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Municipal E-News: Issue 86: December 2017, Mtas

Municipal E-News

The "Municipal E-News" was created by MTAS in 2009 as part of our continuing efforts to meet our mission of providing timely, valuable information and assistance to Tennessee cities.

The Geopolitics Of Rare Earth Elements: Emerging Challenge For U.S. National Security And Economics, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Rare earth elements (REE) contain unique chemical and physical properties such as lanthanum, are found in small concentrations, need extensive precise processes to separate, and are critical components of modern technologies such as laser guidance systems, personal electronics such as IPhones, satellites, and military weapons systems as varied as Virginia-class fast attack submarines, DDG- 51 Aegis destroyers, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and precision guided munitions. The U.S. has some rare earth resources, but is heavily dependent on access to them from countries as varied as Afghanistan, Bolivia, and China. Losing access to these resources would have significant adverse economic, …

Building Powerful Partnerships: Lessons From Portland's Climate Action Collaborative, Jennifer H. Allen, Fletcher Beaudoin, Beth Gilden

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

There is growing interest in partnerships between universities and communities and how such collaborations can help address the wicked challenges facing the world today. This article traces the development of the institutional commitments at Portland State University (PSU) in its efforts to build sustainability-focused community–university partnerships. The Institute for Sustainable Solutions at PSU has served as a mechanism to catalyze and nurture such partnerships on and off campus. This article examines two cases under the Portland Climate Action Collaborative that illustrate how community–university partnerships have emerged, what impacts they have had on the community, and what factors contributed to their …

Geopolitical Relations: Uganda’S Role In The Development Of The River Nile, Jordan Williams

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examined the geopolitical relations of the Nile Basin by looking at Uganda as a case study, and analyzed Uganda’s use and development of the River Nile. It reviews the history of transboundary politics and treaties along with Uganda’s development projects in the region. The paper then discusses modern relations and agreements, with a focus on the most recent agreement between the Riparian States, the Cooperative Framework Agreement, and how Uganda fits into them with regards to their interest in hydropower development within their borders on the Nile. It then explores possible future developments on the river and the …

How Does Participatory Budgeting Affect Council Member Priorities?, Dan Williams, Thad Calabrese, Anubhav Gupta, Samuli Harju

Publications and Research

There is a growing literature concerning participatory budgeting (PB), which transfers some element of budgetary decision making from the executive or legislature to the citizens. It is widely held that this practice originated in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989, although there is evidence of antecedents from the 1970s and 1980s and co-developments elsewhere in Brazil (Goldfrank, 2007; Souza, 2001). During the earlier years of development, this practice was found primarily in less developed countries. Early PB reoriented government expenditures to better focus on the needs of the populace. Substantial shares of the budget (9.8-21%) were allocated through participatory process (Souza, …

Size, Sustainability, And Urban Climate Planning In A Multilevel Governance Framework, George C. Homsy

Public Administration Faculty Scholarship

In the United States, the absence of federal leadership on climate change and a strong tradition of localism has created a system in which many greenhouse gas reduction efforts fall to the discretion of municipalities. This often leads to uncoordinated action across jurisdictional boundaries. Despite the widespread notion that cities can lead on climate policy from the bottom up, I find, using a logistic regression analysis of data from 1,837 municipalities, that local governments are more likely to enact climate change policies in an environment where higher levels of government have acted rather than in a decentralized one. Smaller municipalities, …

Municipal E-News: Issue 85: September 2017, Mtas

Municipal E-News

The "Municipal E-News" was created by MTAS in 2009 as part of our continuing efforts to meet our mission of providing timely, valuable information and assistance to Tennessee cities.

Gender Differences In The Leadership Styles Of Mpa Directors, Meghna Sabharwal, Helisse Levine, Maria J. D’Agostino

Publications and Research

A growing body of literature has documented leadership styles by gender. This study examines if directors of Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration exhibit gender differences in leadership styles. Such differences may affect the implementation of public administration and how effective MPA directors are in achieving positive outcomes. Using a mixed methods approach—specifically, exploratory sequential design utilizing qualitative data and analysis, followed by a quantitative survey—we find that there are some gendered differences among public administration directors. In particular, we find that women directors are significantly more likely …

Framing The Role Of And Defining Criteria For Usefulness Of Citizen Satisfaction Surveys In Local Urban Environmental Management: The Case Of The Local Government Unit Of Quezon City, Philippines, Elirozz Carlie D. Labaria, Charlotte Kendra Z. Gotangco, Mary Jean Caleda

Ateneo School of Government Publications

The delivery of urban environmental services is among the functions devolved to local governments. As public services, they are routinely evaluated typically using ‘hard’ performance measures. The current trend of local governance incorporates citizens’ perspectives in assessing service performance. In this study, the importance and ‘usefulness’ of citizen satisfaction surveys in local urban environmental management are explored using the case of the local government of unit (LGU) of Quezon City, Philippines and its experience with the Citizen Satisfaction Index System (CSIS). For Quezon City, citizen satisfaction ratings are an important indication of city performance. For the Environmental Protection and Waste …

Hidden Subsidies And The Public Ownership Of Sports Facilities: The Case Of Levi’S Stadium In Santa Clara, Robert Baumann, Victor Matheson, Debra O'Connor

Economics Department Working Papers

Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California is an example of a private financing / public ownership arrangement. While the stadium’s construction resulted in no direct tax increases, this ownership arrangement allows the San Francisco 49ers to avoid many types of taxes on the income generated from Levi’s Stadium. We estimate the total tax savings to the 49ers at between $106 and $213 million over the first 20 years of Levi’s Stadium compared with a privately financed and owned option. We argue that tax savings inherent in private financing / public ownership arrangements represent indirect and hidden subsidies.

The President Management Agenda: An Examination Of Federal Employees’ Perceptions, Famane Brown

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Under United States President Barack Obama’s administration, the President’s Management Agenda mandated several actions to respond to the problem of poor relationships between and among federal government managers and employees. The purpose of the study was to examine whether a difference in perceptions of employee empowerment and organizational excellence, existed between the employees of higher and lower performing federal agencies, as measured by the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS). The theoretical framework of public choice theory posited that performance in public sector organizations could be improved by emulating the business sector by prioritizing performance, cost, efficiency, and accountability in an …

The Use And Reliability Of Federal Nature Of Suit Codes, Christina L. Boyd, David A. Hoffman

All Faculty Scholarship

When filing a civil case in a federal district court, attorneys must identify one, and only one, of ninety issue area nature of suit (NOS) codes that best describes their case. While this may seem like a trivial moment in litigation, the selection of this single descriptor has significant implications for court statistics, empirical research findings, and the allocation of resources to federal courts, including judgeships. Despite the import of NOS codes, there is little within the process of choosing them to guarantee reliability in the selected NOS codes. To assess how reliable NOS codes are, we examine a database …

Summary Of 2017 Public Acts, Elisha Hodge

MTAS Publications: Full Publications

This report summarizes the year's public acts that have the most significant impact on municipal operations in Tennessee. Users of this report are cautioned that much judgement is involved in determining which Public Acts to summarize and how to summarize them. Before taking action or giving advice based upon any Public Act summarized here, one should consult the act itself and not rely on the summary.

Municipal E-News: Issue 84: July 2017, Mtas

Municipal E-News

The "Municipal E-News" was created by MTAS in 2009 as part of our continuing efforts to meet our mission of providing timely, valuable information and assistance to Tennessee cities.

Bat Community Composition And Monitoring For White-Nose Syndrome At First State National Historical Park, Delaware And Pennsylvania, Juliet Nagel, J. Edward Gates

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

In recent years, bats have faced increasingly deadly threats on multiple fronts. Cave-dwelling bats have been decimated by the emergence of a disease, white-nose syndrome (WNS), caused by a fungal pathogen, Pseudogymnoascus destructans; and tree bats are dying in large numbers at wind power facilities. First State National Historical Park (FRST) is a new national park unit located in northern Delaware and Pennsylvania. Prior to this study, little information was available on bat species and their activity and distribution within FRST. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted an inventory of bat species present at FRST. We used …

Halton Region Youth In/At Risk Research Report, Ferzana Chaze, Bethany Osborne, Thomas Howe

Publications and Scholarship

The goal of the research was to conduct a Needs Assessment in relation to services for in/at-risk groups of youth between the ages of 16-24 years of age within the Halton region:

1. To identify the existing services available to meet the needs of the youth

2. To identify the gaps/duplication within services in order to suggest future fundable solutions.

Launched May 2018: Halton Region Youth In/At Risk Research Report now has a companion website http://halton-youth-need.webflow.io/

The website was designed by students from the Interaction Design Program at Sheridan and profiles the Halton Region Youth In/At Risk research findings in …

The Effects Of The Foreclosure Crisis On The Black And Hispanic Population In Lee County, Florida, Stenia K. Reid-Hall, Stenia K. Reid-Hall Ph. D

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

The housing foreclosure crisis of 2007-2010 in the United States disproportionately affected persons of color. Some states, such as Florida, were heavily impacted by property value losses yet little is known about the experience of losing a home and recovering from that loss from the perspective of the homeowner. Using Carlson’s conceptualization of resiliency theory, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to assess the impact of housing foreclosure and the experience of recovery from foreclosure on Black and Hispanic people in Lee County, Florida. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 15 people in Lee County who experienced foreclosure …

The Diffusion Of Social Media In Nonprofit Organizations, Elvis Asorwoe

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social media platforms have become important over the last decade for nonprofit organizations to communicate with stakeholders, engage with community, and connect with donors. Despite the significance, there is a wide gap in the research on social media adoption and use among community-based nonprofits. To fill this gap, this dissertation examines the diffusion of two popular social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) among community-based nonprofit organizations affiliated with the United Way of America in Florida. The United Way is the largest federated organization of nonprofits and its primary focus is on education, income, and health.

Two questions guide this study: …

Representative Bureaucracy In German Public Schools: An Assessment Of The Mechanisms Of Passive Representation, Gretha Burchard

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to representative bureaucracy theory, a bureaucracy that mirrors the population it serves—in terms of demographic composition—is more responsive to the interests of all groups in the population. Most research in this area has examined the link between passive representation (i.e., occurrences in which minority bureaucrats mirror the population) and active representation (i.e., occurrences in which minority bureaucrats actively pursue the interests of those they represent). Less attention has been directed toward the notion that different mechanisms can make representative bureaucracy have an effect.

Focusing on the German public school sector, the aim of this study is to understand through …

The Silent Crisis Ii: A Follow-Up Analysis Of Latin@ Participation In City Government Boards, Commissions, And Executive Bodies In Boston And Chelsea, Massachusetts, James Jennings, Jen Douglas, Miren Uriarte

Gastón Institute Publications

This report provides an update on the participation of Latin@s in city government in Chelsea and Boston. Since 2001 several studies have documented a severe underrepresentation of Latin@s in policy-making bodies in government institutions that affect their lives (e.g., Hardy-Fanta, 2002; Uriarte, Jennings, & Douglas, 2014). The Silent Crisis, the 2014 study (Uriarte et al., 2014) commissioned by the Greater Boston Latin@ Network, found significant under-representation of Latin@s in the city governments of Boston, Chelsea, and Somerville. In each of the three cities, the representation of Latin@s in the population far outpaced their role in the municipal governments.

Aging In Reading, Massachusetts: A Community Needs Assessment, Caitlin Coyle, Jan Mutchler

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes collaborative efforts undertaken by the Town of Reading’s Elder and Human Services Division and the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging, within the Gerontology Institute at the McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts Boston. During Spring 2017, these organizations partnered to conduct a study to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of the Town’s older resident population, with respect to living and aging in Reading.

Latina Political Leadership In Massachusetts, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

This Fact Sheet offers an analysis of Latina leadership and political representation in the Massachusetts, as of the 2017.

Regulating By Robot: Administrative Decision Making In The Machine-Learning Era, Cary Coglianese, David Lehr

All Faculty Scholarship

Machine-learning algorithms are transforming large segments of the economy, underlying everything from product marketing by online retailers to personalized search engines, and from advanced medical imaging to the software in self-driving cars. As machine learning’s use has expanded across all facets of society, anxiety has emerged about the intrusion of algorithmic machines into facets of life previously dependent on human judgment. Alarm bells sounding over the diffusion of artificial intelligence throughout the private sector only portend greater anxiety about digital robots replacing humans in the governmental sphere. A few administrative agencies have already begun to adopt this technology, while others …

Gender And Authority In The Public Sector: The Case Of Local Government Chief Administrative Officers In The United States, Sebawit G. Bishu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2016, women represented 16.6% of all Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs) in local governments across the United States. Previous studies have investigated gender disparities in managerial representation, which is explained by the glass ceiling phenomenon; however, little is known about whether the women that occupy these male dominated positions have the similar levels of responsibilities as their male counterparts. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to understand if gender disparities in levels of work authority manifest as a new form of the glass ceiling. Work authority in this study is operationalized as CAOs’ sanctioning authority (control over personnel operations) …

Australian Government Information Resources, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides an overview of Australian Government information resources. Features content from Australian Government agency websites such as the Department of Environment and Energy, Department of Defence, Australian National Maritime Museum, ANZAC Memorial in Sydney, Department of Immigration & Border Protection, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Dept. of Agriculture and Water Resources, Australian Parliament, Australian Treasury, Australian Transport Safety Board, and Australian Parliamentary Library. Content includes a video excerpt from Australian parliamentary debate.

The Impact Of Duty Cycle Workflow On Sign-Out Practices: A Qualitative Study Of An Internal Medicine Residency Program In Maryland, Usa, Soo-Hoon Lee, Sanjay V. Desai, Philip H. Phan

Management Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVES: Although JCAHO requires a standardised approach to handoffs, and while many standardised protocols have been tested, sign-out practices continue to vary. We believe this is due to the variability in workflow during inpatient duty cycle. We investigate the impact of such workflows on intern sign-out practices.

DESIGN: We employed a prospective, grounded theory mixed-method design.

SETTING: The study was conducted at a residency programme in the mid-Atlantic USA. Two observers randomly evaluated three types of daily sign-outs for 1 week every 3 months from September 2013 to March 2014. The compliance of each observed behaviour to JCAHO's Handoff Communication …

Aftermath Of An Officer Involved Shooting: Formal Education, Continuing Education, And Responsibility, Pat Nelson, Thor Dahle, Colleen Clarke, Tamara Wilkins, Susan Burum, Bruce Biggs

Criminal Justice Department Publications

This is a policy review presentation that shows there are areas for improvement and recommendations to implement in the professional and academic sides of law enforcement using the lens of a current officer involved shooting that generated a lot of publicity. The recommendations would require a partnership between formal education providers, continuing education providers and practitioners.

Dawnbreaker Vol 63 No 3 (Spring 2017), Dawnbreaker Staff

Maine Women's Publications - All

No abstract provided.

Tennessee Municipal Benchmarking Project Fy2016, Laura Ogle-Graham, Frances Adams-O'Brien

Tennessee Municipal Benchmarking Project

This report marks the 14th year of the Tennessee Municipal Benchmarking Project (TMBP). The report provides performance and cost data for the period July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016 (Fiscal Year 2016 or FY2016). In this FY2016 annual report, there are a total of eleven service areas measured and analyzed:

1) Building Code Enforcement 2) Employment Benefits 3) Finance 4) Fire 5) Human Resources 6) Information Technology 7) Parks and Recreation 8) Planning and Zoning 9) Police 10) Property Maintenance Code Enforcement 11) Refuse Collection, Disposal, and Recycling.

Municipal E-News: Issue 83: April 2017, Mtas

Municipal E-News

The "Municipal E-News" was created by MTAS in 2009 as part of our continuing efforts to meet our mission of providing timely, valuable information and assistance to Tennessee cities.