02/24/2003

Publications Charging Policy - We are going to start charging for some of our publications to cities. That's a dramatic shift in policy but it is caused by the budget situation. Here's a copy of our new policy. It was developed by the management team in November, but we haven't had any large publications between then and now. We are soon going to have the Budget Manual ready. Under our new policy, we will charge cities for any copies beyond the first one. Of course this publication, like all of ours is available free at www.mtas.utk.edu.

State Budget - Speaking of the budget, we still don't have anything definite on the state budget for next year. And please remember, we never have anything definite until at least May. Last year it was July. At the moment we are anticipating a 9% cut both in our state budget and in our local share (because Governor Bredesen said last week, he would reduce the cities share of state revenues by 9%). If all of that happens, it would be an overall cut of $316,000. I'm working with the management team on several ways to handle a cut of that size but we haven't settled on anything definite, because we don't know the final level of the cuts yet. We are fortunate to have as many vacant positions as we do.

Stepping Up - Sloan has been doing a great job at the front desk. She has really pitched in to help Sally and Jennifer with training materials and she has been helping Lisa by keying in some of our older publications so we can put them on the web.

and www.mtas.utk.edu continues to grow - In January Frances added :

Notices for the Elected Officials Academy and the City U Statewide courses

PDF version of the Library acquisitions list for Dec. 2002 (Library page)

Link to the TN Municipal Judges Association (Resources on Internet—Legal page)

Link to AFL-CIO listing of TN companies and unions with collection bargaining relations by Congressional districts (Resources on Internet—Personnel page)(sent by Rick Stokes)

Link to Fire Grant workshop information (sent by Ray Crouch)

Added Bid Data to list of resources on Wastewater page (Brett’s request)

Linked Wastewater and Water Security Toolbox pages

Web Usability Study - UT web services is going to do a web usability study for us starting in March. They will work with city officials that have been recommended by the MTAS consultants. The purpose is to make our web site easier to use.