Back from a 16-month retirement, former County Board Secretary and Personnel Director Janet Simonen asked the county board for direction Tuesday, January 13 on “whether to convene the personnel committee in order to review several updated job descriptions— or whether to table the requests for review until a new county administrator is hired.”
Planning and Zoning Director Tim Nelson said one of the employees worked in his department and a review of that employee’s job duties and responsibilities were long overdue.
Simonen began working for the county in 1988, handling personnel matters as well as performing board of commissioner secretarial duties for much of her career. The county board asked her to return after the unexpected death of Jay Kieft, the county’s administrator. Simonen agreed to come back part time until a new administrator is hired.
With three new commissioners attending only their second county board meeting, Simonen went over the county’s procedure to update job classifications.
“In 1984 the state approved a pay equity act that was designed to equalize pay for women doing the same or similar jobs as men.
“The 1984 Pay Equity Act requires public employees such as counties to maintain a job classification system whereby job descriptions are evaluated and then assigned pay grades. The county has been using the ‘Arthur Young Decision Band’ method the last 30 years,” said Simonen, adding that every three years the county had to submit reports to the state that show women and men were being paid at an equal rate for the same jobs or jobs with similar duties, knowledge, and responsibilities.
“Cook County has been in compliance the last 30 years,” she said. However, Simonen said the last time the county had done a thorough review of its job classifications was 1993. “That was over 20 years ago. At some point in time the county is in need of thorough review.”
Jan Parish and Grace Bouchard of Public Health and Human Services came before the board. Bouchard said, “Things have changed dramatically over the last 20 years in social service.”
Bouchard said a lot more training is needed and a lot of long hours are required for the work. Both Bouchard and Parish said the “decision band” method didn’t work well for their department. Parish said that method “puts a group of workers with nowhere to go (salary-wise) and doesn’t give them the benefit of what they know.”
Commissioners Moe, Gamble, Jan Sivertson, Heidi Doo-Kirk and Ginny Storlie said it was important for the staff to know that the county board would work hard to hire an administrator with a background suited to working with job descriptions and in the meantime the personnel committee would meet with Simonen and address the two employees’ concerns over their job descriptions.
Commissioner Gamble said the board decided last year to drop the decision band method, and the board set aside funds to update the entire job classification system and then re-write and re-grade approximately 70 job descriptions when a new administrator is hired. The board hopes to have a new county administrator in place by June.
Sheriff’s Department
Cook County Sheriff Pat Eliasen came with two requests, the first to purchase a 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe from Ranger Chevrolet in Hibbing.
The new squad car cost $30,095.93 with additional installation costs approximately $4,000. Eliasen said most equipment from the old squad car would be salvaged and installed in the new car.
The new car is bigger than the Ford it replaces, said Eliasen, and should be more durable when the deputies travel on bad roads, especially when they are responding to calls.
Commissioner Frank Moe asked Eliasen how often vehicles were replaced. Eliasen told him that 80,000 miles was the standard time to get a new vehicle. “We drive them harder than most people drive their vehicles and they idle a lot more, which is hard on an engine,” Eliasen said.
“I’m hoping to get 100,000 to 120,000 miles on this vehicle,” he said.
Fuel isn’t going to be much of an issue, said Eliasen, because the new car gets close to the same mileage as the vehicle it will replace.
Next Eliasen asked to hire a new transport/bailiff deputy to work 20 hours per week (520 hours per year).
“Right now we use the jail administrator or off duty deputies to fulfill transport obligations. This costs us a lot in overtime. This position would be part-time not to exceed $20,000 per year,” he said, noting that this position was included in the 2015 budget.
Commissioners voted unanimously for Eliasen to purchase the new vehicle and to advertise to fill the part-time transport/bailiff position.
Committee appointments made
Cook County Community Center Director Diane Booth came before the board with requests to fill openings on two committees.
Booth said three people applied for positions on the Cook County Community Center Board of Trustees. Frankie Jarchow and Gwen Carman were appointed to three-year terms while Joanne Smith was reappointed to another threeyear term.
Booth said four people applied for three positions on the University of Minnesota Extension Committee. The current extension committee recommended both Duane Hasegawa and Kristin Van den Berg to 3-year terms and Virginia Reiner was appointed to take over Bill Huggins term for the next two years. The board of commissioners approved both recommendations to seat these new people on these boards.
County to update time card system
Also approved was installation of an electronic time card system that will be interfaced with the payroll system at a cost of $18,734. The new operation will ensure accuracy and simplify changes, such as cost of living allowance (COLA) increases.
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