Wadena County Commissioners: Discuss awarding more small business grants
by Trinity Gruenberg
The Wadena County Commissioners held their regular meeting on November 3.
Auditor/Treasurer and Recorder Positions
New legislation allows counties to change the auditor/treasurer and recorder positions from elected to appointed positions. The commissioners would like to hold a public hearing about this. The current auditor/treasurer and recorder would finish their terms and then be appointed to the positions.
This would allow these positions to be more efficient with more local control and help prevent someone with no experience from being elected and having to deal with the complexity of a $30 million budget.
They could decide to put this change on a future ballot.
Commissioner Jon Kangas added with the COVID situation there may not be much participation in the public hearing.
This also requires the consent of the incumbents. County Attorney Kyra Ladd didn’t recommend a special election but thought it was best to wait until the next election in two years. There is a lengthy statute and process to go through. Ladd said the personnel committee has been working on this.
Kangas motioned to not take any action until the new board is seated in 2021. There was no second and the motion failed.
The commissioners approved the resolution to put a public notice in all four local newspapers and set the hearing date for December 7, with possible action on December 15, with Kangas opposed. . .