Lake County commissioners discuss shortening work-session wait, pausing recordings when no public present

Lake County commissioners and staff used a Jan. 30 work session to discuss changing how and when the county holds and records its work sessions, including shortening a 15-minute wait period, setting a 10:30 a.m. start tied to the commissioners' meeting and pausing audio/video recording when no members of the public are present.

The conversation, convened as a work session, centered on three practical questions: whether to change the advertised start time to 10:30 a.m. or immediately after the commissioners' meeting; whether the current rule that allows up to a 15-minute delay should be shortened; and whether staff may stop recording when no members of the public are present and resume if someone attends. "If there's no members of the public, I would say that we can turn off the recording," the county's legal counsel said during the discussion, adding that the recording could be reactivated if someone arrived and discussions resumed.

Jen, the county clerk and recording staff, said of the recordings, "I can stop it whenever you want." Commissioners also discussed setting a specific time in their public notice. "I think we should give a date or a time certain for the notice," Dave, a board member, said, calling 10:30 a.m. "reasonable, assuming our meetings are concluded by then." Another board member suggested revisiting the 15-minute allowance, saying, "I might suggest that maybe 15 minutes is too long ... we might revisit whether 5 or 10 minutes might be superior." That same speaker recommended considering a shorter wait to reduce downtime between meetings.

Board members noted that work sessions are not always required to have formal agendas but said it is common practice to publish a notice or agenda for clarity. One commissioner observed that if a presentation or guest is planned for a work session, the item should be published in advance: "If there is a topic, we could add a topic to what the workshop will be talking about or a guest or a presentation," the speaker said. Legal counsel and staff agreed that changing the rule setting the start time and wait period would require amending the existing work-session resolution or rule and that such a change could be placed on the formal meeting agenda for adoption.

No formal vote or final resolution change was taken during the session. The board agreed to pause the recording during the meeting because no public members were present and to reconvene in a few minutes; one participant said, "I guess we'll pause and come back in about 6 minutes."