Posted: 4/17/07
Work continues on airport
commission
By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
The Houston County Board is in the final stages of establishing a county airport commission. The board spent a portion of the April 10 meeting discussing a number of issues County Attorney Richard Jackson brought up, after reviewing the original draft.
In a memo to the board, Jackson suggested the document contain a paragraph indicating that the Airport Commission recognizes its obligation to abide by the regulations of the Minnesota open meeting law.
"I also think it would be appropriate to further delineate the ëconflict of interestí disqualification in those cases in which the chair of the Airport Commission is an individual with a disqualifying private or personal interest in the matter under consideration," Jackson stated in the memo. "In such a situation, I believe it would be appropriate to provide the vice chairperson (or secretary if both the chair and vice chairperson had conflicts) to exercise authority to declare disqualification on a specific issue due to private or personal interests."
The board reviewed Jacksonís memo and then discussed the make-up of the proposed commission. According to the drafting document, the commission would be made up of seven members appointed by the county board. Five of those members would come from each of the five county board commissioner districts, and two members appointed at-large.
Two ex-officio members (the presidents of the Red Baron Flying Club and Houston County Flyers) would also be named to the commission. Board members spent several minutes discussing whether or not the ex-officio members would have voting rights, since they would not have set terms, as the other seven members would.
The board agreed that the two ex-officio members would not have voting rights, but would serve a more advisory role on the commission.
The board agreed to make some minor changes in the Airport Commission draft and will have a final draft ready to approval at the April 24 meeting.
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