Commissioners adjust meeting framework

The Union County Commissioners are reworking the way they operate.
The commissioners currently schedule meetings throughout the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
County Commissioner Gary Lee recently said the commissioners want a “change of structure.”
“The idea behind it is to try to utilize everybody’s time,” Lee said.
He recently told county-elected officials and department heads Thursday meetings will be informal and used to “discuss things that you want legislation prepared for and to present things that you need.”
“The day will be designed that if you need to talk with us, the door will be wide open,” Lee said. “We just want to make sure that everyone understands that we still will be just as available as we always have been.”
Tuesday meetings will be used for the commissioners to take formal action.
“It’s going to be a little less structure than you are used to right now,” County Administrator Tim Hansley said.
Hansley said ideally, office holders and department heads would notify the commissioner’s office no later than Wednesday if they want to talk to the commissioners on Wednesday. Any additional paperwork or presentations would also be expected Wednesday. Discussions would take place Thursday, giving the commissioners time to think about issues and giving the presenter additional time to find answers or address concerns the commissioners would bring up, before the Tuesday meeting.
Hansley said Tuesdays will include an agenda, but not a schedule. He said participants will be told to come near the beginning, middle or end of the meeting, rather than given a specific time. Hansley explained meetings are often scheduled for 30 to 45 minutes, but the speaker will have only five or 10 minutes of business. He said the schedule then stalls until the next meeting. County officials have also received an email from the commissioner’s office canceling the scheduled standing meetings.
“So someone who comes early may need to wait a few minutes, but this will keep the flow of the meeting moving and make more efficient time for the commissioners, the elected officials and the commissioners’ staff,” Hansley said.
He said the meetings will have a definite starting time, most often 9 a.m., and begin with the pledge of allegiance and a prayer. Hansley said most meetings should be done in two to two and a half hours.
“We just want to formalize the meetings a bit,” he said.
He added, “the idea is to collapse that working time to try to get more things done in the same or less amount of time.”
The county administrator did say that minutes, journals and recordings will still be kept for both Tuesday and Thursday meetings. In fact, Hansley said, the new format should allow for “the journal to be much more efficiently put together.”
He said while there is a plan for the meetings, it is “kind of a work in progress.”
“As we try to go about it, if it is not working, we can adjust it,” Hansley said.
Officials also acknowledged that while formalized, the process is flexible enough to deal with emergencies.
“If something needs adjusted, Gary as the chair can still move things,” Hansley said.
He said the purpose isn’t just about procedure.
“The main goal…is to try to make the time more valuable in the room so that we can act on the things that need acted on, discuss the things that need to be discussed,” Hansley said.
Lee added, “One of our goals will be to continue to fulfill our pledge to all of you when we first hired an administrator that there wouldn’t be a stonewall built between the commissioners’ staff and elected officials.”