Constituent Communications

This post builds on the previous one. Besides being useful for communications of statewide associations, I would suggest to you that websites and e-mail are also highly effective and often expected and preferred means of communication for your voters and constituents. I remember the first time I saw a notice about a neighborhood association website, I found it ironic. Why go on the Internet to communicate with the people who live down the street? But more and more, our citizens are communicating with distant relatives and sharing pictures of grandkids through e-mail. Churches and community groups use e-mail and websites to provide information about activities and events. Some people expect and often prefer to go to a website for information rather than calling an office to get the information they need.

I know of at least one county in Tennessee where some of the commissioners are using websites very effectively to communicate with their constituents. Blount County Commissioners Wendy Pitts Reeves and Mike Walker each have blogs (a shortened term for "web - log") where they post information about their work as county commissioners. Wendy set hers up in 2006 when she was first running for the commission and she has used it regularly ever since to interact with her electorate. You can find her website at pittsreeves.blogspot.com. Mike started his in August of this year at commissionerwalker.blogspot.com. I strongly encourage you to check these sites out. The commissioners regularly post information about hearings and meetings in the county. The websites give them the opportunity to express their opinions or explain their positions to consitituents and also to hear comments and concerns back from the voters of their districts. To me, this is a very promising means of increasing voter awareness and citizen involvement with their government. Too many of our people feel uninformed or disenfranchized with their government. Giving them a resource to learn from and communicate readily with their elected representatives helps restore that relationship.

Sites like Wendy's and Mike's (and this one) may be created quickly and hosted for free through on-line hosting services. While they require a little bit of familiarity with using a computer, the hosting sites have sample templates available that let you select a basic format and get a site up and going in a short space of time. There are standard forms and easy instructions for writing and editing content for your posts. If you do take a stab at creating a site of your own, let me know. I'd be happy to link to it here and help publicize your site and the good work you are doing for your community.

Communication in the Modern Era

In the coming weeks, I will be sending a letter to chairs of county commissions across the state. My desire is for each county (or at least each county that does not already have a member on the board of directors of TCCA) to designate a contact person for association communications. Preferably the designees will have an e-mail account that is checked regularly where they can receive communications from the association. In the modern era of legislative work, the time frames are all compressed. It is essential to the effectiveness of our organization for me to be able to quickly get information about legislative developments to our membership. My hope is that the contact person for each county can receive an e-mail and then disseminate the information to the other commissioners in the county. This will not only keep commissioners better informed, but will help our association communicate with State Representatives and Senators in each county about the issues affecting local government. If you are interested in serving in such capacity, contact the chair of your commission or contact my office. Unfortunately, with over 1600 members, it is cost prohibitive for me to regularly send hard copy mailings to the entire membership. To the extent we can utilize electronic communication, we can share much more information for virtually no additional cost.

Also, this website will hopefully serve as a place where commissioners can check regularly for information about the activities at the General Assembly. If you are reading this site and finding it useful and informative, encourage your fellow commissioners to check it out as well or feel free to print out and share content from the site.

The High Price of Housing Prisoners

For the last few years, county lobbyists have been engaged in conversations with state officials and legislators about the reimbursement counties receive for housing convicted felons for the state. Currently, the Tennessee Department of Corrections reimburses counties only for costs related to housing convicted felons in local jails and workhouses. The county covers the costs of housing convicted misdemeanants and the cost of all pre-trial detainees. At one time, counties were paid by the state for pre-trial detainees, but that practice ended many years ago. Back in 1994, the McWherter administration, in an effort to contain state costs, limited the amount paid to most county governments for housing felons to $35 per day, regardless of actual costs. During the Sundquist administration, the Department of Corrections stopped paying counties for inmates who are incarcerated awaiting a hearing for an alleged probation violation. That remains the practice today. During the early years of the Bredesen administration when the state faced a budget crisis, the reimbursement for housing prisoners was reduced from $35 per day to $32 per day. That rate was later restored to $35 and it remains there today. But as you can see, there has been a trend, regardless of who is in office, for the state to save money by cutting back on what they pay counties for housing prisoners.

There are several different arrangements counties can have with the Department of Corrections. Some counties have contracts for a flat rate. Some have contracts for reasonable allowable costs. Others have no contract but get reasonable costs up to the cap. A small number of counties house prisoners by resolution authority at a significantly lower rate - $18 or $20 per day. For FY06, only three local government facilities received more than $35 per day. They were the Johnson City Jail for housing female inmates at $36.75, the Davidson County Detention Facility which received $39.96 per day for felons and the Shelby County Correctional Center which received $46.46. From the 2006 data, it appears that 65 counties are hitting the $35 cap, either by contract or through capping the reasonable allowable costs which are reimbursed. At these jails, the county is essentially subsidizing all inflationary costs related to housing prisoners for the state. I asked Lynne Holliday with the County Technical Assistance Service to do a quick calculation of how inflation would have affected this reimbursement rate. Her numbers are telling. She used two different figures, the CPI and a less well known statistic – the Implicit Price Deflator for State and Local Government Expenditures (IPD). The IPD is targeted to reflect those factors of the economy that most directly relate to the costs of providing government services. According to Lynne, the IPD has traditionally gone up faster than the CPI. Using either figure, the effect is significant.

Taking the $35 figure established in 1994 and adjusting it for increases in the CPI, $35 in 1994 will buy only $24.88 worth of goods and services today. To put it another way, it takes about $49 today to buy the equivalent of $35 worth of goods and services in 1994 dollars. Using the IPD the outcome is even worse. Adjusted for IPD increases, $35 in 1994 will buy only $23.45 worth of goods and services today, or it would take $53 today to buy the same $35 worth of 1994 goods and services. This is an inherent unfairness in the way the state is treating county governments that only gets worse over time. The private correctional corporations that contract with the state get paid at higher rates than local government and they generally have inflationary factors built into their contracts. Change in this area is long overdue. The Department of Corrections deflects some of this concern by arguing that it should only pay our marginal costs. Essentially they are saying counties would have to pay to operate jails regardless of whether or not the state had any prisoners in them. Regardless of whether or not you agree, you still cannot deny the inflation issue. If $35 was a fair level to cap what the state will pay counties in 1994, it's hard to argue that is still a fair rate 13 years later. Relief for county jails is long overdue from the state. The cap should be raised significantly. But even if we can't get relief now by raising the cap, there at least needs to be an inflationary factor added immediately to the rate this year so that the situation does not continue to worsen.

Look for more information about this issue in the weeks to come.

TDOT Announces Safe Routes to School Training Sessions

If your community is interested in encouraging kids to walk or bicycle to school safely, you may be interested in a federal grant program that is 100% federally funded and requires no local match. To apply for the grants however, the Tennessee Department of Transportation is requiring applicants to attend training in order to receive funds. You can find out more about this program at this website: http://www.tn.gov/tdot/bikeped/saferoutes.htm.

A series of workshops on these grants begins next week on December the 4th and runs through December 14th. You can find a schedule of the workshops on the webpage listed above. The following is from a TDOT press release on this issue.


Applicants Must Attend Training In Order to Receive Funds


Nashville, TN — The Tennessee Department of Transportation will hold training sessions in December for communities interested in applying for Safe Routes to School (SRTS) program funds. The Safe Routes to School program is a statewide initiative designed to make bicycling and walking to school a safer, more appealing and healthier alternative for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. This year, any agency interested in obtaining SRTS funds must attend one of eight training sessions in order to be eligible to receive a SRTS grant.

“The Safe Routes to School program integrates health, fitness, traffic relief, environmental concerns, and safety all under one umbrella,” said TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely. “These training sessions are an excellent opportunity for communities to learn more about Tennessee’s Safe Routes to School program, and how to develop a successful project.“

In 2007, Tennessee awarded $4.4 million in SRTS funds to 26 schools across the state for a variety of projects from sidewalk construction to installation of traffic calming devices to educational activities. The SRTS program is 100% federally funded. TDOT has received $10.7 million for the program through 2009.

“In 2007, we were discouraged to see that 20% of the applications we received were ineligible. Therefore, we are making it mandatory for applicants to attend one of our training sessions,” said SRTS Coordinator Diana Benedict. “These funds can be used for a variety of projects and activities, so it’s important for those interested in receiving Safe Routes to School funds to know what is eligible and what is not eligible for Tennessee’s program.”

Training sessions will be held in Knoxville, Johnson City, Chattanooga, Cookeville, Nashville, Waynesboro, Memphis, and Martin in December. The training sessions are free and open to the public. A list including the time, date and location of each training session is attached to this email.

To learn more about the Safe Routes to School Program and upcoming training sessions, please visit http://www.tn.gov/tdot/bikeped/saferoutes.htm or email the program coordinator at tdot.saferoutestoschool@state.tn.us or call (615) 253-2421.

Guest Editorial Regarding Open Government

The following editorial appeared in the Sunday, October 7, 2007 edition of the Tennessean. I was asked to submit comments from the local government perspective. I am reproducing my comments here for your information:

At the end of the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln resolved that to honor those who died for our country, we should ensure that "...government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." Unfortunately, many no longer view government as an extension of themselves and their community, but as an outside force. The separation citizens feel from their government can be blamed on a mixture of unnecessary bureaucracy, citizen apathy and the overall complexity of our lives. But if we intend to have a thriving, effective democracy, the people must remain engaged with their government. To facilitate this, our laws require governments to make decisions in the open and allow public access to government records. The state legislature is currently considering whether those laws need revision.

Regarding records, members of the media have complained that Tennessee exempts too many records from public access. When considering proposed changes, one must remember these records relate not only to the government, but also to its people. Records involving government accountability should be open, but records that compromise the privacy of individual citizens should not. It takes education and diligence for government employees to get this balance right. Considering the current epidemic of identity theft in our nation, now is not the time to hastily remove safeguards that protect individual privacy.

Regarding open meetings, it is vital for the public to have notice of meetings and the opportunity to observe the decision-making process. The sunshine law currently exempts "chance meetings" between two members of a governing body from notice requirements. However, it provides that business must not be decided or deliberated during these informal communications. This provision was originally intended to allow officials to speak freely about public business in unofficial settings. As currently interpreted, it subjects officials to allegations of breaking the law if they merely "talk shop" with a peer. The problem is the word "deliberation." Attorneys disagree about when a simple conversation becomes deliberation. This uncertainty casts a shadow of litigation over any communication between public officials. It does not serve public interest to limit all conversation between officials to the strict confines of a public meeting. The law should be clarified to allow healthy discourse while clearly prohibiting back-room plotting. Most other states also recognize that certain specific matters are best considered in a confidential setting. Tennessee may want to follow their lead. For example, a county should be allowed to meet in a closed session to discuss a land purchase for a new school. If the seller knows from a public meeting the maximum price the government will pay for a piece of property, you can be sure the taxpayers will always pay that maximum. Also, if a supervisor is charged with misconduct, hearings may be more candid and respectful of the victim if held privately.

Whether your concern is government accountability or individual privacy, this is an excellent time to get involved, make your voice heard, and ensure your government continues making decisions that are in the people’s best interests.

Introductions

Greetings and welcome to this site. This page is part of an on-going initiative to improve and expand membership communications for the Tennessee County Commissioners Association (TCCA) and to provide information and resources about county government in Tennessee. Most likely, you arrived at this site through a link on the association's primary website: http://www.tncountycommissioners.org/. If not, I encourage you to visit that site to learn more about the Tennessee County Commissioners Association and its activities. The TCCA is a membership association representing the interests of the elected members of county legislative bodies across the state. It is an affiliate organization of the Tennessee County Services Association (TCSA) which is also comprised of the Association of County Mayors (ACM) and the Tennessee County Highway Officials Association (TCHOA). Last week, the TCSA held its 54th annual conference and trade show in Nashville. That event was attended by several hundred county officials and employees who had the opportunity to hear from a variety of speakers on numerous topics related to county government. The conference included workshops on open government, dealing with the media, education funding, jail cost management, highway and infrastructure maintenance and more.

In August and September, the TCCA held a series of grass roots membership meetings at seven locations across the state to hear about the issues and concerns affecting individual counties and commissioners. These meetings were well attended and are always an important part of developing the legislative platform and agenda for the association's activities for the next year. Whether it's through an old-fashioned bar-be-que dinner and a face-to-face meeting at a local community center or communicating and staying informed through a website like this one, I encourage all county commissioners in Tennessee to get involved and benefit from the services, information and networking possibilities available through the Tennessee County Commissioners Association. The association is here to serve you, so let us know of anything we can do to help you do your job better. Together we can work to make all our communities in Tennessee better and stronger places to live.