Staying grounded

No super committees as county to focus instead on tweaking status quo

by Brian Wilson

News Editor

Don’t expect radical changes to the county’s committee structure.

Members of the county’s strategic planning committee on Monday voted to move forward with tweaking the existing committee structure rather than advancing a plan to overhaul and combine standing committees into a handful of “super committees.”

The action by the committee came following a lengthy discussion regarding if and how the committee should seek additional direction from the full county board. The strategic planning committee was created in response to a resolution passed at the April county board session calling for a review of the county’s committee structure and developing a strategic plan for the county.

At previous meetings of the committee, discussion has gotten bogged down over the committee structure See COMMITTEE on page 5 with some favoring relatively minor changes such as imposing committee term limits or breaking apart the finance and personnel committee into separate committees. Other committee members favored following the example of places such as Wood County and consolidating committees into about five “super committees” which would oversee multiple departments.

At last month’s meeting committee chairman Scott Mildbrand said he felt they needed more direction from the county board about the direction in which they should put their efforts. The committee’s concern is that they would do a significant amount of work in preparing a plan only to have it rejected by the full county board.

Coming into Monday’s meeting, members were presented with four draft resolutions. One resolution directed the committee to do a major overhaul with the super committee proposal, another called for tweaking the current committee system, the other two dealt with the scope of the strategic planning process.

“Why would we be introducing a resolution?” asked committee member Ray Soper saying it was his understanding the committee was just asking for more direction.

County clerk Andria Farrand said it was necessary to have a formal resolution or ordinance on the agenda for the full county board to take action.

Soper expressed concern that passing a resolution would tie the hands of the strategic planning committee from making other recommendations in the future.

“We didn’t know any other way to take a vote on the floor of the county board,” Mildbrand said.

“This is a starting point,” Farrand said of the draft resolutions, noting they could be changed on the floor of the county board.

“I don’t think the process is far enough along to be making resolutions,” Soper said. He said they just wanted direction on if the committee should look at a major overhaul or tweaking.

“That is the question we were trying to get answered,” Mildbrand said.

Mildbrand said it was important for the committee to resolve the committee structure question in order to be able to move the process forward.

“There seems to be more stronger feeling about the