Longevity retention policy discussed at county officials meeting

County officials discussed a potential policy change that would allow county employees who change departments to keep their longevity when shifting into a job with similar skill requirements.

Hill County Commissioner Mike Wendland said at a meeting of county officials Thursday since the policy was proposed he’s gotten a few comments from county department heads.

One comment at the meeting was from Hill County Sheriff Jamie Ross, who said the policy wouldn’t work well in his office due to the variety of requirements meant for the different positions in his department.

“Being able to pull that time to another certification is a slap in the face to the people already there,” he said.

However, Ross said, more than once that the policy may well be beneficial to the employees in the courthouse and it makes more sense in that context.

“I see the benefit to the employees like clerks, and I’m not at all against that,” he said. “I’m just saying it’s not something that’s going to work for my office.”

Hill County Attorney Karen Alley, who wrote the proposed policy change, said that is what it’s intended for, and because Ross’s department is unionized the policy wouldn’t have the same effect with them anyway, since the sheriff’s office has it’s own pay matrix.

Alley has said the proposal is an issue of fairness and taking away someone’s longevity for, effectively, advancing their careers isn’t a good practice.

“My proposal is based around the idea that we are a unified employer, not departments being separate employers,” she said. “The employees of Hill County are employed by Hill County, the benefits come from Hill County, the pay comes from Hill County, when you switch departments your paycheck is signed by the same people. … This is how the state operates, this is how Liberty County operates, how several counties operate.”

Hill County Justice of the Peace Audrey Barger said the way the county does things now is unfair to employees and if something isn’t done, they will continue to be driven away by the current policy.

“County employees are your greatest treasure,” Barger said. “The institutional knowledge and training that you lose when someone quits and goes somewhere else can not be fixed it cannot be helped.

“We will lose people if we don’t figure out how to make sure that they’re compensated, so that we don’t lose that institutional knowledge,” she added.

She said people hired from outside don’t have nearly as much in the way of knowledge as someone who’s already worked for the county even if in a different department, a sentiment Ross shared.

“I do agree with Judge Barger though,” he said, “We need to see the value in our longterm employees and if we can we should retain someone instead of hiring someone new. It’s just way more efficient.”

Barger said she realizes there are potential complications especially with the sheriff’s office, but she’s knows what it’s like to have to pay for career advancement when she moved from the County Attorney’s Office to become a deputy clerk of district court and eventually to her position as an elected judge.

“I really wanted to serve my community, but when I took this job I took a pay cut, because all of my longevity was taken away from me,” she said, “and I’m still behind $3,000 a year than if I’d just stayed a deputy.”

Hill County Auditor Kathy Olson, who’s expressed concern about this policy in past meetings, said significant logistical issues with implementing a change of this kind exist and further examination is necessary before voting on it to apply for the next budget year.

“It’s not to say it can’t be done,” she said, “but to think that it can be done lickety-split now is just crazy.”

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean, who originally brought up the proposed policy change two weeks ago at a Hill County Commission meeting, encouraged Olson to get in contact with other counties that have similar policies to see how they work for them.

Olson said she’s already doing just that.

At the Hill County Commission’s weekly business meeting later Thursday, McLean said the policy shouldn’t be approved as more discussion and research needs to be done and potential changes made.

At that meeting, the commission also approved a graphic design contract for the Great Northern Fair’s website, a contract recently voted on by the Great Northern Fair Board.

Wendland said the website will be designed to be functional, user-friendly, and mobile-friendly, as well as a payment platform for fairground services.

The launch of the website will be April 2021.

At the County Officials Meeting, department heads also provided updates on recent activities.

Hill County Building Manager Daryl Anez said repairs to the Hill County Courthouse’s elevator will hopefully be finished by the end of December but there are no certainties at this point.

“That’s what I’m shooting for,” Anez said.

He said the courthouse’s new chiller is being finished up and should be operational in time for Spring of 2021.

Anez also talked about recent damage to the Hill County Courthouse Annex, which had one of the columns outside it’s entrance hit by a vehicle.

He said, based on what he’s seen, the load-bearing part of the structure has not compromised, and the collision appears to have only affected the brick outer shell of the column.

Anez said Dan Korb of Korb Construction told him he’s got someone in Great Falls looking at repairs because no one locally does that kind of brick work.

He said there is a possibility that it could be fixed by the end of December, but he’s not sure if anyone would want to be working on such a thing in winter.

“It’s tough getting anyone to do anything right now in a timely manner,” Anez said.

Hill County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Amanda Frickel couldn’t attend the meeting, but Wendland read a report by her about her department’s recent activities.

The report said Frickel has been coordinating with the health department on a new contract with the Hi-Line Motel to provide rooms for COVID-19 isolation.

The report also said she’s also in touch with department heads about new state requirements regarding personal protective equipment, and has been working on keeping schools and first responders stocked with it.

He also read a report from the Clerk of Court’s Office that said things are going well.

The report said recent upgrades now allow attorneys to file documents electronically making the office almost paperless when it comes to court filings.

Ross said aside from replacing their server at the sheriff’s office Thursday, it’s more or less been business as usual with the department focusing on hiring.

Hill County Human Resources Legal Assistant Brittany Pfeifer said her training for the position has been completed and HR has mainly been busy doing interviews for the contact tracer positions.