Upcoming Events

Associate and Sustaining Members

Education Foundation Memorial Program

In This Issue

Make Plans to Attend NACO's 7th Annual Legislative Conference

Conference Matters

Recycling Equipment Grants Available

MIPS Bytes

National Highway Institute To Hold Map-21 Conferences

Updated County Government Day PowerPoint CD Available

2012 Directory of County Officials

News from NACo

NACo Web Based Education

News Across the State

Legal Calendar

County Classifieds

Associate & Sustaining Members

NACO Education Foundation Memorial Program

NACO's 7th Annual Legislative Conference will be held in Kearney on October 11, 2012. If you haven't already done so, be sure to mark this date on your calendar because you won't to miss this educational opportunity. 

Over five hours of educational sessions and networking have been planned for this year's conference. To view the tentative agenda for this conference, click here.

You may register on-line at NACO's website by clicking here. The registration fee for this conference is only $40.00. The registration fee includes two breaks, a luncheon and all handout materials. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Convention Center in Kearney. Rates for lodging are $78.95 single/double. You may contact the Holiday Inn at (308) 237-5971 for lodging. Be sure to mention that you are with the NACO Legislative Conference to receive the contracted rate.

At this conference you will have input into establishing NACO's platform and legislative priorities. Take a look at the tentative agenda and you'll see that this conference is a very important part of each elected and appointed county official's continuing education, not to mention your opportunity to have input into the legislation that affect county government as a whole.

Register Now For NACO's 118th Annual Conference

NACO's 118th Annual Conference will be held in Kearney, December 12-14th, 2012.  To register for this conference click here.

Lodging Reservation Date

County officials were able to begin contacting hotels for conference lodging on August 30, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time.  Reservations must be made by using the published phone numbers to receive the contracted rate for the conference.   For a list of contracted hotels, their rates and the reservation phone numbers, click here.  On August 30 or after, those officials making reservations for the conference must use the phone numbers published by NACO to receive the contracted rate.  The contracted rate will not be available with on-line reservations.

NACO has received several inquiries into annual conference lodging procedures.  It is hoped that this article will answer some of the questions readers may have regarding these procedures.

In 2004, the NACO conference was held in Omaha and NACO was not involved in the housing process for this conference.  As a result, the Holiday Inn in Omaha oversold so many rooms that approximately 80 people ended up with no rooms when they were promised a room and even had confirmation numbers for those rooms.  At that time, many county officials asked NACO to step in to make sure that this would never happen again.

NACO did recognize the need for some type of lodging procedure and asked the hotels to assist in setting a procedure for lodging reservations.  Several different procedures have been tried, including faxing your rooming list in and e-mailing your rooming list.  With each procedure, complaints were registered and each year NACO receives a multitude of complaints from those counties that were unable to obtain rooms on the first day they became available.

NACO researches the amount of rooms used for every conference.  NACO establishes an average for those amounts and requests this average amount in their contracts.  In every hotel contract, attrition is a possibility.  Attrition is when NACO contracts with each hotel for a certain amount of rooms.  When the amount of rooms NACO contracts for are not filled, NACO could be responsible for a certain percentage of the revenue that would have been received by filling the rooms requested in the NACO block.  The larger the amount of rooms not filled, the higher the percentage attrition is.  When counties call and request a number of rooms and then later realize that they don't need this many rooms, then cancel what they don't need, it causes a great many vacancies.  This happens a great deal the closer the cut off date for cancellations comes.  In the end, the hotels end up with vacancies and they fill those vacancies with entities outside of the NACO Conference.  Even though NACO has not requested the entire inventory of rooms each hotel has, each hotel will go beyond that inventory, honoring the rate that NACO has contracted for until their entire inventory is sold.  For example, say a hotel has 100 rooms and NACO contracts for 90 of those rooms.  When the hotel reaches the 90 rooms NACO contracted for and still receives requests, they will continue to sell rooms at the contracted rate until all 100 rooms are filled.  Again, when last minute cancellations occur, each hotel will try to fill those vacancies with whatever source is available to them, including those requests that fall outside of the NACO conference.

NACO has been asked why counties can't reserve their room for the next year when they check out of their rooms the previous year.  With the advancement of technology and the ability to make on-line registrations, most hotels are unable to accept reservations any earlier than fifty weeks in advance.

When attrition is not a serious consideration, NACO is considering stepping out of the process and leaving the conference lodging procedures in the hands of each individual hotel.  This would mean that county officials would be left to deal with the individual hotels' policies on their own, with no support from NACO.

Any individuals with ideas for lodging procedures or concerns should contact the NACO office.  We realize the lodging procedures are not ideal and welcome any new ideas that would make the lodging process better for all concerned. 

Affiliate Groups' Agendas

NACO has sent planning material to each affiliate group president to enable them to begin planning their individual agendas for the annual conference.  County officials who have ideas or suggestions for their group's agenda are encouraged to contact their affiliate group president as soon as possible.

County Official of the Year

Do you know of an elected or appointed county official who you feel serves as the embodiment of a true dedicated public official?  If so, nominate that individual for the annual County Official of the Year Award.  The Nebraska Association of County Officials will present its highest honor to one county official at the conclusion of the December 14th business meeting.

The County Official of the Year Award was created as a means of honoring one individual each year for his or her leadership abilities, high standard of public service and outstanding contributions made to the medium of county government and that person's community.

The official nomination form can be found on NACO's website or by clicking here.  To nominate someone you know, print the form, complete it and return it to the NACO office by November 9, along with any supplemental materials you feel would provide additional insight into why this person is deserving of the award.  Supporting material may include testimonial letters from peers or other printed matter that highlight his or her record of service.  Each of the 2012 nominees will be introduced and recognized during the conference.  The announcement will be made as to who has been chosen by a special selection committee following the NACO Business Meeting on December 14.  The 2012 recipient will join an elite list of county officials who have previously received this award and will receive a handsomely engraved plaque befitting of this prestigious honor.

The Nebraska State Recycling Association still has grant funds available for municipalities, other government entities, non-profits and recycling companies who wish to purchase recycling equipment. Interested parties should go to www.recyclenebraska.org and call Deb Rost at 402-933-3059 in Omaha for more information. Grants can help fund the purchase of recycling trailers, semi trailers, carts, dumpsters, balers, forklifts, trucks and more. Equipment may be new, used or refurbished. Applications will be taken until the fund is depleted.

This recycling grant is one of 107 projects in 2012 receiving $19,292,396 in grant awards from the Nebraska Environmental Trust. The Trust has awarded more than $178 million to over 1,300 conservation projects in Nebraska since 1994, and is funded by proceeds from the Nebraska Lottery.

The Nebraska State Recycling Association is a membership organization of public and private organizations as well as citizens, and has been a recycling advocate for Nebraska since 1980.

On September 17, 2012, Microsoft released a Security Advisory (2757760) detailing a vulnerability in Internet Explorer that could allow a malicious person to take over your computer.  This vulnerability spans a wide array of Internet Explorer versions.  Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8, and 9 are all affected by this vulnerability.  Any PC's running Windows XP Service Pack 3 through Windows 7 Service Pack 1, and any servers running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 through Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 could be affected.  At this time, the only supported version of Internet Explorer not affected is Internet Explorer 10 which is only available on Windows 8, Microsoft's newest operating system.

This vulnerability allows a hacker to trick you into visiting an infected website which could run malicious code that may allow the installation of unauthorized software on your computer.  One of the most popular ways hackers use to direct people to their infected websites is with the use of SPAM or phishing emails.  These emails usually contain links in the body and are disguised to trick people into clicking them.  By the time the person clicks the link and realizes there is a problem they are often already infected.

As of this writing, Microsoft does not have a security patch to fix this issue even though they are aware of attacks that attempt to exploit the issue.  However, there are a couple of things you can do to protect yourself from this and other security vulnerabilities.

First, never click on a link that comes from someone you do not know.  One of the most popular phishing schemes involves sending emails appearing to come from PayPal or your bank asking you to login to your account.  Even if you are sure the email came from PayPal or your bank, the safest way to access your account is by opening a new browser and typing the address yourself rather than clicking the link.  If you receive a link in an email from someone you do know, pay close attention to the content of the message.  Do not click on the link if it does not seem like something the sender would send you.

Second, look into installing a different Internet browser.  Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are two popular browsers that many people use.  Keep in mind that even though these browsers are not vulnerable to the current Security Advisory you still want to be careful anytime you click on a link on the Internet.  Also, some commercial software may require Internet Explorer to run properly.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, keep your Windows Updates current.  Usually Microsoft fixes these vulnerabilities within days of discovery.  Microsoft uses Windows Update to get the security fixes out to people and to keep systems secure.  The more up to date your system is the safer you will be from security threats like the one detailed in the Security Advisory released September 17, 2012.

The National Highway Institute will hold two web conferences to discuss the implementation of MAP-21.  The first to be held September 26 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time.  To register for this conference, click here.

The second conference will be held on September 27 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time.  To register for this conference, click here.

The order form for the NACO 2012 Directory of County Officials is available here or on the NACO website. Each directory is $17 if tax-exempt or $18 if taxable.

NACO to Provide Cybersecurity Webinar Series

In support of October National Cybersecurity Awareness Month and the NACo Presidential Cybersecurity Initiative, NACo has teamed up with the Deprtment of Homeland Security (DHS), National Cybersecurity Alliance and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center to bring you webinars highlighting county government's role in protecting the Nation's cyber infrastructure.  To read more, click here.

Chadron Record, September 11, 2012

Supervisors Will Consider Grant For Trial

Fremont Tribune, September 18, 2012

County Budget Cuts Affect Charitable Organizations

Star Herald, September 18, 2012