Governing.com: 13th Floor

A County's Contracts Go Missing

2009-07-16T04:50:00-04:00

posted by Josh Goodman

Jefferson County, Alabama, is likely the nation's most financially troubled large local government. Alabama's most populous county (home to Birmingham) could go bankrupt because it can't pay the debt from its sewer system. Jefferson County also could go bankrupt for a completely unrelated reason: A judge threw out a tax that provided more than a quarter of its general fund.

To get where it is today, Jefferson County has suffered from a lot of bad luck. But, you'd also struggle to find a worse-managed county.

Too harsh? Check out this story from the Birmingham News and decide for yourself:

Documentation is missing on 123 Jefferson County contracts totaling at least $45 million, with some lacking sufficient information to determine whether the contract is expired or active, according to county records.

Those include contracts between the county and dozens of businesses such as architectural firms, engineering firms, law firms, janitorial services, nursing services and the Birmingham Water Works Board.

In many of the cases, the county is missing the entire contract. In some, only a cover sheet exists. In others, the county has a copy of the contract, but the contract does not specify general conditions of the agreement.

For some local governments, $45 million may be a pittance. In Jefferson County, though, the annual budget is only a bit more than $200 million, so we're talking about real money.

The Future of the Internet is in Lafayette, Louisiana

2009-07-15T03:34:00-04:00

posted by Ellen Perlman

What if you could hold a video conference from your home? What if your doctor could send your MRI electronically to another of your doctors who needs it? What if you could upload a video of your child's soccer game and send it to grandma in seconds?

These are questions that Lafayette, Louisiana, officials have pondered.

And soon, we may all be looking to Lafayette for the future of the Internet.

Lafayette has built a fast fiber-to-the-home Internet service. A municipal one. The project ran headlong into several lawsuits, but the dust has cleared on those. The network is built and sales to customers began early this year. Now, those who sign up for municipal Internet service will be able to communicate with others on the network at super-fast speeds

The cheapest plans offer a speed of 10 megabits per second. But users will be able to communicate 10 times faster with other Lafayette residents on the network because the speed will be "bursted" to 100 megabits per second within the city and county. For no extra cost.

To put it in perspective, that's 10 times faster than already very fast Internet. And more than 100 times faster than the Internet "starter" plan that, for example, Verizon is offering. Basically, Lafayette will have a city Intranet, the way universities and technology companies do. So residents will have a very fast connection within the city-parish "campus."

Critics wonder why residents need such speeds and why the city had to build its own network. An August story in Governing will get into detail about that.

Proponents of high-speed Internet say there are uses for fast Internet that we don't know about now that crop up when the speeds are available. And that many other countries are way ahead of us on broadband speed and applications.

But the U.S. may be starting to catch up. With Lafayette leading the way.

Check Your Gubernatorial Scorecard

2009-07-14T05:36:00-04:00

posted by Alan Greenblatt

Everybody who attends meetings of the National Governors Association wears a name tag imprinted with a photograph. Everyone, that is, except governors.

But as governors prepare to travel to Biloxi, Mississippi, for their annual meeting later this week, maybe they'll want to wear name tags, at least.

Between resignations, impeachment and presidential appointments, there are currently four former lieutenant governors who have taken over the top spot since their state's last election. These include Pat Quinn of Illinois, David Paterson of New York, Mark Parkinson of Kansas and Jan Brewer of Arizona.

This list is going to grow soon. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. looks likely to be confirmed as ambassador to China before the Senate's August recess. And, of course, Sarah Palin of Alaska will be stepping down by the end of the month.

And there will be still more new faces in the coming months and years. Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is term-limited out of office this year. Next year will see no fewer than 37 gubernatorial elections (the normally scheduled 36, plus a special in Utah).

By my count, 15 of the governorships will be open next year due to term limits. In addition, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has already announced he will not seek a third term, while Charlie Crist of Florida, whose term will end next year, has already announced his run for the U.S. Senate instead.

So gubernatorial scorecards are going to need a lot of updating.

Obama's Urban Policy Gets Going

2009-07-13T15:53:39-04:00

posted by Alan Greenblatt

It's not getting much attention here in Washington, with all eyes on the Sotomayor hearing, but President Obama's Office of Urban Affairs held its first big meeting today.

Mayors, governors and policy experts gathered to meet with Adolfo Carrion, the office's director, as well as the secretaries of Labor, HUD, Transportation and Education. Obama is scheduled to drop by to cap off the daylong meetings.

"It's great to have an urban president," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told the Associated Press. "This is the first urban president we've had in a long time. And we've had no policy directed at American cities for the previous eight years. There were zero policies."

We'll have to wait and see whether any concrete policies come out of such discussions, but today's event is being touted as just the start of a long-term effort to prepare for an increasingly urban and metropolitan future.

And the fact that Carrion and his office are finally doing something is news in and of itself. I wrote a long feature for Governing in April, touting the promise of this administration for cities and metros. Since that time, however, there's been little discernible action.

Some of the cabinet departments have been unusually collaborative, but Carrion and his team had done nothing public to suggest that this was at all an administration priority.

Just last week, Politico ran a long piece suggesting that urban affairs was very much on the back burner.

New Jersey Clings to School Districts Without Schools

2009-07-13T15:17:15-04:00

posted by Josh Goodman

I wrote 2,300 words last year about how even the smallest local governments are reluctant to merge with neighbors -- and how states struggle to prod them to consolidate. I should have just linked to this story about New Jersey from the Philadelphia Inquirer and called it a day:

When Gov. [Jon] Corzine signed a bill last week that established a process to eliminate 26 small school districts that do not operate schools, it seemed to many people a no-brainer. Legislative sponsors hailed it as a commonsense step toward consolidation that would save public money and still support education.

...

But, like most things in life and government, it's not that simple.

Critics say some homeowners in the newly merged districts will pay higher property taxes - if not now, then down the line. They also argue that voters should have had a voice in what happened to their districts.

Retreating, Not Advancing

2009-07-04T10:34:21-04:00

posted by Alan Greenblatt

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin offers a sobering variation on the Peter Principle -- the idea that because talented people are usually promoted, they "rise to the level of their incompetence." Most people, if they keep going up, eventually reach a level where they can't cut it.

Palin was clearly not qualified to be president, which is why picking her for vice president was such a bad decision on John McCain's part. But it was her exposure as a vice presidential candidate that ultimately showed Palin's inability to thrive as a governor.

Palin's resignation statement lies so far outside the normal metrics of political calculus that it's already inspired reams of speculation about her "real" motivation. Did she make the mistaken bet that this would position her better for a presidential run, etc.

I'm certainly in the camp that this deals the mortal blow to any further national aspirations she may have entertained. But I'm going to take her at her word -- she felt like her family was suffering in the spotlight and that, once she declared her a lame duck, the job wasn't worth having.

On its face, that's a bad call.

Her family has decided, Palin proudly notes, that it was time to get out of the gubernatorial kitchen. I don't want to question what anyone does for the sake of her family but would only recall that she didn't seem to worry about her young family's possible concerns -- her newborn son, her pregnant teenage daughter -- when she "unblinkingly" accepted the VP nod last year.

But more to the point, she has an entire legislative session to go. Her strength as governor was largely in knowing how to push her advantages as far as she could and also how to play the media -- at least, before her vice presidential run. With oil prices heading back up, there were certainly some pet initiatives she could have pushed -- or further "permanent fund" refunds she could have secured for her citizens.

But aside from guessing what she might have done in Juneau, certainly being governor -- and the country's most famous governor, outside of Arnold Schwarzenegger, at that -- provided her with a better platform to push her views on energy and national security, as she says she intends to do, than any TV gig or whatever else she decides to pursue next.

Simply on principle, however, this decision is an insult. The argument about another Republican governor resigning turns on the question of whether he has become too great an embarrassment to the state, but it's also about the need for leadership for South Carolina. No one says, well, Sanford's only got 18 months left, it doesn't really matter at this point.

And what about all those other lame-duck governors? Nearly every state limits its governor to two terms. Should we expect mass resignations at the end of each governor's seventh legislation session? "You take it from here, boys -- I just don't have it in me to play this out."

Being a governor of a state is a serious job, one that at its quietest requires constant political decision-making and a stickler for management.

Palin had always brilliantly exploited every opportunity that came her way. But she has now blown the great opportunity that was already hers, which is why even supporters have turned so hard against her over the last 24 hours.

Sanford Saga: No Crime Involved

2009-07-02T16:31:43-04:00

posted by Alan Greenblatt

Saying his agency doesn't "intend to be used in a political battle about the governor," Reggie Lloyd, head of South Carolina's State Law Enforcement Division, says he has found no evidence of crime related to Governor Mark Sanford's trips to visit his mistress.

SLED reviewers had access to Sanford's personal financial documents because the governor volunteered them, not because they had any probable cause to request them, Lloyd said.

"The man has been very open with us," he said.

...

"What he did on his own personal time doesn't require him to pay back anything," Lloyd said. "He did that for his own reasons. There was no legal requirement that he pay back any of that."

In other good news for the governor -- who continues to insist he will stay on as governor, Jenny Sanford today issued a statement saying, in part, "I am willing to forgive Mark for his actions."

The Sanford family will spend the holiday weekend together in Florida, visiting the first lady's parents.

The prospective publisher of a Sanford book on fiscal conservatism, however, was less forgiving, releasing Sanford from his contract.

How Many Jobs Does a Playground Make?

2009-07-02T09:50:50-04:00

posted by Ellen Perlman

"When it comes to jump-starting the economy, a playground isn't going to cut it," according to a story in the Virginian Pilot today.

That's what U.S. Housing and Urban Development officials told the Norfolk City Council. The city wanted to spend $50,000 in stimulus funds on a playground, but the feds said that really wouldn't do much for job creation.

So the council voted instead to put the $50,000 toward drainage improvements in the South Suffolk neighborhood. (Not all that fun to play in, really)

Then it moved the same amount of money out of the drainage project and into swings and slides. "In other words, you take money out of your left pocket and put it in your right pocket," Vice Mayor Curtis Milteer Sr. said.

Hmm, is this how it's going down around the country? Other examples out there of projects being rejected for funding or of cities or states moving the money around?

Under Pressure

2009-07-01T20:59:21-04:00

posted by Alan Greenblatt

Always finding new ways to look bad, S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford is backing away from a promise to release financial records relating to his travel to see his "soul mate."

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has backed out of a promise to release personal financial records proving he did not use state money for trips to see his mistress.

A day after Sanford declared in an emotional Associated Press interview that his mistress is his soul mate, spokesman Joel Sawyer says the governor does not want to discuss personal matters in the media anymore.

Too late!

Sanford is still baring his soul to legislators, apparently. Sen. Larry Grooms tells Politico that when he called the governor to say he'd be calling for his resignation, Sanford said, “Senator, you need to understand something. This is a story about true love.”

“His physical presence may be in South Carolina, but I think his mind is in Argentina,” Grooms said.

Blogger Josh Marshall agrees and says "just go be with her!" Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post says it's a question of when, not if, Sanford will resign.

Sen. Tom Davis, Sanford's friend and former chief of staff, has met with the governor and spoken by phone with Jenny Sanford but says he's going to continue to do "due diligence" before taking a public position on the idea of Sanford staying in office. Note that he's not offering Sanford support, necessarily.

Sen. Chip Campsen, another Sanford friend, says he has also reached out to their family but isn't saying publicly whether the governor should stay or go.

$4B in Stimulus Money for Broadband Ready, Biden Announces

2009-07-01T17:10:56-04:00

posted by Ellen Perlman

Finally, $4 billion dollars in loans and grants will be available for expanding broadband access in underserved and un-served areas, Vice President Joe Biden announced Wednesday. It's the first of three rounds of Recovery Act funding for broadband and the administration expects the funds not only will decrease the technological divide but also create jobs building out the infrastructure.

"This funding is a downpayment on the President's commitment to bring the educational and economic benefits of the Internet to all communities," Biden said in a statement.

Applications will be accepted starting July 14 and through August 14.

The Recovery Act allocated $7.2 billion total and the administration hopes this first round will create jobs, inspire additional investment and create "model" projects that "can better inform our national broadband stategy," according to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, former Washington governor.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (U.S. Commerce Department) and the Rural Utilities Service (U.S. Agriculture Department) will accept a single applications form for loans, grants and loan/grant combinations, making it easier to apply for funding.

Commerce and USDA will host public, informational workshops on the funding and the application process this month in Albuquerque, N.M.; Billings, Mont.; Birmingham, Ala.; Boston; Charleston, W.Va.; Lonoke, Ark.; Los Angeles; Memphis, Tenn.; and Minneapolis.

More information at: http://broadbandusa.gov

SC Senate President Calls for Sanford Resignation

2009-07-01T16:05:39-04:00

posted by Alan Greenblatt

Glenn McConnell, Senate President Pro Tempore, joins the chorus:

"That decision is his alone. I do believe, however, that the Governor has lost the support of the people that is needed to govern. Therefore, I would ask the Governor to look in his heart and decide whether with his family situation and the public uproar over what he has done and said locally and nationally whether he can lead our state for the remainder of his term."

Ten Republican state senators have asked the governor to step down, while others say they are leaning in that direction. The Associated Press is reporting that 14 Republican state senators are supporting a resignation, which is a majority of the 27 GOP members.

The Charleston Post and Courier looks at the ramifications for McConnell if Sanford steps down. The state constitution calls for McConnell to take over as lieutenant governor, but that would be a clear demotion in power from his current job.

The count of newspapers calling for resignation stands at six.

Will Sanford Be Forced Out?

2009-07-01T13:50:01-04:00

posted by Alan Greenblatt

The number of Republican senators signing Majority Leader Harvey Peeler's petition for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford to resign is up to 12, out of 27 in the caucus.

In yet another sign that S.C. Republican powers want Gov. Mark Sanford to resign, U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of Greenville this morning urged his fellow Republican Sanford to make the “right decision.”

“He’s dropped the flag. The rest of us have to get up and go on,” DeMint said during an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.” “A lot of us are talking to him behind the scenes in hopes that he'll make the right decision about what needs to be done.”

Asked what the “right decision” would be for Sanford, DeMint said: “I don't want to say.”

Will Folks:

Additionally, some of Sanford’s closest friends have reportedly been advising him to step down privately from the beginning of this crisis - which began a week ago - but have been holding their tongues publicly.

That could be changing today.

Sources tell FITS that one of Sanford’s closest friends and legislative allies, Beaufort Sen. Tom Davis, traveled to Columbia this morning to meet with the governor.