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60;x., _0 � PAGE Uv Responding to the question, Vice Chairman Macht explained the requests were going to the Human Services Department for evaluation of the quality and the necessity of the services and were in concert with Director Baird for the fiscal input. The information will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners at budget time at which time the public and applicants all shall have the opportunity to speak. The Commission has the option to accept or reject. Mr. Legwen asked that the entire Commission affirm Vice Chairman Macht's remarks. He felt the public has a right to speak at the Committee's meetings. He pointed out that these meetings are not televised as are the Board of County Commissioners' meetings, therefore, the public cannot be aware of the meetings unless they are in attendance or read the minutes. In his opinion, the minutes probably will not reflect that the public was not permitted to ask questions on May 20'h. He has not been able to get a copy of those minutes as they are not ready yet. Vice Chairman Macht defended the Chairman's position as there was a long agenda and many people to interview, and the Chairman felt it was better to confine questions to the committee members. There was nothing to prevent Mr. Legwen from meeting individually to make the inquiries after the meeting. Mr. Legwen then complained that the press was not in attendance, and Vice Chairman Macht responded that the County cannot require the press to be there. Mr. Legwen understood but added that when the meetings are posted and scheduled for Tuesdays and then changed to Thursdays, it is very difficult for anyone, press or public, to be able to plan to attend. He reiterated that this process has side-stepped going through Budget Director Baird, whose position it is to be able to evaluate and render an opinion to the Board on the funding requests. He thought it would be fine to have the requests go through Director Baird's office first and then to the committee. In the past, he had been able to obtain copies of information from the Budget Office, but was unable to get any copies or any extra packets for public review. He thought that the policy of not having the information available before the meeting, only after the meeting at 15 cents per page, was wrong. He thought the Commissioners should have some control over the monies being handed out and should use the office of Budget to assist. Commissioner Ginn commented that she had voted against the CSN because of her fear that a sub -committee consisting of as few as three people would be making the recommendations on who would receive the money and those would be the only May 26, 1998 52 0 41