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Leadership Lake County Government
Day~
December 14, 2005
Laketran hosted a continental breakfast for the Class
of 2006 to begin Government Day.
Jessie Baginski, ’04, Director of Marketing &
Public Relations for Laketran, gave an overview of Laketran operations, the
mission, funding and governance.
The class boarded the bus for the Lake County
Administration Center, which is the home to the County Commissioners, the
Auditor, Treasurer, Recorder, GIS, Prosecutor and the Board of Elections.
Commissioners Ray Sines and Robert Aufuldish began the session with
discussion about the responsibilities of County Commissioners. Foremost to
them is fiscal responsibility; they focus on meeting statutory obligations
while maintaining a balanced budget. Only the Federal government can
deficit spend. Lake County Auditor, Ed Zupancic spoke to the class about
property valuations, accessing property taxes, the data board, and the fact
that his office is responsible for the accounting of all county offices.
Any check written from a Lake County office is issued by the auditor’s
office.
Lake County Treasurer John Crocker explained that his
responsibility was to collect the taxes accessed by the auditor and to
carefully invest county tax dollars for greater yield. It is not commonly
known that Lake County has a GIS (geographic imaging system). It has been
extremely useful to the county for law enforcement, verifying building sizes
and other duties of the county engineer. Department Director Dick Kotapish
gave a brief demonstration of how the system works. What makes the Lake
County GIS Department unique is that it is supported by several county
agencies in a cooperative effort to benefit all of Lake County.
The Lake County Landfill is an amazing 250 acres, most
of it full of trash. Director Dave Bradshaw explained to the class how the
operation works, including adhering to EPA guidelines for community safety.
On the site, there is currently an operating cell, which has an
expected lifespan of about another 13 years of operation. In addition,
there is one closed cell and possibly room to open only one more
cell. These cells are maintained in perpetuity and we were told that
you could dig through the pile and find a 20-year-old newspaper ….in mint
condition, ready to read. Next stop, Morley Library and lunch!
Mary Frances Burns ’00, Director of Morley
Library, spoke to the class about government issues that effect libraries.
She gave the history of how government came to financially support public
libraries and explained how the new direction has caused some stress for
library operations. Chris LeGros of CT Consultants explained Lake County
government’s role in recycling. She further explained that recycling would
change in January 2006 from curbside to strategic collection sites.
Class members boarded the bus for a short trip to the
Gary L. Kron Water Reclamation Facility in Mentor. The plant manager
explained the work that is done at the facility; wastewater comes into the
plant…it is treated, closely monitored for chemicals and impurities and then
released into Lake Erie. It is critical that this operation is carefully
executed for public safety. Access to this plant is strictly limited.
The final sessions of the day included presentations
from Lake County Stormwater Management, Jill Green; Lake County Soil & Water
Conservation, Dan Donaldson, and Lake County Planning Commission, Jason
Boyd. These distinguished presenters described their respective agency’s
responsibilities in the development of Lake County and the protection of our
local environment.
Jan Clair, Director of the Lake County Board of
Elections, closed Government Day with an explanation of the new election
rules taking effect this year, including new voting machines. She
challenged the class members to get involved as an Election Marshall.
Thank you, CT Consultants, Inc. and Charter One
Bank for supporting Leadership Lake County Government Day.
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