Agenda 05/14/2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

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What are the benefits of serving on a policy committee? Sewing on a VML policy committee offers local officials an opportunity to learn about current and emerging statewide issues that affect local governments, to develop through policy statements the broad philusophical ,framework that guides the league, and to network with local officials with similar policy interests. What are steering committees, and how do they relate to policy committees? Policy committees can be relatively large, making it difficult to tackle tasks such as developing an agenda or crafting specific policy language. For this reason, VML established a steering committee for each policy committee based on the National League of Cities model. The steering comrmttee is appointed by the VML President, and is headed by the chair of the policy committee. Typically 10 to 12 members of the policy comrmttee serve on the steering committee. Membership is limited to elected officials and chief appointed officers. The steering committee meets prior to the meeting of the full policy committee to identify potential issues for the policy committee to consider, and when necessary, to recommend changes to existing policy statement language. How many policy committees are there? There are five policy committees: environmental quality, finance, general laws, human development and education, and transportation. What issues does each policy committee cover? The issues covered by each committee are as follows: · Environmental Quality: Natural resources and the authority of local governments to manage the environment, including xvater resources and quality, solid and hazardous waste management, air quality and the Chesapeake Bay. · Finance: Powers, organization and administration of local government financing, including taxing authority, debt financing, state aid to local governments and federal policies affecting local finance issues. · General Laws: Powers, duties, responsibilities, organization and administration of local governments, including state-local and interlocal relations, conllicts-of-interest, freedom-of- information, information management and personnel; local planning and zoning issues, including economic development, housing and blight; and law enforcement, iails and courts issues. · Human Development and Education: Management and funding of social services, education, health, mental health, iuvenile iustice, recreation, rehabilitation and programs for the aging. · Transportation: Development, maintenance and funding of a comprehensive land, sea and air transportation system for the Commonwealth, and federal, state and local roles in the provision and regulation of transportation. What is a policy statement? Each policy committee develops a policy statement that covers issues in its respective area. The policy statement expresses the agreement of VML's membership on matters of interest to local governments. The statement is limited to broad, long-term, philosophical positions, as opposed to positions that address Zmmediate, short-term issues. The VML membership approves the policy statements at its annual meeting. How do policy statements differ from VML's legislative program? Policy statements are general in nature. They reflect local governments' positions on a range of issues. The focus of the Legislative Program is more specific and immediate. It is limited to legislative positions that VML expects to lobby on during the upcoming legislative session.