SUPERVISOR WANTS TO OPEN UP COUNTY GOVERNMENT
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 -- 12:32 PM
The Clark County Board of Supervisors will consider a couple resolutions next week that a Chili area Supervisor thinks will help the public get more involved in county government.Steve Okonek is proposing the county board set a uniform meeting date and that committees supplement their written meeting minutes with a digital recording of the open session discussion and action.
The County Board typically meets every month, but the date and time vary. That makes it difficult for the public and some supervisors to attend.
"In fact, for (Tuesday's) meeting, I had to cut a deal with some co-workers because I was supposed to be working that night," Okonek says.
There are probably people that would like to get involved in county government, but don?t run fearing the time conflicts, he guesses.
"That's the other (thing), they can look and say, 'oh, the third Tuesday. I can work that out throughout the year,'" he says.
If the resolution is approved by the board, the monthly board meeting would be held the third Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m., unless canceled by the Executive Committee.
Another Okonek-penned resolution would direct the Executive Committee to look into digitally recording committee meetings and posting them to the county?s website.
He says the minutes are often extremely vague and don?t reflect the discussion that is taking place.
"It's basically for the people that can't make it to the meeting, but want to hear what happened," he says.
Some supervisors will likely argue recording every meeting may limit the free-flow of discussion, but Okonek says it will just keep supervisors more accountable.
The resolutions are scheduled for discussion and action during Tuesday night?s board meeting.
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