A Dismal Compliance Rate for Florida Nursing Homes
The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, Florida suffered a prolonged power failure following Hurricane Irma. mpi122/MediaPunch/IPX via AP
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STATE AND LOCAL ROUNDUP | Capping city manager pay in California … N.Y.C. halts expansion of composting program … and resettling Hawaii residents displaced by lava.
Here are state and local government news stories that caught Route Fifty’s attention this weekend …
- Tallahassee, Florida: New rules went into effect on Friday that requires nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in Florida to have at least 96-hours of backup power for cooling purposes. But thus far, compliance has been very feeble: Only 48 of 695 nursing homes and 91 of 3,101 assisted-living facilities have installed equipment and had state inspections completed as of May 25, according to the most recently available data from Florida’s Agency of Health Care Administration. In South Florida, where 12 people died in sweltering conditions at a Hollywood nursing home that lost power during Hurricane Irma last year, 84 percent of facilities don’t meet the new law. [Tampa Bay Times; Sun Sentinel]
- Riverside, California: There are 28,000 public executives in California, including city managers, whose annual salaries are higher than the state’s governor, who makes $195,803 a year. A state assemblywoman has introduced legislation that would cap annual salaries of public executives so they wouldn’t be higher than the governor’s. [The Press-Enterprise]
- Puna, Hawaii: The mayor of the Big Island of Hawaii has proposed a “rapid rehousing initiative” for residents displaced by the Kilauea volcano’s lava flows, something that would be similar to what happened when the city of Hilo was hit by a large tsunami in 1960. Within six months of that disaster, hundreds of acres of land were cleared and used to build new housing outside the inundation zone. [Honolulu Star-Advertiser]
- New York City, New York: The nation’s most-populous city is halting the expansion of its curbside organics program, currently available to 3.5 million residents in 24 community board areas. "We believe that for the program to be successful over the long term we must ensure New Yorkers are getting the very best service when curbside organics collection reaches their neighborhood," according to Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. "To achieve this, the city is evaluating its current service with the goal of increasing efficiencies and streamlining the program." [Gothamist]
- Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: An analysis of new U.S. Census Bureau data shows while Pennsylvania’s state population increased by 18,000 people last year, that growth happened in only a few areas while the rest of the state’s localities lost residents—75 percent of Pennsylvania boroughs and two-thirds of townships lost population. [WITF-FM / Keystone Crossroads]
- Austin, Texas: On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the Department of Criminal Justice must disclose the name of the pharmacy that has supplied the drugs used in executions. [Texas Tribune]
- Montpelier, Vermont: A 189-page report released Friday evening by Vermont’s acting Education secretary recommends which school districts should merge under the state’s Act 46 school district consolidation law, passed in 2015. “The State Board of Education will review this proposed plan as the first of many steps, which will ultimately lead to the issuance of the final statewide plan in November,” according to the report. [VTDigger]
- St. Paul, Minnesota: After “several hundred thousand pounds of limestone, sandstone and soil” came down and covered Wabasha Street in April, there’s still “[s]everal hundred thousand pounds of overhanging rock” that needs to be removed before the roadway can reopen. [Pioneer Press / TwinCities.com]
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.
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