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The Chisago County Board is the only group of county commissioners that meets in the evenings, throughout the state,  and the Board is going to take a look at changing that in an upcoming discussion.

For years the Chisago County Board has held at least one of its two monthly meetings at night and in the past several years both Wednesday meetings are in the evening.  

Recently elected Commissioner Jim Swenson, North Branch District,  last week requested putting a change of meeting schedule on the agenda.  He and District 5 (Rush City) Commissioner Dan Dahlberg reportedly asked staff to compile some data on what other counties do.  Swenson broached amending the agenda last week to discuss the matter—but it was last minute and commissioners preferred to study the materials and address this in the future.

County Administrator Chase Burnham’s research provided information on dozens of Minnesota county board schedules and all the counties but Chisago County meet during regular business hours.

Commissioner Ben Montzka explained that he is willing to listen to arguments for a change but long ago when there were daytime meetings, members found it difficult to fit a regular career around commissioner duties.  Only people who are their own boss or who are retired seemed able to seek out the office, Montzka explained.

Commissioner Marlys Dunne commented that the Board discussed this last January when setting the 2023 meeting schedule and she thought night meetings was the consensus then.

The minuses in holding meetings in the evening include staff time costs.  When staff is asked to attend a night meeting to answer questions or present Board actions, the annual cost  can be approximately $30,000 to $35,000.  Any staff who can “flex” their hours and take time off to make up for attending a Board meeting try to do this,  but it’s not always possible, the Board heard.  This annual cost doesn’t include hours provided by non-elected officials like the auditor, human resources director, enterprise services department and other department heads.

The Board plans to also discuss recording meetings, which currently are live-streamed only.  The technological capability to store meeting video for replay on demand has not been part of the county board budget.

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