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Marathon County Executive Committee to include committee chairs on agenda requests; staff to vet submissions
Summary
County administrator said department heads will be directed to copy committee chairs and include a short statement of purpose when requesting agenda placement; committee approved routine minutes and later adjourned.
Marathon County Executive Committee Chair Gibbs and County Administrator Leonard told the committee April 10 that department heads will be directed to include the appropriate committee chair on emails requesting items be placed on committee agendas and to state briefly why the item is requested.
The change is intended to clarify whether items are policy actions, operational functions required by statute/ordinance/resolution/policy, or educational presentations and to ensure legal, finance and administration vet items before they are scheduled. Administrator Leonard told the committee, “Yeah, actually we're going to be providing that to the department heads tomorrow.”
The administrator said the requested emails should include the proposed agenda wording and indicate where on the agenda the item belongs, and gave an example: a social services director submitting a resolution to accept a budget amendment tied to a grant award. He said: “...the email would come from Social Services Director, Krista Jensen, saying, Chair Boots, I'm requesting that we place on the next Health and Human Services Agenda an item under the operational functions required by statute section worded as followed.”
Leonard also said staff will try to ensure legal, finance and administration have vetting before requests reach the clerk. He asked chairs to watch for draft agendas on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning and to reply promptly so the county can meet posting deadlines. The administrator noted that inclusion of chairs on the front end will likely increase the number of emails they receive but should improve timeliness.
The committee did not take formal action to adopt a new rule; Leonard described the change as an administrative direction to department heads and invited feedback from committee members.
Votes at a glance: the committee approved the minutes from the Feb. 13 Executive Committee meeting on a motion by Supervisor Mirage, seconded by Supervisor Draybeck; the chair announced, “Motion carries.” The committee later adjourned on a motion by Supervisor Fifrick, seconded by Supervisor Arstead; the chair announced, “Motion carries.”
Chair Gibbs closed the item by asking members to provide suggestions if they thought a different approach would help the process. The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for April 10, 2025, at 3 p.m., during which members were asked to bring ideas for future agenda items and processes.
