State Associations of Regional Organizations:
Collaborations for Success

Regional development organizations are the entities that help cities, towns, counties and their respective local elected officials with many things, including technical assistance, planning and more. But who helps the regional development organizations? State associations are different in each state, from the way they were formed and their membership to their policies and priorities. However, these are the organizations that assist regional development organizations from state to state.

Most state associations include each regional development organization as a member and charge them an annual fee for services. Most have committees to deal with a variety of issues. Many plan conferences and training sessions for continuing education on the part of organizational staff. Some have representatives, who help them with issues at the national and/or state levels. State associations have experienced success in the past few years.

According to Executive Director Jim Ray, "In the long term, our successes have included the involvement of local elected officials on the board and the cooperation between large and small councils of government in the state on all kinds of issues."

Texas
Here are a few examples of this success. Representing Texas’ 24 regional councils of government (COGs), the Texas Association of Regional Councils (TARC) has a staff of four. Headquartered in Austin, TARC has been successful. According to Executive Director Jim Ray, "In the long term, our successes have included the involvement of local elected officials on the board and the cooperation between large and small councils of government in the state on all kinds of issues."

Their successes legislatively have included the designation and funding of regional councils as solid waste districts and 911 entities, in addition to maintaining general funding from the governor’s offices. Texas regional councils work on many issues such as aging, community and economic development, emergency 911 services, housing, and geographic information services.

New York
The New York State Association of Regional Councils (NYSARC) is composed of nine locally created regional councils throughout the state. These councils represent 44 of the 62 counties in New York.

Their most recent success was with the 2000 Census. As the regional councils are also the NY state data centers, they were the logical groups to work with to ensure an accurate count, through outreach and promotion. Though they were supposed to start in April 1999, they did not receive approval from the state until September 1999 and funding until January 2000.

The outreach and promotion program ran relatively smoothly, due to the existing network of people and organizations, exchanging ideas, resources and techniques. Because of the frequent communication among the nine regional councils, most of the people involved knew each other through the state data center and other projects.

Virginia
All 21 Planning District Commissions (PDCs) belong to Virginia’s state association. With two full-time employees and other temporary staff, Virginia has accomplished a great deal. Executive Director Robert Voursney noted that they have had good years legislatively.

All 21 Planning District Commissions (PDCs) belong to Virginia’s state association. With two full-time employees and other temporary staff, Virginia has accomplished a great deal.

According to Voursney, "State support has increased; for the lowest budgeted councils, state support has more than doubled in the past three years. There has been additional state investment in the PDCs’ geographic information systems (GIS) capabilities. Virginia PDCs were awarded $34,000 each, amounting to a total of $514,000 for GIS equipment. The PDCs have come together and communicate well through the state association."

The PDCs are not sure where the new discussions at the state level of regional cooperation will lead. However, in Virginia, the state is encouraging regional cooperation. The PDCs are involved and the state has provided $11 million in support for projects related to it, mostly for workforce development. In addition, the PDCs have decided to change their names. They have found that "planning district commission" is misleading, because they are often confused with local planning commissions. The general assembly has allowed them to change to "regional commissions."

Kentucky
With 15 Area Development Districts (ADDs) as members and a full-time staff person, Kentucky is probably one of the most active state associations. The association’s priorities include transportation, economic development, job training and aging. Their biggest success and most important priority, however, is GIS. They have made sure that all the ADDs have the same capacity to produce a quality product throughout the state. As a result, the ADDs are obtaining contracts for state work. The districts have mapped all the water lines, manholes and water systems in the state.

Next ADDs will map all sewers and designate all available buildings on GIS systems in order to recruit more industries. Finally, their Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment (PRIDE) program, which uses GIS/GPS to identify straight line pipes which carry untreated waste directly into small streams, and dumps, has also been a major success.

Alabama
The Alabama Association of Regional Councils (AARC) trains and represents the interests of the state’s 12 regional councils. AARC, whose full-time executive director is Wayne Burnette, holds an annual training conference that includes seven training tracks that cover workforce development, transportation and transit, planning, senior services, fiscal matters, GIS, and economic development. The organization received funding from the Ford Foundation to increase minority participation on the AARC board and to support training of board members and the staff of member councils.

AARC was instrumental in obtaining business development capital from the state of Alabama. In February 2000, Ron Matthews, Executive Director of the North-Central Alabama Regional Council of Governments and then-President of AARC, signed a bond issue with Governor Don Siegelman that provides each of Alabama’s regional planning councils with $1 million to capitalize and expand business development revolving loan funds (RLFs) managed by the councils. In November 1998, a statewide referendum was held, and voters approved an amendment to the state constitution allowing cellular phone funds to be used to fund the RLFs. The state legislature later unanimously approved the bond issue. The debt service on the $12 million bond issue will be fully repaid from revenues from the state’s cellular phone fund.

Missouri
The state of Missouri has 18 districts; 16 belong to the state association, which has no full-time staff. An executive secretary on retainer tracks legislation. However, the state association still accomplishes a great deal. The executive directors of each member region meet monthly. Interested chairmen of regions are always invited, as are representatives of key state agencies. After damage from the Midwest Floods of 1993 was assessed, the state emergency management agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency contracted with the Missouri regions to broker their programs to affected communities.

As a result, the districts helped local communities apply for grants and acquire funding for cleanup. In 1994 and 1995, the state began to use the districts as an advisory committee on transportation issues and planning. Another success has been having all districts involved in and adopting a minimum standard of performance for themselves. As a result, the state provides $25,000 annually to each district. For this funding, the districts must attend professional development courses. The state association offers courses at a separate event each fall, by contracting with a Kansas City training company.

Steve Etcher, past president of the state association, reflects, "We are really using the state association to advance our relationships with various state agencies. We hope in seeing the strides we have made they will look to us as a problem solver in these situations."

Just as regional development organizations provide services and technical assistance to local governments, state associations are providing services to regional development organizations. State associations allow regional organizations to work together to accomplish important things.

For more information, contact Jim Ray of Texas at (512) 478-4715; Robert Augenstern of New York at (607) 724-1327; Robert Voursney of Virginia at (804) 982-5538; Gail Wright of Kentucky at (606) 674-6355; Wayne Burnette of Alabama at (334) 277-2221; and Steve Etcher of Missouri at (636) 456-3473.

By Melissa Levy, Digest Managing Editor

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