Jane Howard
County Engineer Shae Kosmalski reported that maintenance supervisor Tim Suck had resigned after finding a good job in Michigan where his wife resides. October 13 was his last day on the job. The board approved his resignation.
Brian Houglum will be acting crew supervisor, and Kosmalski will assume Suck’s administrative tasks until a replacement is hired. The board gave its approval to advertise for the position.
At the October 13, 2009 county board meeting, Commissioner Fritz Sobanja thanked Suck for his service and good work for the county. Suck thanked the board for the employment.
A week later, Kosmalski reported that the Highway Department was deeply saddened over the loss of Ron Theisen, who recently died of cancer. He had worked in the West End as a Maintenance Worker II.
County policy allows a replacement to be sought from a pool of applicants who applied for the Maintenance Worker II job awarded last year to Charlie Sawyer. Kosmalski said eight out of 22 applicants had been interviewed at that time.
Highway Department liaison Fritz Sobanja and West End Commissioner Bruce Martinson will make the hiring decision along with Kosmalski. Commissioner Jan Hall recommended that they conduct interviews again, but Commissioner Jim Johnson was concerned that some people might not think the county was being fair if they didn’t start with a new applicant pool. “I’m a little nervous about working off the list we had before,” he said.
According to Personnel Director Janet Simonen, going through the advertising process and ranking and interviewing new applicants would take much more time than choosing someone from last year’s pool. Commissioner Bob Fenwick said hiring someone right away might be better this time of year.
The board passed a motion to hire from last year’s list of applicants.
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