The Brown County Commissioners Court met today in a special session with a short agenda that led into another county budget workshop.
County Attorney Shane Britton proposed to the commissioners that his office is in need of a public information officer. Britton said that due to an unusually large number of requests for public information from his office in recent months, he wants to request a public information officer be assigned to his office so his current staff does not have to take time out from their other duties to fulfill these requests.
Britton said that he will have to return to the commissioners soon to continue this request as he is currently drafting a formal policy for his office in regards to fulfilling public information requests. He wants to have this policy written before an information officer is assigned.
Britton explained, “When you have informal processes that we go though, kind of a gentleman’s handshake … & when that informal, friendly process gets abused by one person or a small group of people, we all suffer.”
Britton said that although his office follows state laws regarding public information, they have never had a formal process governing it and that currently, “Our friendliness has been abused.”
Britton said that one requester in the last six months has caused approximately 100 hours of extra work for staff in his office to fulfill their public information requests.
Commissioner Joel Kelton was concerned that the county would have to hire a new employee for this position, but Britton was wanting to possibly assign an existing county employee to these duties.
The commissioners will consider this request once the county attorney drafts a public information policy.
In other county business:
-The commissioners briefly discussed a burn ban, but did not see the need to impose one at this time.
-Captain Tony Aaron from the Brown County Sheriff’s office presented the commissioners with an approval request for a resolution regarding an Environmental Officers Grant. This is the second year that this grant has been recieved and will pay for the Sheriffs office’s environmental officer’s salary and training. The grant will pay for 75% of the budgeted amount and the county will pay 25%. Next year the grant will be a 50/50 split. The county approved this resolution.
-Judge Frank Griffin requested consideration for purchase of a new laser printer for his office. He orignally requested a lease, but told commissioners that an up front purchase of the printer would save money in the long run. Commissioners approved the request for a printer costing $2912.
-Commissioners then went into their Budget Workshop.
