July 19, 2023 Camden County Commissioner meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the July 19, 2023 Camden County Commissioner meeting at 10:00 a.m.

All commissioners were present.

The first agenda item was Dept of Ag. – U.S. Public Land Survey System.

Camden County received a letter notifying them of a program to re-monument corners within the county. “Monumentation” is the process of establishing corner monuments that will mark exact locations where survey lines intersect on the ground and define a rectangular land parcel. Over time, many of these surveyed monuments have been degraded or been destroyed. This program would pay $350 for a County Surveyor to re-monument each of these corners.

Commissioner Skelton pointed out that Camden County does not have a county surveyor and the county might need to contract with a surveyor for this program.

County Recorder Donnie Snelling opined that $350 wasn’t enough money for the work required to re-monument survey corners. Apparently, Camden County would be expected to pay the rest of the cost. Snelling mentioned that the $350 was the same amount surveyors were paid years ago for that job.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton decided to put Commissioner Williams in charge of exploring this matter further. Lucky him.

County Attorney Green recommended that Camden County put out a Request For Quote for surveyors who might be interested in using their supple surveying hands to locate those evasive survey corners.

The second agenda item was June 2023 Tax Abatements.

These were approved unanimously.

The third agenda item was Memorandum of Understanding – Sheriff Stoutland R-II School.

This was the contract for the School Resource Deputy for the school district. The representative from the Camden County Sheriff’s Office explained that the only change was for the increased salary for the deputy (Finally!). The school district would reimburse for the salary, vehicle, and benefits. Some of these costs were previously supplemented by a grant, but the employee who wrote that grant no longer works for Camden County.

The Commission approved this MOU unanimously.

The fourth agenda item was Memorandum of Understanding – Sheriff Mack’s Creek R-V School.

This was the same item as the previous item, but for a different school district.

The Commission approved this MOU unanimously.

The final agenda item was County Contractual Signing Authority.

The Commission unanimously passed a resolution that stated that any delegated authority given by the Commission to other office holders to sign contracts was revoked. This did not affect elected officials who signed purchases included within their approved budgets or signatures related to the statutory powers of the elected officials.

This resolution was unanimously approved and signed.

This last item definitely seemed like a clear signal that the Commission was committed to re-establishing itself as the executive authority of Camden County. Some had criticized that, in the past, the Commission had ceded too much of its power to the County Auditor. Now it appears that the three commissioners have secured the reins and we shall see where it leads.

And that was that.