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At the writing of this newsletter we are just entering the third week of Legislative Session. The CCA is tracking some 148 bill so far, with more to come!
We had a wonderful turnout for the Annual Legislative Conference this week in Charleston. Over 125 members attended and were treated to a great lineup of guest speakers and presenters.
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The CCAWV Board of Directors met on opening day and added three new issues to our list of supported legislative proposals and one to those we oppose:
1. CCAWV will seek passage of a bill granting advice and consent authority to county commissioners for employee firings in all county offices. Current law grants advice and consent authority to commissioners on the hiring of all county employees and the effort is to require approval on firings so that proper legalities are met when firing an employee is required and thereby attempting to avoid liability lawsuits in which the county commission gets stuck paying the bill.
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Over 50 counties were represented by some 125 County Commissioners & Staff at the recent CCA Legislative Association Meeting held February 24-26, 2013 at the Charleston Marriott. At the Legislative meeting Monday the attendees heard from John Stump, Steptoe & Johnson regarding TIF and Public/Private Partnerships. Perry Bryant, WVAHC gave an update on the Federal Affordable Care Act. Mark Muchow, Deputy Cabinet Secretary, WV Department of Revenue presented a Financial Forecast for the State and Local Governments.
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April is "National County Government Month" and the County Commissioners’ Association of WV (CCAWV) is hosting our 2nd annual essay contest for 8th grade students across West Virginia.
This year we have broadened our scope of winners. There will be a monetary prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place student winners. There will also be a monetary prize for the 1st place winner’s Teacher to be used for classroom activities. 1st Place Student will receive $300 and teacher will receive $300. 2nd place Student - $250 and 3rd place Student - $150.
One of CCAWV’s goals is to increase information and public awareness about county government and the office of County Commissioner. As an initiative of this goal we are excited to partner with West Virginia educators to encourage students to learn and write about their local county governing body, the County Commission. (Teachers, for your convenience, we are attaching our brochure about county commission responsibilities.)
Student participants are asked to type a 500-word essay on the topic.....
"How does my county government make life better for me?"
Take a class fieldtrip to a county commission meeting! Ask your county commissioners to come speak to the class! Find out what your county commission is working on in your county and encourage your students to write about it from the perspective of an 8th grader and why it matters to them.
A committee of commissioners and CCAWV Staff will serve as judges of the contest. All entries must be emailed by 5:00 pm April 30, 2013 to qualify. (Please see complete rules attached)
Entries should be emailed to: vivian@ccawv.org
For more information, please contact Vivian Parsons at CCAWV vivian@ccawv.org or at 304-345-4639.
A winner will be announced by May 24, 2013
Please down the form here.
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CCAWV has completed their Annual Regional Roundtable Meetings and is getting ready for the 2013 Legislative Session. Vivian was on the road most of November and December meeting with county commissioners and legislators to promote our 2013 Legislative Platform, which centers around regional jail cost containment issues.
We discussed CCA's support for new methodologies for collecting current outstanding court costs and how increased collections alone could help county budgets as well as the Regional Jail Authority and other state agencies and programs that receive a portion of these court cost collections. We also explained CCAWV's support for legislation that would require sharing of jail costs among all arresting entities. We feel by requiring the arresting officer's entity to pay the first day's per diem, everyone has "skin-in-the-game" and that will lead to better administrative decisions on all sides of the issue. Further, we encouraged Commissioners to work with their County Prosecutors to routinely request that the Judge require the convicted person to pay some or all of their incarceration costs. This is a provision already in statue, but is perhaps underused.
We had a great turnout at all of the meetings and all the discussions were very good. These meetings are a great opportunity for Commissioners and Legislators to discuss local county issues in an informal setting. We would like to thank everyone who participated and made these meetings such a success! We'd like to publicly thank all our host counties that provided meeting space and some great refreshments. And now...on to the Legislative Session