To: Professor Morris
From: Melissa Ison
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Re: Story Outline: Waste and efficiency in local government

Subject: Cabell County/Huntington government are/are not pursuing environmental efficiency

Scope: While covering the President’s Office for the Parthenon, President Kopp released a report showing embarrassing amounts of waste – monetary and energy – within the university. I am curious to see if local government is doing anything similar to what the university is doing to monitor waste and curb costs.

Need: It is important for the tax paying public to know if their governments are seeking to curb costs by becoming more energy and waste efficient.

Methods: I would contact various government departments – mayor’s office, police, fire, etc. – to see if there have been any efforts to become more efficient.

Sources: I would rely on interviews from employees within these offices, rather than department heads to see their take on the efficiency in their departments. I think the interesting people to interview would be the office workers and the maintenance crews. I would also rely on the individual, detailed budget and financial reports from each department to see how money is being spent and if waste is being monitored.

Presentation: This would be a post on my blog, Appalachian Refugee.

Follow-up: This could be a good continuing piece if the government agencies have or have not been pursuing more environmental and monetary efficiency. Further investigations could focus on state government and schools.