A temporary committee has cemented its role in county government.

The county’s Legislative Committee – set in August 2019 to establish rules for conducting business with the hope of preventing meetings from descending into chaos – has concluded its business. 

A policy manual has been approved by the full Warren County Commis-sion. 

“My motion is to change the name of the Procedures and Rules Commit-tee to Nonprofit Budget Review Committee and leave the Legislative Committee intact as a standing committee,” said Commissioner Carlene Brown, chair of the Legislative Committee, to members of the full commission. 

Brown added, “It was recommended by our committee that we change the name of the Procedures and Rules Committee to Nonprofit Budget Review Committee. We felt that would better describe what that committee does.”

Brown’s motion and that of the committee, said Commissioner Steven Helton, was in response to his effort to thank the committee for its service, dismiss it and allow the county’s Procedures and Rule Committee to oversee any future changes needed to the manual. 

“This comes from one of my ideas,” said Helton. “The Legislative Committee was put in place to do exactly what they’ve done. They’ve done a phenomenal job putting together a legislative packet for us that we can pass. We have a committee named Procedures and Rules and that committee is comprised of every chairman of every committee. I felt it would be wise to take the procedures and rules that we are adopting tonight and put it in Procedures and Rules Committee control. I also proposed striking the Legislative Committee. That’s where all of this comes from.”

Instead, Legislative Committee members voted to change the name of the other committee and make Legislative a permanent fixture. Commissioners agreed and Brown’s motion passed 17-6. 

Voting to change the name of Procedures and Rules Committee to the Nonprofit Budget Review Committee and not disband the Legislative Committee were Commissioners Michael Bell, Carl D. Bouldin, Carl E. Bouldin, Brown, David Dunlap, Randy England, Deborah Evans, Steven Glenn, Robert Hennessee, Ron Lee, Daniel Owens, Kasey Owens, Christy Ross, Tommy Savage, Joseph Stotts, Phillip Stout and Cole Taylor.

Voting against the move were Commissioners Helton, Gary Martin, Gary Prater, Scott Rubley, Tyrone Sparkman and Blaine Wilcher.

The change drew swift criticism.

“I’ve got an idea, why don’t we change the County Commission to County Alter-men, if we are now changing committee names,” said Prater.