By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Board of Reno County Commissioners will be considering putting the commission's policies on public comment and meetings in writing, along with reducing to two meetings in most months, with a third meeting possible in months where there are five Tuesdays. Under the proposal brought forward by County Administrator Randy Partington, the county would meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month and the fifth Tuesday when there is one, unless that meeting is canceled by the governing body.
"The number of business items does not change," Partington said. "I guess the amount of work technically by the Commission does not change by having fewer meetings in a month. It just means the meetings may be a little longer when you do meet."
County Commissioner Ron Sellers sees this as giving more autonomy to the professional the county has hired.
"We hire a professional administrator to run the county offices and all the division directors to report to that person," Sellers said. "I feel that the commission should be more into policy than into daily management of the county. If we have a good administrator, he or she should be taking care of the policies that the county commission direct."
New Commissioner Daniel Friesen agreed with Sellers.
"It's hard to see what goes on outside of meetings," Friesen said. "From my time as mayor at the City of Buhler and just my brief time here, it seems like 80% of our work is done individually outside of these meetings and I would not expect that to change, so I think, I believe everyone on this commission has a commitment to continue all of our obligations and this is not a reduction in work, it's a way to increase our efficiency."
Chair Ron Hirst concurred with his colleagues.
"Does this decrease any communication?," Hirst asked. "I agree with my fellow commissioners that I don't believe it does, because I think our administrator has done an excellent job with his weekly reports to us and if we have questions we can do that. Also, it doesn't change anything in our relationship with the citizens of our district or the county, because we're always available, whether its a phone call or whether its an email and we can pass that information on to our administrator or whoever can answer that question."
Final language of the new policy will be brought before the commission at a future meeting, with the intent to pass that final language later this month.