In Touch with Tennessee
A History of Collaboration
The County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) and the Tennessee County Services Association (TCSA) work hand-in-hand to benefit the state's 95 counties. CTAS Executive Director Jon Walden, TCSA Director David Conner and TCSA Board president and Roane County Commissioner Ron Berry discuss the CTAS and TCSA partnership through the years.
The County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) and the Tennessee County Services Association (TCSA) work hand-in-hand to benefit the state's 95 counties. CTAS Executive Director Jon Walden, TCSA Director David Conner and TCSA Board president and Roane County Commissioner Ron Berry discuss the CTAS and TCSA partnership through the years.
Audio file
Transcript
00:00:04 Susan Robertson
Hi and welcome to In touch with Tennessee, a podcast of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service.
00:00:12 Susan Robertson
Founded in 1954 and headquartered in Nashville, the Tennessee County Services Association, or TCSA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public interest group representing counties before the Tennessee General Assembly and the state administration.
00:00:30 Susan Robertson
According to the bylaws of the organization, TCSA was created for the purpose of developing more efficient and economical functions of local government to promote the common welfare of the people.
00:00:46 Susan Robertson
TCSA is an umbrella organization made-up of three affiliate associations.
00:00:52 Susan Robertson
The Association of County Mayors.
00:00:54 Susan Robertson
The Tennessee County Commissioners Association and the Tennessee County Highway Officials Association.
00:01:02 Susan Robertson
This combined membership represents over 1,800 elected and appointed officials of both the executive and legislative branches of county government.
00:01:14 Susan Robertson
One of its most crucial partnerships is a long-standing relationship.
00:01:18 Susan Robertson
TCSA has with the University of Tennessee County Technical Assistance Service or CTAS.
00:01:26 Susan Robertson
The association works closely with CTAS in its mission to provide prompt, accurate technical assistance on a daily hands-on basis to tennessees 95 counties.
00:01:39 Susan Robertson
Joining us today to talk about TCSA, its work and the partnership with CTAS, are TCSA executive director, David Conner, current TCSA Board President Ron Berry, and County Technical Assistance Service Executive Director John Walden.
00:01:59 Susan Robertson
Welcome and thanks for being with us today.
00:02:03 David Conner
Thanks for having us.
00:02:04 Jon Walden
Thank you, Susan.
00:02:07 Susan Robertson
So David, let's start out by having you talk a little bit about the history of TCSA and and how it started.
00:02:15 David Conner
Yeah, it was as you mentioned in your intro, it was formed.
00:02:18 David Conner
In 1954
00:02:20 David Conner
Membership, organization of mayors, commissioners and highway.
00:02:24 David Conner
Officials really wanting to gather share information network together, learn from each other, but also have an organization to which they could speak on behalf of county governments in Nashville, with the General Assembly and the state administrations, we do a mixture of things as far as trying to do educational resources and.
00:02:45 David Conner
Programs and events for our members.
00:02:47 David Conner
We lobby and advocate on their behalf.
00:02:50 David Conner
We also, you know, programs to help with cost savings and other things like that to help keep county government efficient for the taxpayers.
00:02:57 David Conner
So been around for.
00:03:01 David Conner
Well, that's close to 70 years on our end, so.
00:03:05 Susan Robertson
Wow, wow and when did you become executive director?
00:03:09 David Conner
January of 2014
00:03:12 Susan Robertson
OK.
00:03:14 Susan Robertson
So David and Ron, I'll direct this question to both of you.
00:03:20 Susan Robertson
Can you tell us about some of the issues TCSA has worked with the General Assembly on and how that has benefited Tennessee counties.
00:03:33 Ron Berry
Do you want me to go first?
00:03:36 Ron Berry
OK, well Susan, thanks again for this for this recognition of CTAS what a great organization they've been.
00:03:45 Ron Berry
CSA benefits greatly on a great relationship with our legislators, and we rely on them listening to us as they as they pass.
00:03:57 Ron Berry
Resolutions
00:04:00 Ron Berry
Some of the biggest things were the Internet sales tax that they passed, allowing us to gain revenue from the Internet sales tax across the state and getting the counties their local share that was.
00:04:13 Ron Berry
That was really a big plus for us unfunded mandates in the past years.
00:04:19 Ron Berry
They would pass legislation that would end up costing the counties money and and we've worked really closely with them over the years and David and his staff, Charlie Carr and all and Charlie have worked really hard to make sure that we get no unfunded mandates any longer.
00:04:37 Ron Berry
And another big part of our relationship with them was over the years trying to get equal funding for our schools and and we worked closely with them to foster the BEP program and get that started and now we will be transferring the BEP funding on to another organization so.
00:04:57 Ron Berry
They've been really helpful and and we couldn't.
00:05:01 Ron Berry
We couldn't do what we do without a close relationship with our legislature.
00:05:07 David Conner
Yeah, and just to add on a few things.
00:05:09 David Conner
I mean like Ron mentioned, some of.
00:05:10 David Conner
The big ones there.
00:05:13 David Conner
Revenue sources overall for counties, but also things like education, funding and how that formula is laid out and distributes funds across the state.
00:05:21 David Conner
We are working and hope to work with the administration this next year on transportation funding and infrastructure needs.
00:05:28 David Conner
Highway departments are one of the areas that.
00:05:31 David Conner
Really, definitely lost revenue during the pandemic and now what they're facing in terms of inflationary costs and difficulty and being able to keep people hired and the cost of construction and materials and all of that, they certainly are having a lot of needs there that we're working on next year.
00:05:49 David Conner
W were involved in the improve act back in 2017 supporting that when the state passed that under the Haslam administration to try to enhance transportation funding.
00:06:00 David Conner
But we're already seeing that's getting stretched thin.
00:06:02 David Conner
Again, some other topics we've dealt with are things like the opioid settlements and the.
00:06:08 David Conner
The opioid crisis in the state and how those revenues can be used to help communities address their addiction problems.
00:06:16 David Conner
And we work on criminal justice issues as well, so it's just kind of across the gamut in terms of local government.
00:06:24 Susan Robertson
Right?
00:06:25 Susan Robertson
That's interesting, Ron.
00:06:27 Susan Robertson
You're a Commissioner in Roane County can you talk about how
00:06:33 Susan Robertson
TCSA assists, county commissioners and counties in general.
00:06:40 Ron Berry
Wow Susan, I really don't know how we would function without them they provide so much information to us.
00:06:50 Ron Berry
We we have a representative for each county so that we know who our representative is and can go to them for help on on situations they've they've served in.
00:06:58 Ron Berry
Valuable information.
00:07:00 Ron Berry
To us for education over the years, to try to keep us informed of what's going on.
00:07:05 Ron Berry
Training is invaluable to commissioners we end.
00:07:10 Ron Berry
Up with about 35.
00:07:12 Ron Berry
Percent turnover of county commissioners every four years, about 39 percent of our mayors turn over every four years.
00:07:20 Ron Berry
So you can see without a smooth transition, where county governments would be, CTAS provides that kind of information that kind of.
00:07:27 Ron Berry
Training they have training for new commissioners for new county mayors at to begin their years of service.
00:07:34 Ron Berry
They provide training at any request.
00:07:37 Ron Berry
Research just unbelievable amounts of research that they do for us and it would be I I can't imagine trying to be an effective Commissioner without knowing that.
00:07:47 Ron Berry
CTAS had my back.
00:07:49 Susan Robertson
Great, well let's jump in then and talk to Jon Walden about CTAS
Can you discuss the relationship between CTAS and TCSA?
00:07:59 Jon Walden
Thanks, Susan for having me on the podcast.
00:08:01 Jon Walden
Yes, there would be no CTAS without TCSA. In 1973 county officials wanted an organization that could help them with their day-to-day work activities in their office and understanding what new legislation came about.
00:08:20 Jon Walden
So Tennessee County Services in 1973 went to bat and helped create CTAS and then CTAS was actually introduced to county officials the first time at the TCSA
00:08:32 Jon Walden
1973 Fall Conference and and the relationship has blossomed. Ever since TCSA handles the the lobbying aspect of it as David mentioned, and they help.
00:08:44 David Conner
Right
00:08:45 Jon Walden
Provide training sessions and so forth and then CTAS provides the technical assistance and then in 2002 we also acquired the training program.
00:08:55 Jon Walden
The County Officials Certificate Training program, which moved to CTAS from the Center of Government training and that that partnership from 1970.
00:09:05 Jon Walden
83 and to now, which in 2023 CTAS will be celebrating 50 years of existence.
00:09:12 Susan Robertson
Right?
00:09:13 Jon Walden
But as I indicated, there would be no CTAS if it wasn't for TCSA
00:09:20 Susan Robertson
Right, and David can you?
00:09:21 Susan Robertson
Talk a little bit about your partnership with CTAS
00:09:25 David Conner
Yeah, it's tremendous.
00:09:27 David Conner
It's just fantastic working with Jon, but we've had a good relationship with all the executive directors and.
00:09:32 David Conner
You know it's kind of hand in glove and a lot of times their own members will confuse.
00:09:37 David Conner
They'll call our conferences a CTAS event, or they'll say something about a CTAS training that call it TCSA, but we try to work that closely together.
00:09:47 David Conner
There's certain, like Jon mentioned, there's certain lanes that we do.
00:09:50 David Conner
The lobbying and advocacy, and UT does not get involved in that.
00:09:54 David Conner
But then they're out there in the field doing tremendous work on a day-to-day basis, helping local officials do their jobs.
00:10:01 David Conner
On whether it's like coming up on one of our conferences, sitting down with some of the CTAS leadership, and talking about what are topics that they see out in the field that are needs for training, or things that we've seen that.
00:10:12 David Conner
We're asking them.
00:10:13 David Conner
To help us educate our officials about or communicating really during COVID, I think both organizations.
00:10:21 David Conner
Benefited from probably talking more frequently about what are we hearing out in the field.
00:10:25 David Conner
What am I hearing at the national level from organizations like the National Association of Counties and sharing that information back and forth?
00:10:34 David Conner
Even today we continue to have issues with some counties struggling with getting some of their certifications with US.
00:10:39 David Conner
Treasury up to date so they can draw the funds down, and it's something that I try to help out where I can as the field staff are reporting problems they're seeing out in counties and connecting people with folks either in Nashville or in DC to help them with their issues.
00:10:53 David Conner
So yeah, it's just.
00:10:56 David Conner
We're in the same building.
00:10:58 David Conner
Thankfully the main headquarters for both organizations, so we talk, if not on a daily basis, certainly on a weekly basis, but.
00:11:06 David Conner
Yeah, it's I can't imagine like Jon said CTAS wouldn't exist without TCSA, but I don't know that TCSA would still be around anymore if it wasn't for all.
00:11:14 David Conner
The help we get from CTAS
00:11:17 Susan Robertson
Right now I know Ron mentioned training.
00:11:20 Susan Robertson
If you, David, and John if you can both touch a little bit on the County Officials Orientation Program (COOP) and you had one just recently.
00:11:31 Susan Robertson
Well back in August I guess where you bring in thousands of new county.
00:11:36 Susan Robertson
Officials and and can you talk about how you both organizations work on that?
00:11:45 Jon Walden
Well, as you mentioned that did happen in August and it happens every four years.
00:11:50 Jon Walden
Matter of fact, it really happens every two years.
00:11:53 Jon Walden
We have an off year election in which we call it mini COOP
00:11:56 Jon Walden
But for the larger COOP
00:11:59 Jon Walden
We have anywhere from 800 individuals to 1000 and mainly new elected officials. They get elected that first Thursday in August.
00:12:09 Jon Walden
We try to have this orientation program on a week and a half two weeks after that, prior to them going into office September the 1st and basically.
00:12:19 Jon Walden
Have a day and 1/2.
00:12:20 Jon Walden
Off of a lot of information that they get mainly from a legal aspect, some a legal requirements that they have to have that first week of taking office and what we're doing this time as we never really concentrate on doing it intentionally is looking at being in office.
00:12:40 Jon Walden
100 days 120 days and then trying to target some classes for those newly elected officials. After that time period.
00:12:49 Jon Walden
And I think one thing that David didn't mention, which I think is invaluable to this relationship.
00:12:56 Jon Walden
We've had a couple of executive directors at TCSA.
00:12:59 Jon Walden
There were former CTAS staff members as well and I and I think that plays a valuable part in the relationship between the two organizations.
00:13:10 Jon Walden
Because David in his case understands what we're going through, and we do our best to try to understand what they're going through, especially during the legislative period.
00:13:21 Jon Walden
But yeah, COOP is a big undertaking for us.
00:13:24 Jon Walden
We like to joke and say we have COOP to try to make sure we keep officials out of jail and if they follow what we asked them to do.
00:13:36 Jon Walden
That is the case.
00:13:39 David Conner
Yeah, it's and I like what John was talking about.
00:13:43 David Conner
Certainly COOP is there to kind of figure out how you get into office.
00:13:45 David Conner
How do you do so?
00:13:46 David Conner
Legally, how do we make sure that you're understanding requirements like the States, open meeting laws and public records and conflicts of interest and all of that so they hit them with a lot of information to hopefully keep them out of trouble there?
00:13:59 David Conner
1st 30 days, but I know Jon and I we had several conversations, kind of after that, because our annual conference was in October, so that's about.
00:14:06 David Conner
Six weeks later and it's like OK if they've gotten in office 6 weeks and gotten a little bit of experience under their feet, what should we follow up with?
00:14:16 David Conner
And I said one of the panels we did and then a couple of different CTAS staff members joined the Comptroller's office and the folks in the Department of Finance and Administration to talk about.
00:14:26 David Conner
All the federal funds counties received over the last few years. Because it is what Ron was mentioning with that level of turnover we had. If over 1/3 of county commissioners and county mayors in the state are new, they're all inheriting a work plan and responsibility for reporting for literally millions of dollars. Every county received from the federal government.
00:14:47 David Conner
So they've got to understand what were all the strings that came attached to that.
00:14:50 David Conner
How do they need to be responsible with it?
00:14:52 David Conner
And that was just one example of something.
00:14:54 David Conner
We're like.
00:14:55 David Conner
OK, we know.
00:14:56 David Conner
A few days or a few months or a few weeks into office, we need to follow up with these new officials quickly about that.
00:15:04 Susan Robertson
Right, right
00:15:05 Susan Robertson
Yeah, I can imagine six weeks in office.
00:15:07 Susan Robertson
You might have even more questions than you had when.
00:15:09 Susan Robertson
You started.
00:15:10 Ron Berry
Susan, one other thing that I think is is really valuable is.
00:15:16 Ron Berry
We came up with a program that requires county officials commissioners to have X number of hours training.
00:15:27 Ron Berry
I think it's like 12 hours a year of training so we put additional responsibilities over on CTASt to make sure that that they already had the.
00:15:33 Ron Berry
Training facilities available but, that's been a, I think a an invaluable thing for us to make sure that our that our county officials are receiving training.
00:15:45 Ron Berry
You know the the biggest responsibility that the County Commissioner has is passing the budget every year for their county.
00:15:52 Ron Berry
That's a huge undertaking and lots and lots of hours.
00:15:55 Ron Berry
Went to CTAS training to actually get you familiar with how budgets work and and your responsibilities in passing that so they've been invaluable.
00:16:04 Ron Berry
They're helping us as we try to make our organization stronger.
00:16:09 Ron Berry
They're there to help us do that.
00:16:12 Susan Robertson
Right, right
00:16:14 Susan Robertson
So this question is for all three of you really the General Assembly will soon reconvene.
00:16:22 Susan Robertson
What is on the agenda for TCSA and for counties?
00:16:26 Susan Robertson
This upcoming session?
00:16:27 Susan Robertson
I know David.
00:16:28 Susan Robertson
You mentioned you know infrastructure, highways.
00:16:30 Susan Robertson
What are some of the other things that.
00:16:32 Susan Robertson
That you all will be focused on.
00:16:36 David Conner
Yeah, those are certainly topics we think are going to be discussed and addressed.
00:16:42 David Conner
Something we heard a lot from and and our new director of County Mayors, Association of County mayors is Anthony Holt.
00:16:48 David Conner
He just retired from being the Sumner County executive for.
00:16:51 David Conner
The last four terms.
00:16:52 David Conner
And he held a series of regional meetings this fall, and one of the things that.
00:16:56 David Conner
Is sort of a newer issue that we traditionally haven't dealt with a lot, but.
00:17:00 David Conner
We heard from a number of communities across the state about issues around housing, whether that be counties in Middle Tennessee that are struggling to keep up with the growth in residential housing and the impact on the school system or parts of the state.
00:17:14 David Conner
We heard from some folks in East Tennessee about affordable housing and how the cost is going up, and they aren't.
00:17:19 David Conner
There's not a.
00:17:21 David Conner
The rental income or the rental costs are going up.
00:17:23 David Conner
Housing costs are going up West Tennessee.
00:17:27 David Conner
Obviously they're impacted by Blue Oval City and a lot of those communities are trying to plan for.
00:17:30
OK.
00:17:32 David Conner
How do we get the infrastructure in place for all the growth that's coming so?
00:17:35 David Conner
Housing and affordable housing.
00:17:37 David Conner
Supportive housing.
00:17:39 David Conner
All of those.
00:17:40 David Conner
There's another big area that we haven't traditionally been involved in, but we're certainly starting to hear about and think there may be legislation coming up related to that.
00:17:53 Susan Robertson
Right and Ron?
00:17:54 Susan Robertson
Can you talk a little bit about that from the county perspective?
00:17:58 Ron Berry
Yeah, well, one of the things that that is really going to be important is our fuel tax with all the electric vehicles coming on.
00:18:08 Ron Berry
The loss of of the fuel tax and how do we?
00:18:11 Ron Berry
How do we?
00:18:12 Ron Berry
How do we recoup that and?
00:18:14 Ron Berry
And they're actually.
00:18:15 Ron Berry
I think they're having meetings and things now to try to determine.
00:18:19 Ron Berry
How that's going to affect the new funding for education is going to be huge.
00:18:25 Ron Berry
For statist, A is A is a new formula that would be coming about and again as these new things come.
00:18:32 Ron Berry
Board CTAS will be there holding seminars across the state, giving us that information, sending us information and that's how the Commissioners can work with their school board members with information.
00:18:47 Ron Berry
Because we're getting the same information now through CTAS as our school board members are getting through their organizations.
00:18:55 Ron Berry
So, so those are.
00:18:56 Ron Berry
Those are some big things.
00:18:58 Ron Berry
How we are we dealing with jail population?
00:19:01 Ron Berry
Is is going to be is another key issue?
00:19:04 Ron Berry
All of these things are huge to counties and and thank goodness we have CTAS there to help us gather the information and data that we need.
00:19:14 Ron Berry
So we'll be watching for these different things.
00:19:18 Jon Walden
And Susan CTAS, as we indicated earlier, we, don't get into the lobbying aspect.
00:19:25 Susan Robertson
Right
00:19:25 Jon Walden
But how we help TCSA in that role is?
00:19:30 Jon Walden
Some of the research on things that they need research for real quick so that they can make conversation with the members of the General Assembly or and then also our attorneys will look at some of the legislation that's coming across and have conversations with David and his team so that we can hopefully help them.
00:19:50 Jon Walden
Combat any situation that they may need information on.
00:19:57 Jon Walden
And then we're here just for sounding board form so that they can bounce stuff off of us to see if they're understanding it the way they think they understand it.
00:20:06 Jon Walden
And so we have those conversations back and forth on occasion as well.
00:20:11 Susan Robertson
Right, right
00:20:14 Susan Robertson
Well, thank you all for joining us today.
00:20:16 Susan Robertson
This has been very informative.
00:20:18 Susan Robertson
And you know, I'm sure most county residents don't realize what goes on behind the scenes at the TCSA and CTAS levels.
00:20:28 Susan Robertson
And thank you listeners.
00:20:29 Susan Robertson
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