County officials attend state workshop

Kimball County Commissioners recently attended a three-day state workshop in Kearney hosted by the Nebraska Association of County Officials.

As part of a continuing education and leadership development series, the annual workshop provided these officials with more than 12 hours of specialized training.

Subjects addressed at the workshop, attended by more than 150 county board members and officials from across the state, included significant proposals currently under consideration by the Nebraska Legislature.

Specifically, county officials attended a session regarding financial reporting across states by Dr. Emilia Istrate, from the National Association of Counties (NACo), in Washington, D.C.

According to LeRoy Janssen, Meeting Coordinator for the Nebraska Association of County Officials, that session gave a national perspective of keeping county budgets transparent to the public, monitoring them for responsible spending and keeping them within the scope of the mission of county government in each jurisdiction.

The same message was repeated in the next session, according to Janssen, when Dean Heaffner from the Nebraska Auditor’s Office shared the same perspective as Dr. Istrate on a state level and cited specific Nebraska references to achieve the goals previously listed for the national presentation.

Those in attendance also studied topics such as economic development in Nebraska, and breakout sessions for tax equalization, open meetings, workforce and assessment processes.

A session that piqued Kimball County Commissioner Tim Nolting’s interest was given by Scott Frakes, the director of the Nebraska Department of Corrections.

Nolting serves with youth services at CAPWN and has learned to question what kind of services can be provided that would give youth the opportunity to be productive members of society.

“I have come to realize there are a lot of services that have yet to be tapped into,” Nolting said. “The judicial system has undergone significant changes in regard to juveniles. We want to be able to keep them out of incarceration and have better methodology in evaluating their social and emotional state.”

Nolting also sought some clarification for Kimball County specifically in regards to tax valuations and deadlines.

“I attended a breakout session on tax equalization and review board, it was a question and answer period,” Nolting said. “I asked a couple of questions specific to Kimball County regarding the end of our review period and there was some clarification. We have to have all of our values sent by March 2017. That is a chore that has to be accomplished through the assessors office.”

Commissioner Daria Anderson-Faden agreed that group discussion led by four Nebraska county assessors was enlightening and gave her a better understanding of that job.

“I went to a parliamentary procedure session that I thought was really interesting too,” Anderson-Faden added.

Kimball County Clerk Cathy Sibal also attended a similar workshop for county clerks on June 15-17.