Thursday, December 17, 2009
 
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County continues discussing process of appointments

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[December 17, 2009]  A discussion of background checks on county appointees continued when the Logan County Board had an adjourned meeting Tuesday evening.

During last week's board-of-whole meeting, board member John Stewart questioned: "Are we doing background checks on everyone that gets appointed, whether it is a volunteer or board member that gets appointed?"

To which policy and procedures committee chairman Rick Aylesworth responded, saying that board chairman Terry Carlton wanted to make sure that anything that has to do with the county, we're protected. Carlton was not present at that meeting.

On Tuesday, Stewart was absent. Also absent was board member Terry Werth, who serves as liaison to the tourism board. Werth was said to be under the weather.

The issue was first raised during Tuesday's meeting when the annual request for appointments of animal control officers was brought forward.

Carlton said that the animal control appointments would be skipped for this month. He said that the background checks for these were requested, in process, but not back yet.

Speaking in the broader context of appointments, Carlton said that the appointments in question are those that by Illinois statute the county board chairman is to appoint. The only governing entity that the state of Illinois recognizes with making these appointments is the chairman of the county board with the consent of the county board. "It has been a concern to me, the responsibility that this board has around those appointments," Carlton said.

Finance chairman Chuck Ruben said that putting off the appointments until next month would run past the animal control contract times.

For clarification, he also felt that the verbiage when these appointments are brought to the board for approval is misleading. He explained that the Department of Agriculture set up animal control for governance by the county as a whole. The committee interviews and decides whether to hire or not to hire. It's not an appointment by the chairman.

Ruben did not dispute if something more may need to be done (alluding to background checks) by that committee.

With a deadline looming, animal control chair Kevin Bateman suggested: "Since there is money-handling involved, I would recommend appointing (these positions) pending verification of the LEADS."

LEADS is a database that provides a variety of background information and is used by law enforcement agencies.

The board gave unanimous approval to the renewal of each contract, with Dr. Michael Sanborn as administrator, Julie Parker as warden and Maurice Tierney as deputy warden.

Last month the health department and tourism, both governed by volunteer boards, were asked to participate. The health department's background checks were completed and returned in a couple of days.

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Carlton said outside the meeting: "The health department said that they understood, and most organizations say that they have background checks done on those who serve in areas of children, elderly and money."

Last year when the county board was setting up for the next two-year administrative term, the board determined that it was time to do a full review and modifications of the board's policy and procedures. The last review of the resolution that defines board proceedings was performed under Darrell Deverman when he was county board chairman and was approved in December 1998.

The policies and procedures committee began work and at their November meeting discussed the areas of appointments and public comments. Present were chair Rick Aylesworth, Jan Schumacher, Pat O'Neill, Terry Werth, Terry Carlton, guest and future committee member Dave Hepler, and guest Michael McIntosh, state's attorney.

Under the advisement of the state's attorney, the committee proposed to modify Section VI of the county board's policies and procedures, which details the procedure for appointments. The state's attorney said that paid and unpaid offices and positions would all be treated the same for appointments and reappointments.

The following additions were proposed with consideration for situations when time might be an issue:

  1. Allowable to forgo procedure for appointments; may be overwritten by unanimous consent.

  2. Includes conducting a LEADS background check.

  3. At an adjourned meeting with consent and advice of the board.

The committee expects to take a couple of more months before completing the amendments to its policies.

At the conclusion of Tuesday meeting, Carlton said that he would be meeting with the tourism board on Thursday evening and discussing this as well.

"I appreciate people who do public service and who volunteer with the volunteer agencies," he said. "But, we have a due diligence to do on our part too. I don't have the answers at this point in time, but we'll figure this out."

[By JAN YOUNGQUIST]

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