Agenda Still Point of Contention with Comission

Agenda format was, again, a topic of discussion as the Jefferson County Commission met for their Quarterly Work Session on Monday evening. Though in March the Commission voted 18-1 to add language to their rules that would require a vote of the full body to remove an item from their agenda outline, the agenda issue took up much of the meeting time this week, with the core question evolving around additions to the agenda outline. A four page Work Session Agenda, that included one item of Unfinished Business and three items of New Business, raised questions from some Commissioners.

Commissioner Gaut was one Commissioner that spoke to the lengthy agenda, which included reports from 32 Committees, some of which, Gaut noted, have not met this fiscal year. He stated that the agenda appeared to be a response to the full body’s vote in March. Commission Chairman Carmichael stated that he and the Commission Secretary had interpreted the March motion, which was precipitated by the question of the continuation of including elected officials on meeting agenda, to mean that the Commission wanted all Committees and Departments included on the agenda,as well as elected officials. After some debate on the issue and conferring with County Attorney Churchwell, the Commission entered into a “gentleman’s agreement” that the healthy list of Departments and Committees would be trimmed down to those that have information to report.

Items that will be available for consideration on Monday include several resolutions to surplus County property, Citizen’s Input for Boards and Committees, Guidelines for use of Hotel/Motel Tax and document accessibility for citizens via the County website.