Peterson asks for county policy enforcement on employees

At a meeting of Hill County officials Wednesday morning, Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson asked that department heads hear and pass on a number of reminders to their employees regarding following county policy.

Peterson said he wanted to remind everyone to be respectful in their dealings with those in and outside of their departments, and that the county relies on proper communication to function.

“We have some issues within departments of not wanting to communicate very well,” he said.

He also said he’s heard about employees parking in front of or west of the courthouse in places that are supposed to be used by the public, as well as in the parking lots of surrounding businesses.

He said employees need to show respect to the businesses surrounding the courthouse and leave the spaces designated for the public open to them so they can conduct their business quickly and conveniently.

Peterson also said he wants to remind employees of the county’s policy regarding children in the workplace.

He said the children of employees should not be in the office without authorization from their department head and exceptions should be made only for extreme circumstances.

He said children are not allowed to wait in county offices for their parents after school.

Peterson also told everyone making purchases with county credit cards to shop local as much as possible, and keep as much money in the county’s taxbase as possible.

He said purchases being made with these cards have significantly surpassed their expectations when they were approved for implementation.

After this series of reminders county officials provided updates on their departments’ activities, including Peterson.

He said the commission is overseeing work being done on the Milk River Levee, and the clearing of brush and tree branches is almost complete.

He said plans are being made for next steps.

Peterson also said FEMA personnel will be in Hill County at the end of the month to continue evaluating damage from the flooding earlier this year and determine how much federal assistance can be provided and how.

He also talked about the ongoing project to update the Hill County Courthouse’s heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.

He said the project will be going out to bid, but depending on the numbers that come back they may not be able to do every floor, or may need to cancel the project entirely due to the limited amount of money set aside for the project.

Hill County Commissioner Sheri Williams said work is also continuing on the county’s new website.

Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel said school budgets have been sent to the state and he’s helping make sure the schools get their usual grants and have their transportation budgets in order.

Strissel said the county’s conflict with the governor’s office over public education taxes is still going, and they are working with the Montana Association of Counties and the public schools to do the right thing for the area.

The Gianforte administration’s department of revenue has ordered that the counties collect the full 95 mills of the state’s tax that funds school equalization, which supports schools in lower income areas, but a spike in property valuations this year has caused the value of those mills to rise dramatically.

Earlier this month the commission voted not to honor the state’s ask and instead collect 77.9 mills, which county commissioners around the state have said is more reasonable.

Counties across the state, including Hill County, have argued that the dramatic increase of the value of the 95 mills is unsustainable for their citizens and violates state law, which places limits on how quickly local taxes can rise.

The Gianforte administration, as well as a number of education groups, have disputed the counties’ interpretation of the law and have argued that this amendment, being adopted by counties across Montana, would result in an $80 million deficit for school equalization.

Most other Hill County officials were not at the meeting or said their departments were dealing with the usual business.

Hill County Public Health Director Kim Berg said there are no confirmed influenza cases yet, and they still have flu shots available, as well as COVID-19 vaccines.

Berg said they only have the Moderna vaccines at the moment, but they are updated to cover the most recent variants of COVID-19.

Montana State University Hill County Extension Agent Colleen Pegar said they have 71 students enrolled in 4-H after only 18 days which is a very good sign and she’s happy to report that a recent training held for board members by personnel from the MSU Local Government Center was very well received.