The Morgan County Commissioners took care of a couple of large fiduciary matters this morning for their weekly meeting. Chairman Brad Zeller teleconference into the meeting while Commissioner Bill Meier is still out for medical leave at the present time. Commissioner Ginny Fanning ran the meeting from the Commissioner’s Office. Deputy Clerk Dana Jokisch filed in for County Clerk Jill Waggner who was off for vacation.
The commissioners unanimously passed bills for the month totaling $55,434.03 out of the general fund and $35,239.19 also out of the general fund but allocated for the final portion of General Election Cost. Fanning explains costs: “The Clerk’s Office has separated out the election line items so this is also general fund money, but the election is in the amount of $35,239.19 that is for, what I count it up to be, 153 judges and also includes mileage for some of those judges and then also the moving fees to get all of the different equipment to the polling places.”
The other large cast was the annual renewal of the State’s Attorney and Appellate Prosecutor’s Office Contract for $15,000. State’s Attorney Gray Noll says that the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office is used for a number of different reasons in the local court: “The main thing that we use them for, that we call upon them for, that they handle all the appeals for any criminal cases or civil cases that are appealed, As you are aware, any criminal trial that we have, is basically always, are often resolved short of trial our appeals conform to that as well. That alone is certainly worth the annual fee that we pay them.”
Noll says his office would have to hire 1 or 2 extra people to handle appeals cases if they did not have the agreement with the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office. Noll says they also handle a small number of conflict of interest cases on top of just appeals. Noll says the $15,000 fee is based upon population by state statute. He says the fee has been the same for the past 3 years.
Noll also told the board that Assistant State’s Attorney Craig Miller’s last day will be November 30th before moving on to his new role as Cass County State’s Attorney. The Commissioner’s next meeting is scheduled for November 30th.