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News & Notes
FAC 2008 Legislative Day

The FAC 2008 Legislative Day will be held Wednesday, March 26, in Leon County. Click here to visit the FAC Website for all of the details including a preliminary schedule of events, hotel information and online registration. This year's event is being held at the brand-new Residence Inn by Marriott - Universities at the Capitol. The hotel is located one block south of the Leon County Civic Center and near the Capitol (approx. 3 blocks). Parking is free to all attendees. The Residence Inn also serves a hot breakfast buffet each morning, which is complimentary for all guests of the hotel.

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FAC Annual Conference & Exposition

The FAC Annual Conference and Exposition will be held June 24-27 at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa (Miami-Dade County). Our room block is officially open for reservations. Visit www.flcounties.com/fcf/facconferences/annualconference.shtml for hotel information, a preliminary schedule of events, and golf tournament registration.

FAC Legislative Update
TBRC to debate TABOR amendments!

For a complete county by county break down of Amendment 1 voting click here.

The TBRC will be back in full force next week. On Monday, February 11, the Finance and Taxation Committee will begin a marathon session which will extend into Tuesday, February 12, as necessary to cover several issues. On Monday the committee will discuss CP45, relating to state and local government spending limits, as well as CP41, relating to revenue caps for state and local government. This promises to be a very involved discussion with public testimony. The committee will then discuss the issues resulting from the January 29 ballot issue and whether and how to proceed with ad valorem and tax equity issues. The committee will consider proposals ranging from working waterfronts and presumption of correctness of property appraisers to mandatory review of sales tax exemptions and exclusions to reduce required local effort. The committee will vote on several of the proposals, including CP2, by John McKay, relating to reduction of ad valorem required local effort and replacement of revenues from sales tax review.

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Opinion Issued in Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River System Litigation

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an opinion in the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River System Litigation on February 5th. In this case, the States of Alabama and Florida contended that an agreement reached among Southeastern Federal Power Customers, Inc., a group of Georgia water suppliers, and the US Army Corp of Engineers violates the federal Water Supply Act, the Flood Control Act, and the National Environmental Protection Act.

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Strategic Aggregates Review Task Force Issues Final Report

The Strategic Aggregates Review Task Force has wrapped up its meetings and issued its final report. The recommendations at the end of the report are divided between "consensus issues" and "non-consensus issues." For the non-consensus issues, differing options were proposed by various task force members, and those options were all included in the report. Because the group was so split on many of these, they elected not to vote so they would not have several close votes that could be the subject of scrutiny from various stakeholders. Instead, the options are all given equal treatment, with an introductory paragraph that summarizes the position of the major stakeholders.

Some options call for better mapping and planning regarding construction aggregate. Others call for various degrees of local government preemption on environmental issues.

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Governor Crist Proposes Pilot for the Uninsured

The Governor has proposed a 3-year, $64 million indigent health care pilot program that would be implemented in 14 counties around the state with a high number of uninsured residents. The new program would send social workers door-to-door in targeted neighborhoods to screen residents for possible enrollment in existing government health care programs.

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New Secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice

Governor Crist announced today that Representative Peterman (D- Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota), who is from the Governor's hometown of St. Petersburg and is termlimited from running for reelection in the House, will become the new Secretary for the Department of Juvenile Justice. Former Secretary McNeil accepted the Governor's request to serve as the new Secretary of the Department of Corrections after Secretary McDonough submitted his resignation.

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Blueprint Commission Releases Recommendations

Commissioner Eggelletion (Broward), Chairman of the Public Safety Committee, traveled up to Tallahassee this week to meet with Legislators and voice the Association's support of several items found in the Blueprint Commission's Recommendations. Commissioner Eggelletion testified in front of the Juvenile Justice Council after the Blueprint Commission's recommendations were presented and specifically commended the Commission's endorsement of the Juvenile Detention Assessment Initiative (JDAI).

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Criminal Justice Items in Governor's Proposed Budget for 2008-2009

The number of employees being proposed for the Civil and Criminal Regional Conflict Counsels (CCRCC) created from last year's SB 1088 has stayed the same throughout the state; however, the salary/ benefit amounts have gone up roughly 15-20%. Missing from each region's appropriations were two line items that included the one time appropriations to cover the cost for IT and facilities for the CCRCC.

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Florida Counties Receive More Than $8 Million Over Three Years in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Funding

Twenty two matching grants have been awarded statewide through the Florida Substance Abuse and Mental Health Corporation to those areas striving to address their community needs for substance abuse and mental health services. The grant awards are part of the Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Act and Grant which passed during the 2007 Legislative Session. The Act addresses the need for specialized programs for individuals with mental health, substance abuse or co-occurring disorders who are at risk of entering the criminal justice system.

The new matching grant program encourages partnerships among state, local and private organizations to collectively address the need for treatment of individuals in Florida's county jails and state prisons.

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DHS Announces $12.14 Billion for Border Security & Immigration Enforcement Efforts

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff previewed a 19 percent increase over Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 in funding for border security and immigration enforcement efforts in FY 2009. This represents a more than 150 percent increase since President Bush has been in office, enabling the department to fulfill its border infrastructure, fencing and personnel goals by the end of 2008.

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Commission on Open Government Reform

The commission created by Governor Crist to review, evaluate and issue recommendations on Florida's public records and meeting laws is holding its next series of public hearings in Sarasota County on February 12-13, 2008, at the New College of Florida. On the agenda this month are several Florida newspaper publishers, representatives of Florida's city clerks, and the Florida Departments of Law Enforcement and Health. More information, including transcripts of the previous two public hearings can be found at www.flgov.com/og_commission_home.

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NACo Annual Conference and Exposition July 11-15, 2008

Registration is now open for the NACo Annual Conference and Exposition Registration for the NACo Annual Conference, which will be held July 11-15 in Jackson County (Kansas City), Mo. is now open. The Florida host hotel will be the Hilton President, Kansas City, located in the heart of downtown and within walking distance of the Kansas City Convention Center, theatre district, and financial district. This recently renovated hotel has all of the modern amenities but with the classic charm of the 1920's. For more information click here: Link to NACo Annual Conference Registration Page

Florida Local Governments File Suit Over PEG Channels

In the early winter, the Cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa filed suit, in federal court, against Bright House Networks, Case No. 8:07-CV-021505-T-24-MSS, seeking to prohibit it from moving the public, educational, and government channels ("PEG" channels") from the basic analog tier service to digital service. The move requires customers who wish to have PEG channel access to either upgrade from the basic tier service to the more expensive digital service tier or pay a monthly converter box fee in addition to the basic tier service cost. The cities argue that under the federal cable act, 47 U.S.C. 531, Bright House must provide PEG channel access on its basic tier service.

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Holmes County Wins $18,000 Health Grant from NACo

The National Association of Counties' has awarded Holmes County $18,000 worth of expert technical assistance to help strengthen the local health care system. Holmes was one of three rural counties across the country selected to receive grant awards totaling $54,000 through the Rural Health Works Technical Assistance Grant Program, which is designed to help rural counties their local health care systems. These grants dollars will help to provide the tools necessary for rural counties to keep their health care dollars and services at home.

The program is funded through the Office of Rural Health Policy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Since 2005, nine counties throughout the country have received Rural Health Works grants totaling more than $144,000.

Firefighters Employment, Standards & Training Council Vacancy

FAC currently has a vacancy on the Firefighters Employment, Standards, and Training Council (FFESTC /administered by the Division of State Fire Marshal). If you are interested in representing FAC on this Council, contact Heather McKenna at the FAC office for further information.

DJJ Offers Training on New Electronic Dispute System

The Department of Juvenile Justice will offer two identical training sessions to allow counties the opportunity to provide feedback and become familiar with the new electronic dispute system the Department has designed prior to its July 2008 implementation. The first session will be held in Tampa on Friday, February 22nd from 2-4 pm, and in Miami on Monday, February 25th from 10 am - noon. For more information on locations, directions and other questions, e-mail Beth Davis with DJJ.

"Jails As A Part of Small County Government" Seminar A Success

"Jails as a part of Small County Government" Seminar was hosted by the Florida Sheriff's Association, the National Institute of Corrections, and the FAC last Monday through Wednesday in Madison County. Thank you for all counties that participated. As part of the seminar participants broke out into groups and discussed building effective relationships around jail issues. Below are the conclusions the different groups determined. Participants divided into three groups: County Commissioners, Sheriffs, and Jail Administrators.

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FAC Out and About

We want to hear from you! In order to better serve our members, FAC's Membership and Marketing Coordinator has been traveling the state visiting with Commissioners and staff. She was recently in Citrus, Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties talking with Commissioners and staff about how FAC can better serve them, education opportunities and the Enterprise Programs FAC has to offer that will save counties money. If you have questions or would like to arrange a visit from FAC, please contact Latoya Washington at 850-922-4300.

Fireworks Task Force Update

The Fireworks Task Force recommendations were presented and then discussed in Senate Agriculture Committee on 2/21/08. The recommendations reflect both the industry and local governments desire to resolve the issue between the illegal sale and use of fireworks and the inconsistent permitting process of fireworks throughout the state without state standards. Mike Long, from the Division of Forestry, who was the Chairman of the Task Force, provided the recommendations to the committee. In his conclusions, he requested that a second task force be established that includes law enforcement and fire safety officials as well as fireworks representatives and local government representation and that the second task force be given the entire next year to develop actual legislative language.

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