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The finance committee voted 5-2 to send the matter to the full board with Finance Chairman James Ruby and Board Chairman John Merriman voting no.

Last week Hunt stated he would cut his job back to part time because with his work schedule moving to days, he would not be able to attend any of the board or committee meetings.

Currently, the board and all the committees meet on four Monday mornings out of the month.

The finance committee, which is a committee of the whole board, also voted to propose the board eliminate all but the finance committee. The committee proposes they meet the first and third Thursday nights, and the county board the second and fourth Thursdays.

Earlier, Commissioner Gary Russell had proposed they eliminate the public safety and courts, human services, and physical and economic development committee meetings, which had been meeting the third Monday of the month, because it could be such a lengthy process. Any issues involving funding were referred to the finance committee, which meets on the first Monday, so that it took a month for some matters to be resolved. Issues that had to be referred back to a committee for further information used to take a couple months.

Commissioner Norton Schramm initially suggested they only move the board meetings to Monday evenings. He recommended the chairman rescind Hunt's committee appointments, and they keep him informed on committee actions.

However, Hunt suggested Thursday nights. Then Commissioner William Walters, who had previously complained that the three-person committees could stop a matter from reaching the board, supported Russell's idea of dropping the three secondary committees.

Administrator John Males assured the commissioners that the state only requires them to have a finance committee, and not the others.

No matter which night they picked some of the commissioners would be unable to attend local government meetings in their districts.

In other business, the finance committee:

*Extended their 2007 hiring and reclassification freeze until the audit, and recommended the board approve three new job positions, one of which is temporary.

They approved hiring someone for up to 120 calendar days to sort, scan and image old circuit court files, which the county clerk must keep forever. The vaults are full and the clerk needs to clear out clear out the old files.

The clerk has $5,000 in carryover funds from last year and the finance committee recommended the board approve an additional $3,000 from the contingency fund.

"How much room will that free up?" asked Russell

"Maybe a couple years at most, it is a continuing issue," Clerk Linda Kozfkay stated.

The committee also recommended creating a second full-time federal transport officer at the sheriff department, after repeatedly being assured federal marshals will pay the full cost.

The issue has been bounced from committee to committee as the commissioners attempted to ensure all possible costs had been factored in before they created another full-time position with benefits.

"If the marshals end that (renting jail beds for federal prisoners) the transport people will be laid off, we will not have a problem with that in the contract," stated Jail Administrator Nick Romzek.

"As long as you folks support it we will bring in the income as long as we have the manpower, equipment and facility," he emphasized.

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"If the federal dollars go away, the position will go away. Are you comfortable with that person not coming back and grieving us," Merriman asked the administrator.

"Nick addressed that by saying it goes with low seniority," Males said.

They also forwarded the request to reinstate a second position in the circuit court office because Court Administrator Carole Stieler, who is still on leave with injuries from a motorcycle accident, may not be able to return to her job.

*The issue of paying for new equipment for the construction and land use department was also referred to the board next week. Ruby and Merriman are to go over the list -estimated at $22,350 - with Males and the inspectors and buy the necessary equipment after checking prices locally.

Schramm still objects to keeping the county vehicles at the courthouse because he thinks letting the inspectors take them home saved money in the long run, especially if they now have to buy equipment the inspectors currently furnish.

"I think we should furnish the equipment," said Commissioner Judy Vincent.

Once the board decided to stop allowing construction inspectors to take county vehicles home in order to meet contractors off hours, the inspectors refused to leave their own equipment in the parking lot over night.

*The finance committee is recommending the board vote to lease an acre in Delaware Park to Forester Township for a pumping station for their proposed water project for 99 years. The county cannot sell the land, which the state gave them for a park.

The station will be located on the south side of the park property, east of the M-25 right of way because MDOT would not allow anything in the right of way.

The township is applying to Rural Development for low interest loans to finance a municipal water project along the lakeshore, and one of the conditions is land to put the pump station on. Forester is the last stretch of land along the thumb without municipal water along the lakeshore.