Supervisors establish operating procedures for 2021
by Charlie Comfort
The Mahaska County Supervisors have reorganized for 2021. On Monday, Jan. 4, the Supervisors met in regular session to conduct their annual reorganization meeting. At the onset of the meeting, Mark Groenendyk was elected Chair of the Board. This will be the third consecutive year that Groenendyk has served as Chair, and is a departure from prior operating procedures, which saw the Chair and Vice-Chair positions rotated to a new person each year. Steve Wanders was also elected Vice-Chair, his third time serving in the same position as well.
The Board also set several organizational matters for the year. Included were: the meeting dates once again established as the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month at 9 am; document signing authority was given to the Board Chair, with other members having signing authority in the absence of the Chairman; committee assignments were agreed to as presented; the Oskaloosa Herald was named the official newspaper for 2021; Courthouse Custodians were named as the Auditor and Supervisors, according to state law; employee holidays for 2021 were set, as listed in the employee handbook; appointed trustees to the Heartland risk pool; Troy Bemis was designated as the County ADA and Safety Coordinators; Ben Hoskinson was named Weed Commissioner; Appointed Heather Gross as Behavioral Health Services Board Member; Appointed Privacy Officer and Information Technology Coordinator; EOE statement for 2021 was approved; Official depositories were named; Approved record retention policies.
The Board also had looked at awarded the tower procurement project for the Emergency Communication Radio System; however, due to the number of bids received, Groenendyk said that the consultants on the project were requesting that the award date be pushed back to Jan. 18.
“This will not delay anything,” Groenendyk said of the impact on the project, which is already behind schedule.
The Board voted unanimously to delay awarding the bid.
The Supervisors’ next regular meeting will be on Jan. 18, at 9 am in the Supervisors meeting room.
In other action, the Board:
·Reappointed Deb DeJong to Board of Health
·Reappointed Compensation Commission members.
