County to hold department-head meeting Feb. 23; commissioners discuss separating zoning and appraisal offices

Commissioner Keith Kelly raised the possibility of rising health insurance costs and scheduled a department-head meeting for Feb. 23 at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the issue; District Court, Juvenile Intake and Community Corrections were excluded from that meeting. Kelly and the board discussed separating the zoning and appraisal departments so each has time to perform its specific duties and provide better customer service. Under the discussed plan, a staff member from the Appraiser's office would move to serve as the administrative assistant in a separate Zoning Office if a zoning officer is hired.

Commissioners emphasized the intent is to avoid conflicts between appraisal and zoning responsibilities and to improve response times to taxpayers. No formal hiring action or timetable was recorded in the minutes; decisions about hiring were discussed further in an executive session later in the morning that the board reopened from with no action recorded publicly.