A Note from the Executive Director

In less than two weeks county elected officials from throughout the state will convene at the Boise Centre for the 2018 IAC Annual Conference to attend educational workshops, network, elect new IAC officers, and begin the process of setting IAC’s legislative priorities for 2019. The IAC Annual Conference is an important event for the IAC membership as it gives IAC members the opportunity to meet and discuss policy resolutions important to counties. IAC’s policy resolution process is member initiated, highlighting the importance for the membership to attend the annual meeting and actively participate in the deliberations.

This year the membership submitted 26 policy resolutions for consideration at the annual conference. Each of IAC’s six policy steering committees will have at least two proposals under consideration. The resolutions touch on a wide variety of policies important to counties including public defense, transportation funding, Medicaid eligibility, funding the criminal justice system, local option taxing authority, recording fees, and elections. Each of these proposals will be vetted through one of IAC’s six policy steering committees before eventually being voted on by the membership during the Wednesday business meeting. This year’s member-initiated policy resolutions can be accessed here.

In order for a policy resolution to be included in IAC’s legislative priorities, it must receive a 2/3 vote of support by those in attendance at the business meeting. The IAC Bylaws set this high threshold to ensure a supermajority of those in attendance are in support of a resolution with the intent of preventing division within the membership.

Those resolutions supported by 2/3 of the membership will be prioritized by the IAC Legislative Committee. In previous years, this prioritization has taken place sometime in November. This year IAC is instituting a change in this process to be more transparent and allow for greater participation from the membership. The IAC Legislative Committee will convene Wednesday, September 26^th from 4-6pm immediately following IAC affiliate meetings in order to prioritize IAC legislative package. The Legislative Committee will meet in the Local Government Center board room located on the 2^nd floor of the ICRMP building (3100 S Vista). Resolution sponsors interested in presenting their resolution are invited to attend this meeting as well as anyone from the membership interested in participating in the meeting.

This year’s record number of resolutions presents some challenges. The IAC Bylaws limit the number of legislative priorities at ten. If more than ten priorities are adopted by the membership, the IAC Legislative Committee is tasked with selecting the top ten form those adopted by the membership. IAC staff may still advocate for those resolutions not included in the top ten as time and resources allow; however, resolutions ranked outside of the top ten will receive lower priority, and if necessary, be tabled until 2020.

All county officials attending the conference are encouraged to review the resolutions packet emailed out to the membership on Tuesday, September 11th prior to coming to Boise for the conference. If you did not receive the resolutions via email, you review them here. You can also find agendas for policy steering committees here under “2018 IAC Annual Conference.” Please come to committee meetings and the Wednesday business meeting prepared to debate and vote on the resolutions.

I look forward to seeing everyone in Boise for a great conference.