Wednesday, August 21, 2013
 
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County remains undecided on PCOM and administrative positions

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[August 21, 2013]  About 25 guests were in attendance at Tuesday evening's Logan County Board adjourned session. Most of the guests identified themselves as county employees, several as concerned citizens and two were representatives of DEVNET, a company that provides computer software to the county.

Also present were Rosanne Brosamer, assessor; Steve Nichols, county sheriff; Will D'Andrea, zoning officer; Dan Fulscher, EMA director; and Jonathan Wright, Logan County state's attorney.

Eleven of 12 board members were present, with Bob Farmer presiding. Rick Aylesworth was absent.

Two employment matters that were brought to a vote entailed lengthy discussions consuming the better part of an hour.

Two current employees are being considered for expansion of their job descriptions. The Executive/Economic Development Committee proposed redivision and expansion of duties for Will D'Andrea and Pam Meagher in order for the county to hire a project compliance and oversight management officer, or PCOM, for the public transportation system; to meet the growing demands made on local governments; and to provide greater guidance through research and grant application processes.

The committee had been working through moving Meagher, who is now the board’s administrative assistant, to the part-time PCOM position and dividing some of the secretarial duties among other county departments.

A newer plan kept Meagher in the specialized processes, such as insurance administrator, that she now does for the county and divided some of the daily work with D'Andrea.

D'Andrea, the zoning officer, began serving several roles for the county when he moved from part time to full time a few years ago. D'Andrea has displayed a high level of organizational skill in refining and setting up several complex systems and processes in the areas of zoning, GIS and the enterprise zone over the past two years in his roles as zoning officer, enterprise zone manager, regional planning commission director, and GIS manager and coordinator.

The board's Executive/Economic Development Committee approached Meagher and D'Andrea and asked each if they would work together to cover specific county duties and the board's general needs, and they were offered raises for their expanded responsibilities.

It was proposed that D'Andrea would move his office from the highway department building to the courthouse and take on some of the day-to-day activity now performed by Meagher, serving county employees as well as the county board. He would have a combined salary of $65,000 with the office manager duties added. This would give him an increase of $6,000 per year beginning Dec 1.

When these topics were brought to the full board, the first order of business was to discuss the position for D'Andrea.

There was considerable discussion.

Board member Jan Schumacher suggested that what D'Andrea would be doing is not really manager duties, as stated in the job description, but more administrative. She first suggested changing the job title.

Finance chairman Chuck Ruben read the job description the committee had created. The proposed list of new duties and possible projects was quite extensive. It included supervision of department heads; policies and procedures; plan directions of organizational structures of certain departments; contract bids and grants; assist board with research; and much more.

Schumacher said the description was too much for a person to do. She recommended that the committee refine and reduce expectations; otherwise, there would be some who would take advantage of D'Andrea's time, as seemingly happened to a prior county manager, Dewey Colter.

Other board members echoed Schumacher's concern, admitting to already being guilty of dumping a lot of work onto Meagher while she has been in that office serving the board. It was recognized that Meagher does far more because of the skills she had previous to working for the county, and because of her capabilities, she currently does more than was expected of her predecessor.

The board first entertained a motion to refine and reduce the job description planned for D'Andrea, with a change in the job title to office administrator. Ruben, Schumacher and Farmer voted no, and the motion to send the job description back to committee passed 8-3.

The county has been wrangling for the better part of the year over a new state stipulation that requires oversight of the public transportation system. A PCOM officer fills the role of the system's auditor.

It was voted a couple of months ago to keep the transportation system that was started just a year ago and decide later how to man the newly required position. The financial aspect is not much of a concern with an 80-20 split, as the state is paying the greater portion of the salary.

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Meagher, the county board's current administrative assistant, has agreed to do the PCOM work. It was proposed that D'Andrea would take over some of the work in the administrative office, along with other duties that would assist the board, freeing Meagher to do the PCOM work and continue in some of the specialized work that she does for the board and other duties she now performs.

On Tuesday, a motion was made to increase Meagher's salary to $37,500 this year and to $40,000 next year.

When the floor was opened to this discussion, board member Terry Carlton opened by saying, "I don't think that is right." He was addressing the manner of deciding the position and the salary, not the capability or qualifications of Meagher.

Carlton further explained that he felt there were three positions to be discussed that could be filled by three people.

With the state’s attorney present, Carlton asked his opinion on the process that was taking place.

Wright said that his belief, in regard to policies and procedures, was that if it is an already-existing position, you can hire from within. But for a new position, you should create a job description and go out for bid or ask for applications.

It was then recognized that this, too, the PCOM, would call for sending back to committee to create a job description for the position.

Kevin Bateman spoke up in agreement. He had interjected comments a couple of times during the earlier discussion about what D'Andrea would be hired to do, saying that the PCOM position and what Meagher would be doing needed to be decided first.

Bateman, too, said he'd like to see a three-person office, and what was being discussed would result in two people doing too much work. He felt the committee should come up with job descriptions for the board's secretary, the PCOM and the duties that D'Andrea is being asked to do.

Andy Anderson jumped in several times during all the discussions. At one point he said that he wanted to address the county employees. He wanted to make it clear that the board had gone to Meagher; she had not come to them.

"We asked Pam to do all this work," Anderson said. "We asked Pam to go to the PCOM. We asked Pam to take over the (PCOM) audit."

It was clear from his comments and tone that Meagher has been receiving displaced backlash from some of the other employees.

Anderson continued that if anyone had anything they wanted to say, "you call me, or you call one of the others (board members). You do not go to her."

Some round-table discussion clarified that the PCOM is a part-time position. Meagher could and would fill that role, combined with some of the current duties the board has come to rely on from her, and would continue as a full-time employee.

A number of other scenarios and factors were discussed.

Gene Rohlfs suggested that Meagher take the PCOM role and the county hire a part-time employee to assist her.

David Hepler said he has made contact with another county with a similar public transportation system to see how they are handling the new position requirement.

Schumacher asked for Wright’s opinion if the board could hire the spouse of a board member.

Wright responded that there would be conflict-of-interest issues in hiring same-household employees.

In the end, the board again voted on a motion to send the PCOM position back to committee, which passed 10-1 with Ruben being the only opposing vote.

Farmer, as the board chairman, asked and was granted the board's approval to allow Meagher to continue to act as interim PCOM. That position must be filled by Jan. 1, 2014.

This concluded the board's discussion of positions and salaries for the evening.

[By JAN YOUNGQUIST]

See last Thursday's board of whole discussion for more details: Appointed county positions and salary increases draw fire near budget time

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