New commissioners sworn in at Wright County Board

By Brenda Erdahl

A new year with two new commissioners had the Wright County Board taking part in some necessary housekeeping activities at it’s first meeting of 2021, Tuesday, Jan. 5.

The first order of business was to swear in Mary Wetter and Michael Kaczmarek (pronounced catch-mark). Wetter narrowly won the right to represent District 4 in the Nov. 3 election and Kaczmarek won the District 5 seat after Charles Borrell decided not to run for another term.

Following the swearing in, Commissioner Mark Daleiden was named chairperson and Commissioner Darek Vetsch was made Vice President.

Kaczmarek went to work for his District 5 constituents almost immediately relaying frustrations they expressed about meeting times.

“The majority didn’t know when the county meeting was on a weekly basis, and when we talked about it a lot of them said ‘well we’re working at that time at 9 o’clock’ so their option is to take 8 hours of vacation time to come to a meeting if they want to weigh in on it,” Kaczmarek said.

He suggested alternating and having an evening meeting once a month on a Tuesday. Commissioner Christine Husom responded that this issue has come up before and there are several deterrents to holding evening meetings. For one, when they’ve changed their schedule in the past to make a meeting more accessible to the public, few took advantage of it. Evening meetings also tend to interfere with county advisory meetings, city council and township meetings. One of the reasons they hold meetings in the morning is because a lot of county staff are involved and holding them in the evening would require overtime pay, Husom said. Commissioner Vetsch noted that when there are issues on the agenda that they know will attract a lot of attention, they often hold public meetings or hearings in the evenings to accommodate increased public attendance.

The Wright County Board currently meets at 9 a.m. every Tuesday except the second Tuesday of the month when they hold a workshop instead.

Next, commissioners began the lengthy task of determining who would serve on which committees and advisory boards. Commissioners represent the county board on more than 50 committees and advisory boards which prompted Kaczmarek to question if all the committees were necessary. Although the general consensus on the board was yes, they are all important and necessary, commissioners did ultimately eliminate one obligation. According to Commissioner Vetsch, there is no statutory requirement that says the county must be represented on the Clearwater River Watershed District (CRWD) board. Vetch motioned to eliminate the committee from their list and Husom seconded the motion stating, “I feel that if we get the minutes, we can stay abreast of that.” Visit www.co.wright.mn.us for a complete list of committee and advisory board assignments.