Commissioner Nelson’s Goals For 2020: Be Organized, Continue Cooperation With City
With a new year and new decade beginning, the Ste. Genevieve County Commission is determined to start doing things more by the book than in the past.
Presiding Commissioner Garry Nelson said at last Thursday’s meeting that he wants “to try to be better organized” and to “try to stick to the agenda” in 2020.
He said auditors from the state of Missouri have criticized the county for not always sticking to the commission’s meeting agendas. Nelson said the auditors generally understand — especially with such small counties — that individuals often walk in unexpectedly during the meeting with issues to discuss that were not on the agenda.
“They understand that that happens,” Nelson said, adding that he would never tell someone who made the trip in to discuss a problem with them that they had to come back the following week after the item was placed on an agenda.
Nelson intends to stick more strictly to the posted agenda to keep the auditors from “slapping us around” over the issue.
“They compare the agendas with the meeting minutes,” he said, adding that they are not pleased when topics are discussed during the meeting that were not on the agenda, which is posted publicly 24 hours prior to the meetings under the state’s open records law. …
Nelson also responded to a comment the previous week by Ste. Genevieve Mayor Paul Hassler that he hoped the recent positive working relationship between the two entities would continue in 2020.
“We definitely want to continue working with the city,” Nelson said. “The city and the county worked together to accomplish some important things in 2019, and I’m sure that will continue.”
A new water tower was constructed on Progress Parkway and an emergency valve to connect city’s water supply with Public Water Supply District No. 1 so that one may cover for the other in an emergency, is in the works. Both came about due to the city and county working together.
See complete story in the January 8 edition of the Herald.