Submitted by Georgiana Campbel, League of Women Voters observer
The new year has begun for Rice County with three new county
commissioners: Jessica Peterson, Jake Gillen and Steve Bauer. Jim
Brown was chosen by the commissioners to be the commission chair. Milt Plaisance will be vice-chair. Meetings will continue to be held each week on Tuesday, (There is an important exception: On any fifth
Tuesday of the month commissioners MAY or MAY NOT meet; check with the county offices if you are thinking of attending.) At the request of Steve Bauer, the time of the weekly meeting was changed from 9:30 a,.m.to 8:30 a.m. All citizens interested in observing this group's
deliberations, please note the change in time.Again the Faribault Daily News was designated the official newspaper,
but both the Faribault and Northfield newspapers will continue to
publish the commission's weekly agenda.
One more beginning-of-the-year piece of business was accomplished There are over 40 committees with seats that need to be filled anew by the commissioners each year. These include Planning Commission (not as members but as county commission representatives), State Community
Health Services Advisory Committee, Community Health Services Advisory
Committee, SE Minnesota Water Resources Board, Mental Health Advisory
Council, Community Corrections Advisory Council, Three Rivers Community Action, SEMREX Joint Powers Board, Labor Relations/Personnel Committee, Mill Towns Trail Joint Powers Board, Cannon River Watershed Partnership, Southeastern Minnesota Trails Task Force, Northfield Wellhead Protection Committee, Rice County HRA, and the AMC (Association of Minnesota Counties)Human Services Policy Committee.I have included these 14 committees since they are the ones for which Northfield's commissioner,Jessica Peterson, volunteered. It should be noted that there may be,depending on the committee, one to three commissioners as members and sometimes one of these is an alternate. Possibly the most powerful committee and often the most "popular" one with the commissioners is the Rice County Planning Commission. This year Jim Brown, citing his experience and interest in the recent Interstate 35 area rezoning issue, chose to continue his membership on it. Jessica Peterson will be the alternate. Of course, it can happen that with any of these committees the regular member is able to attend every meeting during the year.
Since this was the beginning of a new legislative session, Scott
Simmons from the Association of Minnesota Counties was present to
describe the AMC organization, its membership services, and what appears to be coming up in this legislative session. He briefly stated AMC's legislative priorities in the coming session in the fields of:transportation, health and human services, environment and natural resources, and general government. Of course, as he emphasized, achieving the counties' goals in this session depends on the legislature's financial decisions, especially regarding taxation. So --good luck, Rice County.
