The county may be looking for an administrator sometime in the months ahead. On April 30, the county board met to discuss the possibility and agreed to move forward on formulating how that job might look.
Commissioners Bruce Martinson and Sue Hakes said they have heard positive comments from constituents in regard to hiring an administrator. Commissioner Hakes said she had heard from people both in support of and against the position in the past, but recently, people have been expressing only support. “I haven’t heard anybody who says they don’t want one,” she said. “Not one.”
They need to consider the position in the context of the size of this community, Commissioner Garry Gamble said, but they also need to consider “what’s on our plate” as a county. He said he thinks the board needs an administrator so they “could focus on the bigger picture.”
The board discussed a desire to gather input from the public on whether an administrator should be hired. Commissioner Martinson suggested that they create a job description that could be presented to the public and then revised before advertising for the position. Commissioner Heidi Doo-Kirk suggested presenting two options for the public to consider.
The question of hiring an administrator came up when Personnel Director/ Board Secretary Janet Simonen announced earlier this year that she would be retiring in August. The board wrestled with the question of whether an administrator would have time to carry out Simonen’s human resources duties and whether other people could take over some of the work she has been doing. Simonen works about 50-55 hours a week and has not taken all of the personal leave she has earned in recent years. Commissioner Hakes said her position “has grown organically” since she was hired 26 years ago.
Commissioner Martinson said he saw personnel administration, department oversight, and contract management the biggest tasks of a county administrator.
Planning & Zoning Director Tim Nelson suggested that if they hired an administrator they leave some room for the position to develop. He also recommended that the position be given the support it needs.
County Highway Engineer David Betts said that one person couldn’t be the administrator and also do everything Simonen has been doing. Commissioner Doo- Kirk concurred, saying she was afraid they could set someone up to fail or to leave if their expectations were too high.
Assessor Betty Schultz said that her previous job was in a county that had an administrator. She said when she was going through the hiring process here, she never heard from Simonen before 6 or 7 p.m. She said she thought administrator and human resources duties needed to be separate.
County resident Stan Tull said he thinks it would take two people to replace Simonen. No matter what they do, the commissioners would upset at least half of their constituents, he said, but if they came up with a job that could not be done and that led to failure, they would risk upsetting all of their constituents.
One of the administrator’s tasks could be to evaluate staffing levels, Commissioner Hakes said, including the job of the administrator. Having to hire another person to pick up some of the workload later would not be failure, it would be “corrective action,” she said.
The Auditor-Treasurer’s Office already handles some aspects of benefits management. Auditor- Treasurer Braidy Powers said they could take on more of those duties. Simonen suggested that her role as safety administrator could go to the Emergency Management Department. The county could contract with an attorney to do labor negotiations as some counties do. Someone else could take county board minutes, type them up, and distribute them, she said.
Julie Berglund has been working in the Personnel Office about 20 hours a week. If her hours were increased, the other duties she has in other departments (billing for Public Health & Human Services and filling in as needed in various offices) would need to be taken over by others.
The administrator’s job should be comprised of tasks that require more advanced training, Commissioner Martinson said. The board discussed the fact that some counties have department heads who also act as administrators.
By a vote of 3-0, with Commissioner Hall absent and Commissioner Hakes unable to vote because she was in attendance only by speakerphone, the board passed a motion to pursue the possibility of hiring an administrator by developing a draft job description and seeking input from the public. They passed another motion to request prices from personnel search firms that could help the county find candidates.
Commissioners Martinson and Gamble agreed to attend an upcoming department head meeting and expressed willingness to help develop a job description.
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