Local Government Support Archives - Centralina Regional Council

Helene FEMA Public Assistance Technical Support

MaeLynn — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 18:41:17 +0000

In response to the FEMA-4827-DR (North Carolina Helene Disaster Declaration), Centralina Regional Council has partnered with High Street Consulting to provide expert guidance on the intricate and challenging post-disaster Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Public Assistance (PA) recovery process.

The following links provide information relevant to local government units, such as navigating the FEMA PA program, understanding FEMA hazard mitigation requirements, best practices for debris management and more.

FEMA Public Assistance Guides

These files contain FEMA-produced PA documents that may be beneficial to local government units navigating the FEMA-4827-DR.

Helpful Tech Support Guides

These files contain documents prepared by contracted subject matter experts working with Centralina and other councils of government on Helene FEMA PA damage assessments and recovery planning. These documents have been curated to assist local government units in navigating complex and often confusing FEMA regulations in a more succinct and clear manner.

Helene Regulatory Documents

These files contain regulatory documents related to FEMA-4827-DR, North Carolina Senate Bill 743 – The Disaster Recovery Act of 2024 – Part II and the Hurricane Helene Disaster Recovery Fund established in Section 4.1 of S.L. 2024-51.

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The Local Government Issue: Strategic Planning

MaeLynn — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 15:46:02 +0000

Our November newsletter is dedicated to local governments and the tireless work they do to help our region thrive. In this Insight, we’re highlighting one of the services we provide to local governments so that they can reach their organizational goals.

From 2020 to 2022, we supported the City of Albemarle in developing a three-year strategic plan. Many local governments have taken the same step as their communities grow and needs change. In addition to Albemarle, Anson County and Gaston County have called on Centralina for assistance in navigating the process.

Strategic planning is necessary for any organization’s success, but going through the process can be daunting and demanding for local government staff. As part of Centralina’s meeting facilitation services, we offer help with strategic planning that will reenergize your staff and encourage productive discussions to ensure your goals are met.

Are You Ready for Retreat Season?

Centralina staff serve our member communities by designing and facilitating effective meetings for a range of group sizes, subject matter and formats. We work closely with clients to define specific meeting objectives, develop a customized, outcome-oriented agenda and design interactive activities to engage participants and meet desired objectives. Whether it’s a one-time event or a series of public engagement activities, we work with you to find the right approach to get results.

Let’s get to work.

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The Local Government Issue: Land Use Planning

MaeLynn — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 15:35:14 +0000

Since 2019, state legislation has required that municipalities hoping to enforce zoning regulations have and maintain a land use plan. Land use plans capture the vision, values and goals of a community in order to create a strategic direction that guides planning decisions. Lately, we’ve worked with Dallas, Stanley, Wingate, Albemarle and Locust to set their teams up for success.

Land use planning provides communities with an opportunity to integrate land use practice with other local priorities such as transportation connectivity, parks and recreation, infrastructure investment and economic development. Coordinated planning helps communities create vibrant places that meet the needs of current and future residents.

Centralina has the experience necessary to support local governments with land use planning efforts and can assist with the creation or updates of land use, small area and corridor plans. Our experts provide technical assistance to your community on diverse aspects of the planning process that lead to a winning plan.

Your future starts today. Get in touch with Centralina to kick things off.

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The Local Government Issue: Code Enforcement

MaeLynn — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 15:26:43 +0000

In 2023, we published an article about our work in Weddington where limited staff made code enforcement a challenge. Many local governments face this same problem, and Centralina is here to provide support. Join the ranks of Weddington, Badin, Cherryville and more to better preserve your community’s quality of life.

Code enforcement supports housing preservation by ensuring that properties meet minimum standards for safety, health and aesthetics. These services protect property values, preserve community character and are vital to improving and preserving quality of life for residents and businesses.

Our staff can provide local governments with customized, on-call code enforcement services. Depending on your unique needs, our staff will perform such duties as reviewing ordinances for alignment with industry standards, investigating substandard building complaints and notifying property owners.

Need help maintaining your standards?

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The Local Government Issue: Assessment Centers

MaeLynn — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 14:58:58 +0000

Selecting the best candidate to hire or promote is an important decision for local governments, particularly in leadership positions that are responsible for shaping the direction of the organization.

Assessment centers can be used to create a more complete picture of individuals. Applicants’ ability to drive for results, influence others and tolerate stress are evaluated alongside traditional skills.

Most recently, we’ve helped Gastonia, Granite Quarry and Lincolnton conduct assessment centers to find the best fit for their organizations.

Interested in finding your best fit?

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A Rock-Solid Hire in Granite Quarry

MaeLynn — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 17:45:52 +0000

Granite Quarry, a thriving community in Rowan County just south of Salisbury, was in search of a new Town Manager this year. In need of a peer to help find the best talent for this role, the Town of Granite Quarry turned to Centralina Regional Council for help in assessing potential candidates for the position.

Finding a new Town Manager is a major decision for any community as the Town Manager oversees the day-to-day operations of their municipality, helping bridge the expertise and experience of staff with the desires and will of the public. This requires a unique skillset that is not easily acquired. When faced with finding such a candidate, it can be extremely difficult to know what to look for, how a potential candidate may interact with relevant parties and how they will perform once in the role. The Town of Granite Quarry knew that they needed outside expertise and an externally facilitated process to judge and evaluate potential candidates fairly and thoroughly.

This is where Centralina stepped in. Centralina’s team developed a community-specific recruiting brochure that advertised the position, then accepted applications, screened and vetted applicants and developed an interview process to evaluate the final round of candidates. Centralina worked closely with the Granite Quarry to ensure that each of these steps reflected the community’s values and vision while assessing potential candidates on relevant issues.

After the preparation and planning stages, the candidate interviews came to fruition and the Town of Granite Quarry selected Jason Hord as their new Town Manager. Hord previously served as the Director of Granite Quarry’s Public Works Department and Chief of the Granite Quarry Fire Department.

Centralina’s successful organization of the recruitment process from beginning to end is a testament to our team’s expertise in managing the complex and unbiased hiring processes needed for public sector leadership positions and demonstrates our commitment to helping member communities find the best talent. One applicant specifically noted that the brochure created by Centralina was what drew him to the position, as some local governments do not provide the same level of community detail. The Town of Granite Quarry was pleased with the organized process and has already sought Centralina’s assistance with another prominent hiring process.

If your community is interested in learning more about how we can help with your recruitment process, review our sales sheet to learn about Centralina’s scope of services. We look forward to working with your community to simplify the recruitment process, identify candidates that best match your criteria and ensure your staff is prepared to onboard your new hire.

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Generative AI Policy Guidance Document for Local Governments

MaeLynn — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 14:16:03 +0000

Is your local government prepared to address the rapidly evolving landscape of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology and its associated risks? In early 2024, the Centralina regional AI working group, featuring municipal representatives from our nine-county region, pooled together expertise and research to craft the “Generative AI Policy Guidance Document for Local Governments.” This detailed guide provides a structured framework, practical insights and policy template language to help municipalities effectively manage and implement generative AI technologies.

Generative AI, a transformative branch of artificial intelligence, creates dynamic content based on your needs and offers many potential applications for public-sector organizations. For local governments eager to harness this technology, establishing a solid policy is crucial to navigating risks like bias, privacy, cybersecurity and legal compliance. Explore the potential of generative AI with confidence by reviewing the document in our member portal.

The creation of the policy began in 2024 when Centralina Regional Council gathered several regional stakeholders together for working group sessions focused on understanding the world of AI. The purpose of the group was to provide a forum atmosphere for discussions on AI issues, applications and concerns and to identify opportunities to build local knowledge. The output from the end of these working sessions is a template that regional organizations can utilize to develop generative AI usage policies and preparation guides to implement within their respective communities.

The guide is the result of three local government working sessions. Click here to view the group’s resources.

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Centralina Wins NARC Award for Small Towns Thrive Initiative

CentralinaRC — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 16:41:20 +0000

The National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) presented their Achievement and Leadership Awards on Tuesday, June 25, 2024, during an awards ceremony held at its 58th Annual Conference & Exhibition in Atlanta, Georgia. “Congratulations to all the award winners!” said NARC President Carol Vinton. “Their vision, expertise and dedication have set a new standard of excellence! These awards, and the projects and leadership they celebrate, demonstrate the breadth and quality of work taking place at the regional level.” Ten projects received 2024 Achievement Awards including Centralina Regional Council for its Small Towns Thrive initiative.

About Small Towns Thrive

Small-town local governments are often faced with limited staff capacity, tight budgets and few resources. In the Centralina region, over 60% of communities have a population under 10,000 and 55% have a population under 5,000. Seeking to support and empower our smaller municipalities, Centralina launched the Small Towns Thrive initiative in the fall of 2023 that focuses on building local capacity, creating connections and addressing community needs.

To learn more about this initiative, click here or view the resources for small towns, including community engagement, strategic planning, social media and personal/operations policies, on our member portal here.

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Bridging the Digital Divide

CentralinaRC — Tue, 21 May 2024 19:07:50 +0000

In today’s world, 92% of jobs require digital literacy skills. Unfortunately, in North Carolina, many lack internet access or cannot afford the required subscription or equipment. Many also lack digital literacy skills and are unable to benefit from services like telehealth, online educational courses or online job boards. Creating digital access is an essential first step in tackling digital barriers to support economic mobility and prosperity for all. Digital skills result in greater access to employment and higher wages, which leads to greater economic vitality for our region. In addition to helping individuals with employment options, closing the digital skill divide improves economic mobility, community prosperity, public safety and hazard resilience conditions for residents and businesses.

Centralina Partners with NCDIT and NC State University

The state prioritizes digital inclusion for all, as evident through its digital inclusion initiative, being led by NC Department of Information and Technology (NCDIT). The goal of this initiative is to ensure that all communities, especially disadvantaged populations, can connect to and use the internet. Recognizing that a regional approach is critical to closing the digital divide, Centralina partnered with NCDIT and the Institute for Emerging Issues at NC State University to improve broadband access and equity in our region through a program called the Building a New Digital Economy in North Carolina or BAND-NC.

Developing Digital Inclusion Plans

The BAND-NC initiative helps county leaders and staff develop and implement digital inclusion plans that include implementation strategies to reduce and eliminate barriers to broadband access and technology use. The goal of these plans is to help identify community assets and implement strategies to increase access to the internet and bolster participation in the digital economy. Centralina is currently working in partnership with the counties in our region to support development and implementation of customized digital inclusion plans that reflect local conditions and needs. The Centralina Regional Digital Inclusion Plan will contain a regional section that covers objectives and goals, current conditions and statewide initiatives, in addition to chapters for each county’s specific plan.

As part of this initiative, Centralina has launched a Regional Digital Inclusion webpage, which will house these plans and additional regional, local and statewide digital assets and resources. If you’re interested in learning more about digital inclusion, please take a moment to review the curated resources on our Regional Digital Inclusion webpage and stay tuned as we launch the Centralina Regional Digital Inclusion Plan this fall.

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Reinventing Regional Convenings in the Post-Pandemic Era

CentralinaRC — Tue, 21 May 2024 15:49:38 +0000

The COVID-19 pandemic presented organizations with a challenge when it came to holding meetings. As a convener, much of Centralina Regional Council’s work involves bringing people together. During the nearly two years that we were unable to hold in-person meetings and events, Zoom and other virtual platforms provided a suitable alternative for engaging with our members, partners and other stakeholders.

What’s Changed Since the Pandemic

Once the pandemic was behind us, we saw an increased interest in hybrid meetings, particularly for programming such as our Regional Managers Group and our professional development series, Centralina Learns. Although we used these convenings to test the hybrid format, ensuring a meaningful experience for both in-person and virtual attendees proved difficult. Also, despite having robust videoconferencing capabilities, hybrid meetings were often cumbersome for our staff to coordinate and execute. We wanted to bring people together, but we needed to find a way to do so that would be both effective for our attendees and logistically uncomplicated for us as the organizers.

Choosing a Meeting Format

After trying different meeting formats, we found that the approach that has worked best for certain regional meeting series includes alternating between an in-person only and a virtual only format. The meeting’s overall objective is one factor that drives the decision about which of these two formats to use. For the Regional Managers Group, we separated the meetings into two types: 1) information-sharing virtual meetings and 2) in-person networking meetings. The virtual meetings present information across a variety of topic areas. Attendees receive timely regional and legislative updates, as well as briefings on key projects, initiatives and funding opportunities. Meanwhile, the in-person meetings are designed to be experiential and focus on a specific topic. The location rotates to different host communities so that we can showcase some of our region’s amenities. These meetings feature a networking lunch, host presentations, tours and thoughtful group discussion around a specific topic.

The meeting topic is another deciding factor when determining if we will hold an event in person or virtually. For Centralina Learns sessions, some topics are better suited for an in-person format. As an example, we held a training on conflict resolution for local government staff in person because a face-to-face learning environment seemed the most appropriate for the interpersonal subject matter. On the other hand, we have held grant writing workshops virtually, a format that fits those sessions’ instructional nature.

Seeing the Impact

Since implementing this approach, one way we have measured our impact is through the high-quality interactions we have seen in our convenings. Whether a meeting is held in person or virtually, having attendees who are highly engaged indicates that the content is relevant to their work. Likewise, the feedback we have received from participants about their experience shows us the value these meetings and events offer.

As the world of meeting and event organizing continues to evolve in the post-pandemic era, we encourage other organizations to experiment with different approaches to convening. In addition to choosing a format based on a meeting’s objective or topic, we also recommend considering the time participants will spend away from the office. For convenings where invitees include individuals from small organizations with limited staff capacity, attending an in-person event may be a challenge. Whatever the format, the goal is always to ensure the attendees see the convening as time well spent.

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