Keeping counties in mind on campaign trail

NCACC strategic goals team’s plan addresses county concerns with candidates, incoming state leaders

By Rebecca Troutman
Intergovernmental Relations Director

The Association has made a lot of progress in its effort to redefine the state-county relationship, one of the five strategic goals adopted by the Board of Directors in 2005. The creation and extension of the State and Local Fiscal Modernization Commission and the elimination of county Medicaid costs and additional county revenue authority as provided in the 2007 State Appropriations Act are indicators of this evolving and improving relationship.

More needs to be done though, and counties individually and collectively must ready themselves for the upcoming transition of state leadership. Next year’s gubernatorial and legislative elections will bring a new set of policy-makers to Raleigh. The NCACC welcomes this opportunity for counties to further strengthen their partnership with the new governor and his or her cabinet around county issues, as well as with freshmen legislators unfamiliar with county government.

In the course of carrying out county responsibilities, counties interact with most state departments and divisions. An important first step in creating a partnership is to clarify roles and responsibilities as well as share with others what counties do. For counties and the Association, this means working with the new governor and his or her staff, new state legislators, and new and returning state agency secretaries and their deputies to help them understand the issues and challenges facing counties and what the state/county partnership looks like from the perspective of county government.

The staff team charged with achieving the goal of improving the state-county relationship has drafted a number of strategies by agent of state government to help these new leaders know and understand county issues. A workshop held at the 2007 Annual Conference enabled the review and comment of the team’s thoughts to date and requested feedback from county commissioners and managers, along with ideas for individual county contributions to introduce county government to our new state leaders. Dan Gerlach, special budget advisor to Gov. Mike Easley, also participated in reviewing and enriching Team 3’s strategies. The NCACC Board of Directors signed off on the transition plan at its Oct. 26 meeting.

As gubernatorial campaigns begin in earnest, we believe it important that candidates think about counties and the role counties play in delivering state services. Very little concrete action takes place on Jones Street – counties are largely the implementers of new or restructured state programs and services. As candidates set forth their individual initiatives to advance the state, they should consider how best to include counties in their planning and implementation strategies.

With that in mind, announced candidates for governor will be asked three initial questions as they hit the campaign trail. Their responses will be shared with all counties via CountyLines and the Association’s Web site.

• What concrete steps would your administration take to strengthen and improve the relationship between state and county governments in North Carolina, thereby creating a true partnership?
• What could the state and counties do to plan for and manage the state’s changing demographics – including an influx of newcomers, an aging population and a growing bilingual population?
• What steps would you take to ensure all groups of county governments – urban and rural – are dealt with individually or regionally, as opposed to a “one size fits all” approach?

The Association will also continue its practice and invite the Democrat and Republican gubernatorial candidates to the 2008 Annual Conference to address our county membership at large.

Following the election, the transition plan calls for a number of action steps to highlight and promote county government within the new administration. For example, the NCACC Executive Committee hopes to meet with the new governor and his or her principal staff to discuss administrative priorities and county contributions. NCACC advocacy staff will meet early on with the governor’s transition team to offer support and guidance on the most pressing issues facing county governments and state agencies. We will set regular meetings between the NCACC advocacy staff and governor’s intergovernmental relations director to continue that dialogue and identify and address items of concerns.

To help educate new departmental secretaries and their principal staff, we plan to develop and disseminate a summary of county responsibilities for delivering services specific to that department and provide a single point of staff contact for any follow up. New state administrators will be introduced to county membership through features in CountyLines and via possible attendance at an NCACC Board of Directors meeting.

Finally, special attention will need to be paid to freshmen legislators. Association staff plans to work with the School of Government to facilitate training and/or materials to educate new legislators about counties and the state services they provide. Counties will be asked to sponsor meetings with local delegations before the 2009 long session begins, and Association staff will explore sponsoring a series of local government summits with invitees from all areas – legislative, the Governor’s Office and department heads – to continue to advance a positive and constructive intergovernmental partnership.