Female Government Leaders in the Centralina Region
As part of women’s history month, we’d like to highlight some of the women in government leadership positions in the Centralina region.
As part of women’s history month, we’d like to highlight some of the women in government leadership positions in the Centralina region.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be featuring women around the region, including Centralina staff, local government leaders and other community trailblazers, in honor of women’s history month. We want to recognize the achievements of female leaders and support their continued efforts to break barriers. The theme for this yearâs International Women’s Day was #BreaktheBias, encouraging us to move away from prejudice and towards gender equality.
The Government Affairs & Member Engagement team at Centralina provides a range of specialized technical services to support our local member governments. Recently we have been travelling across our region, actively working with our members to facilitate board retreats. Unlike regular board meetings, retreats create time for strategic planning, guided discussions and decision-making. A successful board retreat comes with direction, agenda objectives and goals to accomplish.
The Centralina Regional Managers group is one of several peer networking opportunities we offer to communities in our nine-county region. Comprised of town, city and county managers, assistant managers and clerks, the group meets monthly to receive federal and state updates, discuss regional issues and share best practices. The groupâs December meeting focused on this topic and featured a mix of guest speakers, Centralina service profiles and interactive exercises.
Signed into law on March 11, 2021 by President Biden, The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), provides COVID-19 funding relief for eligible state, local, territorial and tribal governments. The purpose of ARPA is to support the public health response to COVID-19, address negative economic impacts, replace experienced revenue loss, implement premium pay for essential employees and make vital broadband and water/sewer infrastructure improvements.
Given the complexity of the guidelines and opportunities for creative solutions, Centralina is launching a series of peer to peer chats to facilitate exchange among local governments on approaches to spending plan development and implementation of projects in the eligible use categories. Share your ideas, learn from others and ask questions in these quick, 30 min virtual chats.
On June 30 and July 1, local pandemic recovery stakeholders across the state came together to present âAmerican Rescue Plan Act: Regional Informational Sessions for Local Government.â Besides reviewing Governor Roy Cooperâs proposed ARP budget, speakers provided information on varying topics about ARP funding.
On May 26, the House Appropriations Committee unanimously passed House Bill 947, a legislative bill allocating $750 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding toward statewide broadband growth.
Earlier this month, Centralina Regional Council hosted a grants webinar, How to Establish and Maintain Excellent Grant Funder Relationships, as part of its Centralina Learns training series. Diane Leonard, a Grant Professional Certified and Approved Trainer of the Grant Professionals Association, led the session, which was designed to build and strengthen participantsâ relationships with grant funders to increase their organizationsâ grant revenue.
Since the 1950âs, many federal and state agencies have relied on the Census Bureauâs determination of urban areas to deliver funds, set standards and accomplish goals and objectives. The Census Bureau re-evaluates urban determination criteria with each Census year to ensure fair standards. On February 19, 2021, the Census Bureau published a notice in the Federal Register of newly proposed criteria for determining urban areas under the 2020 Decennial Census.