Hill County Commission discussed board appointment process in staff meeting

The Hill County Commission held a “staff meeting” Tuesday, where members discussed a number of issues relevant to the public, including their practices for appointing board members.

During the meeting Hill County Commission Chair Mark Peterson said he wants the commission to decide whether or not to continue interviewing or advertising for commission-appointed board positions, or to keep reappointing existing members and only advertise should an existing member leave the board.

Peterson said that when he first started the commission used the latter method until members of the public objected, saying that the commission should always advertise open positions in case anyone is interested in applying for them.

However, since then, he said, they rarely receive any applications to boards, and many potential reappointees have complained about having to be interviewed for positions they’ve held for years, even if there is no one else applying for the position.

Commission Executive Assistant Tiffany Tanner said she’s had two current board members tell her that if they need to go through the interview process again, despite no one else applying, they will withdraw their names from consideration.

However, Hill County Commissioner Sheri Williams said the choice is not binary, that they can continue to advertise for open positions, and if only one person applies, especially if that person is already in that position, they can forgo the interview process.

Not only does this approach seem like common sense, Williams said, but Montana state law requires that open positions be advertised for at least 30 days before an appointment is made, which is what they were advised years ago by Karen Alley, who was county attorney at the time.

Montana Code Annotated states that “If administrative board, district board, or commission members are to be appointed, the members must be appointed by the county commissioners. The county commissioners shall post prospective membership vacancies at least 1 month prior to filling the vacancy.”

After much argument, the commission decided to halt the appointment process until they get clarification and language for their new policy, which Strissel said he hopes will be done in one week.

Tanner said there are a number of boards with meetings coming up soon, and they will need clarity on the issue if they are going to function properly, a concern that Peterson seemed to dismiss.

“A crisis on their part is not a crisis on our part,” he said. “We want to do it right.”

During the meeting the commissioners also discussed the county’s new website, which employees will start getting trained on today, and whether or not it will necessitate the county changing all of their emails to match the site’s domain.

Hill County Clerk and Recorder Lexis Dockter said as far as she knows, the domain emails of county employees must match those of their official website, and if the new site is a .gov site, they will need to change all of their emails to .gov.

Peterson said he thinks they should move to .gov anyway, as the domain has better security.

Williams said this should have been an issue the commission considered during the information transfer process from the current site to the new one, and if they need to make that change now, so late in the game, it will cost the county more money than it otherwise would have.

Peterson said he was not part of that process.

Williams said he was at meetings about that very process with her and he asked questions during them.

Peterson said the presenter did a bad job of answering them.

The commission also briefly discussed the possible purchase of a removable dividing wall for Dockter’s office.

Due to recent office space restructuring, Dockter said, she needs a dividing wall to maintain sufficient privacy for her personal office, and she found one for $770 that she thinks will work.

She said because people are used to the old design they are effectively walking through her office constantly while she is on the phone, which doesn’t prevent her from doing her job, but does make it more difficult.

However, she said, the office has effectively spent all of their available funds on unexpected costs related to administering this year’s primary, so she was hoping the commission could approve the purchase using other funds.

Hill County Commissioner Jake Strissel said he was on board with authorizing the purchase, but Williams said the funds should come from Dockter’s office, despite Dockter repeatedly saying their funds were spent.

After no agreement could be reached Dockter left the meeting saying if they are unwilling to approve the purchase she will wait until the next fiscal year.

During the meeting the commission also discussed upcoming work on the Hill County Courthouse’s new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, which will require a number of departments to temporarily relocate when work begins later this year.

The commissioners compiled a list of people they need to inform and get opinions from in terms of how to temporarily restructure courthouse operations, as well as get some clarity from the contractor about some specifics of the project.

The commission also discussed a recent report that some local irrigators are taking water from Beaver Creek without requesting it.

Peterson said he thinks the county needs to make clear in their contracts with irrigators that they require measuring devices to be used when taking water from the creek so it can be properly reported.

He said that is a provision already in the contracts but it has largely gone unenforced, which needs to change.