 A subcommittee headed by Jan Schumacher and Chuck Ruben recently
finished a thorough review and made several recommendations for
change. A copy of the document with proposed changes was sent to all
board members in February for discussion in March.Issues that
received the strongest responses from board members included who may
request legal advice from the state's attorney and how to do this;
the process of committee appointments; and whether to take straw
votes at nonvoting full board meetings.
During three meetings, board members weighed in, some
passionately, and several lengthy-enough discussions transpired to
spur one board member to say, "We could talk about this all night,"
and several others agreed.
It was first discussed between committee chairmen at the
Executive/Economic Development Committee. You can see a summary of
that discussion in the link below this article.
When the document moved forward to the full board on March 14,
considerably more discussion took place and a number of amendments
were proposed.
The document was brought forward to a vote at the March 19
session.
Each of the motions for this resolution required two-thirds
approval of those present to pass. With 11 board members present --
Andy Anderson, Rick Aylesworth, Kevin Bateman, Bob Farmer, David
Hepler, Bill Martin, Andy Meister, Pat O'Neill, Ruben, Gene Rohlfs
and Schumacher -- seven votes would be needed for each revision.
___
Schumacher's opening recommendation of changes began with point
VI: How board members request legal opinions concerning county
affairs.
Part of the duties of the Logan County state's attorney is to
provide legal representation and advice for the county board. The
county pays a small portion of the state’s attorney’s salary.
The office of the state's attorney has many other purposes and
duties to the public, and the office is heavily subsidized by the
state of Illinois.
It has been an issue in prior years for the board to get timely
responses from the office, which must divide its time and is
recognized to have a higher obligation to other matters at times.
On the other side of this issue is that multiple board members
have frequently gone to the state’s attorney to discuss the same
matter.
In the interest of efficiency, the state's attorney asked Bob
Farmer, the county board chairman, to find a way to reduce
repetitive requests. Several options were considered to help
streamline communications.
A proposal used by other counties, including McLean, was made,
specifying that only a committee chairman or the county board
chairman has the right of direct communication with the state’s
attorney.
During the board of whole, this was rejected. As a result,
Schumacher proposed this line be added:
"As a matter of courtesy, when requests are made to the state's
attorney on matters of law and ethics related to county board
business, a copy should be given to the county board chairman."
To this, board members could agree, with all 11 voting yes.
___
Committee assignments and representation
The board reorganizes every two years just after the November
election, and new board members take their seats. At that time the
board elects its chairman.
Board members then speak to the chairman about their interests
and how they feel they can contribute best to the county through
committee work.
The chairman considers which people he thinks will work well
together and assigns board members to committees. Those committees
are then approved by the full board at the next adjourned session.
Andy Anderson called for an amendment to the committee assignment
process. He motioned that when the chairman makes assignments, each
district should be represented in the top six committees when
possible.
There are two representatives for each of six districts in the
county. There are six primary committees.
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Anderson added that if adopted, he would recommend the change
begin under the next chairman and the next reorganization in 2014.
Anderson said he felt that placing one member of each district on
each of the committees would give the board members equal
representation.
"I think everyone here knows that if I was to pull a hundred
people off the street, they would all agree with me that you need
equal representation on a committee from each district," he said.
Gene Rohlfs did not agree that is what is needed. He observed
that it would not give the best makeup of committees if it were
required that one person from each district be on each of the six
committees. Both he and Meister noted that by doing that, it would
not allow the district representatives to work together on a
committee where those individuals each serve best.
In addition, when it comes to equal representation, Rohlfs said:
"I can't imagine voting differently on an issue because I'm a
representative of District 4 than I would if I were a member of
District 2. I think we take each issue as it comes. We try to look
at it as we see fit, and we vote accordingly no matter what district
we're from."
Meister joined Rohlfs, saying that limiting the chairman by
forcing committee membership would disadvantage the board.
Farmer said he went to a meeting of just chairmen and vice
chairmen that day, and they took a poll of how they do it in other
places. "They do it exactly like we do it right now," he said.
"Every one of them."
Voting yes were Anderson, Bateman, Hepler, Martin and O'Neill.
Voting no were Aylesworth, Meister, Rohlfs, Ruben, Schumacher and
Farmer. The amendment failed on the 6-5 vote.
___
Name change of board of whole meeting and straw votes
In point 1.J. of the revised document, it was recommended to
change the name "Board of Whole" to "Workshop."
This was combined with an added point, 1.K., which proposed that
no straw votes would be taken at the workshop.
During discussions the board agreed to change the name to
"Workshop."
Concerning straw votes, a slight change in wording was agreed to,
replacing the phrase "determine whether or not" with "indicate."
The revisions would read: "Votes taken at the workshop shall be
straw votes to indicate if a motion might pass at the adjourned
meeting."
The revisions passed 9-2. Voting yes were Martin, Meister,
O'Neill, Rohlfs, Schumacher, Farmer, Anderson, Aylesworth and Hepler.
Ruben and Bateman voted no.
___
What do the committees do?
Current committee chairmen were asked to update and define the
work that their committee does. Descriptions of the duties of
committees were then added as point III.G. 1-13.
However, due to the bulkiness of the information and how it
disrupted flow in the document, Ruben motioned that the committee
organization portion be moved to the end as an appendix.
It was also noted that by separating that information, it would
be easier to find for those who may be considering running for the
board and want to review the duties.
All 11 board members voted yes.
___
The document also allows the Road and Bridge Committee to approve
expenditures up to $30,000 by unanimous roll call. Other committees
may approve expenditures up to $20,000 by roll call and up to
$10,000 by voice vote.
___
Finally, the document was taken as a whole with all its revisions
and amendments and unanimously passed. It would be presented to the
state's attorney and is subject to his approval.
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