Commissioner Meeting Notes – July 5, 2023. – Staffing, Budget-Related Challenges

Audio of the Meeting.     New position was introduced at the 1:14 mark.

Meeting Changes. Commissioner meeting; Aug 16 meeting will be at  2:00 vs 6:00. (conflict with budget hearings). Wed Aug 2 meeting time changed to Fri Aug 6 at 2:00.

• • Council Meeting. Per a legal notice in the Democrat, the council will be having a meeting this Friday, July 7, from 2-4.

Budget Hearings – 2024 Elections. Hearings scheduled for Aug 15,16, 17 at 5:00 p.m. Suggest all candidates for office in 2024 attend ALL of the meetings.

Salt Creek Trail. The section from the State Park to the Red Barn may be paved within the next few weeks – weather permitting. There is no longer a financial commitment from the Feds/State on funding to connect the trail from the YMCA to the Red Barn. And, an easement to cross the property crossing the Red Barn / Hesitation Point Pottery is needed.

Interesting Commissioner Dynamics.  Ron Sanders brings some needed perspectives and challenges to how “this is the way we always do things around here” which leads to some friction.  Challenges to any status quo are predictably unwelcome in most cases. Sanders defeated the local party’s preferred candidate in the primaries which has most likely contributed to unwarranted friction including from party officials and loyalists serving as trolls at meetings.  Sanders was elected with over 3,000 citizens and any perceived disrespect shown to Sanders also indicates contempt for his voters that may not be aware or happy with what may be going on.

One noticeable improvement is that Sanders reads the contracts and ensures that the legal council reviews them before the vote to approve. This prevents the county from being liable for unnecessary costs and risks.  He also reinforced that some claims need to be provided to the commissioner five days in advance to include verification of required documentation. This requires the cooperation of ALL departments including the commissioner’s office. He also pointed out the need for a review of minutes by ALL the commissioners in addition to the auditor’s office.

Note: I personally haven’t agreed with a few of Sander’s votes. He identifies his rationale and is open to challenges and changing his mind.   Welcome to America – where people can still respectively disagree. And Kudo’s to Commissioner Pittman for always keeping a calm demeanor, reinforcing the need for cooperation, and admitting to mistakes – rare qualities.  We also have amicably shared disagreements on a few decisions.

Political Culture and Risk to Citizens. We have a one-party monopoly on political power which almost never produces the best behavior, decisions, and results. In a political monopoly, good people get caught up in a bad system that undermines their potential, character, talents, contributions, and sense of morality.  Monopolies’ desire to centralize power contributes to a culture that can lead to no competition on ideas and no debate or analysis regarding proposed solutions. Note that Citizens are responsible for serving in the role of “Jurists” to ensure both sides of the argument are debated and analyzed before a decision is made.  Decisions should be supported with documentation that supports the aim of a balanced argument.

NEW Commissioner Administrative Assistant. Well, this was interesting and included references to the psychic hotline – a first. Ron Sanders asked about a  job posting for a full-time commissioner admin assistant on the county website.  Appears two (?) commissioners (in the absence of the required public meeting), may have agreed to a new position that was posted to the county website.  If a new position is a SOLUTION what is the PROBLEM?   Historically, commissioners just had ONE administrative assistant.  Commissioner Pittman acknowledged posting the announcement was a mistake and Commissioner Wolpert (recently appointed) stated he knew nothing about it and commented that the allegation was a psychic delusion.  This caught my attention. I reinforced that the announcement was on the county website and I shared it on Matters. It was removed before the meeting.  In the spirit of satire, I did check – no reference on the website or a toll-free number regarding psychic advice.

In the more drama category, the council needs to approve any new job and provide funding. Neither of these steps was done. Further, the council last year (post-election?), with no pushback from commissioners, changed the original job description of the admin assistant to an HR Director and approved a part-time commissioner assistant. Plus, the council attempted to insert themselves into a supervisory role over the HR director contrary to state law.

As Ron Sanders pointed out with the confirmation by legal, supervisory, and related responsibilities is a commissioner – not a council, responsibility. AND, like this is not enough, the context for identifying a desire and then posting a new position ”creates the perception”  that the new position may represent a favor for a political loyalist.  Commissioner Pittman reinforced that if/when funded, the required steps will be followed to ensure the best candidate is selected. Commissioner Pittman’s 2^nd term ends in 2024.

However, before a new position may be created, a good case needs to be made that an additional position is actually needed. For instance, the former commissioner alleged that she was the first full-time commissioner in county history. This infers that it required her to spend full time on part-time responsibilities and/or, the other commissioners were not contributing to the workload and/or the overall commissioner workload has increased significantly beyond historical norms. An analysis of the need for a new and full-time admin assistant should include identifying tasks, outputs, and responsibilities and perhaps benchmarking with other counties.

In context for the potential of moral and political corruption, the worse case for citizens is to have a full-time administrator (or executive)  beholden to the direction determined by party officials. This along with expecting that some elected and appointed officials perform as expected and everyone else should get on board is not a good thing for a republic. Preventing the potential for this level of corruption requires the due diligence of citizens and candidates for office that will serve everyone and not just the few that are too easily addicted to power and froth at the mouth when they can wield power in making decisions that can affect thousands of people.

Budget Support Contract. The contract with the former commissioner admin assistant – Melissa Stinson, was approved. This had the support of Pittman and the advocacy of Wolpert.  Sanders voted No and suggested using Baker-Tilly. I’ve requested a copy of the contract and will be asking for expense reports (public information). This information may be useful as a benchmark in preparing the budget for 2025.  On budget preparation, in the past, former commissioner Biddle prepared the commissioner’s budget. The overall process underreports costs such as health benefits and unfunded requirements related to infrastructure repairs and replacements.  Note to balance the budget, a former long-term council member stated that revenue and expenses were generally underreported every very year but things tended to work out. This practice caught up to us when our recurring loan had to be increased from 2 million to 3 to cover expenses.

Currently, we have an unfunded requirement to replace air conditioning units in the jail at around a total cost of 600K. (11 units at 55K per, not counting shipping and installation). This expense was identified in a commissioner meeting in “March 2022.”  Budget challenges this year required the help of Baker-Tilly to find (over a million) of needed revenue.  At last year’s budget hearing, over a million was identified as a shortfall. HINT: This indicates a need for a “systemic” improvement in our budget process.

After inspecting the building (jail) roof and air conditioner units, Sanders identified that more routine maintenance is needed to help keep the units operating at efficiently as possible.

In the quality management area, it is generally understood that systems and processes determine most if not all of the results.   A systemic approach to improvement is included in the information provided at the Brown County Leader Network.  I have and do plan on volunteering support for budget-related improvements.