County keeps most hiring decisions in oversight committees
Members of the Taylor County Personnel Committee on Friday clarified that most hiring decisions are made at the oversight committee level without needing to go through the personnel committee.
Committee member Rollie Thums said the issue was brought up at a recent Human Services meeting by a committee member concerned that having to go through a second committee would delay filling needed positions. In that particular case, there was an employee who gave their required notice and another employee in the department had expressed interest in transferring into that position.
Human services director Liza Daleiden said she would have liked the opportunity to have the person leaving help train the person who would be transferring into the position.
County human resources director Marie Koerner clarified that the oversight committee is the one with the power to fill authorized positions. The county board through ordinance sets the number of available positions in each department. The individual oversight committees vote on if positions need to be filled as staff leaves. Koerner said the personnel committee gets involved if the job description of the position is being changed or if the wages being asked for are above the control point for that position’s rating on the county’s pay matrix.
She said often the hiring process for routine hires begins before it even comes to the committee so that the county can move forward immediately when the committees decide.
Koerner recommended not changing the hiring process noting the current system has worked for the county and that it provides a set of checks and balances. She said things would run differently if Taylor County had an administrator or county executive, but she said they can move quickly to get things in place prior to a committee voting to fill a vacancy.
Committee member Lester Lewis said he favored keeping the status quo, noting that as far as timeliness, if it is important to fill the position, the committee chair only needed 24 hours notice to call a committee meeting. Daleiden said she was unaware that she could ask for a special committee meeting and that she thought it had to go through the regular monthly meeting for the department. “I am looking for ways to expedite the process,” Daleiden said.
The only time when routine hiring to fill existing positions has to go through the personnel committee is when the department is an elected official such as treasurer, clerk or register of deeds and when the department does not have its own oversight committee.
With no action to change it, the current hiring process will remain in place.
In other business, committee members:
_ Approved using grant funds to compensate exempt staff in the health department and emergency management department for the hours worked over 45 per week through August 31. County health director Patty Krug asked for the compensation noting her staff has been busy doing COVID-19 vaccinations in addition to their other duties. She came to the meeting from running a vaccination clinic at Gilman Cheese. She said staff members are coming in at 6:15 a.m. in order to have clinics set up to allow third shift workers to get vaccinations before they go home. She said they are prioritizing using the single-dose vaccine for workplace vaccinations because it causes less disruption for factories.
Under the action, the exempt employees will receive straight time pay for the hours worked over 45 hours in a week. The initial request had been to allow this until December 31. “I think that it is fair to pay the exempt staff. I think December 31 is too long,” said committee member Scott Mildbrand, noting that with the increasing access to vaccines he felt the work would be done by early summer.
Krug noted that it was not their goal to work the additional hours just because they were authorized. “We want to be done too,” she said.
In the end, the committee settled on the August 31 date with the ability to have it reviewed and extended if necessary at that time.
_ Approved allowing the payroll and benefits specialist position to work up to 40 hours a week for six weeks as they implement a new payroll module in the county’s accounting software. The standard work-week for county positions is 35 hours per week. The module is expected to be installed sometime later this spring or early summer. The additional hours will be used for training and implementation.
_ Approved beginning the process to replace the vacant position for chief deputy in the register of deeds due to a resignation and to hire a limited term employee (LTE) to work with real estate records and keep flow moving as the county fills the position. Register of Deeds Jaymi Kohn said the LTE would be someone who had experience working in the department and who could help keep the flow moving in the department while someone is hired. She said she expected it would take six months before the new deputy would be fully trained, but said she felt she wouldn’t need the LTE for the entire time. “I will take what I can get,” Kohn said. Wages for the LTE position will come from the department’s payroll budget.
_ Approved filling a part-time deputy treasurer/ tax assistant for the treasurers office. This is an existing position with the previous employee going on to a fulltime job elsewhere.
