Newly elected Logan County officials and board members sworn into office
Logan County Board chooses Emily Davenport as chairman, Scott Schaffenacker vice-chairman

 

[December 04, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

On Monday, December 3rd, six members of the Logan County Board and three elected officials were sworn into office at a morning ceremony in the Logan County Courthouse.

Five of the board members were re-elected in the November election. The board also has one newly elected member.


The newly elected officials sworn into office were Sheriff Mark Landers


Treasurer Penny Thomas


and County Clerk and Recorder Theresa Moore.

Thomas had been serving in the role of treasurer since Vicki Dugan retired in May 2017 and made her first run for the position in November’s election.

Landers and Moore are long-time county employees who were elected for their new roles in November.

Landers previously served for the Logan County Sheriff's Office as Chief Deputy of Operations under Sheriff Steve Nichols, who has now retired after 16 years.

Moore was the Assistant to County Clerk and Recorder Sally Turner, who just retired after 24 years in the office.

Returning County Board members sworn in were:


David Hepler


David Blankenship


Emily Davenport


Scott Schaffenacker


Bob Farmer


New to the board is Steve Jenness.

After the ceremony, an organizational meeting was held by the county board members to designate a new chairman and vice-chairman, as well as a parliamentarian.

The positions of chairman and vice-chairman had been filled by Chuck Ruben and Emily Davenport for the past two years. They completed their terms November 30.

A chairman pro-tem is elected just for the organizational meeting as it helps in the event of a tie. Board member David Hepler nominated Chuck Ruben as chairman pro-tem for the meeting.
Ruben then presided over the first part of the meeting.

Kevin Bateman nominated Emily Davenport for chairman, which was seconded by Dave Blankenship.

No other nominations were put forward, and the board unanimously approved Davenport as chairman.

The second appointment voted on was for vice-chairman and there were two nominations for the role of vice-chairman.

Board member Bob Sanders nominated Scott Schaffenacker for the vice-chairman position.

Board member David Hepler nominated Kevin Bateman for the vice-chairman position.

In the organizational meeting, the first nomination is voted on first, and the second nomination is voted on if the first one fails.

Schaffenacker was approved as the new vice-chairman by a vote of 6-5-1.

Blankenship, Jenness, Gene Rohlfs, Sanders, Schaffenacker and Annette Welch voted yes.

Davenport, Janet Estill, Farmer, Ruben and Hepler voted no.

Bateman abstained.

A recent change in policy allows votes to pass without abstentions counting against the yes votes.



Following the votes, Davenport was seated as the new chairman.

Bateman thanked Ruben for serving the board well as chairman and the board gave him a round of applause.

The last appointment of the meeting was the appointment of Hepler as parliamentarian to the board. The parliamentarian helps the board follow Robert's Rules of Order and the board’s policies and procedures.

Besides the appointments, the board had to vote on the adoption of rules, policies, procedures, ethics, and per diem policies. These were unanimously approved along with the adoption of the financial policy.

In discussion of board policies, Rohlfs asked the board to look over the Airport/Farm Committee description for the chairman of the airport.

Rohlfs said the line that discusses oversight of events needs to be modified to say the Chairman will exercise oversight and coordination for events at the airport. There were specific events listed that the airport no longer hosts.

One of the board chairman's key duties is to appoint board members to committees and name the committee chairmen. The board chairman serves on all committees as a voting member yet does not act as chairman on any committee.

New committee appointments

Lists with committee assignments were then handed out to the board members.

The appointments are as follows:

Airport/Farm:
Chairman Gene Rohlfs,
Vice-chairman Bob Sanders,
Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, Bob Farmer and Chuck Ruben.

Road and Bridge Committee: Chairman Bob Farmer,
Vice-chairman Chuck Ruben,
Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, Gene Rohlfs and Bob Sanders.

Transportation:
Chairman Janet Estill,
Vice-chairman Kevin Bateman,
Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, David Hepler and Scott Schaffenacker.

Building and Grounds:
Chairman Kevin Bateman,
Vice-chairman Scott Schaffenacker,
Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, David Hepler and Janet Estill.

Planning and Zoning:
Chairman David Hepler,
Vice-chairman Dave Blankenship,
Kevin Bateman, Emily Davenport, Chuck Ruben and Scott Schaffenacker.

Safety, Law Enforcement, EMA: Chairman Bob Sanders,
Vice-chairman Scott Schaffenacker, Emily Davenport, Janet Estill, Steve Jenness and Annette Welch.

Executive and Personnel:
Chairman Scott Schaffenacker,
Vice-chairman Kevin Bateman,
Emily Davenport, Bob Farmer, Steve Jenness and Scott Schaffenacker.

Animal Control:
Chairman Scott Schaffenacker,
Vice-chairman Bob Farmer,
Kevin Bateman, Emily Davenport, Steve Jenness and Annette Welch.

Finance:
Chairman Chuck Ruben,
Vice-chairman Gene Rohlfs,
Dave Blankenship, Emily Davenport, Janet Estill and Bob Farmer.

Insurance, Legislative, and Liquor: Chairman Annette Welch,
Vice-chairman David Hepler,
Emily Davenport, Janet Estill, Gene Rohlfs and Bob Sanders.

[Angela Reiners]