The annual immigration report for the reporting period of December 1, 2015 through November 30, 2016 is due on December 31, 2016. In October, the Department of Administrative Services (DOAA) sent out information to each county about the immigration reporting requirement. An overview of the template for the report can be viewed here. There is a new change to the report based on the passage of SB 269 during the 2016 legislative session. In addition to the information previously requested, counties also will need to certify that they are in compliance with Georgia’s immigration sanctuary law. This requirement will be part of the actual immigration report.

Please start preparing early to ensure that you have all the information needed to file the report by the deadline. DOAA will be reporting non-compliant counties to state agencies that provide state funding to local governments, so make sure that you submit your report by December 31, 2016. If you have any technical questions about filing the report, please contact the DOAA at Immhelp@audits.ga.gov or visit the DOAA website at www.audits.ga.gov/. All questions about the legal requirements for this report should be directed to your county attorney.

ACCG has updated six of its most popular publications that are now available exclusively in a digital format on the ACCG website. These publications include the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), Open Meetings and Open Records, Emergency Management, Constitutional Officers, Meeting Organization, and Parliamentary Procedures guides. The updated publications have an interactive format that allows users to immediately access the page in the publication of interest through the table of contents, includes hyperlinks to websites where additional resources can be found, and provides sample ordinances, resolutions, policies, and hundreds of legal citations that can be used to gain greater insight into the source materials. Also, the exclusive digital format will allow ACCG to better maintain the publications and update them more frequently.

Any questions about the new publications can be directed to Michele NeSmith at mnesmith@accg.org.

The  ACCG-Group Self-Insurance Workers’ Compensation Fund (GSIWCF) Board of Trustees recently voted to decrease rates 3 percent for 2017 and to return a dividend in the amount of $3.75 million to those members who renew their membership for 2017.

The rate decrease is for the pool as a whole. Each member is individually rated, taking into account a number of factors including payroll and their loss history. Some members will receive premium decreases in excess of the 3 percent average, while others may receive smaller decreases or premium increases if they have had growth in their payroll or a history of poor losses.

The dividend is designed to reward long-term membership in the Fund and will be in the form of a premium credit to those members who have been in the program since 2007 or earlier. The total amount of dividends returned to the membership since 1985 is over $68.7 million, including a Special One-Time Return of $5 million that was returned to the membership in August of 2016. The $3.75 million dividend that will be returned to the membership in 2017 reduces the average member’s premium by slightly more than 12 percent.

Established in 1982, the ACCG-GSIWCF is a member-owned insurance fund. The pool provides workers’ compensation coverage for Georgia counties and authorities. McDuffie County Commissioner Fred Favors serves as chairman of the ACCG-GSIWCF Board of Trustees. The Fund currently has 167 members, consisting of 130 counties and 37 authorities.

For information on the ACCG Insurance Programs, please contact Joe Dan Thompson at 404-522-5022.

The Computing County Official Salaries for 2017 provides step-by-step instructions on how to calculate state minimum salaries for magistrates, probate judges, sheriffs, superior court clerks, and tax commissioners, as well as cost of living adjustments and longevity increases for county commissioners and coroners. These updated salaries become effective on January 1, 2017. If you have not already done so, please forward the guide to whomever calculates payroll for your county. This guide has been reviewed and approved by the County Officer Association of Georgia, the Georgia Sheriffs’ Association and the Magistrate Council.

The guide also addresses compensation, per diems and supplements required or authorized for bailiffs, boards of tax assessors, boards of equalization, circuit public defenders, jurors, juvenile court judges, state court judges, solicitors, superior court judges and voter registrars.

Any questions about how salaries, supplements, cost of living adjustments or longevity increases are calculated for specific officials should be directed to the county attorney.

The State Records Committee adopted a new local government retention schedule at the end of October. All schedules except for the public health, education, tax, and public safety schedules have been updated. These four schedules are currently under review and should be updated and adopted in April 2017. Georgia Archives has recently prepared an integrated schedule which provides both the updated schedules and the existing schedules for public health, education, tax, and public safety. These schedules can be found here and on the Georgia Archives website at http://www.georgiaarchives.org/records/local_government/. Georgia Archives has offered to provide training for counties on the new schedule and ACCG will be in touch about possible training opportunities in early 2017.

Any county that has not adopted their own records retention schedule is required to follow the local government records retention schedule published by Georgia Archives. Records custodians for each county should review the updated schedule and direct any questions about changes to the schedule to Georgia Archives.

 Amanda Selby (left) with Wilkes County Marketing Director Tiffany Rainey (right). Photo provided by Wilkes County.

Amanda Selby, a mass communications major at Georgia College, interned with Wilkes County as part of the 2016 Summer Georgia County Internship Program. Although the only prior experience Selby had in government operations was, "from watching the show Parks & Recreation," she jumped into her internship looking to make a difference. During the internship Selby found that she was a quick learner and was able to develop a broad knowledge of county government.

Selby’s main duty involved developing and creating a county website to be used by residents, investors and visitors in Wilkes County. That included determining exactly what the county wanted in a website. She had to create a sitemap and select the layout of the website. Selby also had to network with stakeholders within the community which included obtaining information from various boards and departments. After gathering information, she had to transfer that information onto the appropriate web pages. Selby found that she needed to get out of her comfort zone and really get to know the stakeholders involved in order to create the type of website the county needed.

Selby voiced that her favorite part of the internship was using the skills she learned in her undergraduate program in real world applications. She found that she was able to learn more when applying her skills first hand. Selby also said she developed professional and communication skills by learning on the job and communicating with county staff.

When ending her internship Selby found that she had developed skills and gained greater knowledge in mass communication and public relations. She said she enjoyed working for Wilkes County and would "absolutely" consider a career in county government. Selby found that interacting and networking with stakeholders was a very rewarding and positive experience and wished that she had more time to spend working for the county beyond the timeframe of her internship.

For more information on the GCIP, please visit the ACCG Civic Affairs Foundation website at http://www.civicaffairs.org.