Minutes - 20070119 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 a priority. He also heard that the 10:30 p.m. adjournment time be decided by majority instead of 2 unanimity. There was not consensus on this, but he heard it as an issue. 3 Laura Blackmon made reference to ending at 10:30 and said that sometimes there are 4 closed sessions. She said that these could be held prior to the meeting when the public would 5 not be there. The Board might be more willing to extend past 10:30 if there would not be a 6 closed session. 7 Chair Carey said that he likes the automatic adjournment time of 10:30 p.m., and he 8 thinks that this works well. He does not mind having closed sessions before meetings, since 9 they are infrequent. 10 Commissioner Nelson made reference to work sessions and said that there is real value 11 for Boards such as this to have a time to talk about issues without having to make decisions. 12 He would hesitate to open these meetings to the public and he would like to keep work sessions 13 just for the Board of County Commissioners. 14 Chair Carey said that work sessions are public meetings with no public involvement. He 15 said that if the Board decides to include an item for a decision, then the public would be notified 16 about that one item. The meeting could be segmented for that one item and then the rest of the 17 meeting could be used as a work session. The Board agreed with Chair Carey. 18 Commissioner Gordon made reference to daytime meetings and said that she would 19 prefer not to have decision items at day meetings for work sessions. 20 Laura Blackmon said that parameters could be written for work sessions, what types of 21 items would be put on a work session agenda, and what kinds of decisions could be made. Her 22 experience is that work sessions were for giving direction to staff and not making certain 23 decisions. She said that the staff could work out some parameters and definitions for a work 24 session protocol. 25 Andy Sachs asked if there was a general consensus to experiment with regular 26 meetings and move the County Commissioner comments to the end and the Board agreed. 27 Commissioner Gordon suggested that the meetings with ceremonial issues could be 28 started at 7:00 p.m. These items would include resolutions of recognitions, special 29 presentations, etc. The recognitions could happen once a month at 7:00 p.m., for example. 30 Chair Carey said that he does not mind starting at 7:00 p.m. He agrees with moving 31 Board Comments to later in the meeting. He asked what the Board wants to achieve with Board 32 comments, and what the intent is. He knows that it is generally used to update the other County 33 Commissioners on the boards and commissions. 34 Commissioner Nelson said that he would like to hear from Board members when 35 something critical and substantive has come up in one of the boards/commissions. He urged 36 the Commissioners to use email to relay comments. He wants the critical information only. 37 Commissioner Foushee agreed with Commissioner Nelson. She said that the purpose 38 of having a time for comments is generally to alert the other Board members and the public of 39 critical issues that may come before the Board. She attends many board meetings each week, 40 but most of time the board meetings are routine and nothing her colleagues would need or want 41 to know. If it is critical information the County Commissioners need to know, she can tell them 42 at a meeting or by email. She thinks that if a citizen makes something known to one of the 43 County Commissioners, that it should be brought to the Board and the staff. 44 Commissioner Gordon said that she agrees with what has been said about substantive 45 and critical issues. She thinks that the County Commissioners should be careful in Board 46 comments because sometimes things come up in the comments and sometimes the Board has 47 taken action during Board comments. She said that if something comes up in Board comments, 48 then it should be referred to the staff. She said that the Board should use airtime for critical 49 issues and not routine items. 50 Commissioner Jacobs said that he likes to hear from other Commissioners about what 51 went on at other meetings. He said that he receives filtered reports through the media that do