With still no movement on the budget and little conversation about the continuing resolution from last year’s budget, it is unclear what the General Assembly’s plan is moving forward. The “Medicaid Light” bill as they call it still remains on the House Calendar with no movement, and it is unclear what the GA will do following a federal judge striking down a work requirement on another state’s medicaid expansion bill. Despite the budget inaction, there have been education bills moving this week. Multiple bills passed in the House and were sent to the Senate, including SB 199: Child Sex Abuse/Strengthen Laws,SB 230: NC Military and Veterans Act of 2019, and SB 295: Standards of Student Conduct. All education bills that were on the Senate Calendar this week were withdrawn and referred to the Senate Education Committee.
The Governor vetoed one education bill thus far, which was SB 392: Various Charter School Changes that make changes to the laws affecting charter schools. Governor Cooper’s veto message states his concern about the lift on enrollment caps for virtual charter schools due to the low performance of schools in this pilot.
Two bills I got to do a lot of research on their impacts this week were SB 522: Low Perf. Schools/Stand. Student Conduct and SB 438: Excellent Public Schools Act of 2019.
The bill adds the following provisions:
Finally, it was my last day working full time and I am SOOO upset. I am so thankful for the opportunity and cannot wait to fully reflect on the whole experience. I look forward to staying on part time at DPI and the Superintendent’s Office this school year.
This is my last post for the summer, and it is very bittersweet for me. I have loved working for the City of Durham, and my last day of work this Friday will be an emotional one. I have had the best supervisors (seen below), worked on projects of great interest to me, and have been able to network with more passionate local government employees than I can count.
As a final project, I have two presentations I will be sharing with the Director and Assistant Director of the Budget & Management Services Department. First, I will give a brief explanation of what I have done this summer. And second, I will give an in-depth presentation about the local sales tax research project I was tasked with. After combing through data from 2008-2019 and running a variety of Pivot Tables, I feel ready to present my findings.
We have several local sales tax revenues that come into the City of Durham, which have been designated to us by the state. Articles 39, 40, 42, and 44 give explanations about where the money is coming from, and where it is allocated. One of my charts, explaining how revenues have changed over time, can be seen below. If you want to see more of my charts and tables, feel free to reach out to me.
When I first started my professional work experience, I was desperate for any recommendations people would have for me. So check out my tips for starting a new job or internship!
The rest of my week will be filled with tough goodbyes and several final lunches. But in two weeks I’ll have to get back to school and I am (shockingly) excited about it. I cannot wait to apply what I learned in the field to the classroom. Now I’m one step closer to making change on a local level. Let’s do this thing.
Hello blog readers! I am sad to say that this is my last blog post, so I’m here to say farewell to the EPA.
State and Local Programs Group, AQPD, OAQPS, OAR
I couldn’t have asked for a better summer internship experience, and I am so thankful to have been able to work alongside these awesome people! This week, a co-worker of mine moved to a different division of OAQPS. Although he will still be at RTP (and only one building away), SLPG was very sad to see him leave, and I was reminded of how close this group is.
In addition to saying farewell, the interns participated in a service learning project in the butterfly garden this week. EPA’s campus is focused on maintaining the natural landscape as much as possible, so volunteers and staff help tend to the gardens and ensure a healthy habitat for various plant and animal species. The garden is a part of many “Pollinator Projects” across EPA facilities, which serve to protect pollinator species and increase awareness about their importance and contributions to agriculture.
Leafcutter bee in the pollinator garden at EPA’s RTP campus
I am trying to get back into “school mode” since fall semester is right around the corner. I’ve realized, though, that this is my last time buying textbooks, cleaning out my backpack, and checking the Sakai site for my class syllabus. The MPA program is going by just as quickly as this summer has, and I want to enjoy every minute of it. I am excited for the upcoming year as well as thankful to have had the opportunity to work at EPA. And I can’t wait to see where I go next!
One of my favorite spots at work is this small café nook on the first floor where a quote by Gaylord Nelson, former US Senator and founder of Earth Day, is displayed on the wall–“The ultimate test of man’s conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.”
I hope you enjoyed following along this summer! Thanks for reading!
Sydney
What a summer it has been! This will (unfortunately) be my last blog post of the summer. But rest assured, my work with Chatham County is not done!
The blueberries I picked while interviewing a producer from the Chatham agriculture community.
Over the last few weeks, I spent a lot of time deciphering and coding the information that I received from interviews. And let me tell you…I had quite the spread! After I coded them, checked them, re-coded, and re-coded, and re-coded…I finally had a clearer picture of what Chatham residents view as challenges to a more connected community and what they think we (the Chatham public administrators) could do to tackle those challenges. It was really interesting to see the similarities and differences of responses to my two standard interviews questions. After coding the responses, I wrapped it all up in the best public administrator package that I had — you guessed it, A MEMO!
Me working on coding and typing my memo
My beautiful memo outlined the findings of my interviews and research thus far. The top three challenges that Chatham residents mentioned fell into three broad categories – equity, division, and infrastructure. These broad categories were then broken up into corresponding subcategories such as race, geography, and broadband. (side note: Did you know that some Chatham residents do not have access to internet because the internet companies never placed fiber in their areas? Talk about a market failure…). And some of the suggestions I got were around building stronger community relationships and the opportunity to share stories across town lines. In addition, my memo outlined possible paths that the County Manager’s Office could take in working towards unifying Chatham County.
And then…I got to present to the County Manager…So on Wednesday of last week, I got to present my findings and ideas to Dan. Dan was super receptive and supportive. He provided me with some good feedback on what the County Commissioners would likely want to know. I left that meeting knowing that I had the support of the County Manager! So, in September I will be presenting my findings and recommendations to the County Commissioners at the Board of Commissioner’s meeting.
How I felt after my meeting with Dan
As I move forward, I will continue to map out how we can implement some community building events in Chatham County. Hopefully, in the next fiscal year a position can be funded to carry out this work!
It has been a pleasure sharing my experience with you all! I hope to continue doing this kind of work in the future so be on the look out for me! In the famous words of Tigger, “Ta ta for now!”
My supervisors have been incredibly supportive of me getting a well-rounded local government experience. One of their goals as part of my time in Durham, was for me to have several ride-a-long opportunities. As the summer has gone on, I have been able to meet with Inspections, Public Affairs, Solid Waste, Police, and more.
For my Inspections ride-a-long, I was with a member of the building inspections team. They generally look at the framework for incoming businesses and new homes. This division recently started using GIS to map out their route each morning to determine where they needed to go. Previously, they would have to create their own map, which added about an hour every day. By creating this system, it has increased productivity and allowed for more inspections per day to be accomplished.
On this ride I learned more about the City of Durham, and all of the moving parts that go into accomplishing a project. For example, for a house turning into an Airbnb that is changing its basic structure, at each stage of the changes, all divisions of Inspections must go to the site to approve their work. This can create “red tape” but ensures that all structures are as safe as possible.
One of the jobs of the Public Affairs Department within the City Manager’s Office is to run the live-streams of the City Council meetings. Although at first it might seem simple, once you get a behind-the-scenes preview, you can better understand the complications. There are six different cameras, on at all times, and two people need to be in the back room monitoring them the whole time. Additionally, someone not on-site works on the closed captions the entire time. There is usually a delay in speech, and that is because they are on a call listening to the meeting. City Council nights can be exhausting for those who stay to create the televised session, but it adds to transparency.
This was an INCREDIBLE experience. I really got a better understanding of the City of Durham by spending four hours on a garbage truck. I was on one of the “exempt” trucks, which means that the truck picks up garbage from a resident’s address if they cannot take it to the curb themselves. These trucks go to each home, find the trash can, and empty it in the back of the truck personally. I did not even know this was offered by the City of Durham, and was in awe of the benefits it provides.
During my ride-a-long, I was on the recycling truck, and realized just how inaccurately people recycle. Although I’ve always known the process isn’t perfect, I was surprised by some of the things people considered to be recyclable materials. Durham’s Solid Waste Department is working hard to educate people about how to get rid of their trash, but hopefully more people will catch on.
The Police Department was one of the ride-a-longs I was most excited for, and it lived up to the hype. Although it was raining and nothing too wild happened, I gained valuable knowledge on how the department functions. First, all issues that are called in need to have someone dispatched. Someone has to deal with the situation, even if it may seem insignificant. Further, a lot of people call the Police for problems that officers cannot do anything about it. For example, if two people bought something together and one of them takes it, the Police cannot file a theft report, because they technically obtained it together.
If you ever get a chance to attend any sort of ride-a-long, I recommend you take it! You’ll learn more than you could imagine.
Welcome back! This week, the 9 OAQPS interns presented their summer projects and research to staff and management. Each one of us has been working on different issues, and I was really excited to learn about what everyone else had been up to. It was also a great opportunity to see the depth and breadth of the work that EPA is involved in.
During my presentation, I spoke about the work I’ve been doing with EPA Advance as well as SIPs and air quality regulation as a whole. I also gave a shoutout to this blog (!!!) and explained how it was a way for me to reflect on what I’d learned at EPA and draw connections between it and our class work. Overall, my presentation went really well! Public speaking is not something I’ve ever been particularly excited about, but I’ve gotten a lot better at it with practice. I’ve led countless presentations throughout undergrad and the MPA program, so while my hands still get a little sweaty (ok, a lot sweaty), I don’t fear public speaking like I used to. So now I am not only confident in the subject matter, but also confident in myself. During this presentation, I was discussing material that I care deeply about and my co-workers came to support me, which helped ease my nerves.
Me when OAQPS Director Peter Tsirigotis walked in to watch my presentation.
The other interns have been working on a variety of projects including sensor monitoring, energy production, and air quality modeling. Since my work is so heavily involved with the policy and implementation side of things, it is easy for me to forget the slew of other projects and programs that EPA leads, such as raw data collection and analysis, so I very much enjoyed learning from the other interns. The presentations were a great way to summarize what we’ve learned, practice our presentation skills, and reflect on our overall experience with OAQPS.
In addition to participating in our presentations, I attended a briefing about the latest air quality trends. EPA publishes an extremely informative and user-friendly annual report on national air quality status and trends using data from the previous year. The 2019 national air quality report, titled “Our Nation’s Air 2019,” can be found here.
I have less than two weeks left here at EPA as a full-time intern, and I am quite sad about it. This summer has gone by so fast and there are a lot of things left to learn. However, I am looking forward to going back to school, seeing all of my fellow bloggers again, and pursuing a long term career in this field!
Thanks for reading!
Sydney
The saddest news to report is that we said goodbye to the Superintendent’s Legislative Director- my boss referred to in my previous blogs as @kevin. While I am super sad about his departure, we are so excited about the opportunities ahead of him as he joins the UNC System. As a part of his farewell, he passed down a lapel pin given to him by his first boss in this field to me to have as my first North Carolina lapel pin.
Legislative Team
First Lapel Pin #official
While few education bills were considered in committee this week, multiple bills were heard on the House and Senate floors. A total of 173 varying bills have become session laws so far this session of which 22 relate to K-12 education.
As session starts to wind down, high profile bills that draw more debate and disagreement remain unsettled. When the House and Senate do not agree on a bill, including all amendments and proposed substitutes, the bill may be sent to a conference committee in hopes of finding a compromise solution. Select members from the House and Senate that have been deemed subject-matter experts or affiliated with the bill in some manner, will be assigned to the committee. In conference, bills can be debated, altered slightly, or completely changed into new bills as long as the conference committee members agree. Conference reports are then presented to both the House and Senate for a vote; however, unlike a traditional bill, there is no opportunity for amendments to be considered.
The following K-12 education bills have been assigned to conference committees and could be completely altered from these descriptions post-conference:
Finally, while there has been no action on the House version of the stopgap budget HB 111: Supplemental Appropriations Act, the Senate stopgap budget HB 961: Ensuring Authorization of Federal Funds has been approved by both chambers and sent to the Governor. This budget bill provides matching state funding for federal block grants.
Is Salisbury Parks and Recreation anything like the show Parks and Recreation? While I don’t think real life can live up to the crazy antics of what is admittedly one of my favorite shows, it is important to note that there is the same (if not greater) level of dedication toward serving the community. There also aren’t any pits in Salisbury as far as I know.
While there are no pits, people are still able to bring in their own ideas for public parks and programming, which Parks and Recreation is always happy to hear. In fact, one program was proposed and considered this week involving an organization that would like to use a kitchen space in the Teen Center for cooking classes. The organization primarily caters (puns are good for you) to youth who have some sort of criminal past to help them get back on track, but they are willing to offer classes to general community youth as well. Such a program can teach youth life skills, potential vocational skills, and how to operate under stressful conditions (wait, I’m not the only one stressed out in the kitchen right?). While I don’t know whether the program will be able to start this year, it is certainly inspiring to see Parks and Recreation open to any ideas from the community it serves.
It is not often that a parks and recreation department has an opportunity to add a large park to the downtown area, so I was fortunate in getting to attend a meeting about just that. The Bell Tower Green project involves turning a large, mostly parking-lot-filled area into a beautiful park with a kids play space, plants and trees, a grass field, and a stage for potential events. For you budget nerds (don’t worry, me too) who are looking through the Salisbury budget for the secret magic account full of money, the City does not own this property yet. Instead, an outside organization owns it and is funding the creation of the park, which will later be given to the care of the City (the deal may be more complicated than this, but you get the idea). Keep this project on your radar because this place is going to be gorgeous when it is done. Click HERE for the website with a model drawing!
Walking the potential greenway
Don’t worry, I did get outside some this week. The City is currently looking into a new greenway space that would connect other existing greenway trails. Interestingly enough, one of the best locations for this new trail was in a Duke Energy right-of-way, where there are no trees in the way. To get a feel of the space, we met with Duke Energy (who was very willing to work with us, so shout out) and representatives from the Carolina Thread Trail (definitely check this out) at the site of the proposed trail. It definitely makes you appreciate the trails more having to walk them before they are trimmed up and paved!
Parks and Recreation has a lot more going on as well, including awesome facilities that give youth a great place to hang out and play, and some fantastic events that bring in tourism and business from out of town (which requires A LOT of planning ahead by the way – Cheerwine Festival 2020 is already being planned). On top of everything else, they are planning for growth in the future. It was definitely a great experience being with a group of people who are dedicated to expanding the Salisbury Parks and Recreation scope in any way that can benefit the community.
While this was my final week with The City of Salisbury (I know, it’s sad), come back next week as I do a final recap of my amazing experience and do a final sign off! If you have any questions on any of my experience, feel free to leave a comment and I will do my best to answer it. See you next week!
Yep, you heard that right – we got new County Commissioners outside of the election cycle.
Ok, so maybe they weren’t exactly sworn in, but they did volunteer to serve and make decisions about the County’s future. Oh, and I should also mention that they are all under the age of 19 years old. Here they are…
[Photo from Chatham News + Record] With an assist from actual Commissioners Jim Crawford (third from left) and Diana Hales (third from right, the “commissioners” were, from left to right, Noemi Mora, Oscar Manzanarez, Chair Kevin Manzanarez, Vice Chair Cesia Lopez and Berenice Diaz.
The Orgullo Latinx Pride youth group of El Vinculo Hispano/The Hispanic Liaison and Lindsay Ray, the County Clerk, organized a mock Board of Commissioners meeting to show Latinx youth a little more about the role of County Commissioners. The youth got to serve in varying capacities throughout the activity such as commissioners, the clerk, and residents.
[Photo from Chatham News + Record] “Citizen #2” Jocelyn Gonzalez shares her thoughts on why the board of commissioners should have a social media page during the public input session of the meeting.
[Photo from Chatham News + Record] The final votes on possible funding options, as picked by “commissioners.” A new costume and updated robot friend for Sparky the Fire Dog and an “Adopt-A-Pet Visiting Area” at the animal shelter won out.
By far, this was probably one of my favorite things since joining Chatham County!
I’ve spent nearly the entire summer trying to come up with an air pun to no avail, so if any of y’all can think of one, drop it in the comments section below.
As I write this, the heat index is 109°F
The EPA Advance program is transitioning to AQPD (my division), so we are in the midst of transferring institutional knowledge. If Org Theory prepared me for anything, it’s this, because we are writing team charters and work plans, delegating responsibilities, prepping briefing materials for upper management, and developing a strategic plan. Handing a program off to someone else is no joke. There’s lots of meetings and teaching and file sharing involved. A co-worker of mine made the comment that he wishes we could do some sort of mind meld like they did in Star Trek.
However, it is an excellent, real-life learning experience, as teamwork is essential to success ( i.e. making the dream work). I am certainly grateful for how well the MPA program has prepared me for teamwork through our numerous group projects and in-class exercises. Each team member has a unique personality, strengths, weaknesses, interests, and background, and a successful team is one that is able to utilize each member in meeting the mission or goal of the group. In this case, I think one of the most valuable things I can offer my team is new ideas and a fresh perspective. I am the youngest member of my team (and all of AQPD), so I think one of my strengths is being knowledgeable about emerging environmental issues and representing a younger generation.
I’m excited about this opportunity to be a part of a team and help develop this EPA Advance program.
Thanks for reading–see you next week!
Sydney
