Wadena County Commissioner Rodney Bounds told the other commissioners at their July 6 meeting that he believed the board should pass a resolution establishing a hiring freeze.

Commissioner Bill Stearns replied that no one at the county could hire without board approval, so a hiring freeze was not necessary. Bounds, Stearns, and Commissioner Lane Waldahl discussed this issue, with Bounds insisting that the county had added more than 24 employees in the last 10 years, and Waldahl asking to see the figures.

Later in the meeting, Bounds gave Waldahl and the media copies of a list of full-time and part-time employee totals for some of the years from 1999 to 2009. The list came from an employee in the county auditor’s office. The list showed that as of July 1, 1999, there were 178 full- and parttime employees. As of June 26, 2009, there were 176 full- and part-time employees.

During the years between 1999 and 2009, there were fluctuations in the number of part-time and full-time employees. For example, in 1999 there were 106 full-time and 72 part-time; in 2009 there were 134 full-time and 42 part-time.

Over the years between 1999 and 2009, the number of part-time employees dropped from 72 to 42, a decrease of 30 employees. During that same time, the number of full-time employees rose from 106 to 134, an increase of 28 employees. However, overall, the total number of employees has remained constant. There was a big drop in 2004, when there were only 154 total employees.

Some of the employee salaries are paid by grant funds, such as the public health department’s large Chemical Health Grant, or the sheriff’s department’s snowmobile grant and Safe and Sober grant.

Others are paid by state and federal funds, including some employees in the highway department, social services department, and solid waste department, because of state and federal mandates that must be carried out by counties. Still others are paid through contracts, such as public health nurses paid by contracts with communities and school districts to provide services. Public safety, law enforcement, prosecution, public defender and corrections costs have increased, and new laws have required the hiring of additional employees in these areas to carry out legal requirements.