Hill County department credit card policy drafted

County officials discussed updates on the departments’ recent activities at their monthly meeting Wednesday including progress on the long-requested county credit cards officials have been asking for.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said a draft of the credit card policy has been drawn up but the commission hasn’t had a chance to look at it and determine whether or not they agree with it.

“It is, in fact, a pretty big jump for us, regardless of what all the rest of you think,” McLean said.

She also provided updates on policy changes at the county including one that requires that the commission be notified whenever a department makes a purchase of over $500, a policy officials raised concerns about.

Mosquito District Supervisor and Weed District Coordinator Terry Turner said he pays more than that for every bottle of chemical he needs to purchase and wondered if he had to inform the commission every single time he did that.

Hill County Public Health Director Kim Berg also raised concerns about having to report every purchase of vaccine and medication.

McLean said the policy wouldn’t apply to standard purchases like that.

She said it was hard to put into words in a way that would get everyone on the same page.

Turner suggested that everyone just use common sense.

McLean also said the commission wants to change how the job posting process works.

Under current policy, notifications of job vacancies are sent to Hill County Human Resources Legal Assistant Brittany Pfeifer, who handles putting together job descriptions for posting, then to County Auditor Kathy Olson, who handles wages for posting, then to the commission to sign off on them.

McLean said the commission wants to change that by having those notifications first come to them before they give it to Pfeifer and Olson, who would then send it back to them for approval.

“We feel like we’re on the tail end,” she said.

Olson and Pfeifer initially objected to this change, with the former saying because they are the ones who deal directly with the postings it makes sense for it to come to them first, especially since the commission has the power of final approval anyway.

Hill County Commissioner said the commission wouldn’t take any official action on the postings during that initial notification, that they just wanted to see it before sending it off to Pfeifer.

McLean said it is “embarrassing” to not know about these things.

She also announced a change in travel policy that encourages employees to use county vehicles while on county business. The only change to this policy is to explicitly include Hill County extension agents and staff in that policy as they exist in a bit of a grey area in terms of employment at the county.

At the meeting Pfeifer also passed out copies of the Hatch Act, which details restrictions on employees doing things like lobbying, which she said is important with elections coming up.

This prompted Turner to criticize McLean for a recent comment she made during another meeting, where he said she called the education he and his fellow weed control experts provide lobbying.

In response McLean said the public is more and more aware of these restrictions and may be more inclined to scrutinize county employees than in times past.

“We need to be able to clearly understand the limits,” she said.

Turner said he’s been educating people for a long time as part of his job and the idea that that is lobbying was a bit insulting.

“I kind of took offense to that,” he said.

McLean said she didn’t remember the conversation but apologized, which Turner accepted.

The commissioners then gave a brief update on their recent activities.

Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel said he’s been meeting with local marijuana businesses about implementing a three percent county tax on the substance, which he said has been drafted.

Strissel said the recreational sellers seem largely positive but the medical sellers have some apprehensions about how that would affect their customers.

He said the commission is also working with Bear Paw Development Corp. on a preliminary architectural report for the Rudyard Senior Center, which will determine the structural stability of the facility so they can tell if the building is at all salvageable.

Peterson said the commission was able to attend an annual meeting with the Montana Department of Transportation, which hasn’t been held in years due to COVID-19.

He said people will see projects going on in the area including some curb replacement on U.S. Highway 2, overlays on Box Elder West and Rocky Boy West as well as some flashing yellow arrows and lane configuration changes at the interaction just west of the Great Northern Fairgrounds.

He also said there would be some milling and overlay between Hill and Blaine counties this year.

Peterson also talked about the money provided in the recent infrastructure package passed by Congress.

He said Sen. Jon Tester’s office notified them that there would be $225 million for bridges, which sounds like a lot but wouldn’t cover that many.

He said the bridge over the Milk River requires about $5 million and the commission is working on an application for applying for a Montana Coal Endowment Program grant for it.

Peterson said the county has people looking through recent federal programs to see what they can do for Hill County.

Turner also provided and update saying his department got a $10,000 grant through the Noxious Weed Trust Fund that they can use to continue their work in the Sage Creek area where they’re continuing work on eliminating a massive 4,500 acre weed patch which they’ve managed to to reduce to 1,000 acres in recent years.

He also said he’s been nominated to the Montana Weed Control Associate Board, and will be doing some training for this role soon.

Hill County Extension Agent Colleen Pegar told fellow officials pesticide application trainings will be going on in the golden triangle area as well as fumigation training in Fort Benton.

Pegar said livestock disaster preparedness will also be going on pretty soon.