County sets policy prohibiting secret recordings by staff

County employees will have to notify people when they are recording conversations.

At the March 11 county personnel meeting, committee members approved establishing the recording policy after the issue was raised by committee member Lester Lewis.

Lewis had asked human resources director Marie Koerner to develop a policy prohibiting the secret recording by county employees except during the process of law enforcement investigation.

“They can do it, they just have to let the person know they are doing it,” Lewis said of recording conversations. Wisconsin law allows the recording of conversations as long as one person is aware of it being recorded and does not require the consent of the people being recorded.

The county policy would be more strict than state law and would only apply in the workplace. “If I could make the law, I would make it criminal,” Lewis said. “It is not right to record people without their knowledge.”

“I would not allow one of my employees to secretly record me. If they did they would be a former employee really quick,” said committee member Scott Mildbrand.

Committee member Tim Hansen questioned if the county could enact something more strict than the state. Committee chairman Chuck Zenner also questioned it. “I don’t have a problem, I just want to make sure we are doing it right,” he said.

County forest administrator Jake Walcisak asked for clarification about if it was in the workplace only or would be in interaction with public such as logging contractors. Lewis said in any case, they would have to inform the other people in the conversation that they were being recorded.

Mildbrand said he did not see any conflict with the state codes, comparing the policy to the county’s employee dress code. “I think we are OK,” he said.

The recording policy was approved unanimously.

In other business committee members:

_ Approved changes to the public health coordinator’s job description. With the planned retirement of long-time employee Michele Armbrust, health director Patty Krug said it needed to be updated. “With the long term employees they haven’t been updated in a long time,” Koerner said.

_ Approved hiring an additional registered nurse for the health department. The county will contract with Rib Lake School District to provide a half-time school nurse through the school year with the position filling in for vacations and other duties the remainder of the year. Krug said she is also looking ahead to succession planning in the department, noting she has 31 years working in the department. An additional nurse will also allow the county to better train for emergency preparedness.

_ Approved having the county participate in a pilot program for employee education about the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). Employees would be able to log into the hour-long webinar from their desks or from stations set up for those not at desks. The webinar would be offered multiple times over a few weeks to allow it to be done when people’s schedules are available.

_ Approved updates to the lead maintenance technician and maintenance technician job descriptions for the buildings and grounds department. With technology changes and the recent retirement of an employee, director Joe Svedja said it was time to update the descriptions to more match what was being done.

_ Approved allowing additional work time of up to five hours for each of the administrative support personnel at human services to help cover the workload while an employee is out on family leave. According to human services director Liza Daleiden, there are five administrative staff members who have divided up the duties and the additional hours would be used as needed. She said no employee would have more than five additional hours per week to make sure that the county was not paying overtime.