GENEVA – The County Board has taken the first step toward rewriting its hiring policies, giving county government department directors greater abilities to fill vacancies and hire under “emergency” circumstances, without first securing formal County Board approval.

And the County Board appears poised to define “emergencies” used to justify hiring that sidesteps the county’s hiring freeze to explicitly include a decline in income flowing to a particular department.

Wednesday, the County Board Human Services Committee recommended approval of a resolution that would rewrite the county’s hiring rules, which have been in place since 2008.