- Details
The County Commissioner’ Association of West Virginia invites and encourages you to attend the CCAWV Legislative Association Meeting & Educational Training Series. The meeting is scheduled for February 24-26, 2013 at the Marriott Hotel, Charleston, WV.
- Details
After the regional jail summit several weeks ago, several of the best practices for cutting costs have been implemented or are in the development stages all across our state.
We have received numerous call and emails about one of our own that we have started here in Cabell County. There really is no title for the process other than simply "the pre-trialmeeting", but it does reduce the number of inmate days, which in turn yields Cabell County great monetary return.
Each Wednesday morning a member of the prosecutor's office, representatives from Cabell County Alternative Sentencing programs(home confinement and day report), the public defender's office, the commission office, the Chief of Police of the City of Huntington, as well as victim's services gather to discuss processes for releasing inmates that are awaiting trail and possibly a candidate for alternative sentencing.
The criteria studied includes, prior record, current offense and history in these programs. They also determine as to what program would best suit the particular individual if alternative pre trial supervision is appropriate for release. This may include drug screens, check -ins or monitoring through home confinement bracelet or GPS.
On average we are able to discuss 10-15 incarcerates weekly for potential release. Our pre-trial officers also attend court daily, as well as meet daily with Home Confinement and officials of the judiciary to ensure that nonviolent offenders that are appropriate for release aren't adding additional burden to our jail costs and fees.
For further information on our meetings or programs I invite you to contact our offices of Alternative Sentencing, Prosecutors office or the Commission Office. We also are always looking for new and creative ideas for programming and reduction of recidivism thus reducing jail costs while maintaining public safety.
- Details
We attended two interim meetings in November, discussing the economic impacts of the changes in production of coal, oil, and natural gas in West Virginia. The outlook for coal in the next several years is pretty bleak! Most of West Virginia’s GEP comes from coal and production is down, according to Mark Muchow, Secretary of Tax and Revenue. There are several reasons including the lack of demand from the planned shutdown of a large number of coal-fired energy plants, as well as the current environmental wild card atmosphere.
Coal has been the biggest contributor to WV’s economy over the last 8 years, but is projected to much less over the next 5 years. While oil and natural gas production is up some 25%, severance taxes are still down because demand is down, therefore selling prices are down. As far as how WV compares in severance tax rates (5%) to our neighboring states, we are about equal with Kentucky (4 ½%), a little higher than Pennsylvania who has some sort of impact fee (2 ½%), and ahead of Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio, all having nothing significant in the way of a severance tax. This landscape has major effects on county budgets, not only from a reduction in severance tax revenue collections, but also in reduced property tax collections and loss of jobs when power plants and coal mines close. The up-tick in the oil and gas industry is wonderful, but is not able to level out the lost due to decreases in the coal industry. While some counties may see losses and some gains, because of the volatility of the market, there is a tremendous fluctuation in taxes that counties count on from year to year.
- Details
Some 70 newly elected and veteran County Commissioners from around the state gathered in Bridgeport for a three day “basic training” course designed for newly elected and veteran county commissioners and staff in West Virginia. The intense training offered by the County Commissioners’ Association of West Virginia (CCAWV), was held November 28-30, 2012 and was well attended by over fifty participants, newly elected and veteran. “These folks have a lot on their plate when they take office,” ” said Vivian Parsons, Executive Director of the Commissioners’ Association. “It is our goal to provide them with the tools and resources they need to effectively deal with all of the issues that will hit them as they walk through the courthouse doors!”
CCAWV President Cindy Pyles, Mineral County welcomed the participants and opened the thought-provoking program. “This is no picnic,” said President Pyles, “being a county commissioner is a tough job, but we're here to give you support!"
The jam packed agenda included sessions on media relations, team building skills, parliamentary procedure, county finances, employment practices, county risk management, board of review, ethics and open meeting laws. All attendees took home the 2012 edition of the CCAWV County Commissioners’ Handbook.
- Details
On October 14-15, 2012 thirty-eight County Commissioners and staff from 22 counties came together with CCAWV Staff and RJA Executive Director Joe DeLong to discuss county concerns and suggested solutions to the increasing cost to counties for incarcerating inmates in regional jails, CCAWV’s top legislative priority for 2013.
The group spent Sunday afternoon brainstorming and came up with over 30 concerns. Before recessing for dinner, the group agreed to a methodology for prioritizing the multitude of topics, the following morning. Through much discussion and lively debate, 5 top priority issues emerged. (The complete list of committee study topics, including the priorities, are listed on the enclosed/attached newsletter insert.)