rescue tools and medical equip-ment to conduct around-the-clock search and rescue operations at do-mestic and international disasters, both natural and man-made.

Miami-Dade County, Fla.The Miami-Dade team de-

ployed to Haiti on Jan. 14. Its 80 members, along with seven search and rescue canines, specialize in 19 areas including: command and control, technical search, structural assessment and stabi-lization, planning and technical information, advanced medical care — including physicians and medical specialists — hazardous materials mitigation, tactical com-munications, logistics support, and safety and rescue specialists.

The team has previously de-ployed to earthquakes in Taiwan, Turkey and Colombia in 1999, the Philippines in 1990, Armenia in 1988, El Salvador in 1986 and Mexico City in 1985.

The communities with USAR teams reap long-term, local ben-efi ts of their expertise.

“These folks will be dutied off some other place on an emergency, but they keep that skill and that skill can be used in many cases at home,” said Cathy Hudgins, a Fairfax County supervisor. “They’re talented men and women that really provide an extra margin of support for us as a community.”

strap. The majority of dogs in FEMA’s system are taught to bark to indicate they have found a live human scent, even through large piles of debris. Once the life can be verifi ed, the rescue team goes to work and the dog moves on.

Balancing the mission with the reward is dicey. Training involves teaching the dogs delayed gratifi ca-

See RESCUE page 7

Photo courtesy of Los Angeles County Fire Department

Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Bill Monahan poses with his dog, Hunter, before being deployed to Haiti with an urban search and rescue team.

Photo by Joel Carlson, U.S. Navy

Fairfax County, Va. Fire Technician Matthew Groff surveys damage at the Hotel Montana in Port-au-Prince, Haiti Jan. 21.

6 February 1, 2010 CountyCountyNews News •

Photo courtesy of Seminole County, Fla. Emergency Management

Evacuees from Haiti following the Jan. 12 earthquake disembark a cargo plane and head for the Emergency Operations Center in Seminole County’s Orlando Sanford International Airport.

Counties across the U.S. are organizing efforts to help thou-sands of Haitians in need of help after the deadly earthquake. From blood drives to fundraisers, here is a sampling of what some counties are doing to help.

Broward County, Fla. hosted the Sunset Blue Block Party Jan. 24 at Destination 33rd Street to help raise money for Caring House Project, a nonprofi t that has invested more than $3 million creating self-suffi cient villages in Haiti.

Dauphin County, Pa. held a “Night of Giving” Jan. 24. Featur-ing local talent performing music, dance and poetry; proceeds from the event went to many organizations helping in the Haitian relief effort, including the Red Cross and Save the Children.

In Fayette County, Ky. various restaurants held fundraiser nights the week of Jan. 17 to raise money for the University of Kentucky’s Hoops for Haiti effort.

All Miami-Dade County, Fla. Police and fi re stations, as well as libraries, local schools and local municipalities are serving as drop-off sites for the collection of supplies (nonperishable food, water, gloves of all types, surgical masks and tents) to send to the people of Haiti. For more information, visit www.miamidade.gov/oem/haiti-drop-off.asp.

Counties reach out to help quake victims

BY CHARLIE BAN

STAFF WRITER

Many people fl y into Orlando, Fla. ready for the vacation of their dreams at a resort, but in Janu-ary people began fl ying into the Orlando Sanford International airport to escape a nightmare.

Following the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the airport became the primary repatriation center for thousands of U.S. citizens returning to the country. Seminole County supported the logistical effort to clear passengers to return to the United States, treat injuries and manage travel plans.

In the fi rst 12 days, 7,620 people passed through the processing center, including 250 orphans bound for adoptive families and more than 2,000 foreign nationals who have family members living in the United States.

County Emergency Manager Alan Harris said Orlando Sanford was initially supposed to be just one of several repatriation centers in Florida, but on Jan. 16 found out it would be the lead airport.

“We regularly tested our capac-ity for events like this, and actually had a full-scale emergency exercise

Seminole County handles Haiti evacuation effort

scheduled for Jan. 21,” he said. “Obviously, we ended up not having that drill because we had the real thing.”

The largest-volume day was Jan. 20, when approximately 1,400 people passed through the process-

ing center. Most of the planes that landed

from Haiti were large cargo planes. After landing, the evacuees went through customs and had a chance to eat, drink and change into clean clothes donated by Harvest

New Kentucky State Exec Selected

The board of directors for the Kentucky Association of Coun-ties has chosen the group’s longtime deputy director as the new executive director. Denny Nunnelley was selected from among four fi nalists for the top spot. Nunnelley is a former state senator from Woodford County who has worked at KACo since 1994. He had served as interim execu-tive director since September. He brings local government experience to the job, having served more than a decade as a local offi cial in Woodford County, both as sheriff and judge/executive.

New York’s Nassau and Suffolk counties have organized efforts to offer relief to the people of Haiti. Nassau County is calling for non-perishable items — summer clothing, shoes, rice, canned goods, diapers and bottled water — to be dropped off at certain locations. In Suffolk County, personal hygiene products will be collected through-out the county.

Nelson County, Va. and the city of Charlottesville held a Haiti Relief Fundraiser Dinner at The Java Depot Jan. 26. Owners and staff donated 100 percent of all proceeds from the dinner to benefi t the American Red Cross effort in Haiti with the evening raising more than $1,000.

Palm Beach County, Fla. accepted 45 Haiti earthquake survivors fl own in on U.S. Air Force C-130’s Jan. 16. Four were transported by ambulance to the Delray Medical Center while others were reunited with family.

In New Jersey, Union, Bergen, Middlesex, Morris, Somerset and Sussex counties are collecting medical supplies to ship to Haiti. Since the collection started Jan. 23, they have received more than $100,000 worth of goods such as soap, sutures and gloves. Donors range from residents to medical supply companies.

Word Search

Healthiest Counties

Source: Centers for Disease Control and PreventionCreated by: Christopher Johnson

CARVER (Minn.)CHITTENDEN (Vt.)DENVER (Colo.)EL PASO (Colo.) FAIRFIELD (Conn.)FLATHEAD (Mont.)GRAFTON (N.H.)

HARTFORD (Conn.)HILLSBOROUGH

(N.H.)LANCASTER (Neb.)MERRIMACK (N.H.)MIDDLESEX (Mass.)MINNEHAHA (S.D.)

MONTGOMERY (Md.)

PIERCE (Wisc.)POLK (Iowa)ROCKINGHAM

(N.H.)SUMMIT (Ohio)TRAVIS (Texas)WASHINGTON (Vt.)

H G U Y S J R T G C C M H C K Q D H A FM I K L O P E R Z R H G C S D Q A C H AS A L P N Q V A A O I V Q E T R H W A IS U H L Y M R V E O T L N E T S G T H RM P M G S K A I U B T V C F N Z F O E FL M C M N B C S Y R E M O G T N O M N IM Z I S I I O B O R N R Q B K R O N N EY E L P I T K R D M D W L D E N W E I LM C R S H L S C O N E D L T O W C V M DB K O R J E G U O U N M S F A R L B J IF S O I I S H E S R G A D S E L P A S ON I C N X M R T V D C H H I O M O I Y QM W N B M N A S T N I I P G O N L S T GJ V Z O D K H C A L N P D A E H T A L FW M G G T V Y L K G E Y R Z L Z F V Z UX N P T L F S Y T M I D D L E S E X I KD B F J P T A O C E G X J I B D I X H QI N U K N O N R X O R S E Z B S T H Z NS W K G W H M C G O B X S D J F M A H ET V D W G Z E O W E M D V N B R S S G F

Time International. Throughout the process, emergency medical personnel were available to treat injuries and illness. Harris said evacuees’ conditions ranged from healthy to some broken bones and fl u symptoms.

“Most of the people were still wearing the clothes they had on during the earthquake,” Harris said. “Just getting clean clothes on helps a person’s mental state.”

The county Health Department’s Children and Family Service then assisted people in fi nding transporta-tion home or to a relative’s house.

U.S. Customs and Border Protec-tion, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Semi-nole County sheriff ’s deputies are providing general safety and security for all international fl ights arriving and at the emergency center. The Central Florida Regional Transpor-tation Authority and the Seminole County School Board are providing transportation between Orlando

Sanford Airport and Orlando In-ternational Airport, and Amtrak and Greyhound stations.

Coordinating and executing the evacuee treatment has caused a lot of overtime shifts in various emergency departments. Harris said the county had already fronted more than $500,000 for the operation, and the road to reimbursement is not quite clear yet.

“We’ve responded to hurricanes and other disasters in Florida, but usually in support of a state or local effort and if it’s a domestic disaster the Federal Emergency Manage-ment Agency reimburses the costs,” Harris said. “This operation supported the federal response to a foreign disaster, so we’re not quite sure who will reimburse us.”

Harris said non-government organizations, including the Red Cross, Lutheran Disaster Re-ponse and several local churches, have helped provide supplies for evacuees.

• County CountyNewsNews February 1, 2010 7

After arriving at the Port-au-Prince airport, Dr. Kessler and his colleagues spent two days before it was safe enough to leave or a security escort could be found to accompany them. For two nights, they slept on the busy tarmac, “with with 120 or more fl ights a 24-hour day and with many C-130s and other large aircraft running up their engines within 150 feet from where we were camped and where we slept,” he recalled. The fi rst night, they had cots; the second, the slept on concrete. U.S. military personnel supplied them with earplugs.

On Jan. 19, an armed escort was found and the team set out for Saint-Marc. There, they would spend the next several days at Saint-Nicolas Hospital, setting broken bones or removing limbs damaged beyond repair. The U.S. medical team was composed of 22 people, including orthopedic, trauma and general surgeons, anesthesiologists, nursing staff and operating room technicians.

For Dr. Kessler, it was a relief fi nally to be doing what he came there to do. But that relief would be inter-rupted the next morning, Jan. 20, by a magnitude 6.1 aftershock. Dr. Kessler was so exhausted that he slept through it. “It increased the hospital patients signifi cantly with some very serious injuries,” he said.

Commissioner Also an Earthquake SurvivorMany Haitians were afraid to return to their

homes after the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince. It’s a situation Howard Kessler, M.D. can empathize with.

During his medical training 30 years ago, Dr. Kessler was on the fi rst fl oor of a multi-story pediatric hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic when an earthquake hit. The country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

“I was with others and when we understood

that it was an earthquake we ran outside,” recalls Dr. Kessler, who is also chairman of the Wakulla County, Fla. Board of Commissioners. “The hospital main structure held up, the smaller concrete support buildings (clinics and other concrete structures) came down or were signifi cantly damaged before my eyes; cars were bounced.

“My house where I was renting was unaffected but I was not able to sleep inside my house because of fear for almost two weeks. I slept outside.”

Commissioner dons his surgical gloves DR. KESSLER from page 1

behind the scenes, NACo premier corporate members are contribut-ing even more.

Citrix Citrix Systems has donated

$10,000 to Food for the Poor to help with relief efforts in Haiti. Citrix’s employees have responded to the situation in Haiti with more than $20,000 in donations to organiza-tions including the American Red

NACo premier corporate members respond to HaitiBY NANCY PARRISH

NACO FINANCIAL SERVICES CORPORATION

Within days of the earthquake and ensuing devastation in Haiti, many of NACo’s premier corporate members have responded with cash contributions, donated services and supplies, and emergency response teams. As they did in the after-math of Hurricane Katrina, these companies have stepped up to help

alleviate the human suffering and begin the recovery process.

Perhaps most visible of these efforts were those undertaken by NACo premier members, Sprint and Verizon. Many Americans are aware of the campaign the two tele-com giants participated in which allowed their customers to donate $10 simply by texting “HAITI” to 90999. Their assistance helped raise millions of dollars. Meanwhile

Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Hope for Haiti, Food for the Poor, Save the Children, UNICEF and Direct Relief International. Citrix is offering to match 100 percent of those employee donations.

Citrix is also encouraging employees to sponsor a case of bottled water for $1. The goal is to fi ll six shipping containers and provide nearly 30,000 gallons of desperately needed water to those in Haiti.

ESRIESRI is supporting many

groups in Haiti with data, software, software services and volunteers. Any government agency or NGO responding to this event can request software, data and technical assis-tance through this Web site: www.esri.com/haiti/index.html. To date, more than 30 NGO and 10 federal agencies are being supported. ESRI is also coordinating volunteers through the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association’s (URISA) GISCorps. (www.giscorps.org). The corps was fi rst formed in 2003 and has provided mapping and GIS support to communities in need around the globe.

MotorolaThe Motorola Foundation and

Motorola employees have pledged more than $1 million in cash and in-kind products to support relief efforts in Haiti. Motorola is provid-ing two-way radios, rugged laptops and other equipment to customers, nonprofi t organizations and other relief agencies.

Sprint Sprint made an initial $50,000

contribution to the American Red Cross and also pledged to match employee donations dollar for dollar up to another $50,000. As of mid-January, Sprint employees had given more than $63,000.

Working with the Depart-ments of Homeland Security and Defense, Sprint has offered equipment, satellite vehicles and emergency response personnel to provide wireless access on site. The team is on standby and prepared to leave within four hours of being notifi ed. Sprint is also waiving text message fees on mobile giving donations for 19 different charities raising money for the Haiti relief efforts.

VerizonThe Verizon Foundation has

provided $100,000 to World Vision and Food for the Poor and is match-ing employee contributions up to

$1,000 per employee. As of Jan. 20, employees had pledged $255,000. Along with the foundation’s match, the total donation is $510,000. Verizon has also sent 50 pallets of supplies to American Red Cross Disaster Services in Haiti, donated six network extenders for Haiti communications and has a team on standby to assist fi rst responders with their communications needs. Additionally, Verizon waived all calling fees for its customers calling between the United States and Haiti from the date of the earthquake through Jan. 31.

Siemens AG Siemens AG is matching up to

$500,000 through in-kind dona-tions to Project Hope including P10 pocket ultrasounds, blood-gas units, urine test strips and Sylvania Dot-It fl ashlights. A donation of 30 SkyHydrants to Oxfam and 10 SkyHydrants (water fi ltration systems) to Project Hope have also been provided.

Bulova said the county receives federal funding for training and equipment, and is compensated to be able to “backfi ll for the person-nel who are serving, when they’re responding to a crisis.”

U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a former Fairfax supervisor, was also on hand to welcome home the Fairfax team. “It just goes to show how valuable that federal partnership is with the local government.”

That partnership was acknowl-edged during President Obama’s State of the Union Address Jan. 27, where Becky Knerr, wife of Virginia Task Force 1’s team leader, Capt. Joseph Knerr, sat between Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.

“It was an honor to stand there and represent these guys and the work that they’ve done,” she said.

(For more information about the Vir-ginia, California and Florida teams, respectively, visit www.vatf1.org, www.fi re.lacounty.gov/haiti.asp and www.miamidade.gov/mdfr/USAR.asp.)

While Dr. Kessler is no longer a practicing physician, he has kept up his certifi cation (he had been chief of orthopedic surgery at Sarasota Memorial Hospital). To escape the bustle of Florida’s Gulf Coast, he and his wife moved to the aptly named Panhandle town of Panacea in Wakulla County 10 years ago. He was elected to the county commis-sion in 2002, is in his second term and is seeking a third.

Asked what hope he sees for Haiti after this monumental di-saster, Dr. Kessler is conditionally

optimistic.“The Haitian people are a strong

people. They are physically strong and spiritually strong. I witnessed many people who were lying on the fl oors of the hospital with deformed compound fractures fi ve days or more after the initial earthquake, and most never complained,” he said.

“The ray of hope rests in the spirit of the Haitian people and with those outside of Haiti willing to help get the Haitian people the resources they need.”

Search andrescue teams benefi t countiesRESCUE from page 5

Photo courtesy of Dr. Howard Kessler

Howard Kessler, M.D., a Wakulla County, Fla. commissioner, examines an American soldier in Haiti who injured his knee while unloading a cargo plane. Dr. Kessler is an orthopedic surgeon.

8 February 1, 2010 CountyCountyNews News •

San Bernardino County, Calif. Defends Against Scam Artists

Model Programs FROM THE NATION’S COUNTIES

BY CHARLIE BAN

STAFF WRITER

San Bernardino County, Calif. is addressing swindles with the same precision as the con artists who perpetrate them.

The county Department of Ag-ing and Adult Services is putting reported scams through compre-hensive analyses and spreading the word on the big schemes, complete with descriptions of the e-mails or offers, and the list of details of which to beware.

Scam alerts go out to dozens of senior centers and community organizations to distribute directly to seniors or post in popular areas on bulletin boards.

That the system has only dis-tributed 10 scam alerts in one year does not indicate laziness on the county’s part, Program Manager Debbie Ming said.

“We don’t want to inundate organizations with our alerts,” she said. “If you send out too many, they lose their effectiveness. When we issue an alert, we want it to mean something. We don’t want to panic people, either.”

On Jan. 21, the Department of Energy (DOE) published proposed monthly reporting requirements on the Energy Effi ciency and Con-servation Block Grant (EECBG) program in the Federal Register. The new reporting schedule would affect at least 120 counties nationwide. Currently, EECBG reporting is required on a quarterly basis.

The Register notice also contained performance measurement guidelines for the quarterly EECBG reporting rules to the Offi ce of Management and Budget (OMB).

The proposed monthly reporting requirements would apply solely to formula grantees receiving more than $2 million in EECBG funds. The fi rst monthly reporting deadline is March 10. The DOE will be taking public comments on the monthly reporting plan until Feb. 4.

“NACo opposes changing the quarterly reporting requirement to monthly reporting without signifi cantly streamlining the process. Many of our counties are reporting problems with the quarterly reporting system ranging from duplicative paperwork to online system glitches,” said Julie Ufner, associate legislative director for environment, energy and land use.

Written comments may be sent to DOE Desk Offi cer, Offi ce of In-formation and Regulatory Affairs, Offi ce of Management and Budget, New Executive Offi ce Building, Room 10102, 725 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20503; and also to Frank Norcross, EE-2K, U.S. Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Ave., SW., Washington, DC 20585-1290, Fax: 202.586.1233, frank.norcross@ee.doe.gov.

For more information, contact Julie Ufner at jufner@naco.org or 202.942.4269.

DOE Proposes MonthlyReporting Guidelines for EECBG

religious institutions with a letter then follows up with a phone call inviting the leaders to a clergy breakfast with speakers from the Census Bureau. Afterwards, a joint meeting with the promotion com-mittee will lead to participation in the Speakers Bureau where staff professionals and subject matter experts from Broward County agen-cies will speak on the census.

• Sponsorships Subcommittee– builds partnerships and attracts sponsors for activities and events that promote awareness of the census throughout the county. The committee hopes to bring recognition to the 2010 Census in print materials and Web sites, in advertising (buses, outdoor boards, print, television and radio ads), star in a PSA, sponsoring displays, etc.

• Unincorporated Areas Sub-committee – develops specifi c mechanisms to raise awareness among residents in the unincor-porated areas (i.e. gardens and parks.) Providing information at

The task force focuses on more sophisticated scams, leaving resi-dents to use common sense when receiving poorly written e-mails asking for wire transfers or other high-frequency junk.

Only scams directed at seniors will prompt the department to action.

If the tip comes directly from

the district attorney’s offi ce or police department, that analysis usually expedites its dissemination. County counsel vets other tips that haven’t been investigated.

“Sometimes we just call the numbers or visit the Web sites ourselves,” Ming said.

Ming and her department have no plans to expand the scope of the scam alert program, again in fear of diluting the messages’ effectiveness, but they do hope to increase its accessibility. Adding a Spanish translation has made the reports more accessible to a grow-ing Spanish-speaking population, and adding links to the county Web site will make it easier for people to directly see the information.

Colleen Krygier, director of senior supportive services, said it has been easy to execute the program because the department posts printing-ready fl yers on its Web site.

Spreading the word about the program has helped attract submis-

sions from seniors who use the centers, she said.

“We want to get this information out quickly, clearly and comprehen-sively,” Krygier said. “We have a number of community partners to help us spread the word when we fi nd a troubling scam.”

Susan Shelton, Yucca Valley senior center site manager, reads the scam alerts over a loudspeaker to the seniors who visit her center, an average she pegs at 90 people.

“Sometimes if I talk to them, they are alert and aware of the alerts,” she said. “If I left pam-phlets on the tables and relied on that, there’s a chance not everyone will pick them up and someone might fall victim to one of the scams.”

Shelton invites authorities to personally address scams and repudiate what con artists might try to convince seniors.

“We had the tax collector visit and tell the seniors that under no circumstances will paying

someone $200 decrease their taxes — that’s one of the cons that was going around,” she said. “Some of our seniors have reported that they’ve gotten calls from people claiming to be their grandchildren, and that they’re in jail and need bail money.”

Ming said she could not de-termine the cost of the program because it did not involve any ad-ditional staff or resources because all the work was electronic.

“It was a minimal cost,” she said. “People send us things, I do some Internet research and send it on to the county counsel. We get a pretty good response for not putting much money into it.”

(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.orgResource Library Model County Programs.)

Home Owners Association meet-ing and to area parks will help the count remain as accurate as possible.

More than 800,000 housing units will receive census forms in Broward County. The brief ques-tionnaire takes about 10 minutes to complete and asks for the name, gender, age, race, ethnicity and relationship to the householder, and whether the householder owns or rents their home.

However, not everyone wants to participate in the 2010 Census. Immigrants who came into the U.S. illegally or have someone living with them illegally fear de-portation if they fi ll out the Census form. Broward County wants to assure immigrants that the Census is strictly confi dential.

“Some immigrants have a fear of authority, I.N.S. or deporta-tion,” added Medvin. “The Census is kept confi dential so immigrants, legal or illegal, should not fear answering the form and sending it back.”

County governments use cen-sus data to allocate billions of

Subcommittees help ensure accurate count of all county residentsCENSUS from page 4 dollars in funding for education,

public safety, housing, roads and bridges, human services and com-munity services. Community orga-nizations use it to develop social service programs for seniors and children, and businesses use it to identify where to locate factories, shopping centers, movie theaters, banks and offi ces — activities that lead to new jobs.

The loss in funding for gov-ernment services for just one uncounted person in Broward County was estimated at $1,300 by the 2000 Census Monitoring Board. An undercounting of 1,000 residents could mean a loss of $1.3 million or more.

Census forms will be mailed to every household in March and Census Day is April 1.

“This is the most important civic duty besides voting,” said Medvin. “Sending us the com-pleted census form back by mail helps ensure an accurate count.”

For more information, visit Broward County’s Census page at www.broward.org/census2010/about.htm.

Only scams directed at seniors will prompt the

department to action.

• County CountyNewsNews February 1, 2010 9

News From the Nation’s Counties

See NEWS FROM page 11

ARKANSAS• FULTON COUNTY QUO-

RUM COURT gave 50-cent raises to all county employees. The Newsreported the money for the raises came from several departments’ technology funds.

• BAXTER COUNTY is treat-ing people’s trash like their treasure by proposing to take over the regional solid waste district’s land-fi ll and trash hauling operations. According to the Harrison Daily Times, the offer is conditioned on the approval of the Baxter County Quorum Court and the Mountain Home City Council.

The county would assume the dis-trict’s $12 million in long-term debt plus $750,000 still owed on a line of credit. The six-county district bought 700 acres for the original landfi ll, which Baxter pledges to close. Jus-tices of the Peace promised to return all revenues back into the operation with hopes of lowering dumping fees that have nearly doubled in fi ve years, the paper reported.

CALIFORNIALOS ANGELES COUNTY’s

Department of Public Works is col-lecting used plastic bags to build the world’s largest plastic bag ball.

The county will distribute free reusable bags in place of donated plastic bags as part of the Single Use Bag Reduction and Recycling Pro-gram, according to the Examiner.

FLORIDA• HILLSBOROUGH COUN-

TY road crews will throw more money into the streets, now that commissioners have allocated an extra $2 million to stabilize sinkholes. The public works depart-ment is dealing with 14 sinkholes on county roads. A 24-foot-wide depression closed three lanes of Interstate 4 four days in January.

A rash of sinkholes appeared after strawberry farmers mined the aquifer for days to prevent crops from freezing, the Bandon News and Tribune reported.

• The effects of big storms in PINELLAS COUNTY have

convinced commissioners to ban fertilizer sale and use from June through September.

The ban is extended to any time of the year when big storms or fl ooding hit. Nutrient runoff into Lake Tarpon and other bodies of water have caused $30 million in repair projects, according to the Tampa Times.

INDIANAThe Muncie-DELAWARE

COUNTY Reorganization Com-mittee is pitching a consolidationplan that transfers most city func-tions to county

A new governing body would include city and county council members, and a county executive, the Star Press reported.

IOWABLACK HAWK, LINN and

JOHNSON counties are discuss-ing forming an urban county caucus to gain more infl uence in the state legislature.

They would fashion it after the Urban Education Network or the Metropolitan Coalition, groups of the state’s largest school districts and cities. The three county boards will meet again Feb. 26 in Cedar Rapids, The Courier reported.

MARYLANDConfusion and disagreement

over who should take responsi-bility for development features has inspired MONTGOMERYCOUNTY to consider creating an offi ce to coordinate develop-ment projects. Montgomery County Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg told the Washington

Post the offi ce could save the county millions of dollars in legal fees and other costs associated with fi ghts such as who will pay for road construction, a new library and other community features.

MICHIGAN• MACOMB COUNTY com-

missioners have endorsed a plan to eliminate a retirement programthat allows public employees to double-dip, simultaneously col-lecting a paycheck and pension payments.

“The program, which was designed to retain nonunion employees, is counterproductive in light of the county’s efforts to trim its workforce,” said former Finance Director Dave Diegel. Commissioners also plan to urge unions to give up the program voluntarily. A majority of com-missioners said the program was a perk for high-paid employees at the expense of taxpayers, the Free Press reported.

• One of WAYNE COUNTY’s plans to close a $100 million budget defi cit will furlough 700 employees every Friday. The furloughs will affect non-supervisory members of three American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees unions. Offi cials say the move will save the county about $180,000 and avoid 300 to 500 permanent layoffs. It also could help retain health care benefi ts for the county’s 3,800 employees, the Associated Press reported.

NEW MEXICO Michael Wiener, a BERNALIL-

LO COUNTY commissioner, has an idea for saving money at the local jail: Teach inmates to sew their own jumpsuits.

“Instead of us spending money, we’ll not only be creating products that are made at the [Metro Deten-tion Center] for the inmates to use, but we’ll also have the opportunity to make items that we can sell to other jails throughout the state — possibly the nation,” he said.

Some 40,000 inmates pass through the jail each year, accord-ing to KOAT-TV. Wiener said while saving the county money, inmates would also be learning a trade.

NEW YORKALBANY COUNTY offi cials

have completed the purchase from Canadian Pacifi c Railway of a 9.3-mile stretch of railroad right of way that will become a bike and walking trail.

The purchase price, $700,000, is

almost a tenth of what it will cost to fully develop the trail — estimated at $7.8 million.

Albany County’s “rail trail” is included in the 2007–2012 Federal Transportation Improvement Plan, the Times Union reported. The county also has applied for an energy effi ciency community block grant (EECBG) from the federal Energy Department.

OKLAHOMASupporters who want to place a

Ten Commandments monumenton the LE FLORE COUNTYCourthouse lawn have found a temporary home for the display. County Commissioners initially wanted the monument at the courthouse, but it will reside at Community State Bank in Poteau until a state Supreme Court case is resolved.

Commissioners are waiting for the high court to decide a similar case in neighboring HASKELLCOUNTY, the Associated Press re-ported. Haskell commissioners have appealed a ruling that a monument on its courthouse lawn unconstitu-tionally endorses religion.

OHIODespite reducing hours last

September, the CUYAHOGACOUNTY Public Library broke circulation and visitation recordsin 2009. Robert Rua, a library spokesman, gives partial credit to the economy.

“People want to borrow rather than buy,” Rua told The Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I also like to think that we do a good job of marketing.”

Library patrons borrowed 19 million items from the county library’s 28 branches — a 7 percent increase over the previous year. Last year, there were more than 7.6 million visits to county libraries, up 232,422 over 2008.

Rua also cited the libraries’ Reconnect with Reading marketing campaign as a factor.

SOUTH CAROLINANot only is CHARLESTON

COUNTY StormReady, it re-cently was also recertifi ed as Tsu-namiReady.

The county’s Emergency Man-agement Department recently received offi cial notice from the National Weather Service about the recertification. The county on the Atlantic Coast had to go through a renewal process for its TsunamiReady and StormReady certifi cation, which has been in

MISSISSIPPIFirst responders in HINDS COUNTY are getting some help from

standard address markers at all houses. The refl ective metal signs bear the address number on both sides and are visible from the road as a driver approaches a house.

County law enforcement offi cers are helping install the signs for elderly and rural county residents.

Emergency dispatchers have reported several delays in trying to locate houses that don’t have clear addresses.

Photo by Barbara Gauntt, The Clarion-Ledger

Crime Prevention Commander Capt. Susan Craig, Hinds County, Miss. Sheriff’s Offi ce, installs a home address marker for an elderly county resident. The signs are refl ective for easy identifi cation at night.

County News invitesLetters to the EditorLDo 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.

10 February 1, 2010 CountyCountyNews News •

Research News

A Snapshot of AmericaThe Census Bureau recently

rolled out its new ad campaign for the 2010 Census. This event, hosted by sports commentator James Brown, was the fi rst op-portunity many had to see the results of the $133 million project to help remind people, specifi cally the undecided, to complete and return their census forms. This new ad campaign, unveiled Jan. 14, is designed to augment the outreach activities being conducted at the state and local levels, including efforts by local county Complete Count Committees.

The ad campaign will last for nearly four months. The initial televi-sion ad appeared during the Golden Globes presentation on Jan. 17. Ads will be produced in 28 languages hop-ing to target those in the nation who are most diffi cult to count. Multiple ads will appear during the Super Bowl, the 2010 Winter Olympics and other popular prime-time shows, plus popular radio shows and in a variety of popular magazines and other print media.

The Census Bureau is also pro-moting its Census in the Schools programs with online pages target-ing teachers, as well as specially designed interactive activities on the 2010 Census Web site for kids and teens.

The National Portrait of Amer-ica Road Tour for the census, sponsored by various corporate partners, includes 13 vehicles that will be traveling all across the country to major events, including the Super Bowl, NASCAR races, local festivals and parades. At each stop individuals will share stories about how completing the census can help make a difference in that community. The routes and events of the road tour can be followed on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Myspace. Movement of the vehicles can be tracked on an interactive site on the 2010 Web site. County offi cials interested in participating in the Road Tour or notifying county residents when the tour will be in their community can go to the 2010 Web site for the road tour schedule.

In addition to the road tour, the 2010 Census Web site includes interactive street scenes where people tell their stories about the importance of participating in the census. It also includes the director’s blog where people can ask questions about problems or issues they have with the census. The 2010 Census

is called a “Snapshot of America” and hopes to count more than 300 million people before it is completed near the end of the summer.

The Census Bureau has formed partnerships with organizations all across the nation. These partners include Target, Best Buy, MTV and Sesame Street, and nonprofi ts and national associations such as NACo. Some of the most valuable partners for the 2010 Census are the state, regional and local partners.

County officials across the

Census forms will be preceded by an announcement letter that should be received in households between March 8 and March 10. This letter will include information in seven languages about how to obtain information and assistance about completing the census.

The initial mail out of the cen-sus forms will be timed to arrive in households between March 15 and March 17 with replacement questionnaires mailed out starting April 1.

» In the NewsValerie Brown, NACo president, was quoted in the article

“Survey: counties want clear immigration policy” in American City and County Jan. 19.

» NACo StaffPaul Beddoe, associate legislative director, gave a legislative

update on health reform at the Jan. 20 meeting of the New Mexico Association of Counties Health Care Affi liate in Santa Fe County, N.M.

Ryan Yates, associate legislative director, spoke at the Mississippi Association of Supervisors conference Jan. 12 in Hinds County (Jackson), Miss. about implementation of the Secure Rural Schools program and an advocacy campaign for long-term reauthorization.

(On the Move is compiled by Christopher Johnson, editorial assistant.)

NACo on the Move

Ryan Yates

Financial Services News

The Offi ce Depot Foundation, in conjunction with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Civic Leadership Center (BCLC) in Washington, D.C., is taking a lead role in the U.S. business response to disaster relief efforts in Haiti.

Mary Wong, president of the Offi ce Depot Foundation and co-chair of BCLC’s Disaster Assistance and Recovery Work-ing Group, recently announced the renewal of the foundation’s sponsorship of the BCLC Na-tional Disaster Help Desk for Business.

The Help Desk assists U.S. businesses with ways to contrib-ute to relief and recovery efforts. Businesses that have interests in the region, or that simply wish to assist, can call the Help Desk at 1-888-MY-BIZ-HELP for access to resources and information.

Additionally, the Offi ce Depot Foundation has donated $10,000 to Doctors Without Borders to provide medical supplies in Haiti, $10,000 to Feed The Children for food and medical supplies, and has pledged to give Feed The Children 2,500 backpacks to help children in Haiti who have

Offi ce Depot Responds to Haiti

Earthquakenowhere to keep their possessions. Since Offi ce Depot has such a strong presence in South Florida, the foundation is evaluating the possibility of supporting a refugee center with services for individuals who leave Haiti as a result of the earthquake.

Wong is in frequent contact with the Offi ce Depot Foundation’s nonprofi t partners that support international relief efforts to fi nd ways to effectively support their response in Haiti and to provide information to the many Offi ce Depot employees who have asked how they can help.

Offi ce Depot employees are en-couraged to make direct donations to the foundation by check, credit card or payroll deduction. Those contributions are then matched dollar-for-dollar by Offi ce Depot and the money is dedicated to the Haiti earthquake response between now and March 30.

(Offi ce Depot provides offi ce and school supplies through the U.S. Communi-ties Government Purchasing Alliance. For more information go to www.uscommunities.org or contact Nancy Parrish at nparrish@naco.org or 202.661.8824.)

country are involved in state and local Complete Count Committees that will be reaching out to their residents, encouraging them to re-spond. They are experts at reaching those residents of their counties who are the least likely to participate in the census.

Their committees are composed of stakeholders from various parts of the community who know best how to interact with the hard-to-count populations and help them realize the benefi ts that accrue to the community when everyone is counted — from classrooms with enough seats and teachers for all children enrolled, to the county’s fair share of the more than $435 billion in federal funds that get distributed using some of the data collected from the census.

Census forms will be mailed to more than 105 million homes. In addition, 13.5 million of these forms will be bilingual (Spanish and Eng-lish) and mailed to heavily Hispanic communities. The arrival of 2010

April 1, dubbed “Census Day,” is designed to make a national event of returning the form. This new shorter census form (only 10 ques-tions) is structured so that it should not take longer than 10 minutes for most households to complete. The primary purpose of the massive Census outreach program is to increase the mail-back response rate which has declined for the last three decades. Increasing this mail-back response will help reduce the $80 million to $90 million it costs to send door to door.

Every household that fails to return a census form by early April will be visited by a census enumera-tor who will attempt to collect the information in person.

To fi nd out more about the 2010 Census and how your county can participate, visit www.2010census.gov.

(Research News was written by Jacque-line Byers, NACo’s director of research and representative to the 2010 Census Advisory Committee.)

Keep up with NACo online ...

www.naco.org

• County CountyNewsNews February 1, 2010 11

unwilling to do anything aggressive in the face of the dangers which surround them. In fact, they just let what will happen — happen, if they are unable to outrun a predator or hide successfully.

This should sound a note of familiarity with students of bureau-cratic behavior. Many employees also wish to hide in their cubicles or behind a bunker of regulations peeking out occasionally to make sure that everything is safe. They may adopt attitudes that say “I won’t rock the boat,” or “I’ll wait until after I vest in the retirement system, or pass probation, or make it through the next election or the next budget.” They are the true passive participants in the government process and masters of tactical day-to-day plodding along, rather than the seekers of positive change and explorers of new possibilities.

Ironically, the lion cannot exist without the equivalent of the lamb — both in government, administra-tion and in amazing African game reserves. The best supervisors are observers and shapers of behavior. Imagine the time and money saved when you become a “behavior spotter” right in your own offi ce, without ever having to travel to Africa.

Phil RosenbergThe HR Doctor • www.hrdr.net

The H.R. Doctor Is In

Ottawa County, Mich. took its name from the Ottawa Indians who occupied the area in the middle of the 17th century. The Indian word Ottawa means “trader.” The Ottawa Indians were hunters and fi shermen. They grew and harvested wild rice in the swamps along the Grand River.

The Ottawa Indians lived in bark huts rather than wigwams and teepees. In 1754, a Frenchman named Charles Langlade came to this area to recruit Indians to fi ght against Braddock and Washington in the French and Indian War. For his part in the defeat of Braddock, Langlade was given the fur trader rights throughout the entire Grand River Valley. The lucrative fur trade fl ourished until the middle of the 19th century.

When fur trading declined, the lumber industry sprang up. In 1881, 200 million board-feet of lumber were shipped from the port of Grand Haven. Toward the end of the 19th century, the timber supply dwindled and the growth of manufacturing began. There are now more than 380 manufacturing facilities in the county, concentrated in furniture, offi ce equipment and automobile-related manufacturing.

The seal shows the Ottawa Indians, along with a tree representing the lumber industry. The seal also includes the date December 1837 when the county was formed.

(If you would like your county’s seal featured, please contact Christopher Johnson at 202.942.4256 or cjohnson@naco.org.)

»Ottawa County, Mich.www.co.ottawa.mi.us

What’s in a Seal?

In the past six years, the HR Doc-tor and family members have had the amazing experience of visiting southern Africa three times to speak at conferences, and meet public ad-ministration colleagues throughout the country, as well as members of some major tribal groups, including the Zulu and the Tembe.

We learned more about their cul-tures, governance and approaches to life with each visit. Thanks to great friend and wonderful safari guide Hayden Elliott, our visits with people were interspersed with multiple safaris to observe amazing and stunning wildlife.

From the bouncy seats of our diesel, four-wheel drive safari vehicles, we learned to observe. We also learned to anticipate and help each other to discover animals and birds that might even be right before our eyes, but hidden from our view. As we became better game spotters, however, we began to realize that

some of the behaviors among the animals were parallel to what we see in government work every day — minus the claws, fangs and dung piles — at least the literal ones.

This was especially true for two of the most beautiful species you could ever want to see — lions and impala. The lion’s behavior was marked by long periods of laziness, sleeping, occasionally looking up and looking around, swatting fl ies and hoping that some tender morsel would wander by and ask to be devoured.

This long lazy life was inter-spersed with brief periods of extreme behavior and energy. This is especially true as two primal functions were fulfi lled, eating and mating. At these moments there was unbridled determination, loud displays of roaring and threatening behavior, and an unmatched inten-sity to get on with the job.

Government administration also

includes long periods of maintain-ing the status quo, of resisting the prospects of getting up and exercis-ing innovation or bringing about change. There are long periods of simply wanting to be left alone and be freed from the annoying gadfl ies asking pesky questions, making public records requests or calling inconvenient meetings.

Lions and LambsFinally, with regard to “govern-

ment as lion,” when a new policy is created, and the majesty and power of a governing body or chief administrative offi cer in a city or county is put behind the idea, government can be tenacious; can drive headlong in a straight line unrelentingly to reinforce the new idea, which is often “gift-wrapped” as a reform. Ironically, the same intensity that may go into resisting a change can be also applied to forcing a change through walls of reluctance.

There would very likely be no lions in Africa if it were not also for the plentiful herds of beautiful impala. Impala are one of Africa’s antelope species characterized by their beauty and grace along with, ironically, dark lines of fur on their rear ends which look like the letter “M.” It is no wonder that they are referred to as Africa’s fast food for carnivores such as lions and leopards.

Unlike the lazy rest time which dominates a lion’s Microsoft Out-look calendar on any given day, the timid and fearful impala must be on constant watch. From just minutes after birth, their newborns need to be ready to follow mom in a search for safe havens from predators. The herd can move at lightning speed in synchronized fashion leaving the most vulnerable behind as the most likely main course on a din-ner menu. They are unable and

Snohomish County, Wash. exec opines on Boeing loss to South CarolinaNEWS FROM from page 9

The best supervisors are observers and shapers of

behavior.

These are interspersed, just as with a pride of lions, by intense periods of fury, frenzy, and some-times cutting and slashing. Clearly responding to budget crises or perceived threats to security are centerpieces in this behavior. So too, are intense responses to per-ceived threats of change, either in employee behaviors at work, or to changing social needs.

Many supervisors, managers or elected offi cials will become fi erce, roar and take up offensive postures at the thought of changing long-ingrained behaviors. Just bring up the idea of intergovernmental consolidations, for example, es-pecially in a public safety service like fi re-rescue or communications dispatch, and the lions won’t sleep tonight.

effect for three years, to maintain the recognition.

StormReady started in 1999 and has grown to more than 1,500 StormReady communities throughout the U.S. As of January 2010, there are 73 TsunamiReady communities in 10 states.

UTAH“Kill the bill” is what one SUM-

MIT COUNTY councilmember says to a proposal that state legisla-tors repeal Utah’s restaurant tax.

Utah counties can add a 1 percent tax to restaurant tabs for prepared food sales. In Summit County, the proceeds have been distributed to nonprofi t organiza-tions that work to bring tourists to

the area. The tax generates about $1.5 million annually.

“A lot of this tax is paid by people from out of state while they are visit-ing,” Summit County Councilman Chris Robinson told The Salt Lake Tribune. However, state Rep. Craig Frank says Utah residents account for some 85 percent of restaurant patrons in the state. He proposes making up the loss with a small increase in the sales tax on most purchases countywide.

WASHINGTONSNOHOMISH COUNTY

Executive Aaron Reardon has some advice for state lawmakers on how not to lose another big business competition — like the one between Washington and South Carolina over the Boeing 787.

The county is home to the aircraft maker’s Everett factory. It lost out to the Charleston, S.C. area when Boe-ing announced last fall that it would build some of its 787 Dreamliner jets in South Carolina.

“The loss of the second Boeing 787 line is a symptom of the greater problem. It is the proverbial ‘ca-nary in the coal mine,’” Reardon wrote in a Seattle Times op-ed. “Washington has fallen off the map when it comes to economic development. … Changes must be made to compete for and win new jobs.”

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

12 February 1, 2010 CountyCountyNews News •

Job Market / Classifi eds

Upcoming

NACo WebinarsNACo off ers its members various educational and training opportunities to support county offi cials in their eff orts to manage rapid change and prepare counties for new responsibilities. Register today to participate in FREE informative webinars. All you need is a computer with Internet access and a phone line.

■ Stay Ahead of the Story: Media Relations Strategies for County Offi cials in Tough TimesThursday, February 4 • 2–3:35 p.m. ESTTough times mean counties are under increasing scrutiny. Are you prepared to handle tough media inquiries and respond to critics? Are you doing all you can to communicate the essential and eff ective services your county provides? With a little planning, you can stay ahead of the story, respond to critics and be an eff ective leader and promoter of county government. Webinar panelists will discuss eff ective media relations tools and strategies; whether social media such as Facebook and Twitter are right for you; and tips on how to make the most of your NACo participation and out-of-county conference travel.

Please contact Jim Philipps at 202.942.4220 or jphilipps@naco.org with questions.

■ How to Lobby Congress Without Leaving HomeThursday, February 11 • 2–3:30 p.m. ESTEff ective lobbying comes from good “grassroots” participation. Basically, this means people expressing themselves from their home or offi ce on matters aff ecting their lives and livelihood. As a county leader, you can make a diff erence! NACo has professional advocates on staff , but one of the most important elements for the success of our eff orts on behalf of county governments is your participation. Discover how you can eff ectively lobby from your county offi ces and identify ways to get the attention of Congress.

Please contact Matt Fellows at 202.942.4205 or mfellows@naco.org with questions.

To register for any of these webinars, visit www.naco.org/webinars

County Commissioners in sustaining the County’s conservative fi nancial direction in a challenging budgetary climate. The qualifi ed candidate will have either a master’s degree in public administra-tion, business or a related fi eld, and a minimum of two (2) years of experience as the manager or assistant in a similarly sized operation, or a bachelor’s degree in public administration, business, or a related fi eld and a minimum of fi ve (5) years of experience as the manager or assistant in a similarly sized operation. The County Manager need not be a resident of Lake County at the time of appointment, but during his/her tenure in offi ce shall reside in Lake County.

The starting salary is negotiable. Prior County Manager’s ending salary was $157,800. Application Instructions: The Board of County Commission-ers welcomes resumes via the County Manager Recruitment website at www.lakecountyfl .gov/cmrecruitment or via e-mail to CMRecruitment@lakecountyfl .gov. Comprehensive resumes will be accepted through the close of business on March 30. Lake County is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Drug Free Workplace/Veter-ans Preference Applies. Please call the Lake County Department of Employee Services and Quality Improvement at 352.343.9596 or email CMRecruitment@lakecountyfl .gov with any questions.

FINANCE OFFICER/ASSISTANT FINANCE OFFICER – BAY COUNTY, MICH.

Salary: $58,282 – $78,815; DOQ.Finance Offi cer/Assistant Finance

Offi cer, Bay County government. Excel-lent benefi ts including defi ned benefi ts pension. Minimum of MBA and fi ve (5) years’ related experience. Apply to Bay County Personnel Department at www.baycounty-mi.gov. EOE/ADA.

COUNTY MANAGER – LAKE COUNTY, FLA.

Salary: $157,800; DOQ.Lake County, Florida is seeking an

experienced professional to fi ll the va-cant position of County Manager. The community, home to more than 1,000 freshwater lakes and rivers, ridges of peaks and valleys unseen in any other area of Florida, 14 municipalities and an abundance of outdoor recreational activities, Lake County citizens enjoy a casual lifestyle, while also having the ability to enjoy all that Metro Orlando

has to offer. The County offers substantial parks and recreational facilities, and a signifi cant portion of the Ocala National Forest is located within its boundaries. A booming population led to a surge of new housing construction in the mid-2000’s. Tourism continues to be an important part of the county’s economy. Visitors fl ock to antique shopping areas and cruise on the many lakes. Sports enthusiasts experience the adrenaline rush found at several competition water-ski schools and a nationally recognized triathlon training center. For all these reasons, Lake County is a different kind of com-munity. County government is working hand in hand with businesses, civic groups, organizations and city leaders to make positive changes in the quality of life for the citizens of Lake County. Together, the leaders of the community and its citizens are continuously striving to make Lake County a wonderful place to live, work and play. The Position: The County Manager is responsible for the professional management and oversight

of approximately 800 employees and an annual budget of over $415 million. This includes overseeing all programs and activities under the direction of the Board of County Commissioners. The County Manager executes appropriate policies and procedures concerning mat-ters applicable to the Board of County Commissioners, and coordinates and conducts long-range management and fi nancial planning analysis. Lake County is a non-charter County with fi ve elected County Commissioners. The County Manager is an appointed position, serving at the pleasure of the Board of County Commissioners. Minimum Qualifi cations: Lake County is looking for a confi dent, knowledgeable and expe-rienced management professional. The applicant must have extensive knowledge of County operations, including budget development and statutory requirements impacting local government adminis-tration. The successful candidate will be a self-starter who is committed to following the direction of the Board of

offi cer, said careful monitoring and updating content is the commitment that comes with using social media tools.

“The last thing you want to do is develop a page and let it lapse,” she said. “If you’re going to do that, it’s almost better not to try, because your ‘fans’ are going to be on the lookout for new information. That’s why they express their interest in your county.”

Hall maintains both sites with the aid of a program that routes Twitter entries onto the county’s Facebook page. Among counties who report using social media, 82 percent do so to provide news, and Roanoke’s page does that actively. Hall updated the county’s Facebook page with 10 entries on Jan. 26, including eight from Twitter.

Several respondents report using Twitter to disseminate information in emergency situations.

Roanoke maintains Facebook accounts for its public library; parks, recreation and tourism, and planning departments, and the county school system.

Hall says she has only had to delete a few user postings, and did so in conjunction with the county’s decorum at public meetings policy.

“If you act a certain way at a meeting, you will be asked to leave,” she said. “We treat our social media community the same way.”

Wake County, N.C. Information Technology Manager Bill Scanlon said his county’s investment in social media resources was carefully lever-aged against other communications tools.

“We use social media tools be-cause they have proven to be effective communication methods,” he said. “If other methods were as effective,

we would use them, too.”Some survey respondents voiced

concern for the security of their county’s computer system when ex-posed to social networking. Scanlon said the Web sites, like many, pose risks, but no more than a non-social networking site.

“Viruses can attack us from mul-tiple perspectives, so it’s important to have a strong education effort to guard against them and most importantly, guard the computers themselves with anti-virus measures,” he said.

Scanlon said choosing not to use social media to support a county’s communication plan because of Internet security worries was moot, because employees could likely still access their personal account from their computer. Wake County is currently reviewing its acceptable-use policy for computers at work.

According to the NACo survey, most counties do not have any policy regarding personal use of these social media tools, though of the 17 that do, 16 restrict use while on county time.

Of the 121 respondents, all counties with more than 600,000 residents use social media, and 36 of 49 counties with more than 142,000 residents use it. Smaller counties aren’t necessarily out of the picture, though. The City and Borough of Wrangell, Alaska, with just over 2,000 residents, maintains a social media presence.

Kathy Smith, public information offi cer for Spotsylvania County, Va., with fewer than 91,000 residents, hopes to get involved, soon.

“I personally have Facebook and Twitter, but as a one-person PIO offi ce, I would not have the time to monitor and respond to Facebook at this time,” she said in response to the survey. “I plan on starting Twitter for the county soon.”

Counties use social media as tool for communicationNETWORKS from page 1