County gives frosty response to staffing requests

A shared administrative position between the zoning and forestry departments will remain, with some shifting of duties and how time is accounted.

At the December 18 county personnel committee meeting, committee members approved a plan to have the zoning office hire someone full time for administrative support with the forestry department being billed for hours used for program support.

With the transfer of the previous shared administrative assistant to the sheriff’s department for a data records position, both the zoning and forestry department looked at what they needed from the position as well as the potential for succession planning within the county office.

Committee member Lester Lewis, chairman of the zoning committee, proposed the change to authorize a full-time employee for the zoning rather than a half-time.

Currently the position is half-time for each of the departments with their departmental budgets splitting the cost evenly. However in practice, county forest administrator Jake Walcisak said forestry only uses about 30 percent of the position’s time averaging about 10 hours a week of purely forestry business.

He said he was less concerned with how much of the position’s cost came out of his budget, noting it was all county money, but wanting to maintain the level of clerical support.

One of the benefits, noted committee member Rollie Thums with having it under the zoning department is that the individual would have one supervisor to report to and requesting vacations rather than two.

Committee member Scot Mildbrand said he would prefer to see forestry and zoning meet and come up with a plan on how the position will be used. He went on record opposing increasing the number of county workers on staff at any level. “I haven’t seen any evidence to support increasing,” Mildband said, noting the population of the county has not increased.

“The idea is to make it more efficient with a one boss situation,” Lewis said, noting they weren’t asking for additional staff at this time.

Personnel committee chairman Chuck Zenner said he felt it was a worthwhile plan to try, but to also bring it back for a review to make sure it is working as intended. Walcisak said he would support it as long as they could maintain the level of support their department needs.

With the committee’s approval, the request to change department authorizations for employees will go to the full county board.

Veterans Service

The coming year will see major changes in the Taylor County Veterans Service Office with the planned retirement of both veterans service officer Jeff Hein and benefi ts specialist Marie Albers in April.

As is standard practice with position openings, committee members were asked to review the job descriptions for each of the spots. Human resources director Marie Koerner said the only changes made were in an attempt to streamline them and reduce duplications. “It was really long,” she said, noting their goal was to stay within two to three pages.

The only major change to the benefits specialist position was to give preference to the hiring of a veteran. Since state law requires the veterans service officer to be a veteran, having the benefit specialist also a veteran would open the door for that individual to advance to being the veterans service officer.

According to veterans service committee chairman Ray Soper, the intent of the committee is to begin the process to hire someone sooner rather than later to make training easier. Because they would be filling already-existing positions and are within the departmental authorization set by county code, the veterans service committee can proceed with filling the spots without additional input from the personnel committee.

Commission on Aging

A proposal to hire a driver to deliver Meals on Wheels to senior citizens in the Stetsonville area received a chilly reception from personnel committee members concerned of opening the doors to having to pay all the drivers.

The county currently contracts with Black River Industries to deliver the meals in the Medford area, but uses volunteers in all the other meal sites. Commission on Aging director Nathanael Brown told committee members that his department has been having difficulty recruiting volunteers with the ongoing pandemic.

Mildbrand suggested the county put a time limit on how long they were going to pay someone to deliver the meals with the hope that after COVID-19 is done the por- tion could go back to being volunteer.

“I don’t think COVID is helping us recruit them,” Brown said, however he said getting drivers has been an ongoing problem for the past few years. He estimated the cost of hiring someone at about $7,000 a year, noting he would be able to cover that amount with budget carryovers.

Committee members were concerned that if one route was paid, the current volunteers would also want to be paid. “You might find yourself with no volunteers,” Thums said.

Mildbrand focused on the impact the pandemic is having on getting volunteers saying he felt it would be different without the pandemic going on. “I am hesitant to make permanent decisions when our back is against the wall,” he said. “Decisions made under duress are seldom good decisions.”

“If you pay one, you will want to pay all of them,” Zenner said. With a driver per meal site and similar costs, this would increase county expenses by at least $28,000 a year.

“There are just too many question marks yet,” Mildbrand said, asking if there were any other ways for the meals to be delivered.

The department is currently in the process of hiring a program specialist and the suggestion was made to include the three-day-a week Stetsonville delivery route as part of that position for now.

“I am willing to try that,” Brown said.

In the end, committee members voted to table the request with it to be brought back for review at a future meeting.

In other business committee members:

_ Approved increasing the on-call pay for juvenile intake from $75 to $100 per case to match the state rate. Taylor County is one of the few counties in the state that runs juvenile intake through the court system rather than through human services. The additional funds would come from the existing circuit court budget. Family and circuit court coordinator Monelle Johnson noted the pay is per case.

_ Approved allowing public health director Patty Krug to carry over four weeks of vacation for six months. Due to the ongoing pandemic the heavy workload in the health department, Krug had been unable to use her vacation time.

_ Approved allowing highway commissioner Ben Stanfley to hire limited term employees as needed to plow snow if he has employees out due to COVID-19 or other illness. The authorization goes through the end of April. “Ben is trying to be proactive,” Mildbrand said, noting the hope would be to hire recently retired highway personnel to fill the spots as needed.

_ Approved minor changes to the human services deputy director job description. The only significant change was in the education certification requirements with the note that if a existing supervisor or coordinator within the department did not apply for the position it would be open to all staff in the agency.

_ Approved moving ahead with filling the deputy register of deeds position with McKenzie Carey. She currently is the deputy records clerk. With the retirement of current register of deeds Sarah Nuernberger and the election of current deputy Jaymi Kohn to fill that spot, the deputy position was vacant.

_ Approved a 1% wage increase for seasonal help who work at the Perkinstown Winter Sports Area. The county is awaiting snow in order to open the popular tubing hill and trails facility.

_ Approved extending leave allowed for COVID-19 under the CARES Act at the county level through March 1. The leave program which offers pay for those impacted by COVID-19 quarantine or caregivers, expires in federal law on December 31. Koerner had brought the measure forward to provide a continuation of those level of benefi ts at the county level. Mildbrand opposed the additional time, favoring a shorter extension to February 1. “I don’t think February 1 is enough,” Zenner responded, adding he felt it would put the county in the same spot a month from now.

“My fear is there are people gaming the system,” he said, noting that even in situations where a daycare center is temporarily closed for COVID-19, other centers are available for students.