1. Sept. 11, Hurricane Katrina, Expose Faulty Intergovernmental Assumptions - U.S. Newswire (press release) - Washington, DC, USA

...

In the repercussions of the governmental response to Hurricane Katrina, Stever feels even more strongly now that this disaster will have an effect on American intergovernmental relations.

 

"Federal governments are a delicate mix of national authority on one hand, versus state and local authority on the other," Stever said. "Disasters, particularly widespread disasters, can affect multiple states and hundreds of local jurisdictions. The American intergovernmental system developed incrementally over nearly 230 years and was never designed to mitigate or properly contain the effects of large-scale disasters.

"

As the scale and scope of a disaster increases, the intergovernmental management challenges will mount, Stever said.

 

"An oil spill in one Alaskan harbor affects only one locality, one state and one federal government," he said. "This is a simple intergovernmental problem. Contrast this to a dirty bomb scenario along the Atlantic Coast. Even a medium yield device would create a hazardous plume requiring the cooperation of multiple governors, multiple federal agencies including the military, and hundreds of localities.

 

"This is an intergovernmental nightmare because the disaster's deadly embrace has thrown together a multitude of actors and elements of the federal system that are not accustomed to working together. Not only must they willingly cooperate, but do so rapidly and effectively."

 

According to Stever, as the span of a disaster increases so do the statistical chances that an inept or irrational agency official, governor or local official will disrupt and frustrate the entire disaster response. Katrina demonstrated how one or more dysfunctional jurisdictions in the intergovernmental management chain can delay and impede the disaster response, he said.

 

"As the scale and scope of the disaster increases, the resources available for distribution to affected state and local governments decrease," Stever said. "This deadly logic suggests that amidst a complex, extensive disaster, some localities will receive minimal and delayed outside help. A resource-starved local official is much more likely to complain and blame the state and/or federal government."

 

 2. Open Days European Week of Regions and Cities - EUROPA (press release), Belgium - Oct 4, 2005

 

Committee of the Regions (CoR) President Peter Straub welcomes UK Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, European Parliament President Josep Borrell and Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner to the CoR’s Plenary Session in Brussels on 12-13 October.

 

The meeting, to be attended for the first time by observer members from Romania and Bulgaria, will be the focal event of the 2005 Open Days European Week of Regions and Cities, organised by the CoR and European Commission Directorate General for Regional Policy with the support of the European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development. The programme includes three flagship debates and 66 workshops, hosted by 106 regions and cities from 26 countries. Nearly 2,500 participants have already registered to take part.

...

 

 3. County to put CVG on hot seat - Cincinnati Post - OH,USA

 

Frustrated Hamilton County officials are looking forward to sounding off about the direction the Kenton County Airport Board is taking operating the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

 

William T. Robinson, chairman of the airport board, accepted an invitation to attend a Hamilton County Board of Commissioners meeting Thursday downtown. The key topics: the airport's plans to deal with Delta Air Lines' bankruptcy and the quest to lure low-cost carriers.

...

Rhodes said it is unfair for an airport that serves all of Greater Cincinnati to be run by Kenton County instead of a board that includes voting members from throughout the region.

 

"All we ever hear around here is regionalism, regionalism, regionalism, yet this entity here is anything but," he said. "You have essentially what is an out-of-county entity that is controlling development in western Hamilton County."

...

RCs: Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI)    Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission

Northern Kentucky ADD

 

 4. 'Think regional' theme as professionals gather - Cincinnati Enquirer - Cincinnati, OH, USA

 

Selling the Cincinnati region to outsiders took center stage at the second annual Bold Fusion young professionals event Friday afternoon at Longworth Hall near the Cincinnati riverfront.

 

Two panels, featuring both entrepreneurial up-and-comers and established movers and shakers from Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, spoke to a sold-out crowd of about 400.

 

Bill Butler, chairman of Covington-based developer Corporex, echoed the sentiments of all the panelists by saying that Cincinnati has to think regionally, beyond the boundaries of the Ohio River.

 

"I see this as a 360-degree city," said Butler, who is in talks to develop The Banks between Cincinnati's stadiums and will erect a boldly designed condo building from architect Daniel Libeskind in Covington. He said although Libeskind's Ascent at Roebling's Bridge will be in Kentucky, "I think Cincinnati will claim it as its own, and something that will change the skyline of the city."

...

 

 5. Grants could boost water projects - Marin Independent-Journal - San Rafael, CA, USA

 

Marin is in line for $2.5 million in state grants for water recycling and desalination projects as part of a $38 million Bay Area-wide grant application.

 

If the grants are approved, Marin would receive about $1.5 million for Marin Municipal Water District's desalination program, and $1 million for a pilot project to recycle treated wastewater from North Marin Water District into an irrigation stream for the StoneTree Golf Club course in Novato, said Harry Seraydarian of the North Bay Watershed Association.

 

Seraydarian said the grant proposals are just one leg in a new wave of regional water supply planning taking shape in recent months. The efforts tap into state Proposition 50 bond money, approved by voters in November 2002, but just now trickling down to the various regions in the state.

 

"It's pretty clear now that the issue is, 'What's a region?'" he said. "The state is encouraging large regional areas to submit proposals."

 

Marin Supervisor Cynthia Murray, chairwoman of a task force called the Bay Area Water Forum, said the Bay Area has already received approval for two state grants totaling about $800,000 to work on a regional water plan.

 

Murray, a charter member of the 5-year-old North Bay Watershed Association, said that the North Bay group supports the regional planning efforts. The association is a group of 15 water-related agencies in Marin, Sonoma and Napa.

 

"Many agencies throughout California are using an integrated regional water management plan to aid in identifying opportunities for assuring water reliability and quality, water recycling and reuse, flood control, water conservation and other efforts," Murray said.

 

Seraydarian said "water regionalism" will be addressed at an April 7 conference in Napa organized by the North Bay Watershed Association.

...

 

RC: Association of Bay Area Governments

 

 6. County on verge of massive failure - Santa Maria Times - Santa Maria, CA, USA

 

...I can compare the lessons learned while watching our local government here in Santa Barbara County to the levee failure in New Orleans, as representative of local and state government failure in general.

In New Orleans, the catastrophic failure of the levees was accurately predicted in plenty of time for the local and state governments to respond accordingly, but because the local and state governments failed to act, the levees failed and the feds, meaning taxpayers nationwide, are now expected to clean up the mess.

 

We are on the verge of experiencing a cataclysmic failure here in Santa Barbara County, although it will not be deadly like what New Orleans experienced. It will lead to forms of suffering nonetheless.

 

... Who is responsible for this debacle? A group of local politicians who sit on what is called the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments. ...

 

 7. California eyes increased role in land use - Inside Bay Area - CA,USA

 

... a political debate is taking shape in California over who should control land use. As the states population continues to expand, the question is whether decisions about the development of limited amounts of land are too important to serve only parochial interests of a city or county and should be overseen, or perhaps even overruled, by regional or state agencies. The states ever-increasing pressure on local governments to expand land dedicated to housing is one venue for the debate, but others are emerging.

 

Weve already decided that certain regions should have a higher level of land use control. The Coastal Commission, created in response to a voter mandate three decades ago, has the ultimate authority to decide what development can, and cannot, occur in the 1,000-mile-long, precisely defined coastal zone. And a similar agency wields similar authority in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

...

 

 8. Daring sharing may ease burden - NorthJersey.com - Hackensack, NJ, USA

 

The city nestled along the river was once a booming industrial and agricultural center, attracting families from all over the world. In recent decades, industry moved away and jobs disappeared.

 

Its housing stock is aging now and its residents earn among the lowest median incomes in the area; its schools struggle and its crime rate is high. It's a city looking to reinvent itself.

 

It sounds like Passaic, but it's Brooklyn Park, Minn. Like Passaic, Brooklyn Park struggles to keep its property taxes down. Unlike Passaic, it has help from a regional tax-base sharing program.

 

Tax-base sharing pools property-tax revenue from a defined area and redistributes it on the basis of population and the value of the community's tax base.

 

For cities with a large number of tax-exempt properties, tax-base sharing is the best solution for their financial woes, said Donald Krueckeberg, an associate dean of the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

...

Myron Orfield, an expert on local government policy and finance and executive director of the Institute on Race and Poverty examined how a statewide tax-base sharing program might effect New Jersey cities and towns. In a model he created using demographic mapping, he redistributed 40 percent of the growth in property tax base in the northern half of the state from 1993 to 2003, based on population. His study was published by the nonprofit Metropolitan Area Research Corp.

...

9. Regional cooperation is key to economic progress: experts - Webindia123 – India

 

Regional economic, financial, energy and scientific cooperation is key to comprehensive development of Asia for synergic growth in the globalised context, experts averred here today.

 

They were participating in the inaugural session of the three-day seminar on ''Regional Economic and Financial Cooperation in Asia-2005'' which is a curtain raiser to the eleventh annual meeting of the Asian Exim Banks.

...

10. Regional hurricane response plan looks as deficient as New Orleans - Daytona Beach News-Journal - Daytona, FL, USA

 

In Volusia County we do not have to worry about 20 feet of flood water being present for days to weeks. But flood damage in the event of a major hurricane is expected to extend from the beach to beyond Interstate 95. Of course, it wouldn't be important; with a major hurricane all of the structures on the peninsula would be destroyed or damaged beyond restoration, and a truly major storm would cause damage at least as far as DeLand.

 

This is the storm picture painted in the study of the East Florida Regional Planning Council. Although the study has been available for years, just like the situation in Louisiana, there has been no planning for such an event, for preparations, for cleanup, for recovery -- actually for any of the steps shown to be important by New Orleans' disaster.

 

The present evacuation plan is just the same -- a recommendation to leave. A mandatory evacuation may be ordered, but there is currently no provision for people without transportation or without funds to use public or private transportation -- and no plan to mobilize such transportation. The needs of hospitals, nursing homes, care centers and even families with special problems are ignored. You're on your own, bub.

 

Further, there is no plan for mobilization of relief efforts. Maybe the president won't be on vacation doing nothing for two days -- but there is no local, state or federal action plan to get the word of the need for action to the right people.

...

 

11. Straight from Google.

 

      a) A new day for LAX - Los Angeles Daily News - Los Angeles, CA, USA

... This someone should also support regionalization, which is the only sensible way to accommodate additional air traffic in the greater Los Angeles area. ...

 

      b) Volunteers and officers get tips on terrorism - Louisville Courier-Journal - Louisville, KY, USA

... community members can help police notice suspicious activity, said John Mills, the former officer who now works with Regional Community Policing Institute in ...

 

      c) Hunua tracks closed for goat control - Scoop.co.nz (press release) - New Zealand

The Auckland Regional Council will close several tracks in Hunua Ranges Regional Park from October 10th to October 28th 2005 for goat control. ...

 

      d) Underground water supplies protected - Clovis News Journal - Clovis, NM, USA

State Engineer John D'Antonio declared administration rights over six new underground water basins and extended the boundaries of nine existing underground ...

 

      e) Kevin Rudd: Downer ducks bird flu - Australian – Australia

 
... Labor underlined the absolute importance of the regional dimensions of this challenge if Australia is to be able to deal with it effectively: "Avian flu could ...

 

      f) Lessons from Katrina and Rita: Curtail coastal development - Oxford Press - Oxford, OH, USA

... Experts say the solution falls on the shoulders of governments, but also on individuals. ... A lot of governments are woefully ill-prepared. ...

 

      g) Regional tier system is a mistake - New Vision - Kampala, Uganda

... The Bill (regional tier), now awaiting ratification by the district councils, provides that a regional government shall be led by a directly-elected chairperson ...

 

      h) Bimstec regional gas, power network proposed - Webindia123 – India

... To achieve the objective of greater energy cooperation for regional development, the member countries have agreed to set up a Bimstec Centre of Energy.

 

      i) HOWARD'S WAY GETS PEOPLE BACK TO WORK - Hexham Courant - Hexham, Lake District, UK

... Formerly of the Cookson Group and latterly of Calder Industrial Materials, Howard has also had involvement with the CBI Northern Regional Council and the North ...

 

      j) Rock snot's a big blow to rivers - Manawatu Standard - Manawatu, New Zealand

... Both Fish & Game and Horizons Regional Council are likely to liaise with Biosecurity New Zealand, which is responsible for monitoring and controlling the ...

 

 

12. Other U.S. regional communities in news articles.

 

      a) Band together for water's sake - SouthCoastToday.com - New Bedford, MA, USA

... This fall, the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District and the Nature Conservancy are urging selectmen in the towns to sign a ...

 

      b) Program encourages safety on rural roads - Ledger Independent - Maysville, KY, USA

... Mason County Road Department have partnered with the University of Kentucky Safety Circuit Rider Program, the Buffalo Trace Area Development District and the ...

 

      c) Sewer line for new plant may be first step toward county utility ... - The Free Lance-Star - Fredericksburg, VA, USA

... The Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission staff prepared the grant application, according to Executive Director Mark van de Water. ...

 

      d) Daniels: Toll Road plan key to highway projects - South Bend Tribune - South Bend, IN, USA

... Michiana Area Council of Governments Director Sandra Seanor said the only long-range project not included on the highway funding list is a segment of Indiana ...

 

      e) Pulaski County Commission  - Richland Mirror - Richland, MO, USA

... Tom Stehn district engineer for District 9 of MoDOT, said the Meramec Regional Planning Commission could be helpful in the grant effort. ...

 

      f) Hudson Valley is fast becoming metropolitan, says regional planner - Mid-Hudson News - Newburgh, NY, USA

... to the south. That was the assessment of Robert Yaro, president of the New York City-based Regional Plan Association. Yaro, who ...

 

      g) County declines loan to URCOG - The News-Review - Roseburg, OR, USA

 

Douglas County commissioners on Wednesday turned down a request from the Umpqua Regional Council of Governments  for a $30,000 short-term loan.

Dan Huff, URCOG's interim director, sought the loan to help loosen his organization's cash flow situation.

After the county took over responsibility for transportation services for elderly and disabled riders from URCOG on July 1, it meant a change in how money provided by the state for those services is distributed.

Rather than going directly to URCOG, which then distributed the money to its programs and those of other providers, the funding now is routed to the county to give to the providers. The change has created a lag in how soon URCOG receives its share, creating a short-term problem for the organization.

In denying the request, Commissioners Dan Van Slyke and Marilyn Kittelman said URCOG already benefits from free office space provided by the county, along with telephones and connection to the county's computer network.

Still, Kittelman praised URCOG for working to make improvements to Umpqua Transit, the local bus carrier.

Huff said he would look for other ways to make up for the temporary shortfall.
 

13. Other in the news:

 

      a) Study: Sun's Changes to Blame for Part of Global Warming - LiveScience.com, NY

 
Increased output from the Sun might be to blame for 10 to ... should be corrected to better account for changes in solar ... The new study is based in part on Columbia ...

 

      b) Car Culture - DesMoinesRegister.com - Des Moines, IA, USA

... Everything from the design of our communities, our infrastructure and our environment has been influenced by our need for highways, parking ramps, garages and ...

 

      c) The new threat: Subway map sharing? - Corante – USA

... public identifies them. A new map may look very much like the old ones without copying any copyrightable expression. So long as ...

 

14. Announcements

 

      a) “Lessons from Merger Workshop” by Louisville Metro government  November 8 – 9  and “Collaborative Governance—Is Your Community Ready?”  November 10-11, 2005 – Alliance for Regional Stewardship

 

Register by October 19 to receive the Early Bird rate. There are discounts for Alliance members and regional teams. The Forum will be held at the historic Brown Hotel, a treasured landmark in downtown Louisville. For additional information, contact Amy Carrier, Alliance Manager, at amy@... or (303) 477-9443.

 

      b) DataPlace Launched by Knowledgeplex  –

 

Data Place is a  free, online source for housing and demographic statistics about a community, a region, and the nation. Demographic, economic, housing, and mortgage lending data from the decennial census, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, Section 8 Expiring Use, and other data sets are available. KnowledgePlex

 

      c) Lesson RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries   from GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) a worldwide hands-on, primary and secondary school-based education and science program.

 

 

15. Data & IT  

 

      a) Data based decision-making key to good governance - CIOL - Bangalore, India

 

NEW DELHI: The government and its various departments have been using data mining and analysis to arrive at intelligent and informed decisions. It is very important to make use of data for decision making, which impacts the citizens of the country.

 

"Requirement of data driven decision making is a prerequisite for good governance. India has been talking of the digital divide between rural and urban areas but this divide exists within the offices and institutions of the government too", said Lt. Gen. Davinder Kumar, signal officer in chief, Army Headquarters, while speaking at the inaugural session of a seminar on Data Drive Decision Making - The Power to Know, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here today.

 

While citing several examples where data driven decision-making has led to good governance in the Indian system, Lt. Gen Kumar said: "we need to integrate the islands of excellence to give decisions which the citizens deserve."

...

 

      b) Cities Take on Wi-Fi Challenge - CIO Today - Woodland Hills, CA, USA

 

The City of Philadelphia is taking the next step in its ambitious plan to deliver wireless  broadband  to the masses by giving the nod to EarthLink to roll out what could be the nation's largest municipal Wi-Fi  network.

 

It is one of a number of similar projects in the works for other cities, including San Francisco, where search giant Google  is mounting a bid to deliver Wi-Fi services there to "bridge the digital divide," although analysts contend that local governments face some significant challenges in bringing the projects to fruition.

...

 

16. Subscription link stories 

 

      a) Poll: Majority here dislikes toll roads - Austin American-Statesman (subscription) - Austin, TX, USA

 

It's official: A clear majority of Central Texans don't much care for toll roads.

 

This "well, duh" insight comes to us courtesy of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, which builds toll roads ...

 

So, if most of us don't like paying tolls for these roads, then it follows that we must support raising gasoline taxes to build road improvements, right? Well, no. Asked how to pay for improvements, 38 percent said tolls were the answer, 37 percent opted for a gas tax hike and 25 percent had no response.

 

"It shows us we have a lot of work to do" in the public relations and education area, said Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the mobility authority.

...

f nothing else, mobility authority officials said, the poll accomplished two ends.

 

It will provide a baseline so that later, after Central Texans have begun using some of the six toll roads under construction or the four in the planning phase, the presumably more toll-friendly attitudes will stand in positive contrast to the survey.

 

And they said it debunks the 93 percent-hate-tolls figure often cited ...

 

RC: Capital Area Council of Governments

 

      b) To-do lists getting longer as security spending grows - Dallas Morning News (subscription) - TX,USA

 

Since the terrorist strikes on America, about $215 million has been spread across Dallas and its six surrounding counties in the interest of homeland security.

 

The federal money has helped secure potential targets, supported volunteer groups and expanded health departments, while providing $81 million to train and equip those who would respond to another attack.

 

Government officials say police, firefighters and emergency managers are better prepared for disaster across North Texas and beyond. Yet gaps and challenges remain.

 

First responders may have more trucks and trailers, radios and laptop computers, hazmat suits and bomb robots.

 

But state officials aren't certain recipients know how to properly use the equipment.

 

And everyone in the field can't communicate with one another – a problem officials say they are addressing.

 

Development of Texas regional disaster response plans remains a goal, as it was long before Hurricane Katrina exposed slow government response and before traffic jams and fuel shortages marred the state's aggressive preparations for Hurricane Rita.

...

Federal homeland security priorities are turning to such presumed threats and vulnerabilities.

 

"We need to be driven by risk. And that means that the resources have to go where they will do the most good," Secretary Michael Chertoff told the House Homeland Security Committee in April.

 

Competing bills that would link all responder grants to risk, instead of population, have passed the House and Senate. The House version would require states to establish grant budgets, specify how the money would be used and spend it as proposed – rules that don't exist today.

 

Texas has used population – and in the past year, potential threats as well – to allocate responder grants to the state's 24 councils of governments that monitor local purchases. "They know best," Mr. McCraw said. "We don't tell them what to buy."

...