By DEBRA HAIGHT
BCR Correspondent
ST. JOSEPH – It was back to the future at last week’s Berrien County Board of Commissioners meeting as a former county board chair from over 25 years ago was elected chairman. County Commissioners started the year by electing new leadership for the county board at their organizational meeting.
County Commissioner and attorney R. McKinley “Mac” Elliott was elected board chairman for the next two years by his fellow commissioners. Elliott represents District 10 on the county board which covers the city of Buchanan, Buchanan Township, the village of Berrien Springs and parts of Bertrand and Oronoko Townships.
It’s been more than 25 years since Elliott served as county board chairman. He served in that position in 1991-92 in his first tour on the board. He was first elected to the board in 1984 and served through 1994. He then became the county’s corporate counsel for 15 from 1995 through 2010 when he was again elected to the county board.
Elliott succeeds Jon Hinkelman who had served as chairman for the last six years. Elected vice-chairman was Teri Freehling, succeeding Mamie Yarbrough in that post. Freehling represents the eighth district which covers the Baroda area and is starting her second full term on the board.
Commissioners thanked Hinkelman for his six years of service as the board chair.
Other appointments made at last week’s organizational meeting included Freehling as parliamentarian responsible for maintaining the board’s bylaws, Yarbrough as chaplain and Jim Curran as sergeant-at-arms.
Elliott appointed Curran, the District 11 representative, to head the board’s administration committee, Yarbrough as chair of the finance committee and Bill Chickering as chair of the personnel and human services committee. Yarbrough represents the fourth district and Chickering the fifth district.
The 12-member elected county board oversees the management of county government and all of its departments through the county administrator and other county officials.
Elliott told the Berrien County Record last week that he plans to continue the tradition of holding night meetings once a month at locations around the county from spring through fall. The county board meets most of the year on Thursday mornings at the Berrien County Administration Center in St. Joseph.
The night meetings are expected to be held at locations around the county from April through October. People can check the http://www.berriencounty.org/718/Meetings website to find the locations and times of those meetings.
Elliott said that his goals for the next two years include reviewing benefits for county employees. “We also need to review employment benefits to verify that we are in line with the major employers in our area,” he said. “It’s an important aspect of recruitment and retention of talented entry level and managerial staff.”
The long term goals adopted by the county board in 2017 for the four year period through 2021 included making sure county facilities are safe for employees and the public, continuing technological and IT infrastructure improvements, improving the county’s private sector economy and improving the county’s long term financial position.
Another of those goals, that of formalizing a long term strategy to meet the county’s future facility needs, is something that has been on Elliott’s radar for the last several years.
Elliott has long been an advocate of consolidating county operations in a central location in the Berrien Springs area. “For the long term, it makes sense to consolidate county operations in Oronoko Township, near the 31 Bypass,” he said last week. “That option is something we should include as part of the county strategic plan.”
He promoted the Berrien Springs option as many as six years ago. He noted then that he asked a colleague at the University of Notre Dame to study the data to see where would be the best place to build a central law and courts building in the county. The man concluded that the Berrien Springs area is the logical location for a new law and courts building.
The debate over where to build new county facilities has raged off and on for years, with its roots in the history of changing locations for the county seat. The county seat shifted between St. Joseph and Niles until 1837 when it was moved to Berrien Springs. It was moved to St. Joseph in 1894 after a popular vote and has stayed there since.
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