The Pierce County Board’s Finance & Personnel Committee met last Monday in a virtual meeting and forwarded a recommendation to the full county board for consideration that those types of meetings can continue.

However, if there is a closed session meeting, supervisors will have to attend in-person. The full County Board takes up the ordinance change at its April 20 meeting.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pierce County has changed how its meetings are held a few times. To start, Finance & Personnel would meet in-person at the Courthouse Annex. The county board then met in-person at the Law Enforcement Center, with no attendance allowed. Meeting attendance was remote, at the Courthouse Annex.

Since then, meetings are virtual, with Chairman Jeff Holst, Administrative Coordinator Jason Matthys, Corporation Counsel Brad Lawrence and County Clerk Jamie Feuerhelm together and supervisors attending either with their computers or via phone.

That format has gone well, except that for closed session meetings, with a remote meeting, there’s no guarantee that supervisors are either alone or even the ones attending.

“We’ve discovered that quite often it’s better and easier to attend remotely and a person’s inputs can be valuable even though they’re not here,” said Holst. “We decided that perhaps it’s time we get in the correct century with our thought process. The only issue is closed session items, where we can’t control, nor do we know the people who are listening or who is on the computer, so people will have to be physically present for closed session items. The rest of the time, we can vote and be productive with some on the computer or the telephone.”

The committee voted unanimously to forward a change in county ordinance that allows for remote attendance at meetings and in-person attendance at closed sessions.

“One of the reasons why this was implemented in the first place was due to some concerns that we had with some closed session things that were happening, where it was clear there were people that we didn’t know of who were potentially aware what was going on,” said Lawrence. “We wanted to protect against that. The way to do that was to not allow participation in closed session by remote means. Given where we’re at with the pandemic and the desire and probability in the future of looking at members participating remotely, this was a compromised way to allow that remote attendance while still protecting the confidentiality of closed sessions.”

Ironically, that meeting ended with a virtual closed session to discuss considering the tower contract for Verizon in Elmwood and consideration of wage and benefits for the Human Services Director.

In other business: Change of Management – The Finance & Personnel Committee recommended a change in supervision and management of the Ellsworth Demonstration Forest and adjacent county-owned cemetery.

The Ag and Extension Committee requested the change, as the county Division of Extension had been charged with oversight of the properties.

“Due to gradual changes over time within the University of Madison, Division of Extension, certain staffing changes have not allowed for regular supervision and management of activities and responsibilities of both the Ellsworth Demonstration Forest and the adjacent county-owned cemetery,” a proposal before the committee stated.

Oversight of the forest will move to the Parks Committee and management of the cemetery will be moved to the Building Committee, which oversees maintenance.

Tax Write-Off – Pierce County Treasurer Kathy Fuchs reported on the write-off of tax certificates, which are void after 11 years.

“The write off is for 10 parcels located in the Town of Oak Grove,” Fuchs wrote in a memo to the committee. “The majority of the parcels are owned by a corporation. The corporation made several attempts at payment arrangements with the former County Treasurer. When I took office in 2019, the owner had 29 parcels that were severely delinquent. Many of the parcels were sold to adjacent landowners. Several more are expected to sell early in 2021.”

The parcels are owned by JR Parkway Properties 1, LLC, and the tax bills are for 2008. The balance of taxes due on the parcels is $6,278.83, with interest due of $9,098.91.

Fuchs said that the amount is small, considering that interest collected last month alone by the county on delinquent taxes totaled more than $18,000.

“We collected over $450,000 last year. This is really a drop in the bucket,” she said.

‘We decided that perhaps it’s time we get in the correct century with our thought process.’

Pierce County Board Chair Jeff Holst