Warren County elected officials are frustrated that county commissioners sent out an e-mail requesting all employees to begin emptying their trash without first consulting them. A group of officeholders including Prosecutor Mike Wright, Sheriff Kevin Harrison, Collector Linda Stude, Circuit Clerk Jerri Jordan, Assessor Wendy Nordwald and Associate Judge Wes Dalton met with the commission Monday morning to voice their displeasure on the communication process between offices. They remain concerned about the cleaning and maintenance of the courthouse and nearby county buildings, adding that they don't think it's the responsibility of employees to empty their trash. The e-mail, which asked employees to personally dispose of their trash, caught the officials off guard and actually failed to reach some employees. According to commissioners, the e-mail sent on Feb. 22 inadvertently was not sent to several court-related offices, including the circuit clerk and judges. The second-floor offices finally received the e-mail notice on Feb. 24. Wright questioned why the e-mail wasn't sent first to the department heads. He said that is the normal procedure on alerts such as when a fire drill is scheduled. He wondered why the directive bypassed the department heads this time. The elected officials said they want to have some input when the commissioners are looking at implementing changes that affect the various departments. Wright said the commissioners can do a better job of keeping the various offices informed, a comment echoed by Dalton. "We didn't know what your thought process was," Dalton said. "I don't think anybody is saying, 'Oh, I'm too good to empty the trash.' The case is, tell us ahead of time what the whole process is. We have questions and we might have something you didn't think of." Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage said he believed it was more efficient for the cleaning crews to be focused on certain areas rather than spending time emptying trash. "I have asked you to work with us and you have," Engelage said. "We're trying to get things straightened out. We're trying to get things better and it got worse." The cleanliness - or lack thereof - of the courthouse has sparked an outrage from courthouse employees who have described the building as "atrocious" and "embarrassing." Employees met with the commissioners Jan. 26 to discuss the situation. At that time, the commissioners said they had ended a contract with a St. Charles County company and decided to hire multiple part-time employees in hopes of improving the service. Several janitors hired by the county failed to pan out and resulted in one part-time employee cleaning the county buildings during much of January by himself. The county currently has three part-time workers focused on cleaning and the commissioners are in the process of contracting with companies to clean each department on separate weeks, beginning with the sheriff's department this weekend. "We just figured if they go to lunch they can grab their trash," Engelage said of employees. "Is that too much to ask?" Jordan, though, questioned why it was the employees' responsibility to empty trash instead of being taken care of by the cleaning crew. "I wonder who has the authority to tell us to because the janitors don't do their jobs," she said. "We have already been doing the cleaning for years because it wasn't up to par. We let you all know about it and now you're telling us the janitorial service doesn't have time? You're not coming to us where we can try this for a month, you're indicating that this is going to be a permanent situation." Engelage responded by saying he would pick up the trash in Jordan's office three days a week. He asked her to do it the other two days. "I think this is totally ridiculous," Engelage said. He said the issue involving employees emptying their trash will be revisited once the courthouse cleaning improves.