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on the structure or mandates of county government. Those issues have been studied by <br />other organizations, including some major studies by the Citizens League of the twin cities <br />area. <br /> <br />The purpose of this study is to explore how the current committees contribute to the <br />overall quality of government in our local county, and it will focus on what the Citizens <br />League considers the 24 County committees and the 6 regional committees with citizen <br />participation. <br /> <br />The responsibilities of county government, and of the county commissioners as its <br />governing body, is extremely varied and serious, and the position of county commissioner <br />is much more powerful than most people realize. In the Citizens League opinion, <br />therefore, the quality of county government will depend partially on how involved and <br />interested residents become in this level of government. <br /> <br />1. Current practices leave the impression that citizen participation in County. <br /> decision making is not taken very. seriously, <br /> <br />Usually, there are two good reasons for involving a number of people in a decision making <br />process: 1) to affect the quality of decisions, and 2) once decisions are made, to affect the <br />breadth and depth of acceptance of the decisions. <br /> <br />With the current practices of attracting membership, the lack of goals and evaluations, and <br />the number of committees with the exclusive membership of Commissioners and other <br />County personnel, it would be very advantageous for the County to give some serious <br />attention to the benefits of a broader citizen participation. The impression is all too clear <br />that certain mandated committees might legislate citizen participation, but that there will <br />be a minimal effort to enforce it. <br /> <br />A good citizen participation program might necessitate several courses of action. First of <br />all, a list of authentic County committees, with citizen participation, could be maintained, <br />and the separate Sherburne County Committee List could be renamed to better reflect its <br />purpose. This would avoid the impression that the County has almost 70 committees. <br /> <br />Secondly, the County might review the appropriate kinds of committees it should have to <br />fit its structure and mandates, which is beyond the purpose of this report. This may <br />involve the restructuring or elimination of some committees, or the absorption of <br />mandated committees into broader purpose committees, and the creation of some new <br />committees. <br /> <br />Thirdly, the County could develop some consistent policies on applications and selection <br />of members, payments for attendance, terms and term limits, and evaluation. The policies <br />could also include a precise clarification of roles of the committee chairs, members and <br />staff, and procedures for meetings, public heatings and reporting. Not the least of these <br /> <br /> <br />