shiawasseecounty.net

There's a board meeting today at 4. I'm going to try to "live post" ... a little like "live blogging", where we just continually report what's happening ... but I'm going to try it on the forum rather than on my blog. If I have a good connection I'll live post it in this thread.

It might not be worth it though ... some of these meetings are only a few minutes long.

about 16-20 ppl here, mtg just called to order and sparkes just called for executive session, motion carried

ETA: This is from the minutes, and was what I was talking about here:

It was moved by Commissioner Fuja, seconded by Commissioner Stewart to approve the agenda as presented with the addition of a closed session after the last call to the public. Motion carried.

ken scott just read a moving statement about his daughter rachel, and asked board to help him find out if sheriff jon wilson really is working on the case as he said. dave kirk left after the statement was read.

ETA: Here is a recent Argus Press article on the Scott situation -- http://www.argus-press.com/articles/200 ... /news1.txt, and I think it was nice of Dave Kirk to attend this board meeting and sit there through the statement.

I think gerry cole is asleep

What was the executive session for?

Edits are in italics ...

not a very good signal here this is slow ...

health board recommended capitan for appointment to health board. johnson recommends bus spaniolia. johnson is making statement on oversight and appointment.

Johnson was making the point that this health board should not appoint its own members

fuja says this doesn't make sense this shouldve been done at committee level.

full board should make decision.

fuja was making the point that there should be no 'spaniola or capitan' question .. the committee should've make a recommendation for one candidate and the motion should reflect that.

kvp is saying that spaniola is great for any board but health board already made recommended capitan.

braid is giving opinion that johnson' s motion is improper. more on this later when I am in front of real computer.

pavlica says new commissioners need more training ... stewart says that committee should reevaluate names for consideration

Kim Van Pelt thought the 'Capitan or Spaniola' was proper, so I don't know if the new commissioners need more training or not.

NOTHING THERE THAT WARRANTS AN EXECUTIVE SESSION

kvp is trying to get out of voting against bus

democrats sparkes , pavlica, kvp voted against allowing a vote to appoint bus spaniola

kvp wants to appt capitan to health board

pav voted against putting capitan up for vote but motion passed

van pelt and sparkes voted for capitan, capitan approved

clowns..still haven't said what the exec sessions was for

this is so cool..............

Thanks for doing this for us Christine

Ok home now & in front of a full pc.

It's harder to moblog from my pocket pc than it was my flip phone ... of course the pocket pc was low on memory and wouldn't let me take pictures (not enough memory) and it crashed when the meeting first started. It runs on Windows Mobile 2005. Shocking that it crashed.


But that's why I couldn't get a pic of Ken Scott. That was disappointing.

ok on to the substance ...

Capitan was appointed to the health board after a weird discussion. What happened was Jack Johnson moved to appoint "either francis spaniola or james capitan" ... Fuja freaked (relatively speaking) and said that motion was improper ... KVP said that format (use of the word 'or') was used a long time ago, so that after the motion, a roll call was done allowing commissioners to vote for whichever name they wanted. So in this case the roll call would've been either "capitan" or "spaniola" rather than "yes" or "no".

After much discussion it was decided that Jack Johnson had to put up one name. He moved to amend his motion so that the motion was to appoint Bus Spaniola to the health board. Dan Stewart seconded this motion. This motion to amend his motion was voted down.

Then after some discussion, it was suggested by KVP moved to amend Jack's motion so that the motion was to appoint Capitan to the board. This motion passed. So then there was a motion to appoint Capitan to the health board. This motion passed and Capitan was appointed.

There is some question to the legality of this part. I don't think Johnson ever amended his motion. I think Kim suggested it, his suggestion was supported, and then Kim's suggestion passed as a motion to amend. I think this is improper parliamentary procedure. But no one seemed to notice so ... maybe not???

If this was improper, then the meeting was adjourned with an open motion on the floor, because Jack's motion for "capitan or spaniola" was out there and never acted on.

Also of note -- Jaime Pavlica said that the new guys needed more training, which was in reference to the 'or' motion. However KVP said that the format was used a long time ago, so I guess the new guys are doing it the way that the old guys did it.

During public comments, Tony Newman addressed the board and said it was wrong to keep putting the same people on these boards after the people voted for change.

Ok more later, back in a minute, I can't wait to tell you about how cry-baby Randy Colbry took his ball and went home, and how weird it was that Colbry, MM, and Sparkes were "in a meeting" after the meeting.e

now yer gonna drive me crazy ( I know, I know......very short drive)

the exec session? what fer?

Can't wait to hear about cry-baby et all

Ok, on to the cry baby.

When Colbry arrived (before the meeting started, which is unusual) he told Sparkes that he needed to go into closed session to discuss a legal opinion. This was the first thing they addressed once the meeting came to order. Someone .. Colbry I think ... suggested that the closed session begin after the last chance for public comments. Then the meeting proceeded as normal.

During the last call for public comments, Jack Johnson announced that the Shiawassee Dems were holding an informational meeting this Tuesday at 7:30pm. This meeting is on the Open Meetings Act and FOIA.

After that, it was time for closed session. Jack Johnson said that he was unsure about going into closed session because he didn't know what it was for. Sparkes said that Lauri Braid was the parliamentarian there, so she put the question to Lauri. Lauri said that she couldn't speak to the legality of the closed session because she didn't know the topic of it.

Dan Stewart then said that he questioned whether they would be setting a precedent if they did discuss the legal opinion in front of the public, or if the board had done so before.

Colbry then interrupted the discussion and laughed, and said something to the effect of "just forget it, if it's going to be disputed, just don't do it."

Then the meeting adjourned, with no discussion on the legal opinion, and without telling any of the commissioners what the legal opinion was about.

After the meeting, Margaret and Randy went into MM's office to "talk". (I was standing right there when they went in to her office). Don't know what about.

section from the minutes regarding my last 2 posts ... notice the bold part, which I think was improper parliamentary procedure on Johnson's motion (but I don't know for sure), and notice that there is no information on the discussion of the closed session.......

It was moved by Commissioner Johnson, seconded by Commissioner Van Pelt to appoint Francis (Bus) R. Spaniola or James P. Capitan to the Health Board to fill a vacancy until December 31, 2007 or until a successor is appointed.

It was moved by Commissioner Johnson, seconded by Commissioner Stewart to amend the previous motion to read to appoint Francis (Bus) R. Spaniola to the Health Board to fill a vacancy until December 31, 2007 or until a successor is appointed. Amendment failed with the following roll call vote of 3 yeas and 4 nays. Yeas: Commissioners Fuja, Johnson and Stewart. Nays: Commissioners Cole, Pavlica, Van Pelt and Sparkes.

It was moved by Commissioner Van Pelt, seconded by Commissioner Cole to amend the previous motion to read to appoint James P. Capitan to the Health Board to fill a vacancy until December 31, 2007 or until a successor is appointed. The amendment passed with the following roll call vote of 4 yeas and 3 nays. Yeas: Commissioners Cole, Fuja, Van Pelt and Sparkes. Nays: Commissioners Johnson, Pavlica and Stewart. The original motion was voted on as amended and passed with the following roll call vote of 4 yeas and 3 nays. Yeas: Commissioners Cole, Fuja, Van Pelt and Sparkes. Nays: Commissioners Johnson, Pavlica and Stewart.

It was moved by Commissioner Johnson, seconded by Commissioner Stewart to approve the minutes of the February 21, 2007 Health & Human Services Committee meeting. Motion carried.

Call to the Public:
Tony Newman, 8340 Juddville Road, Corunna

The meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m.