The Essex County Board of Supervisors reviewed and approved the 'Essex County Board of Supervisors bylaws 2026' at its Jan. 13 organizational meeting after correcting a year listed in the document and discussing governance implications for committees.

Speaker 2 asked whether the bylaws applied to committee members and noted that the document’s wording includes committee members; Speaker 3 confirmed that adjustment had been made previously to include committees. Speaker 3 also pointed out a typographical/year error listing 2025 and requested changing the date to 2026; the board agreed and approved the correction.

During discussion of procedural language (section XVI, rules c and d), Speaker 2 raised a substantive budget-control concern about language authorizing issuance of checks. Speaker 2 said the language could allow checks to be issued without adequate board oversight and warned that some departments might exceed their authorized budgets, adding, "I just don't like to be be at a 104% of our budget at the end of the year when we, as the board, didn't approve that." Board members agreed the concern was important to address and said they would discuss it later as a procedural matter. The board then moved to approve the bylaws with the corrected year; the motion was seconded and passed by voice vote.

The board also reviewed its code of performance (code of conduct), which Speaker 4 described as an important document last adjusted the prior year. With no additional changes offered, the board moved to approve the code of performance and adjourned the organizational meeting.