Heidi Doo-Kirk and Garry Gamble took their oaths of office as Cook County commissioners with Court Administration Lead Worker Kim Shepard at the beginning of the January 8 county board meeting. Doo-Kirk is replacing Jim Johnson in the Maple Hill/Gunflint district and Gamble is replacing Fritz Sobanja in the east Grand Marais district.
As it does every year, the county board spent its first meeting of the year planning who would be on which committees and other boards and making citizen appointments. This meeting, on January 8, was a bit more ceremonial than usual, with a contingent of middle school Girl Scouts conducting a flag ceremony for the swearing in of new commissioner (and Girl Scout leader) Heidi Doo-Kirk and new commissioner Garry Gamble.
The board voted to have Jan Hall continue as board chair and Bruce Martinson as vice-chair for the second year in a row. The Cook County News-Herald was once again designated the county’s legal newspaper. Editor Rhonda Silence thanked the board and all the county departments for working with the paper and helping gather news that was sometimes difficult to deliver.
Commissioner Hakes urged the board to be careful not to spend taxpayer money unnecessarily by sending more than one commissioner to outside board and committee meetings that only needed one commissioner to attend. Some boards and committees have two commissioner seats, but others call for one commissioner and one alternate, who is required to attend only when the other commissioner cannot.
In addition to their regular salaries, commissioners are paid $100 a day for attending approved meetings on days the board does not meet and well as mileage and meal reimbursement for out-ofcounty meetings.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson said there are times when it can be important for two commissioners to be at a meeting but suggested that alternates get reimbursed only half of a per diem and half of the mileage if they attend meetings when the primary designee will also be there.
“I just feel that that’s unfair. I just feel that’s over the top,” said Commissioner Jan Hall regarding Martinson’s suggestion to pay alternates only half of the normal mileage reimbursement. She said commissioners don’t get paid that much and out-of-county meetings take a great deal of time. “Not everyone owns businesses and has country homes…” she said.
Martinson said in the 10 years he has been a commissioner, their salaries have not changed, although their per diem for in-county meetings has been raised from $75 to $100.
Commissioner Gamble said having clear expectations and accountability is good.
In other county news:
. The county and the U.S. Forest Service continue to work on a possible exchange of 1,980 acres of Cook County land within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) for Forest Service parcels in other parts of the county.
The board discussed the possibility of trading acre for acre (which would require legislative approval) instead of by the assessed value of the land. The county has prioritized a list of Forest Service properties it is interested in, but the board discussed the difficulty of setting those priorities without knowing how each parcel would be valued when it gets assessed. The priorities can still be moved around after the appraisal, however.
No one knows how the land will be valued, because the county’s BWCAW land cannot be developed but it does include a lot of lakeshore, which in private hands would generate a lot of property tax. Similarly, how Forest Service properties with resources such as gravel will be valued remains to be seen.
. The board accepted the resignation of Child Support Officer Wendy Danielson, who is leaving to take a job in another county, and authorized Personnel Director Janet Simonen to advertise for her replacement. Simonen said with the state considering having counties consolidate some social services, the long-term future of a child support officer for Cook County alone is uncertain.
. The board decided to set aside the first hour of their regular meeting once a quarter to discuss Highway Department issues. It meets regularly—once a month—with one other department, Public Health & Human Services.
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