December 5, 2023, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

I attended the December 5, 2023, Camden County Commission meeting at 10:00 a.m.

Commissioners Skelton and Williams were present.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton moved to amend the agenda to include some old business.

The first agenda item was Bid Award – 231130 Printing Bid.

These were bids for the county printing contract from Lake Printing and Alpha Graphics. The representative from the Purchasing Department recommended that both bids be accepted.

The Commission accepted both bids unanimously.

The second agenda item was Bid Award – 231130 Sign Material Bid.

There were three bids for this item. The representative from the E-911 department recommended that the Commission should accept all three bids.

The Commission accepted all three bids unanimously.

During the public discussion portion for this item, I asked the commissioners why the county was accepting all of the bids that were being offered. They explained that accepting multiple bids gave them greater flexibility when it came to ordering through the vendors, especially when prices could vary throughout the year or by line item. I countered that the process was supposed to be a competitive bid process and there wasn’t really much competition going on if all of the bids were being accepted.

After all, one of the main points of having the Commission approve county bids is to have an impartial third party choosing the vendors who do business with the county’s departments.

The third agenda item was Chem Aqua Water Treatment Contract.

This contract was to purchase a professional water sewer treatment program for the county? I don’t really know much about this. At this point, I already felt like I had asked enough questions so I let this one slide by. Discretion over valor.

The Commission approved this contract unanimously.

The fourth agenda item was 2024 County Holiday Schedule.

Presiding Commissioner Skelton stated that the holiday calendar had already been circulated through county officials. The Commission approved this item unanimously.

In Old Business, Presiding Commissioner Skelton stated that Camden County’s contract with Huber needed to be amended to ensure that internal deleted emails would be archived properly. This change would cost the county an extra $1200 annually.

So, I had to raise my hand again on this one because this was pretty incredible to me. Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, but it appears that under the current email system, if a county elected official/employee received an email internally from another elected official/employee and deleted it, that email would be lost forever after only thirty days.

The internal emails in the Camden County email server were not being archived!

This is not only a terrible practice for any governmental body that has to respond to lawsuits and public information requests, but it’s also probably a violation of a variety of laws and regulations. I can only imagine the email communications that have been deleted by past county officials.

Heck, after the county primary election upset last year, some folks reported intermittent power outages in the downtown Camdenton area from all of the documents and emails that were being shredded and erased. I heard there wasn’t even enough juice left in the courthouse to charge up Caleb Cunningham’s crime scene laser-scanning COVID-sniffing robot.

I guess the good news is that the Commission is taking steps to address the issue, but it’s really disheartening to know that such a basic standard for record-keeping was being ignored. Frankly, you and I are probably using better procedures to retain our own email.

The final Old Business issue was that the language in the contract for the construction of the new salt storage dome for Road and Bridge needed to be changed to reflect the fact that ARPA money was being used for the purchase.

And that was that. Thank goodness.