County Board Committee Approves Several Recommendations for Action to Full Board

Effingham County Board Legislative and Personnel Committee members Monday voted to recommend a cut in the number of members of the Board's Ambulance Oversight Committee from nine to seven.

County Board Chairman Josh Douthit said there are two vacancies on the committee that have been opened for at least a couple of months. The consensus appeared that the full County Board only has nine members, so perhaps nine weren't needed on Ambulance Oversight. The full Board will consider the reduction in members on the committee at their meeting later this month. The committee did recommend that Deb Murbarger of HSHS St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital should continue on the ambulance oversight committee.

The committee tabled until next month whether Sheriff Paul Kuhns or his designee should serve on the 911 Board. Effingham County State's Attorney Aaron Jones said a recent opinion from the Attorney General's Office is that sheriffs and police chiefs should not serve on 911 Boards due to the funding involved. Kuhns said he doesn't agree about whether he should serve, but understands the need to follow the recommendation of the state's attorney. Jones is hopeful that they will get a ruling on the issue soon, or that the state legislature will pass a law to address the matter.

Committee members voted to recommend the county continue its affiliation with the State's Attorney's Appellate Prosecutor Service for use on appeals and in cases where there multiple defendants, and also recommended that retired county board chairman Jim Niemann work under a grant that will pay for planning for chemical emergencies in the county.

The committee also recommended to the full board the appointment of Doug McCain to the Farmland Assessment Review Committee, and of Dave Campbell and Sandra Gillet as deputy liquor commissioners.