UPDATE: The January 21st meeting was cancelled

Lincoln County Counsel Kristin Yuille announced during the last board work session that due to lack of business, there may not be a board of commissioners' regular meeting scheduled for January 21. The meeting was up on the county meeting calendar until Sunday night. During the last work session to decide the process for nominating a new county commissioner, Yuille cited the absence of pressing business or action items as the reason for possible cancellation. Counsel emphasized that regular meetings are held to address significant county matters, and when no agenda items require action, a gathering is not necessary. "If there are no items for the commissioners to make decisions on or have business on, there's no need to have that meeting," county counsel advised.

At the last regular board meeting on January 7, 2026 the commissioners agreed that Commissioner Chuck would chair the 1st meeting of the month and Commissioner Miller would chair the2nd meeting, so the meeting on the 21st would be the meeting that he would chair. Also during that meeting Councel Yuille reported that she has taken on the county administrative duties after Tim Johnson left. This includes putting together the agenda for the board of commissioners meetings. Commissioner Miller also noted he did not receive notice of a potential meeting cancellation. “As of January 19, 2026 at 8:00 a.m., no official public notice of cancellation has been received by Commissioner Miller or notified to the community regarding the regularly scheduled January 21, 2026 Board of Commissioners meeting.” He said he has reached out to staff to have the meeting be added back to the calendar.

On January 15th, Commissioner Miller submitted to staff a list of 14 items that he wanted to see put on the agenda, including looking at how to be more transparent when it came to narrowing down the applicants for appointment for the commissioner vacancy, roadside spraying, which is an item that has been brought up as a concern from citizens during public comment. The audit action plan update, public comment rules review, to name a few. Since being directed to work remotely over a year ago, Miller noted very few of his agenda request items have been granted.

During the work session, Council Yuille told commissioners "So meetings are staff time, so it's resources. So if we don't have items to do business on, there's no reason to have the meeting. And just be clear, your (Commissioner Miller) items of business might not be the county's business." Yuille told the commissioners they have an agenda process by operational law, "If there are leases, if there are contracts, if there's something legally required for the county to consider that comes before the Board of Commissioners, meetings." She also said "There are other ways that you can get agenda items discussed, but right now, there aren't any items where the county has pending business matters to consider, and that's what the business meeting is for, the purpose of business."

Pending applications for the vacant commissioner seat remain unaffected by this lack of a scheduled meeting, and the Board urges interested community members to continue submitting their applications through January 30 as planned. The process of selecting and interviewing candidates is presumed to resume at the next regular meeting. Those interested in following county meetings are encouraged to look at the county website to verify that the meeting is being held and whether it will be virtual only, 24-hours prior to the regularly scheduled meeting. Commissioner Chuck when asked if the January 21 meeting was cancelled said he would check with staff on Tuesday January 20th.