Georgia County Government - December 2008 - (Page 17)

OUTLOOK continued from page 15 the policy area of Natural Resources and Environment. With regard to solid waste, there may be emerging attempts to limit a local government’s ability to franchise out its solid waste collections and allow yard trimmings to be deposited in lined, municipal landfills; concerning land use, there may be some backlash following two cities adopting ordinances requiring all new buildings more than 20,000 square feet to be LEED certified, or possibly efforts making it more difficult to establish historic preservation districts. With regard to water, while there is rarely any shortage of water-related legislation introduced in any year, ACCG is particularly on the watch for any measures that would negatively impact local water utilities, their budgets or operations, rates that they charge or the measures they take to address drought conditions. ACCG Fall Policy Conference Highlights ACCG’s 2008 Fall Policy Conference convened Oct. 8 through 10 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in downtown Atlanta. Following a day of ACCG Commissioners’ Training program courses, presented jointly with The University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, after hearing from candidates for the U.S. Senate Saxby Chambliss and Jim Martin, county officials spent a day hearing policy briefings from ACCG policy staff, toward finalizing the 2009 County Platform. Luncheon keynote speaker on Thursday, Oct. 9 was Georgia Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, who delivered a sobering account of anticipated state budget shortfalls but reaffirmed his own commitment, as leader of the State Senate, to uphold Georgia’s “core missions” of bolstering transportation to keep the state economically competitive, and to improving education opportunities for all Georgians, including outstanding technical and adult education. Concurrent sessions Thursday afternoon included a Transportation Update, an Overview of the Cost of Running County Government, and a session on the National Response Framework: Where Counties Fit In. After presentation of graduation credentials to certified county commissioners and officials by Dr. Steve Wrigley, director of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government and Jim Stephens, director of governmental training and education for the Vinson Institute, commissioners heard dinner speaker Dr. Charles S. Bullock III, the Richard B. Russell Professor of Political Science at UGA speak on the 2008 election and what it means to Georgia. On Friday, Oct. 10, the ACCG membership voted to finalize the 2009 County Platform, presenting commissioners’ legislative platform for the next year in six key policy areas, including Transportation and Economic Development; Health and Human Services; Revenue and Finance; Natural Resources and Environment; Public Safety and the Courts; and General County Government. Highlights of the Platform are covered in this issue’s Legislative Forecast. restrict the consolidation of counties or counties and cities. The General County Government Committee further amended the County Platform to support a change in state law to allow tax allocation districts (TADs) to be implemented in multiple counties, where appropriate. Morgan, State Trauma Manager with the Georgia Department of Human Resources, spoke on the state’s current limited trauma care capabilities, which now amount to 15 trauma centers, only four of which are designated Level I. The remaining are either Level II, or Level IV, and are primarily located in the metropolitan Atlanta region, leaving untenable gaps in trauma care access in the rest of the state, as Georgia’s population continues to burgeon. Statistics bear out the urgency of this need. South of Macon, access to trauma care is critically lacking, resulting in a trauma death rate in Georgia that is 20-percent higher than the national average. In an effort to promote this legislative priority, Meggitt reports that the ACCG Health and Human Services Committee formed a study committee on trauma funding and the current work of the Trauma Commission and its distribution of $58.5 million in OUTLOOK continued on page 18 DECEMBER 2008 www.accg.org General County Government According to Michele NeSmith, AC C G R e s e a rc h a nd Po l ic y Development Director and coordinator of ACCG’s General County Government policy committee, a primary legislative goal for the committee is to amend the Open Records Act. Prompted by a recent court case which required that the county rather than the records custodian must respond to an open records request within a three day period, ACCG formed a subcommittee to discuss open records issues. In addition to the response issue, the open records subcommittee discussed the exemption of private citizen information from open records requests, such as the names, addresses, and contact information for neighborhood watch groups. Also at issue is counties’ discretion to exempt information prepared by county staff which is categorized as advice or as a recommendation during the deliberative process. ACCG is urging the legislature to preserve counties’ right to withhold such sensitive information when faced with open records requests from the public and the media. Also under the auspices of the General County Government, ACCG supports the creation of a legislative study committee to review and identify existing obstacles in state law that would Health and Human Services It’s likely that, more stridently than in many years, legislators will have to make tough decisions on Health and Human Services issues at a time that will see their need in communities statewide, sharply increasing. However, the need for trauma network accessible to all regions of the state persists, and is again one of ACCG’s top legislative priorities in the coming session. ACCG ended the 2008 legislative session having worked hard to promote legislation to expand Georgia’s trauma care network, offers ACCG Government Relations Associate Ashley Meggitt. In the Health and Human Services policy committee deliberations, Renee 17 http://www.accg.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Georgia County Government - December 2008

Georgia County Government - December 2008 Contents President's Message County Matters 2009 Legislative Forecast: ACCG's Platform for the Coming Legislative Session ACCG Policy Staff 2008 Legislative Awards Honor Georgia Lawmakers Cell Towers and Local Governments Oglethorpe Power Plans Biomass Electric Facilities Georgia's Grand Old Courthouses: Dawson County Extension News: Biofuels Development Research Corner: Implementing a Record Retention Policy County Parade Index of Advertisers/Advertiser.com

Georgia County Government - December 2008

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