Twenty people gathered at the Cook County Community Center on May 22, 2013 to talk about what a county administrator could contribute to Cook County government.
Community member Jim Boyd shared his thoughts on the matter, saying that while additional government doesn’t always save money, it improves both services and efficiencies. “You get more bang for your buck,” he said.
You don’t have a school without a superintendent or a company without a CEO, Boyd said. “Your staff deserves one boss and right now they have five,” he said to the four county commissioners at the meeting (Bruce Martinson, Garry Gamble, Heidi Doo-Kirk, and Sue Hakes).
Boyd said he wonders why the county hasn’t always seen good results from hiring consultants and thinks it might be that they hear different things from different administrator. Transitioning to having a county commissioner might be difficult, he said. “Once you do this, you can’t meddle.”
Boyd also said it seems like the county board has only had time to focus on the present, whereas they need time to plan for the future.
If the county does not know where it is going as a community, Commissioner Gamble said, it will constantly be switching direction according to the loudest voices. He recognized that with an administrator in place, however, the department heads would not want to be micromanaged and the board would not want to lose its authority.
“I think the county has done a great job with its resources,” said community member Myron Bursheim, but he added that he thinks the county needs an advocate inside the courthouse. Consultants aren’t necessarily looking out for the best interests of the county, he said, and the low bidder isn’t necessarily the one who will do the best job. “If you do much better with the same amount of money, then I think you have something good,” he said.
Stan Tull, a community member who attends every county board meeting, said he believes an administrator should be able to save his or her own salary in efficiencies each year, but he thought it might take more than $80,000-100,000 to attract someone who could do that.
“We need the right person, that’s for sure,” said Commissioner Martinson. He said one thing he was looking for was consistency in departmental reviews. When commissioners each conducted employee reviews on different department heads several years ago, their reviews seemed really inconsistent, he said.
Community member Mike Carlson wondered how insulated a county administrator would be from public criticism. Commissioner Gamble said people skills would be important for the person in this job. “The primary role of an administrator, as I see it, is making people better,” he said. “A person like that should be above the fray…because you’re not going to please everybody.”
Commissioner Gamble supported hiring a consulting firm to help with the county administrator hiring process. “At some point we [need to] bring someone in to proof our work, so we’re not missing something,” he said.
Moving ahead
On May 28, the board voted to hire Springsted Incorporated of St. Paul to help them with the process of hiring a county administrator. Springsted will charge up to $14,000 plus expenses of up to $2,500.
Commissioners Gamble and Martinson presented a job description they had drafted as a starting point for review and comment by the rest of the board, retiring Personnel Director/Board Secretary Janet Simonen, County Attorney Tim Scannell, department heads, Springsted, and the public.
Martinson and Gamble suggested a pay range of $78,600-110,112, which is at the “E” pay level. All department heads are at the “D” level except for the county attorney, who is at the “E” level. The pay range for the current personnel director/board secretary position, which will not be refilled when Simonen retires in August, is $55,560-77,520.
“I believe an administrator is also going to want to have a secretary,” said Commissioner Jan Hall, “so that is going to be another cost.”
The board discussed who should review the job description first and what the process should be. “I’m very frustrated with the slowness of the process,” said Commissioner Sue Hakes. “We could tweak this ’til the cows come home.”
Commissioner Gamble said that they have been trying to include people in the process and that they should not skip seeking input in order to move the process along faster. He also suggested that they consider other consulting firms.
About Springsted, Commissioner Hakes said, “From what I understand, they’re a leader in their field.”
The board’s motion to hire Springsted passed by a vote of 4-1 and included a plan to seek input on the proposed job description from department heads, Janet Simonen, and Tim Scannell. Voting no was Commissioner Gamble, who said he was opposed to hiring Springsted without having a preliminary discussion with the firm and considering other firms as well.
The board also discussed the possibility of having someone with human resources experience fill in after Simonen retires until the new administrator is in place. Commissioner Gamble has talked to the Association of Minnesota Counties about getting help finding someone in the interim. Commissioner Martinson said a Lutsen resident with city and county administrator experience offered to help.
New PHHS employee
On May 21, the board voted to expand two existing jobs in the Public Health & Human Services (PHHS) Department and add a fulltime position.
Social worker Linda Waterhouse’s position will increase from 28 to 30 hours a week. She is a case manager for people with disabilities but will start overseeing child and foster care licensing. Social Service Case Aide Anna Sandstrom’s 30-hour-per-week job will increase to 32 hours a week so that she can assist with licensing.
The new position will be for a 40-hour-per-week “eligibility worker,” formerly called a financial worker. According to PHHS Director Sue Futterer, “The position will assist us with the rollout of the federal Affordable Care Act, which expands eligibility for government assistance, and the state’s new health insurance exchange called MNsure.”
The MNsure website defines the program as “a new, one-stop health insurance marketplace where Minnesotans can find and compare health plans and choose the coverage that fits their needs.”
“Funding [for the new eligibility worker] will primarily come from federal reimbursement the county receives for performing certain activities related to medical assistance,” Futterer told the Cook County News- Herald. As of October 1, 2013, the government will reimburse 75 percent of the cost of the position, with the rest to come from government grants and federal reimbursement that is based on the number of people enrolled in qualified health plans. “If we enroll fewer individuals than expected,” she said, “the county cost could be about $6,600 (our best estimate given the information we have to date).”
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