County board holds its annual organizational meeting

Ann Sullivan

Cook County Board of Commissioners met on January 3, 2023, to conduct their annual organizational meeting.

Following the Pledge of Allegiance, all Cook County elected officials, Commissioners Deb White, District 1; Dave Mills, District 3; Stacey Hawkins, District 2; Ann Sullivan, District 4, and Ginny Storlie, District 5; Sheriff Pat Eliasen, Attorney Molly Hickens, Recorder Dusty Nelms and Auditor/Treasurer Braidy Powers took the Oath of Office read by Cook County Clerk of Court Administrator Kim Shepard.

New this year to the board is Deb White. White defeated Yastrianne Spry in the general election to replace Robert (Bob) Svaleson, who decided not to run again.

When it came time to elect a board chair for 2023, current board chair Ann Sullivan noted that normally the vice chair moves into the role, but that wouldn’t be happening this time because Bob Svaleson was the vice chair last year. After some discussion, commissioners voted to re-elect Sullivan to the Chair position and Dave Mills as Vice Chair.

Next, taking up the majority of the time was commissioners divvying up a wide assortment of meetings, committees, and board assignments for the coming year. Each commissioner has 30 to 40 meetings they attend monthly either as the primary representative for the county or as an alternate if called upon. Most boards meet once a month, but some meet more often. Some of the meetings are out of the county and require quite a bit of travel. Commissioner White asked about the meeting schedule, and three commissioners, Ann Sullivan, Stacey Hawkins, and David Mills, gave examples of why commissioners should attend and learn about what is going on that will or could affect the county and bring that information back to the board in their commissioner reports.

The Grand Marais State Bank was designated as the primary depository for county funds for 2023, and the Cook County News-Herald was approved for the publication of legal notices.

Commissioners approved the regular schedule for commissioner meetings, setting the second and fourth Tuesday of every month at 8:30 a.m. for regular meetings and designating the third Tuesday of the month to hold the Committee of the Whole meetings at 10:30 a.m. All of the sessions will be held in the commissioner’s room unless otherwise noted.

A motion was passed to accept the current federal mileage rate of 65.5 cents per mile with the caveat that if the federal mileage rate changes during the year, the county’s rate will reflect that change.