Hello everybody, welcome to the
County Seat I'm your host Chad
Booth. Regional governments
Sounds like something from a foreign
country but in reality we have
regional government that are above
city and county governments here in
Utah they are called AOG's or
Associations of Governments. How
they work, where they come from
and what do they do well that is the
point of our show today, let's find out
more about it.
"Right now what you are looking at you saw
some of those trees with markings on them
they are scheduled for harvest, you don't see
any marks on these ones here, there are just as
dead and we'd like to do something with them
but we can't because we are in an inventoried
roadless area."
It's one thing to talk about community issues at
a county meeting, it's another thing entirely to
go out and see it firsthand. 12 years ago county
officials were trying to figure out how to
educate state and federal representatives about
issues that affect rural communities. That
question led to the tour in Wayne County.
"It was an event to help people form the east
our congressional members and staff, our state
agency folks to better understand what our
issues and concerns."
"The people you represent you are able to take
back their viewpoint. The reason people think
Utah is such a great place because of our rural
areas but sometimes that can get lost in the
shuffle both in Salt Lake and Washington DC."
"It's one thing for them as elected officials to
travel to Washington DC to travel there and sit
in the office and talk about issues but this is a
way for those in Washington DC as well as state
offices to be able to get out on the ground and
see it in person and experience it."
About 40 years ago counties with similar
demographics and issues banded together
regionally in order to better provide services in
areas such as mental health, housing, planning,
senior services. This is known as Associations of
Government or simply AoGs.
There are 7 Associations of Government
statewide.
The Five County; Bear River; SouthEastern;
Wasatch Front Regional Council; Uintah Basin;
Six County; and Mountainlands.
"The purpose was to take these small rural
counties and the minimal amount of money
that we receive and to be able to help programs
to function and become successful.
If you take one dollar and stick it in one
community is that really going to do as much
good as if you took it and put it into a region or
a community that would impact a region."
Each year the group gets together in a different
county and takes an on the ground tour of the
issues affecting that area. Often times the
commissioners from different counties find that
the challenges they face aren't all that different.
"Everyone is going through similar types of
experiences so I think it's a good opportunity to
get together and discuss things and find out
what is working in one place and try it in
another."
Rural counties are similar in a lot of ways, in
how they deal with catastrophic wild-fire, bark
beetle infestation, livestock, endangered
species, and many others. Talking about these
issues on a regional scale allows officials to see
new solutions and at the very least understand
their counties and constituencies make the
concerns of their constituents on a more
profound level. For the County Seat I'm Derek
Dowsett.
Well now you have an idea of the
history of AOG's how they came to be
and how they function the kind of
things they do we will delve into the
details when we come back with our
guest panel in just a minute here on
The County Seat.
Welcome back to The County Seat
today we are talking about
Associations of Governments and you
obviously have a little bit of history
on what they are and how they got
started but I would like to follow up
with our guests today. Joining us
today from the Mountain Land AOG
is Andrew Jackson not the same
Andrew Jackson who had parties in
the White House. Russ Cowley who is
from the Sixth county association of
governments and Roger Jones who is
with the Bear River Association of
Governments and also serving as the
chair of the state group of association
of governments. Thank you all for
joining us today for this conversation.
When I go around the state when I
talk about AOG's and I mention the
different ones. They say why, why do
we have another layer of government
and a government that we do not
elect. Is this just more bureaucracy. I
think I would be helpful if people
understood how AOG's are different
and what your purpose is as far as
that goes. Where does your funding
come from?
Well maybe I can answer that
question that you mentioned is it
another layer of government and I
think the answer is clearly no. The
regional organizations or associations
of governments are simply an
extension of city and county
government. And we are responsible
to city and county officials. They
control and pretty much own us and
indicate what services makes more
sense to provide at a regional level
which is often more efficient than
individual cities or counties providing
certain types of services the kind that
we provide. So we are an extension
of the governments we are a shared
staff at the regional level so I just see
us as part and parcel of local
governments in the state of Utah.
So you basically have client
governments and provide a level of
service to them are they both cities
and counties that participate in the
AOG's.
Yes, in our Six county association of
governments we have 6 counties and
49 municipalities and they all work
with us we all work with them and
we basically provide the services that
our agency have undertaken to
support all of those groups. What's
interesting about the AOG we are all
organized in different ways. We all
have different boards. Our makeup is
a general board that consists of all 18
commissioners and 6 appointed
mayors and then we have an
executive board that comprises of six
commissioners and six appointed
mayors. That is how we basically
organize ourselves to make sure we
are getting the services up and
communities and counties that we
serve.
I was just going to add that is a great
question I get that same question a
lot. We did not elect the association
of government members but actually
for mountain land and for all of our
AOG's they actually did in a form of
electing their local mayor. So in
mountain land association of
governments we have 43 different
communities every mayor of every
city and town plus 3 county
commissioners plus 3 board county
council members all set on our
committee so everyone who sets on
our elected council is an elected
official the mayor of Provo with a
124,000 and the mayor of Fairfield
with124 people have the same vote.
So our board are the elected officials
they actually did elect them.
So part of this if you look at the
history I see things like the federal
highway act, federal
intergovernmental cooperation act
and all these things that come up in
the history that make this up where
does your funding come from?
So in mountain land and everybody
else can speak from themselves
mountain land about 70% of our
funding are federal dollars and the
others are made up with local
funding or state funding and we
actually have our meals on wheels
program a little bit of private
ownership into that program but the
majority of it like 70% is federal
funding and one of the things that
they looked at we always talk about
that we don't want big government
we do not want the federal
government coming in and telling us
how to spend money that they have
taken
From us in taxes back to Washington
and then back to us and telling us
how to do it. I think that is one of the
things association of governments
does is it is kind of that middle person
between the cities and counties and
the state or federal level in that we
figure out how to run the
governments the federal programs all
the different nuances of each
program instead of every city and
town figuring that out for themselves
and then we are able to be that
substrate level where the local
elected officials are the ones that are
making those decisions of how those
dollars are spent and their priorities.
And maybe I could add to that Chad if
you add up all seven regional
organizations and the money that
comes to them and much of it is
passed through to senior citizens
centers service providers
transportation consultants whatever
depending on the region it adds up
just to a little bit below 50 million
dollars per year which is a pretty
good chunk of money and again that
money is controlled locally to the
extent possible by the cities and
counties however all of the funds we
receive have strings attached and
constraints so we are responsible to
our funding sources whether it be
federal. Andrew mentioned 70% ours
is closer to 80% federal in our annual
budget so I think all of us would fit
within the 70to 80% federal money
each year with the rest being much of
it state a little bit local contributions
and some private money we are able
to raise as well.
I was going to mention depending on
how rural you are in our area a lot of
the programs that we function with
they may not do that at the AOG
levels that are at the Wasatch Front
Level because there are other
organizations that will actually take
over those organizations. When you
go rural there is just not a lot of
opportunities for other people to
come in on the economies to scale so
they usually come to the AOG's and
ask us to overtake and look at these
programs and make them work for
them and that is what we do.
Excellent I think we will take a quick
break when we come back I would
like to focus on how different each of
your organizations are and how you
are responding to the region you
work in. We will be right back with
this conversation on The County Seat.
Welcome back to The County Seat we
are talking today about associations
of governments formally called
regional governments which I actually
like AOG's better Bear River, Wasatch
Front, Mountain Land, Uintah Basin it
sounds so much more friendly. So I
think the renaming process was
probably a very good thing. I would
like to talk about how unique each
one of these AOG's are because you
are responding to the needs of the
communities and the counties that
you are in but how you respond really
is very different if you look from
region to region.
Maybe I could comment on that, I
think five of the seven have more
similarities than possibly the other
two the larger urbans to Wasatch
Front and Mountain Land that
Andrew represents. So I like to say
we wear many hats associations of
governments or AOG's wear many
hats where community action
agencies helping low income people
relating back 50 plus years to the war
on poverty the economic opportune
act we are area agencies on aging six
of the seven are area agencies on
aging we fund senior centers we
provide meals on wheels we help
people stay out of nursing homes and
independent in their homes where
they are eligible and where it is
appropriate. We are regional
planning agencies and Andrew can
talk about transportation planning he
is more involved with that. What am
I missing?
One of the things that all of the
AOG's are designated as economic
development organizations and we
are all responsible for coming up with
a comprehensive economic
development strategy that basically
plays in to what the states goals and
objectives are and how we will help
them meet their goals so basically
yes, the gamut. We take care of
federal emergency management we
take care of planning issues about
everything you can imagine we do.
How do you guys go through and
determine what is more of an AOG
function than say a specific county
function?
That is a great question and one of
the things that I think about is a
saying I heard a long time ago is we
take other people's fruit and we
make our own jelly. Each one of us is
unique and there are things that we
need to do to help and serve. Some
of the programs that we serve we
have historically had some in the late
60's or the early 70's other things
that we have are like heat program
which is assistance for utility bills for
low income individuals. It was
actually with another program and
they had some changes and they
were not able to do it in a sufficient
manner so we were asked to work on
that program so we have taken over
that because a lot of our clients for
aging services will overlap with the
heat program and senior citizens that
are having trouble paying their utility
bills so we are able to have multiple
clients and go in and do the
assessment for meals on wheels and
find out that there are also having
utility issues so we are able to
overlap that and we work with state
and department of workforce
services and locate some of our staff
in their facilities so it is really some
things that have evolved over time
and now that things that we have
new programs that come in or the
state has something that they want
to get out to the cities and counties
but they don't want to go to all 29
counties so they come to the 7
AOG'S and then we are able to
help them implement that on a larger
scale.
One point being kind of along those
lines the AOG's like Roger brought up
we are all governed by our local
elected officials. They have to make
that determination of what we do we
have 60 something contracts that we
sign every year for the programs that
we deliver well every year we have to
go through the budget process the
county commissioners have to decide
do they have the money to come up
with the match for those programs
do they want to do it. They rely on us
the staff to basically give them the
facts and help them understand
whether or not is a good thing for
them to do but they are the ones that
make that decision of whether to
carry a program forward or whether
they want it to go away.
I was going to add 2 others that we
forgot to mention is weatherization
program I think five of the regions are
involved in department of energy
funded federal weatherization
program where we go into the homes
of low income folks and help them
find ways to save energy by furnaces
air ceiling and insulation also we have
housing assistance programs helping
to create affordable housing in our
case where housing authority for our
3 counties the only totally regional
housing authority in the state.
So I am getting this distinct
impression in sitting here listening to
all the stuff you guys do and you guys
got a balance beam and you are
walking right down this cable across a
large chasm because I am thinking
well you could get a county sideways
with you and you have five other
counties saying we have to continue
to do this and you got one county no
so then what do you do.
I think we have seen that in the past
years.
I just saw 3 hairs on Roger's head go
grey right when I said that.
So how do you address that sort of
thing?
The concept of regional organizations
is regional cooperation to is getting
whether its 3 counties 6 or 4 counties
have them meet regularly and talk
about common needs, common
issues and how they can resolve
things whether it's with the funding
we have or in other ways. So part of
the idea is having a cooperative
relationship among neighboring cities
and counties as I see it so I think we
have all been fairly fortunate
especially in recent years the elected
officials seem to understand the
value of these organizations and the
efficiencies created. I like to say in
our case we have one staff person
doing two or three different functions
at the regional level and we save tax
payer dollars doing that.
I think one of the things that we have
seen and we have had these personal
experiences whether on a county
level or a city or town level. For
instance we have a community
development block grant program
which is a grant of federal dollars to
local communities and we process
that through and we rate and rank
projects. Some communities based
on who is elected within those
communities have decided that they
do not want the federal assistance
we are not going to force them it is
voluntary they can opt in and opt out.
It just goes in cycle and somebody
else will be elected and they are
really in favor of it because they need
new water lines that will help them
so we have so many things to do that
if someone is not interested in
pursuing something we have got
other things to do and as other
elected officials come in and that is
their prerogative and people vote
them in then they can move into
those programs.
So in quick yes or no answer
sometimes do the other members of
the organizations say well don't
worry about them they are just crazy
right now we want to continue and
then they will fund it and you just
drop them out for a period of time
and come back.
Yes. We have had that happen.
One other thing just to think about
as you go through that you look at
Roger and us here we have survived
through the years the reason we
have survived we have learned how
to do our jobs and I think the way we
have done our jobs is our jobs is to
find the facts make sure that the local
elected officials understand what
those programs mean and then they
are the ones to make the decision
and our job then becomes to make
sure they look good and we get the
program done. That is how we
survive we work for boards.
And even though they are federally
funded programs much of them, the
results are often good and we do a
lot of helping people that have
serious needs and they are grateful
and they benefit from those services.
As I have learned about you guys over
the years I have realized that you do
some remarkable things and we are
going to do a wrap here in just a
minute and take a break and be right
back here on The County Seat.
Welcome back to The County Seat we
have been having a conversation with
members of different associations of
governments the AOG's and it is
obvious at this point we need to have
another show down the road as we
still have way too much to talk about
and not much time. So what I would
or is it constantly in flux?
I think we are always changing now
when you look at the different AOG's
and that's another subject to talk
more about the differences but one
thing that in the state of Utah that we
are always being impacted by is
public lands. We just this last couple
of years we are all asked to come up
with a resource management plan so
we have been working with the state
to a mandate to make sure that all
the counties turn in a resource
management plan and funding a lot
of it ran through the AOG's so that is
something that just came about and
we did it.
Would it have ever been possible for
counties like Piute or Wayne who are
really small counties in your AOG to
actually pull this off if you were not
involved?
It would be difficult for them very
difficult.
Plus the contact at the state in
working with the seven association of
governments instead of the 29
counties so it makes it much more
efficient for the state as well.
I do notice come economy scales.
Any last thoughts real quick.
The organizations are important they
have served well the state of Utah for
47 years hopefully they will continue.
Some programs are static but you are
right we change a little bit every year
depending on local needs and
funding availability.
Do you have ever have a real
challenge communicating effectively
with your counties and cities? Do
they need this show to get it
sometimes?
We go out with newly elected
officials we have an orientation
program and opens it up for them we
even have staff members that have
been here for several years and they
are like what do we do? Do we do
this? Yes we do.
It is challenging because there is turn
over in local government officials so it
is a training and retraining process.
I would say we are like a fly wheel we
get to know the counties and
communities and we kind of keep
that in our mind and when they come
on board we train them it is a great
experience to get to know those
individuals and we love it.
Alright gentlemen thank you for
taking the time we appreciate it
thank you for inviting us into your
homes and remember local
government no matter what level it is
at it has the most impact on your life
be part of the solution and we will
look for you next week on The County
Seat.
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