It was a short but lively Christian County Board meeting Tuesday night in the county courthouse board room.  The biggest topic of the 40-minute meeting, was a recommendation from the board’s personnel committee, to amend the job description of board chair John Curtin’s long-time secretary, Jan Bland, to include dealing with human resource issues, and also give her a 15-percent increase in pay.

Board member Jack Pearce, Junior, felt her duties should be re-assigned to the County Clerk’s office, and cited a state statute saying the county board’s clerical work should be done by the County Clerk.

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Board chairman John Curtin explained to the board upon questioning, that the board chairman’s secretarial position was created when Mike Drea was chairman of the county board.  Curtin added that Drea felt he could not do the board chairman’s job without a full-time secretary, and Curtin also said the board chairman’s responsibilities have changed significantly over the years.

In the end, the county board voted 10 to 6, not to accept the amended job description for Bland’s position as presented by the personnel committee.

Curtin talked with Regional Radio News after the board meeting, about the discussion and vote, saying there various reasons why some board members voted the way they did.

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The failure of the motion to amend Bland’s job description means her current job description remains in place.

During later discussion in the board meeting about what amount was inserted for a salary increase for Bland, chairman Curtin pointed out that a 5-percent increase was put in the 2012 budget, not the 15-percent that was part of the amended job description which did not pass.  The fiscal year 2012 budget, which includes a deficit of some 349-thousand dollars, passed eleven to 5.