We are preparing for the 2012 Annual Conference to be held August 5-8, at the Mountaineer Resort, in Hancock County. If you haven't already made plans to attend, please reconsider! We have lots of good information to share with you so it will be a very packed agenda.

I am just returning from our National Association of Counties Conference held in Pittsburgh, PA. We had over twenty WV delegates participating. I attended several good workshops and plan to "borrow" a couple for our future meetings! NACo 1st Vice President Linda Langston will join us as a guest speaker for the CCAWV August Annual Meeting. Also on the NACo front, the CCAWV Board has been working diligently with NACo on the Association endorsement of the County Prescription Drug Card Program. I am very excited to report that the endorsement process has moved forward and promises to provide a new CCAWV membership benefit for 2013, called "Two for the Price of One!". You'll hear more about this at the upcoming CCAWV Conference, stay tuned!
Last week I participated in a reconvening of the Regional Jail Cost Containment Committee. This committee which includes stakeholders from all phases and roles in the regional jail process, met to discuss and consider ideas, issues, and possible legislative fixes for containing and controlling the costs associated with the Regional Jail system. We met several years ago and were successful with collaborating on several legislative ideas/fixes. One of the
unresolved topics we plan to explore is the idea of some limited form of a "uniform bail schedule. RJA director, Joe Delong is making some very positive changes in the administration of the jails and will be sharing that information at the CCAWV Annual meeting, August 6th.

On July 18th, I participated via cell phone, in a meeting of the Governor's Intergovernmental Executive Committee. (Many thanks and much appreciation to CCAWV President Cindy Pyles and Board Member Nancy Cartmill, who also attended to represent our members.). The committee's focus was the "after the storm review." Every county should have received a copy of the letter from Peter Markham, Governor's General Counsel, requesting that each county return to him, a summary of your after storm experience. Even though we did share the preliminary information you gave us, they ask that you include your comments on the form provided, so that uniform information will be gathered from each county. Remember, the deadline for returning the info is at close of business, August 3, 2012. Please respond. The National Guard will be joining us to share their "capabilities briefing" at our upcoming CCAWV Annual Meeting!