W.Va. Flood Death Toll Revised; WMATA General Manager Announces Major Job Cuts
West Virginia Natural Resources police officer Chris Lester, left, walks into the top floor of a flooded home as he and Lt. Dennis Feazell search homes in Rainelle on Saturday. Steve Helber / AP Photo
Connecting state and local government leaders
Also in our State and Local Daily Digest: Missouri gov. vetoes gun measure and the first of Oregon’s tiered minimum wage increases is set to go into effect.
ANSTED, WEST VIRGINIA
FLOODING | The death toll from severe flooding in West Virginia was lowered to 23, after two men thought to have been washed away in a camper vehicle were found to be alive, officials said Monday. Based on early estimates hundreds, possibly thousands, of homes are damaged or destroyed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Guard are both now operating in the state. A sheriff in Fayette County gave a stark warning to would-be looters on Facebook: "If the residents of this area catch you first, you may not make it to jail." Janice Reynolds and her husband Jerry from Rainelle were staying in a church gymnasium in Ansted. Janice Reynolds drove to Rainelle Saturday and found her home had been destroyed and the community, she said, "smelled like death.” [Charleston Gazette-Mail; The Associated Press]
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
PUBLIC TRANSIT | Paul Wiedefeld, the general manager and CEO of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, announced a major restructuring of the troubled transit agency’s workforce, including reductions in force of around 500 positions, including managers and lower-level unionized workers over the next few months. The multi-jurisdictional agency, which employs around 13,000 people. provides Metrorail, Metrobus and MetroAccess paratransit service in and around the nation’s capital. WMATA has been struggling with a major backlog of Metrorail system maintenance and has faced federal safety mandates and has instituted severe service reductions. The agency is currently in the early weeks of SafeTrack, a blitz of rail system closures that will allow uninterrupted work but is also causing major commuter pain. WMATA officials are currently renegotiating contracts with three labor unions. In the meantime, the agency is moving forward with job cuts “in order to operate in a businesslike manner and achieve cost savings” in the new fiscal year, Wiedefeld said. [The Washington Post]
JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI
GUN CONTROL | Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed a bill that would have allowed citizens to carry concealed guns without permits, as well as expanded self-defense use. The bill “would make Missouri more dangerous,” he said. A legislative override is possible when the Republican-led legislature meets for its September session. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
PORTLAND, OREGON
MINIMUM WAGE | This Friday, minimum wage workers in Oregon will see increases in their paychecks as part of the state’s new minimum wage law approved by Gov. Kate Brown in March. The minimum wage is set to increase according to a three-tiered geographic-based framework, impacting about 100,000 workers in the Beaver State. In the Portland metro area, the minimum wage will increase to $9.75 an hour. Other areas, classified as part of the “Standard” area that including many cities and towns, the minimum wage will also increase to $9.75 an hour. Non-urban areas, including Oregon’s rural eastern section, will see a minimum wage of $9.50 an hour. Higher wages will be phased in over the next few years in the various tiers and by July 2022, minimum wages in the Portland metro area will be $14.75 an hour. [The Oregonian / OregonLive.com]
FRANKFORT, KENTUCKY
BUDGET | The state Supreme Court granted Attorney General Andy Beshear’s request to expedite the hearing on Gov. Matt Bevin’s ability to make midyear university budget cuts—setting oral arguments for Aug. 18. Bevin wanted the case to first be heard by the Kentucky Court of Appeals. A Franklin Circuit Court judge previously upheld the Republican governor’s power to make the 2 percent midyear cuts. [Lexington Herald-Leader]
SIOUX CITY, IOWA
CELL TOWERS | City Council wants final cellphone tower site approval, a power that currently lies with the Board of Adjustment. Council members tend to receive the blame for placement, even though all they can do is remand decisions back to the board for reconsideration. "There would be a public hearing at Planning and Zoning and a public hearing at City Council," said City Planner Charlie Cowell. "Whereas currently, it’s a Board of Adjustment item where it’s a quasi-judicial board, so their decision is final and kind of ends there." The board believes the authority to site cell towers should remain with them because of the legal complexity associated with the process. [Sioux City Journal]
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