As the county board prepares to finalize its 2014 budget, commissioners continue to try to whittle expenses down. On November 26, 2013, Cook County Sheriff Mark Falk defended his request for another dispatcher/jailer position in 2014.
When he applied for a job as a City of Grand Marais police officer in 1989, the job entailed 20 hours of law enforcement and 20 hours working in the municipal liquor store. Things have changed a lot since then.
Amity Goettl went back to being one of the dispatcher/jailers after being the administrative assistant for a while, Sheriff Falk said. As the administrative assistant, she had been spending about half of her time maintaining the computer aided dispatch system and is still spending that much time on it along with her dispatcher/jailer duties.
“Dispatch is changing so much,” Falk said. “It’s a very busy position when they’re dispatching and jailing.” The inmate population has been extraordinarily high this year as well.
The department is in short supply of bailiffs and transport officers as well. Sheriff Falk said he had to do a transport himself on a recent court day.
“I believe this is necessary,” Commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk said of the request.
“It’s tax dollars that pay for government, and we want to be sensitive to that,” Commissioner Garry Gamble said. He asked the sheriff how the needs could be met as cost-effectively as possible.
They often have only one deputy on at a time and one on call, Sheriff Falk said. “That creates an officer safety issue,” he said. “Law enforcement is very unpredictable.” Federal Homeland Security grants help supply overtime pay through Operation Stonegarden funds, but it only takes one incident like a forest fire to tap out the department’s overtime budget, he said.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson asked if they could hire part-time dispatcher/ jailers. Sheriff Falk said they advertised for three part-time dispatcher/ jailers several years ago and had one applicant. Shifts vary and it’s hard to get people who can do the job when they need to be working at other jobs as well, he said.
“You can’t live in Cook County and be a parttime dispatcher, even if you have a rich husband,” Commissioner Doo-Kirk said.
Some people may only want to work 20 hours a week, Commissioner Martinson countered.
Sheriff Falk asked the board to think about whether they want the sheriff to act as a bailiff, do transports, and screen people with the new security equipment as they enter the courthouse. He added, “For whatever it’s worth, I will respect the decision of the board.”
When considering approval of claims later in the meeting, Commissioner Gamble noted the amount billed by Aitkin County for housing Cook County inmates. He said they could keep those dollars in the county if they provided those services here.
Highway department purchase request
Highway Department Maintenance Supervisor Russell Klegstad and Sam Muntean defended a request for a new Cat grader in 2014 at a cost of $330,000. The grader to be replaced was purchased for $148,000 and is worth $130,000.
If the county spent $148,000 on it and it’s worth $130,000, why is the county getting rid of it? asked Commissioner Doo-Kirk. Klegstad answered that it is nearing 10,000 hours of use and major components are expected to start breaking down at that point. If they don’t stick to the replacement schedule, they would end up having to buy a lot of equipment at once, he said. He recommended trading in the current grader now while it still has good trade-in value. Larger townships and contractors like to buy this kind of equipment, he said.
Requiring audits
The board discussed the possibility of enacting a policy that would require entities receiving more than $50,000 in non-mandated funds from the county in a year to be audited. The decision was prompted by concerns brought to the board regarding financial decisions made by the Cook County Senior Center.
The board discussed whether they could require audits from some grant recipients and not others. “If it is selective, then it might be perceived as being unfair,” Commissioner Garry Gamble said. Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers said the county could legally require audits on a case-by-case basis.
Commissioner Gamble said the Senior Center was concerned about the cost of an audit. Commissioner Bruce Martinson said numerous agencies receiving less than $50,000 from the county do an audit already.
Commissioner Sue Hakes said being fair and consistent is important, but so is holding agencies they fund accountable. She indicated that transparency is vital.
Auditor- Treasurer Powers and Assistant County Attorney Molly Hicken will draft a motion regarding requiring audits that the board will consider at a future meeting. The board has yet to decide when the policy would go into effect.
PHHS hirings
The board authorized the Public Health & Human Services Department to hire two employees – a social worker to replace Linda Waterhouse upon her retirement and an eligibility specialist.
The social worker is Julie Kinney and she will work 40 hours per week, a few hours more than Waterhouse worked. She will start at a Step 7 rate of $23.16/hour because of extensive professional experience.
The other position is for a permanent eligibility specialist. The department has had massive staff turnover in the past year or so. With Affordable Care Act changes around the corner, the county board had authorized adding a temporary eligibility specialist about six months ago. Department Director Sue Futterer said she expected to have an increase in their caseload with the new federal health care system and needs throughout the department continue to grow.
Futterer told the board that a current staff member is qualified for the job but would not want to leave his or her current job if the new one was only temporary. Finding people who would be able to do this job has been very difficult, she said. The pay scale is lower than other counties and is too low to attract experienced people, she said. Department accountant Jan Parish said it takes about two years for an eligibility specialist to get fully up to speed.
“Our staff is under a considerable amount of stress and there is tension due to the turnover,” Futterer said.
Parish said she is going to retire eventually and now is the time to start filling the department up with longterm replacements.
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