Interim Highway Department Director Jeff Adolphson appeared before the Wadena County board at its March 18 meeting with a number of issues requiring board action.

Adolphson presented the board with a map detailing the planned county road projects for 2010. The projects included two bridge replacements in Blue Grass and Aldrich, townships, two road construction projects and several graveling projects, crack sealing and shoulder work.

Adolphson, Solid Waste Director Mike Hanan, Zoning and Parks Director Deana Skov and the board held a discussion about the need to review and update several position descriptions to see whether the positions should be changed in grade and/ or step due to their skills and qualifications requirements.

The positions are Financial Worker, Financial Worker Specialist, Certifi ed Solid Waste Attendant, Assistant Planning/Zoning Administrator and Planning/ Zoning Administrative Assistant.

Joanne Derby, business agent for Teamsters Local 320, made the requests for reviews in letters dated Dec. 28, 2009; Jan. 18, 2010; and March 1, 2010. Derby questioned whether management consultant Mike Gibson should be conducting the study of the Financial Worker and Financial Worker Specialist positions. She apparently believed that Gibson was employed by Wadena County and she preferred that the position study be conducted “externally through the (Hay) Consultant ... so that it would not be bias (sic).”

Board Chair Bill Stearns informed Derby by letter that Gibson was not an employee of the county and that he was an independent contractor who provides consultation services. Stearns also wrote that Gibson uses an evaluation tool that is a Hay instrument when he does pay equity studies for the county. He further wrote that Faith Zwemke, a manager at the Minnesota Department of Management and Budget, had assured Wadena County that “Mr. Gibson’s pay equity work for Wadena County was satisfactory to DMB.”

Information presented by Stearns and Auditor/ Treasurer Char West from the Hay Group indicated that the Hay Group would charge $380 per hour for the pay equity studies, estimating that each position review would cost about $475 on average. Gibson would charge $50 per hour for each position review, with each review taking about two hours, for a total cost of $100 per review.

Commissioner Rodney Bounds said he thought that the Hay Group should do the study, because Derby did not want Gibson to do it. He also suggested that if the board did not want the Hay Group to do it, then they should contact surrounding counties to see who they use for pay equity studies. Bounds said that he had contacted Crow Wing County and they had someone who would do it for $125 per hour. He said that Todd County uses the Hay Group.

Hanan said that Otter Tail County currently was debating who to use and had not made a decision yet.

Commissioner Ralph Miller suggested that since he had to remove himself from discussions of negotiating strategy because his wife is an employee of Wadena County, that therefore Gibson should not be considered as a consultant to do the study since he would have a conflict of interest like Miller did.

County Attorney Ladd

disagreed with Miller’s

comparison. She said, “There is law on conflict of

interest and you are married to an employee and that is covered in the law because of her participation in the union and your

status as a public official. Your participation in labor negotiations does present a conflict of interest, in my opinion and that’s the advice I gave to this board, as it relates to liability issues.” Ladd said that Gibson did not have any conflict of interest, since he is not a public official and is not married to an employee of Wadena County. There was no reason to bar him from performing the pay equity studies, if that is what the board wished him to do.

Hanan told the board that he believed Derby was mistaken in her analysis that the Certified Solid Waste attendant position had several new duties added to it. He found that there was only one new duty: the operation of a semi tractor/trailer outside county property to provide recycling pickup at ten sites around the county. Hanan reviewed the 2004 solid waste position descriptions and found that the duties Derby thinks were recently added, actually were present on the 2004 position descriptions.

To conclude the discussion, Stear ns suggested that a committee be appointed, consisting of Mike Hanan, Mike Gibson and Joann Derby to discuss the solid waste position and come to the board with a recommendation “that would create harmony with the workers”. The board agreed by consensus.

Stearns suggested that Skov and Adolphson meet with Derby and the 49ers Union business manager to discuss the two halftime positions held by Gina Dahms at zoning and parks and at the highway department and come to an agreement about whether Dahms’ position should be reclassified as an Engineering Technician and whether she should join the 49ers Union and other matters and report back to the board. The board agreed by consensus.

After this, the board held a closed meeting to discuss a confidential legal matter.

The board reconvened about 40 minutes later and passed two motions. One motion, effective immediately, suspended the payment of all additional cash compensation(to county employees eligible for longevity payments) until June 30, 2010. The second motion authorized the Auditor/Treasurer and County Attorney to use the services of a labor attorney to address issues of additional cash compensation. No other information was available about these motions. They passed the board in unanimous votes.

Following this, Stearns requested a motion to create a committee to review the county budget and suggest areas where spending could be reduced in anticipation of Governor Pawlenty’s unallotments of Local Government Aid estimated at an additional $200,000 to $500,000 in cuts to Wadena County. He asked that the board chair, the board vice chair, the auditor/treasurer, the county engineer and the director of social services be appointed to this committee. The board voted unanimously to create this committee.

Stearns said the committee would meet with department heads to review proposed budget cuts in depth. He said the committee was being formed so that “we can discuss what-ifs without panicking everybody.”

It appeared that Stearns meant he did not want the press to report the discussions of what budget cuts were being considered and that the committee meetings would not be public meetings so no press would be present.

In other matters, the board

o ACCEPTED the low quote to purchase a file cabinet to hold engineering flat files,

o APPROVED obtaining quotes for equipment scheduled for replacement in 2010,

o APPROVED writing off delinquent accounts dating back to 1991 that totalled $1,444,

o APPROVED advertising for one seasonal position in maintenance and engineering and approved to proceed with insulating the Menahga shop.