Funding for an Enviromental Enforcement Officer

This grant program is authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5) (the 'Recovery Act') and by 42 U.S.C. 3751(a). The stated purposes of the Recovery Act are: to preserve and create jobs and promote economic recovery; to assist those most impacted by the recession; to provide investments needed to increase economic efficiency by spurring technological advances in science and health; to invest in transportation, environmental protection, and other infrastructure that will provide long-term economic benefits; and to stabilize state and local government budgets, in order to minimize and avoid reductions in essential services and counterproductive state and local tax increases. The Recovery Act places great emphasis on accountability and transparency in the use of taxpayer dollars.

Among other things, it creates a new Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and a new website ' Recovery.gov ' to provide information to the public, including access to detailed information on grants and contracts made with Recovery Act funds.

The Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program funded under the Recovery Act is the primary provider of federal criminal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions. Recovery JAG funds support all components of the criminal justice system, from multi-jurisdictional drug and gang task forces to crime prevention and domestic violence programs, courts, corrections, treatment, and justice information sharing initiatives. Recovery JAG funded projects may address crime through the provision of services directly to individuals and/or communities and by improving the effectiveness and efficiency of criminal justice systems, processes, and procedures.

Anderson County will use its JAG Recovery grant to reduce its Zoning and Waste departments increasing problem of non-adjudicated violations and uncleared cases in the county's judicial system. This will be accomplished through the hiring of an Environmental Enforcement Officer who will assist in enforcing the environmental laws of the state of Tennessee, within the boundaries of Anderson County. The addition of this officer will enable the county to address the increasing problems of non-adjudicated violations and uncleared cases. There are presently over 100 cases of zoning and environmental violations in various levels of the judicial system that have not been cleared. The county's sole enforcement officer is currently overloaded with spending 90 percent of the work day responding to citizen complaints, leaving no time for a more pro-active approach to solving a growing caseload. The number of cases has grown from 91 complaints in 2006/2007 to more than 262 complaints in 2007/2008. This impacts both public safety and the need for an additional officer to protect life and property.

NCA/NCF