County committees sometimes revisit what they’ve done

By Bob Balgemann

REPORTER

The Boone County Board has seven standing committees that consider issues in a variety of areas.

Each committee is made up of five county board members and takes up such matters as finance, health and human services, public safety, administrative and legislative, roads and capital improvements, planning, building and zoning, and issues affecting both the county and City of Belvidere.

Committees meet the first two weeks of the month and make recommendations to the full board, which meets the third Wednesday of the month.

Most recommendations are dealt with by the board the first time they’re discussed. Every once in a while, a board member will ask that a particular issue be sent back to one of the committees for a second look. On Thursday, Nov. 17, such a motion was made twice, and by the same board member, Jeff Carlisle.

Budget constraints have caused a countywide hiring freeze to be imposed earlier this year. However, some positions have been waived including the health department administrator and a probation department officer.

Most recently the finance committee, in a 3-2 vote, recommended waiving the position of administrative assistant in the highway department.

District II board member Carlisle thought that one should be sent back to the committee for more discussion. He said he would like to see the county do more bundling with employees, rather than just hiring a replacement.

“We might be able to do something that’s favorable to us,” he said.

He then offered that as a motion.

Finance committee Chairman Karl Johnson said he didn’t catch the reason for returning that issue and asked that it be repeated. Carlisle obliged.

Ultimately the motion passed in a voice vote, with some opposition.

The second issue had to do with approval of a credit card policy and setting the expenditure limit for such cards at $5,000. This recommendation for approval came in a 5-0 vote of the finance committee.

Carlisle asked for the proposed policy to go back to the committee because “this is missing a couple of things.”

He said it didn’t have reportable documentation, and he thought department heads who were part of this policy should be part of the decision.

Chairman Johnson didn’t agree, saying he thought what was up for action was something the county could build on and later add things board member Carlisle was talking about.

“I would hate to see it put back [in committee] because we want to add a bunch of stuff,” he said.

Carlisle countered that he thought the county needed sign-offs “on everything we do. I think there should be a full scope of reporting that we haven’t done as well as we should.”

Board member Cory Lind said the proposed policy was being suggested because of comments made in the recent audit.

However, board Chairman Bob Walberg offered, “I think we may be making more of this than we need to.”

“This is not a big deal,” County Administrator Ken Terrinoni said. “But, it would be good to have it checked off the auditor’s list.” Still, he agreed “it’s not going to hurt to wait a month.”

Carlisle’s motion to return the matter to committee was approved unanimously in a voice vote.

Johnson assured Carlisle that this matter would be on the committee agenda at its December meeting.