NACo Health Policy Advocate Paul Beddoe addresses the NCACC Board of Directors from Washington, D.C., via video conference. The presentation fed into an exercise that in part asked Board members how the Association can use technology to enhance its advocacy and communications efforts. (Photos by Jason King)

Board takes a look at advocacy

Association seeks to build upon legislative successes

• Presentations from the Oct. 23-24 meeting

What have you found to be successful when you make a request of your local legislator? How can the NCACC utilize newer technologies and forms of communication to enhance its advocacy efforts? These were but two of the questions that members of the NCACC's Board of Directors were asked during an exercise on successful advocacy held during the Oct. 23-24 Board meeting in Guilford County.

District 16 Director Charlie Messer of Henderson County participates in an exercise Oct. 24 designed to identify successful advocacy practices.

The brainstorming and work session concluded a meeting that featured several presentations and uses of newer technologies designed to help advocacy staff revamp the Association's advocacy efforts and further an NCACC strategic goal to enhance the ability of county officials to represent counties and the NCACC on local, statewide and national issues.

Two experts on successful advocacy – Andy Willis, Governor Beverly Perdue's senior advisor for governmental affairs, and N.C. Rep. Dale Folwell of Forsyth County – addressed the Board.

Willis told Board members that you must be clear and concise when lobbying, and act as an educator of an issue.

"When I was with the Fiscal Research Division for about seven years, we learned to despise lobbyists. We did not like them," he said. "But toward the end of my tenure there I realized that lobbyists and advocates have a very, very important role in the process: primarily to educate the legislators on the issues."

Rep. Dale Folwell addressed the Board during the Oct. 23 dinner and talked about how advocacy groups approach him to talk about potential legislation.

"They don't care what I know until they know that I care," he said.

In other matters, the Board:

• authorized staff to move forward with a proposal to bring Risk Management claims in-house. Claims services are currently provided by Sedgwick. The transition will not only result in a better level of customer service but will help the Pools control claims more effectively, said Risk Management Director Lester J. Nixon.

According to Nixon, internal claims management will not only result in an annual savings of $350,000, it will allow for greater member education, support a philosophy of member-driven services, enhance risk control services, facilitate greater interaction between members and the Pools, and reinforce the Pools' member-owned identity.

The transition will result in 19 new positions – 15 in Risk Management, one in information technology and three in finance – and will require the remodeling of the Association's space at the Quorum Center. The proposal calls for the transition to become effective Jan. 1, 2011.

• received an update on three appellate-level cases that the Board had authorized NCACC participation.

In Beaufort County Board of Education v. Beaufort County Board of Commissioners, the state Supreme Court declared that jury instruction in the case was inadequate, stating that the financial resources of the county and the fiscal policies of the county should be reviewed when resolving school budget disputes. This clarification is advantageous to counties, according to NCACC General Counsel Jim Blackburn.

In Tonter Investments v. Pasquotank County, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals upheld Pasquotank County's zoning authority with respect to a 10-acre exemption in the general statutes that relates to subdivision regulation.

A challenge to Union County's Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance for school facilities has yet to be ruled on by the Court of Appeals. The county's position in Union Landowners Association v. Union County was upheld by a trial court.

• approved the expenditure of up to $15,000 for defense in the case Sugar Creek Charter School et. al. v. State of North Carolina. Seven counties – Cleveland, Edgecombe, Halifax, Mecklenburg, Nash, Rutherford and Union – and the boards of education located in those counties have been named defendants in the lawsuit, which challenges the constitutionality of the general statutes prohibiting state and county funding of charter schools.

Since four of those counties – Cleveland, Edgecombe, Nash and Rutherford – are members of the Association's Liability and Property Pool, the NCACC will be able to participate in the initial defense of the lawsuit.