00:00:06,730	Yeah, we’re having a meeting. Um, I think we should do the Pledge of allegiance first. I pledge allegiance to allegiance to the allegiance to flag of the United States of America. to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God in an invisible.

00:00:38,270	liberty and justice for all OK, I’ll call the January 29th, 2026 special meeting of the Burleigh County Commission to order. First item is roll call to members. Comm Bakken, here, Comm Schwab, here, Comm Woodcock, Comm Munsen here, Chair Bitner here um. Next item on the agenda is public comment. Um, there, there’s some restrictions on that. However, anybody wished to make public comment.

00:01:07,600	Besides Comm Woodcock’s going to the um, podium Any public comments? Second call. 3rd call, any public comment? I see none. I’ll close the public comment period. and we’ll have a discussion, um, of various departments.

00:01:31,100	We’re here today to talk about um, a number of positions and a number of things that we need to make a decision on Um, first thing would be the finance director and the deputy finance director positions. Um Comm, we held, um, interviews for the finance director position. and all the candidates were rejected as not meeting um, the qualifications for the job.

00:02:07,430	and so um what we ended up doing was moving forward with a request for proposals for um, accounting services from accounting firms um since then there’s been a couple of contacts that I’m aware of uh, I had a, had a Guy contact me over the weekend. That is a CPA that’s retired.

00:02:32,600	um has been in the financial business for a long time, and so his qualifications are along the lines of what we’re looking for finance director, but because he’s retired, he’s not looking for a full-time job. Um, Comm Woodcoxck mentioned to me that um, former, uh, finance director may be willing to come back and help us for a short time. while we work through the RFP process, so that’s an option.

00:02:53,900	Uh, I wanted to basically see what the commission was thinking as far as the direction for the finance director, the deputy finance director. So you’ll see the second topic is the treasurer position. So we held interviews for the treasurer position. and one of the applicants is an existing employee.

00:03:16,330	Um, however, his position today is as the deputy finance Director. Um and so if we were to move him to the treasurer position. then that would leave the finance director and deputy finance director positions both empty and um currently the way we have the, the hierarchy in the office, the finance director and the deputy finance director

00:03:45,730	function under the Burleigh County Commission. And so the treasurer position is, is essentially under the deputy finance Director. So one of the concerns I had at the time after the interviews is that if we move the deputy finance director to the treasurer position and then go fill the finance director and deputy finance director positionians.

00:04:09,630	We’d, we’d be taking and, and we could be putting somebody new. in as a supervisor or the, you know, the, the next step up over the existing person that we’d moved to that position. I didn’t think that was necessarily a great idea. That’s part of what we’re talking about.

00:04:29,370	And I think maybe Pam would, would have some additional information on where we’re at with the request for proposals. and maybe a little more insight on those two positions, Pam, would you mind? She might as well have her chair up here the whole time. That’s what I was kind of thinking, you know.

00:04:49,730	Put up an easy chair Yeah I like the peanut gallery better, um, hey, sign in. I’m an employee. I’m signed in already. Chair and Commissioners, um. we did to just kind of add to Comm Bittner’s, um, summary. We did offer the treasurer position to someone they declined. Um, so we’re back to square one with that.

00:05:18,530	and we’re not, we haven’t reposted either the treasurer or finance director. We do have the RFP active. Um, we have had, um, one firm that has given us questions because they do want to, uh, reply to the RFP, give us a response. It’s I Bailey.

00:05:41,100	um, and there was another CPA firm that had questions and they want to respond to the RFP as well. So we do have interest out there for the RFP. and Chair Bitner did talk to me about the individual for the finance director consultant type position, um. and I haven’t had a chance to talk to that person yet. So that’s kind of where we’re at at this point.

00:06:08,730	So I guess the question would be, what’s the closing date on the RFP, if you know of it? February 11th. and we got a tight turnaround because the next commission meeting is where we have to have the the results.

00:06:32,270	Um, the reason being for the the haste in getting somebody on board and into that position as we obviously have year-end financials. We have some reconciliation stuff to do. We have uh, finance statement, financial statements, and, and that whole thing to have. prepared here in short order.

00:07:00,700	Um, so I, I think the, the biggest question is for the Commission is the direction we want to take with the finance director and the deputy finance director and the treasurer position at this point. And if you have any thoughts on it, that’s the point in having this. special meeting Did anybody else’s tailor or, or anybody else that wants to have some input on that.

00:07:23,530	subject at this point I don’t think they want to come up Well, that’s why we were going to, I was going to have all the chairs right up in here, you know.

00:07:44,500	Any, any insight on, on what you, what uh, give us a breakdown on what’s happening right now and where we’re at in the department. Yes. Yeah, so obviously we’re down a few people right now, um, our accountant has been helping out tremendously with, with a lot of, you know, we’re kind of, as I say, we’re 2 people doing 4 jobs, kind of trying to shuffle everything around.

00:07:59,270	Investments are well in hand, you know, the daily stuff is well in hand. It’s just some of the stuff that doesn’t necessarily have a deadline that takes time, is maybe falling a little behind as we, you know, catch up on weekends and stuff, um, but we’re, yeah, we’re meeting all deadlines that need

00:08:11,900	to be met, but I will take any help that we can get. I know, uh, you know, um, Comm Woodcock had mentioned that our former finance director may be willing to come help and I would be.

00:08:26,630	all on board for that temporarily and and you know, until the RFP goes through if we get a firm there that’s willing to come to, um yeah, like, do you have any questions for me that I can answer for you? Well, I do have a little bit of a question for you because you know, with you being the deputy finance director and you’re interested in the treasurer position.

00:08:41,370	How do you see that working out? Well, and that was so obviously the finance director, I’m not a CPA yet. I’m working towards that. And for, for I know Lee and I and I don’t know how much, you know, we went into this with you, you know, I know the, the org chart where kind of combined the

00:08:54,270	departments that was approved last year. I know our kind of thought process and there wasn’t even, I mean, we didn’t get into any of the split itself, but kind of keeping the split that we had historically had between the accounting and the daily operations, but just obviously under one person that

00:09:09,270	you guys appoint so that any disputes can be settled that way rather than kind of two immovable objects, um, fighting each other, but yeah, I was just looking more, making sure that the operations were taken care of was kind of my interest, um, and obviously still helping and again, I, I,

00:09:25,330	like I said, we’d be flexible on who does what or, you know, doesn’t have to necessarily all be right now the way it always was, you know, we can have maybe some of the deputy duties be done by the treasurer and you know, vice versa.

00:09:36,900	So that was my just thought was making sure that there was someone in right now dealing with the daily operations and then kind of leaving maybe a deputy open, um, you know, I know, I know you, and the way you describe it having the kind of finance, then deputy, then treasurer.

00:09:50,470	If you see it that way, then yeah, I guess I wouldn’t be interested in applying for a demotion. Um, but I know Lee and I kind of looked at them on, on even levels, basically, like you’re kind of splitting the the duties underneath the finance director. Right.

00:10:05,800	Well, at the end of the day, somebody has to essentially be in charge in the office. and and right now, like it or not, that’s you. Oh, yeah, and, and, and with that, with, with the vacancy and the finance director and if we are going to fill that year end, you know, we’ve discussed that a lot in the office, that still doesn’t.

00:10:18,470	They’re not going to be here 40 hours a week managing the office, the daily, you know, for little stuff, little questions that come up. So, yeah, someone will still need to be in charge of the department, and yeah, right now that’s me. Right.

00:10:35,070	And so are you, are you comfortable with essentially doing the treasurer position duties as the deputy finance Director. Yes, yep, and assuming that we, we get somebody in for additional help, you know, the CPA of one sort or another, you would be OK working with them and, and doing the, the year-end things that we need to do and. Yes.

00:10:57,070	OK, I appreciate that Any other, anything else you want to share with the commission as far as thoughts, concerns? Uh, off the top of my head. But does anybody else have any questions for me? I do. When do you expect to get your CPA? I mean ideally, about a year, but it could be up to 18 months. Could be what? Up to 18 months. OK.

00:11:21,000	OK. Thanks, then. Yep Mr. Chair. Comm, I did visit with, uh, our former finance director and at length a couple times, and he is willing to step in almost like tomorrow, uh, to help us out for the, and there’s no time limit on that.

00:11:47,270	Uh, it depends on one, how are things progress, but he was more than willing, well, he wasn’t more than willing that I talked him into it. Uh, uh, helping us out for a month or two, whatever it might be, uh, to get us by for that period because by the time you hire, if we hire a, a firm to come in.

00:12:02,630	It’ll take them a month or two to get their feet wet and we don’t know how long, how that would work out, but he is willing to help, and I don’t think we need a motion to it, but I just think he is, he has an open end contract that

00:12:16,070	we’ve, we’ve had, uh, by the hour and uh we could just do that for, uh, whatever time they think they need them. Not, not more than a couple months or something like that, but till spring comes around.

00:12:32,800	See, that seems to be a good path for me as far as, you know, we have, we have that, um that background that he already has. I understand that some of the computer stuff may have changed in the meantime and in different things, however. I think that now I guess the question would be is the contract still open for him We have a contract on file.

00:12:55,630	I don’t think there was an end date to the contract, um, but since you gave me the floor, I, my wheels are turning I’d like to just propose something maybe to the commission, um, Clyde is willing to come in, our former finance director and help with the year end.

00:13:15,800	We need that So I think we should do that You have an individual that is willing to come in and help with some transition items and is a CPA um Hon RFP we had the projects and then we had the policies and procedures.

00:13:37,170	There were two different projects and we reserve the right to not award any of them award them all or award them by a project or line item. We reserve that right. So if we can have Clyde do our ending entries. we don’t have to worry about that if we can have this other person come in and help guide our deputy finance director who’s possibly 18 months away from getting a CPA.

00:13:57,530	have him guide him and train him on some of the other other items and then maybe have a firm come in and help us with our policies and procedures with the understanding that they will be training our finance director and the Department of Employees on policies and procedures along the way.

00:14:19,430	Back in my career at MD Resources Group, MDU had a a saying that we will hire a consultant, but part of your job as consultant is to train our employees so that they can do this on their own. I think that’s the approach that we should take if we’re hiring a consultant. They need to train our employees. We need to grow our employees.

00:14:34,900	We just can’t keep bringing someone in. I appreciate that input, Pam, cause that seems to be a good path. I would, I would like to ask that Pam proceed with contacting this other person.

00:14:58,430	Uh, just so you know, he, he, he retired, I think it was like 19 years at a, at a well-known local credit union as a CEO. Um, the other Guy that we had talked about would have been a good candidate except he wasn’t a CPA.

00:15:18,630	and this, this gentleman has retained his license and kept that up and and I, I think it’s absolutely vital that we have a CPA in involved. I appreciate Clyde being willing to come in and do, do the stuff that’s necessary as well, and I do think we should move forward with that.

00:15:38,430	and so I, I think that we could do it without emotion, but it’s probably better if we uh, what do you guys think? Why don’t you state how you want to do it, and I’ll make a motion. I’d rather not have. What are we going to do? I’d rather just by consensus. That’s just having a temporary employee is what it is. Yeah. Consensus with the temporary employees, so. Yep. So I I’m in favor of going that route, um.

00:15:57,100	you know, I’m always in favor of seeing our staff improve themselves, get better trained and, and step into better roles within the organization and tailors on that. path.

00:16:19,530	Um, I, I would fully expect him to have the, the inside track for that opportunity down the road, but in the meantime, I think this is a a good direction for the interim. So there’s only one additional kind of a caveat. and that is the salary of the physician.

00:16:43,600	Mhm I, I think that the advertised salary for the treasurer position was probably a little higher than the current salary for the deputy finance Director of my I think they were level Level? They were level grade OK But I, I don’t think they should be level grade. looking at them both together, because if the deputy finance director is going to be presiding over the treasurer, they, they, there needs to be a degree of separation.

00:17:03,270	The reason I bring it up is because I think we need to have Pam look at the actual salary question, and then return to us with what we with the recommendation on what we should do with that. Does that make sense Mr. Chair, question for you, Comm.

00:17:23,530	So when we were looking at a few months ago, the flow chart, if you will, for the employees. I thought we decided to keep finance and treasurer separate. not being under the finance director, or did we really go down that path and keep the finance director on top. treasurer and deputy side by side with employees below.

00:17:44,370	You know, I don’t, I don’t have a clear, uh I, I thought we decided to stay away from that, but I I’d like to see that flow chart again. OK We’ll, I guess we’ll ask that, uh, staff. she’s got it. We were given several options by Lee, and that was in our 2nd October meeting last year.

00:18:11,000	that but we do that until we can get together. This is what I thought we did re approved. When Lee was here as the CPA preside over the top because he had internal controls, with the CPAPA, the CPA, that’s why. And that’s why the deputy and the treasurer were same level because they were different sides.

00:18:43,100	and they were their own internal controls. you say that again please? When, when finance director Jacobs was here. He had a CPA so he could preside over both the treasure and the deputy finance director at the same grade because they were their own internal controls. One would touch the front end, one would touch the back end.

00:19:03,870	um, without having Lee here that has a hard time working, you know, there’s a treasure and there’s deputy. Um-hum. OK, well, we just can’t make that work right now CPA, we, it, it’s not. It’s kind of a point to it. It would be a future. or structure at this point.

00:19:31,800	We need internal controls before we can look at that. OK Well, and that would be something that, uh when we go through the policy and procedures that would be reviewed by that outside firm. And, uh, um I would fully expect that, uh, if that works, how it works will be laid out by that firm.

00:19:54,700	If it doesn’t work, then we’ll figure out the tweaks that, uh, need to be implemented to make it work, but in the meantime, I think we have a good path for an interim situation, at least get through the end of the year and then um fully giving Taylor an opportunity to proceed with his education and possibly fill that role. Right.

00:20:12,900	OK, Pam, is there anything else you need from us in that regard. Um, no OK. Thank you on that We’ll move forward to the deputy Veteran Service Office position. And don’t run away. Actually, before we get there, um, go ahead.

00:20:41,700	What we’re running into is as we’re going through this list, and we’re running into some pay issues. Yeah. We’ve got compression issues. We’ve got, um the way our employee pay is structured. Um I’m not always a fan of just paying somebody because they were there for a long time.

00:21:05,100	It’s what assets are you bringing to the table? That’s why I’m a big proponent of are you going through additional training? Are you more that Swiss Army knife that we can plug and play in a lot of different places, and I, I think part of this conversation that we’re having today might need to be reviewing what our pay structure looks like and that, you know, we went through that exercise while I was mayor.

00:21:23,900	Um, we went through that exercise on the City of Bismarck side. Um, and it was rather eye opening and found some, glaring places that taking care of our employees. made sense doing it a different way. Right.

00:21:46,800	So, Pam, I would love your input on this because I think she walked up this needs to be, I mean, before we get into all of this stuff, cause I’m we keep putting Band-Aids on things. We keep talking about stipends for employees that are going above and beyond. It’s like, that tells me there’s something not working correctly. All right, thank you, Comm.

00:22:07,600	I think she’ll share some of the conversations that she and I have had in that regard. Um, Chair Bitner Commissioners. I’ve been saying that we are on a pay grade and payst step structure for.

00:22:29,470	the 45 years I’ve been here almost 6 years, and it works fine for some of our positions and by fine I mean it’s a good structure, but I don’t know if it was kept up over the years so even our hourly pay might be a little low compared to others, but it’s a good structure for your, your rank and file employees, your hourly employees, where we run into a lot of issues is the department heads and even some supervisors. We can’t compete.

00:22:50,270	The other side of that too, Pam, is um, you’re the one that’s putting out requests for for resumes. What are we seeing Not a lot. Exactly, because we’re not competing with the state.

00:23:13,800	We’re not competing with the city and we’re not competing with the private sector, and we know we can’t compete with the private sector, but we should be at least in the ballpark with the state and the city and we’re not. And one of the last conversations we had Pam He talked about the possibility of doing a, you know, more of an in-depth study of where we’re at with, um, the individual salaries in order to give us recommendations.

00:23:32,470	basically across the board. because right now we have a system where uh, you have 2 employees, one can just sit in a chair and another one can do rockstar work, but just because of the step and pacing, they’ll both advance at the same thing, so it’s not a merit-based system really anymore and I think that doesn’t factor

00:23:55,600	in I think it’s I I think it’s training and the flexibility and. Uh, obviously, Pam and her department have been very busy because of all of these things, and we’re, we’re kind of striking out on on filling these positions at these current rates.

00:24:12,000	I think we’ll get into that a little bit when we talk about the county engineer position. However we, we seem to be under the, under the market or under the market Yeah, on the market for, yeah.

00:24:33,270	And so I know it’s a difficult thing coming into this thing with the 3% cap on budgets and the whole thing, but the simple answer is we’re, we’re having a hard time filling the upper level positions at the pace scale that we’re at. So, um I’m, I’m I’m asking her that, you know, continue with this study and, and, and it’ll take time, I know that. because she’s been so they’ve all been so busy anyway.

00:24:53,630	And I suppose because we’re asking for so much extra work from them, we’re going to have to consider I mean, it’s just we keep running into this Mr. Buck.

00:25:11,270	So one of the things too, Pam, is, and because this is public record and and I know you have to go out for a bid for a full blown study, but just from a framework perspective, um, is there an opportunity to cooperate with the city of Bismarck and see what their structure because I know City went through that exercise, so I, I, that might be a good place to start if, if there’s

00:25:29,900	benefit in that for you. Yep, and I do have a relationship with uh HR Director Schmidt. I’ve known her for a long time. Um, I also have relationships with some of the other HR directors across the state.

00:25:47,170	I know Williams County does their own studies, uh, they have their own compensation analysts that every year we get salary surveys we get about 10 to 15 salary surveys a year that we complete. So we do have data if we’re looking for more merit-based data, um, we may have to do a subscription to like a a pay scale type.

00:26:07,800	program, um, where we can get more merit pay based data and then it has to be depending on where we go with the survey data for government it has to be aged up to the current time frame because we’re always a year behind. because budget’s always a year, the next year. um, and I’ve aged data.

00:26:29,800	I’ve done I’ve done the the market pay grades and and merit pay. I’ve set those up in the private sector. so you feel comfortable with what basically what we’re looking at doing and moving forward, right? Yes. Yeah, thank you. OK, so that, that’s kind of the plan with that, yeah. So let’s back on the Veteran service.

00:26:49,500	So Pam had brought up um at our first meeting in January, you know, this was one of the uh pro pro one of the positions we need to talk about. I said yes, we should talk about and I don’t know if she took that as, yes, we should apply, we should advertise or but uh it’s been advertised.

00:27:08,700	I wasn’t ready for that Pri hasn’t been in the job 3 months. Right. I haven’t had a chance to get through the evaluations with Chris or with Pam to find out what the depth is the deputy really need to be filled or with the two positions that we already have, do we have enough? So for this to be advertised, it caught me

00:27:28,370	by surprise because I’m not ready. This is not a position that Chris and I have even had a conversation to talk about, to see if we’re OK where we’re at. if we need that third person, do we need a part-time person? I don’t know. OK. So I’m not ready for that.

00:27:45,600	Is, is that position being advertised? Or is it? Yeah, it’s gonna close. Yes it closed, but we, we received a call from the BSO and asked to have it posted, so we posted it. OK, so, OK, you know, my, my concern there is simply that I’m not sure there’s enough work.

00:28:07,100	Well, I’m not in that office, and so I was hoping to get some input. Why don’t you come on up. Um, I haven’t, I don’t, I don’t know anything about it, right? We haven’t had a chance to even. Well, I don’t know if Chris knows yet either, so that’s, yeah, he’s only, he’s not been there 3 months.

00:28:20,170	It’s your department. It’s like you don’t know yet, do you? The point in doing all this is to get this information out here to where we all know what we’re where we’re at with it, right? Chris, yeah, Mr.

00:28:37,370	Chair, Commissioners, I had called over because I thought that was the next step, you know, after eosity was there, after the New Year. So that is why I had called HR, uh, the one thing that would worry me about not filling it first. Yeah, we’d have to look at availability, you know, Lee still needs to be taken. People get sick.

00:28:56,630	You have training You have a two-man office as a one-man office during that time, and somebody gets sick as a family emergency. What are our options there? Are we closed, you know, I wouldn’t like, that’s not what I’m trying to do. So, you know, deputy would be important if I’m not there.

00:29:15,630	I guess that’s the point of the deputy, right? But absolutely, Comm Munsen is right. I guess I I did not mean to get going too quick on it. That was not my intention. Well, I, I think with your office. we need to be comfortable that the workload um, establishes a need for that position. I think that’s the kind of the underlying question.

00:29:38,630	We, and where I want to work with Chris during his interview process he wanted to implement some additional uh, outreach programs that we hadn’t done in a decade.

00:29:59,530	and it’s one of the pieces that I feel very strongly of that we need to actually be out we need to go out of our office and and visit with our veterans and, you know, in their homes, in the nursing homes, wherever they’re at. Senior senior centers, and, and Chris was very adamant about that during interview process. He wanted to implement that. OK? So, take the current load.

00:30:18,170	What does that add? You know, what is our projection for labor A again, is it a half-time job? what do we need there? Yeah, that could be a half-time outreach coordinator position. We don’t know but we need to have that conversation to prepare that plan to bring back to this committee, this commission, to get it approved.

00:30:38,000	um, Um, so Comm Munsen would, are, are you thinking that we would leave that open and, and till budget time and then that’ll give you enough time to evaluate what that looks like, if there’s a, uh, outreach coordinator that’s a half-time position, or if there does need to be an FTE. I think that’s about June, so that’s. Yeah.

00:30:57,730	You know, Budget. I think our 1st, 1st thing that we need to do is take a look at the job descriptions of the, the deputy and uh, and I don’t remember the title that, that we have filled them within the office, you know, is that Bes specialist. Benefit specialist, you know.

00:31:15,270	Is that a combined position now moving forward. rather than, you know, do we rewrite that job description and, and rather than applying or interviewing additional staff, can we combine that position and what does that look like? And from there, yes, then what does the outreach coordinator do?

00:31:34,000	And, and so we’re 30 days, 60 days away from bringing that back to you guys to present what, what our, what our outlook looks like, OK. Well, we obviously need more information. Um-hum. Yep. Um, do, OK, uh, the position closed. The, the advertisement for the position closed yesterday. Is that? Were there any applicants? OK.

00:32:04,370	So I think Pam and I will need to meet shortly, uh, to discuss next steps with that, you know, what are our responsibilities now that we’ve advertised and received applicants. Do we send a letter back out saying, sorry, we need to look through the department first. I don’t know.

00:32:27,470	That’s, that’s a legal side that we’ll have to get HR involved in to find out what next steps are and we can bring that back to the commission. Pam, do you have any recommendations on that at this point. Thank you. Bruce. We did get a few qualified applicants, but the ranking scores are very low.

00:32:47,730	Um, I would recommend that we put a hold on it and just tell the applicants that we decided to put a hold on it and it may be open later on in the year. um, and that way that’ll give us a chance to do some strategic planning for that department.

00:33:05,330	if that needs to be in motion, I’d love to make that as a motion for this position at this point or a consensus, I think consensus is pretty clear, but. Um, actually, I think we should have a motion with that because the we did have the motion at the table or that to be posted.

00:33:24,630	No I think we talked about that one. It was, it was the just the directors are usually the ones I bring. So yeah, then a consensus would be fine. So I think let’s do that. Yeah. Yeah. I think we’re all on the same page with that one. Yeah. OK. Yep. Thank you. We’ll move forward. Um, county administrator position.

00:33:45,870	And this is on here because, quite frankly, the the load of a Comm has, has really gotten to be alive. And as the county has grown, and whatnot um, it’s, it’s just seeming more and more every day that that that’s a position that’s necessary, and part of the reason I kind of tied it to the

00:34:12,230	county engineer position. Uh. was simply because does a county administrator become the kind of the oversight for all of the departments, including the highway department or how do you, how do you see that working out as far as the responsibilities of a county administrator at this point. Mr. Watkin.

00:34:41,530	So my vision on, on the county administrator’s side is managing all the department heads. not being a department head, but managing the department heads. Um, making sure that everything’s going in the same direction because that’s how we one, make sure there’s no silos and 2, make sure that we’re as streamlined as possible and working as sufficiently as as possible because those

00:35:01,730	department heads need to work together, but sometimes they’re doing their job and part of the role of a county administrator to make sure that where there’s overlap, you can have overlap. Uh, if, if one department’s got employees that need to work in some other space.

00:35:18,270	It, it’s just moving chess pieces around the board, us meeting every two weeks trying to move those chess pieces from a portfolio perspective isn’t very efficient That’s what an administrators for, um, that’s the person that gets to manage how those chest pieces work for the betterment of Burleigh County and the taxpayers of Burleigh County. That’s my vision of that position.

00:35:40,100	I would concur with that vision. That, that’s been my thought since I was elected, before I was elected. Right. Mr. Bisher Schwab Uh when I was on the city commission The administrator was getting more and more and more and more let’s call it power It got to the point where if the mayor was out of town

00:36:10,530	and say a tornado comes through Bismarck. he had authority over the commission. and I don’t want to ever see that again. And I, I believe it probably is the same yet if they, unless they’ve changed that. But I spoke out about that.

00:36:45,530	and the problem that they had was, if you get say, the mayor and he doesn’t want to get any of the county commissioners. or the city commissioners involved, basically, well, we’re going to put it on the administration at the administrator. and uh then it got easier and easier. Well, you know, you can send trucks out to help Fargo, and we helped Linton during that flood.

00:37:11,370	and just kept upping up what the administrator could do where I thought it was out of control. and it was out of control So we gotta be very careful to make sure that doesn’t happen in the county. Because if you’re gone as chair, Steve would be the one to make the decision, not the county administrator, correct.

00:37:32,170	And if he’s gone, well, one of our three armies here would probably have to step in, but. So, just, and I’m not privy of the way if anything has changed, but I know from the city perspective when I was mayor that all fell to me.

00:37:51,470	It wasn’t the administrator, it was the elected officials that were in charge, and I was very cognizant of that and made sure that that did not change. I don’t envision an administrator on the county side having that power that usurps the will of the voters ever under any circumstance.

00:38:08,000	It’s just an extension of the commission to do as the Commission sees fit and is fully accountable to the commission. Now, we went through COVID, we went through uh Black Lives Matter. stuff and, and, and those decisions were made at with the mayor and the rest of the commission, not the administration. I don’t know.

00:38:29,270	Did you ever have a problem like, uh, I had the sidewalk portfolio. and side works were ordered in up by used to be what the East 40 or something. They’re still not in because the administrator. got to talking to the Guy that complained that owned it. and they just never did a thing.

00:38:56,100	Meantime we’re down around E’s Pool in a poor section of the town, making them do you know, fix your sidewalks, and they didn’t have to, and I don’t, they still don’t have sidewalks in there.

00:39:20,170	That’s what I’m talking about on power No, they, I don’t you talked to the city administrator for the county administrator, and he intervenes you know, and they’re not gonna have the, that ability to intervene. everything in my mind is the buck stops here at this table because we are the elected officials. We’re the will of the people and putting in an administrator and it’s just, it’s, it’s adding a manager.

00:39:46,800	It’s not it’s not ceding power to another individual, and I would never under any circumstance be supportive of that model. Right. We’re not asking for a CEO. We’re asking for a manager that works for us, yep, that is accountable to us. Reading the job description that Pam had in the packet for last meeting. Perfect. I, I think that, that, that describes that job description perfectly. Yeah, it, it’s the extension.

00:40:08,700	It’s the extension of this commission between. OK, then let’s talk just a minute about the salary for that position. Uh. that position, I think, as advertised or as, as laid out, probably at a lower level salary wise than some of the people that we’d be managing. Managing.

00:40:33,100	Right, um, is that the case or not? I, I’m just, I mean, Comm Woodcock. Um, let’s not forget we have two of 2 elected officials, the sheriff and the state’s attorney, who were both, they’re independent.

00:40:52,470	They run their own operations and be very difficult to have a manager over those two elected positions. Uh, it’s gonna be a touchy situation. Yes, it will. Uh, while we’re on that subject, uh, you know, one of the things that has happened in the past, somebody else came along and ran for an office where the salary was at a certain level, and we didn’t look at that salary level compared to the

00:41:11,630	abilities of the person or the, the new person. I guess my question is, should we be looking at that for like the sheriff’s position or the state’s attorney as we’re moving forward, because that’s up for election this year.

00:41:27,100	And so is there an assumption that a new sheriff is going to step in right where, uh, the sheriff was many, many years of services. Dan you know I’m asking. We’re sleeping as decades, not years, because he’s old. Yeah, ***. um, maybe, maybe you have some input on that, Kelly, but, uh, Pam, you’re up first. I think they would have to negotiate.

00:41:48,100	It, it says in the Century code that they have to negotiate their salary. um, and we put him into that pay grade and step structure and, and both our state’s attorney and our current sheriff do have a lot of experience in their positions in, in their career. careers. Sure.

00:42:07,170	So how do you see it moving forward then? Like Kelly’s obviously stepping out, so. Yes. Retiring That would be an elected department head, but it’s still a department head. so that would probably be pulled out. of the pay grade and pay pay step structure.

00:42:27,530	OK, so is, is that something in your mind that we can change or work on between now and the election, or should we, or what? That will be added with all the other ones that were. gonna pull out Hey, Kelly, you have any input or obviously we’re talking about somebody coming up after you and and as of right now.

00:42:58,900	As of right now, both candidates that are potentially vying for that position are internal, so we are gonna have uh, some salary issues because we’re already paying them So what does that look like? That’s why I. Going forward. Yeah.

00:43:17,900	That’s why I’m asking, asking it’s not like there’s somebody who’s not within the department that’s applying for er gonna run for that position yet. Yeah, we don’t know yet. Yeah. I’m telling telling you, Mr telling. Chair, Comm, obviously kind of a awkward situation for me to talk about, but as Comm Munsen, uh, or I’m sorry, Comm Woodcock, looking at you, call him by name. Um, uh.

00:43:37,870	so when I was elected in 18, um we did negotiate my salary. Comm Woodcock had the HR portfolio, um, Comm, um, Pluzzo had the share of portfolio. and I came in, uh, with my justification for what I thought the salary should be step in grade.

00:44:00,370	Um, you know, and, and I guess that would be, you know, there’s two ways to look at this. One is you’re paying for a position to be done. And so when that person comes in, they’re filling that position.

00:44:20,100	There’s the expectation that they will meet the requirements of that job, so you pay for the job, or do you pay for the experience of the candidate or the, the person filling that position. So, probably not going to be able to answer it for you, what I think you should do.

00:44:39,870	But that’s the two ways I would look at this is one, this is the job and what should that person make? Because ultimately, regardless of the qualifications, they’re expected to meet that standard. The other side of it is, do you pay based on qualifications. I think the process has worked well in the past where you sit down and negotiate, um, obviously, I don’t know what would happen if there’s a complete difference of opinion on what that position should be.

00:45:01,800	Mr. Bakke. We’ve already set precedent on what that looks like for paying for experience. and we did that through the exercise with the auditor’s position. So that I think is something we have to adhere to. is we, we’ve set that precedent and we have to keep that in mind.

00:45:24,100	um, when we’re moving forward, so the experience part of it comes back to the conversation on where we’re at with employee salaries too, as far as what that looks like because of the experience side of things, so. It’s all interconnected. It, it’s all interconnected. Yep. Mr. Munson.

00:45:46,100	Well, and, and if we, if, if the Commission did that when Sheriff Leeben was elected. We’ve obviously have that precedent there as well. So that, that’s past history. we’ll predict or should predict how we’re gonna move forward with the next.

00:46:03,100	OK, so part of the reason why I was bringing it up is so that there’s not an expectation that a new guy’s gonna walk in and get the same salary as the old Guy. Right, correct. OK, because that we overlooked that in the past, and I, I think that. hurt Burle County. Thank you, Kelly. Kelly didn’t hurt really, Kevin. Thanks. No, I wouldn’t, it wouldn’t. Um I, I think we have the county administrator position in the budget. Yes. OK.

00:46:28,170	What did we budget for? How much was that figure? And did that include staff, additional staff, the budget. Well, I don’t think it was staff. I think it’s budgeted for a salary of right around 130 to 148,000, and it does not include staff. Yeah, I think that um.

00:46:54,000	some of the physicians that are currently filled are probably at or above that level already. Um-hum. Right? So, we may have to, I, I think we need to reevaluate that also. it’s consistent with this whole conversation. but it would be also negotiated. Right.

00:47:14,730	And another job for Pam to reach out and take a look at what others are, are making, and I, and I would expand that from just from a knowledge-based perspective, it would be awfully nice to know what. different municipalities are from county versus city as well, because there’s cities out there that have, um, you know, I kind of look at it from a population perspective because I kind of dictates how robust your, your staffing are for

00:47:40,330	other departments, so I think the better Co is is what the populations look like, so, uh, we’ve got a lot of counties that aren’t robustly populated, where cities might be a better comp, so I would like to see a little bit of both.

00:47:58,970	in, in that comparison when we’re trying to figure out what what that salary would entail. OK? And even the centric code, it lists it that way. Yeah. X plus Plus. So much per 1000. Yeah. Depending on position, yep, mhm. So my question for clarification is when we, when we advertise for a position, and we say the top end of the salary is, let’s just say for example, 1:30.

00:48:21,330	Are we normally negotiating up or down, or is that like a hard lid? In the recruiting policy, the department head has the ability to go to a paystep 5 without Comm approval. Anything beyond that, they have to bring to the commission for approval as a variance.

00:48:44,970	You’ll see Julie do that quite a bit for her I think her senior investigators and also her state’s attorneys. She has to do that with. But, but in the example of the county administrator and to a certain extent the county engineer position. You know, we, we advertised a specific salary range for the county engineer.

00:49:04,070	So I’m, I’m wondering, we’re kind of morphing into that conversation at the same time, but what was the cap on the salary for the county engineer. Do you recall? That’s a 19. I don’t even think that tops 200, I think it’s right around 1,089,000. look. because I, I thought it was advertised at a lower level.

00:49:29,370	It is. We can only advertise the big, the minimum at a step one and the maximum advertising at a step 5. That’s all we can advertise. We can’t advertise the whole pay range. So would you have a would you, would you have an idea of what the county engineer salary was listed as when we advertised for that position.

00:49:54,870	recently. OK. I ask Maybe OK, the 19. OK, it’s grade 19, so the starting salary for the county engineer would be 108,534. 108? 108. and we could only do up to step 5, which is 12,000,045,280. OK. Here’s the reason I’m bringing that ups the problem right there.

00:50:54,630	That, that’s why I’m bringing it up, because both of the applicants for the Coy engineer position. are already making more than that. Right. Right? And so that, that’s why that’s part of this conversation. Thank you for that there would be a variance. We would be requesting a variants. automatically Yeah um so as far as the county administrator position.

00:51:17,000	this has to, I think, be part of the same conversation across the board. We’re we’re at a the way it looks to me is during the last, however many interviews that I’ve been in for all these county positions, and I’ve been in quite a few of them here lately.

00:51:38,330	Um we’re, we’re not attracting the people with the qualifications that we’re actually asking for. And I think it has, I mean, that’s, that’s certainly one of the reasons so I guess we needed to, you know, move forward. I don’t, I don’t think there’s anything else we need to decide on that county administrator today, but Comm Mundun Comm Mundun, Mr.

00:51:54,430	Chair, is it a simple, uh, allowing HR to start at a step 5 and go to 10. or I mean in that variance as far, because if we’re asking for a uh an accounty engineer or a county administrator. I hope to God none of them are at a step one when they’re walking in the door or applying.

00:52:13,100	They have to have the experience. Um for that job. They wouldn’t have the qualifications for. Right. Step one. Right. So, if we’re only allowing HR to go from 1 to 5. what should we be asking HR to do. Clearly, that’s part of the policy that she’s referencing. Because she’s operating according to policy. Right.

00:52:34,430	Do we need to change policy? Well, and that’s part of the problem she wants to overhaul. In a pace step 10 for the county administrator is at $153,940.80. I don’t know if that’s even high enough. it appears like that’s even a little light. So you just blew my thought out of the water.

00:52:52,630	Well, it’s, it’s all the same thing here, folks. That’s, that’s essentially why we’re talking about this, so. um. you know, we have a number of internal candidates. and in as I go through almost every one of these conversations we have run into the same exact problem.

00:53:15,630	You’re already making at or near what we’re talking about paying for the position, so I have the comment is, well, why jump? Why, why, why would I want the job? Why, why would I want to, why do I want more responsibility for less money. Less in what, I mean, a title’s a title, who cares? Um, but that just shows the degree of compression within county salaries.

00:53:33,730	No and that’s what you get when you have a pay grade and step structure versus a merit structure, correct. And somewhere out there there’s a hybrid that makes the most sense for Burke County because every animal’s a little different. Yes. So I, I think based on the conversation here today, we’re, we’re.

00:53:54,000	providing guidance that is going to help to answer these questions without making it too specific to the individual jobs, right? OK, so then I wanna move on to the Coy engineer position. Uh, we recently held interviews for the county engineer position.

00:54:19,100	There were 5 of us on the interview panel, and between the two candidates who are in-house and both of them are, in my opinion, certainly. um uh. good candidates for the position. I do believe that there’s different strengths between the two. but this was also a thing where the salary is advertised at less than what both of them are getting today.

00:54:45,800	Um, already, and so what we did is we did a little exercise We asked the, the two candidates to work together because they do work together and they work together very well.

00:55:04,800	And one of the concerns I had, uh, with doing this was that are we going to lose one of them if, if he doesn’t get the job, are we going to keep both of them because they both work so well together with their individual strengths that what what we did is, is we asked the, the two engineers to try to work out a scenario whether where it was either a, a, a co-engineer or or something like that, and

00:55:29,530	um turns out that that was a little much of an ask, I think, um either, either one of you want to put, put in some input on, on what you came up with moving forward.

00:55:53,630	because what what we wanted is, is for the two candidates to work out an acceptable structure that they are gonna to both work with. Casey, welcome. Thank you. So, we have lots of options on there, there’s nothing set. We looked at many different things. Uh, we kind of looked through different areas. I’ll pass it out here real quick.

00:56:29,330	Thanks, Cay Thank you We had talked with our portfolio holder, Comm Schwab, and he said, just sit down, kind of put together whatever titles you guys feel like, then just start breaking down.

00:56:44,600	What do you both joint do on an everyday basis and what areas do you both kind of concentrate on a little bit more or have been assigned in the past. Uh Dan and I both jointly do a lot of stuff because, uh, we just do a lot of cross training. We, you have to be able to go and sooner or later Dan Das go, go on vacation and it has to be able to be covered.

00:56:59,870	So even the areas that Dan concentrates on more, I’ve worked on there is I concentrate on more. Dan has worked on going through their, uh, like federal liaison NPOacch township liaison, fleet services, bridge culverts, new roads, new subdivision roads, storm water management plans.

00:57:20,800	Those are more what we’ve kind of split up in the, in the past and concentrated, but a lot of the different areas we’ve looked at just the administrative duties, supervision, planning, zoning, just the assistance that we do, uh, reviewing plaques, final plats, uh, different things like that, uh, going through there, so that’s some of the

00:57:39,870	joint duties that we’ve looked at and just trying to say uh because we had been talked to about, OK, if you, it’s a cold part, how would that work out? And it’s, OK, you, you kind of work here, kind of work here, but there’s a lot of crossover that happens and who’s making the final

00:57:55,800	decisions sometimes in apart and some of it comes from when you’re looking at it in a design of a roadway, there’s always nuances on it, and sometimes you just got to make a judgment call of which way you’re going, and in the past, Dan and I would both present things and Marcus would say, OK,

00:58:15,070	we’re going this way or this way this time going forward on that. So then when it’s cold, it’s kind of OK, we flipping a coin or how how are we moving forward, but we’re gonna do it as an effective way in the long term also cause Dan and

00:58:31,100	I do work really well together and we’ve worked, we’ve talked a lot on, on this. And it’s in the long-term health of the county, someday we’re retired, we’re gone and it’s, how’s that gonna look moving forward because are you always gonna get two that really work well together, or is a bomb waiting

00:58:47,630	to go off at some point. So we had talked about those portions. We also had looked at uh many different options. And there are two of the major ones which I can pass out and we had uh talked with our portfolio holder, Comm Schwabab. He was, he said, well, this is one way to look at it.

00:59:09,530	It wasn’t a big fan of it. We’d been asked about uh public works, what that looks like and how all that works and it was kind of, OK, we can lay out what a classic look looks like, but funding is a concern on public works because by law,

00:59:28,230	gas tax and mills that go to a highway department can only be spent in the highway department. So once you and basically that means inside the right of way. Once we’re doing drainage channels or ponds or or other stuff.

00:59:43,170	What we currently do is we go to the water resource dis tri c t talk to them about it. They actually look at, OK, we’ll hire the county highway department. We keep track of everything, we bill them, they reimburse us, and that’s how we’ve been doing that currently going through there.

01:00:01,800	And there’s other parts that are already set up, uh, Comm Bitner worked with the South Central Water Resource District on managing the sanitary sewer, uh, water main that goes on within within the county and they deal with all the treatment plants, sewer collection, water distribution, uh pump stations, all that.

01:00:18,500	So really we don’t, on a day to day basis, we just don’t deal with that unless it’s a manhole in the roadway that needs to be adjusted or it’s the minor stuff really. They’re South Central Water Resource District’s doing the, the heavy lifting on that. And when you get into public works, you start looking at parks and rack.

01:00:36,100	We officer planning zoning, flood plain flood way, building inspectors, townships, sometimes you see building management in it, sometimes you don’t. They’re, there’s so many models of how they work and don’t work and when we put this together, it wasn’t saying, hey, this has to be a certain way or anything it was just, we got to start the

01:00:53,170	discussion somewhere and then get feedback and input and refinement on how to actually make it look better. Going forward and definitely the Commission, we would highly welcome any comments or any parts on how you would want to lead that going forward. Um, I, I’d appreciate you handing that out. So that’s kind of the point here.

01:01:15,470	First of all nobody wanted to pick one over the other, right? Nobody wanted to do that, and so that’s why we’re having this conversation, um the uh uh the scores at the end of the day the scores between the two were so close that it was basically statistically insignificant.

01:01:47,070	that based on, you know, one person might have had an understanding of the answer that was a little different from the other one, but there were 5 of us. We were all providing input on the scores and it was amazing.

01:02:04,900	I have never seen an interview situation where the two candidates were essentially equal in their answers when it was all shifted shifted down, so, can you explain this a little bit? OK, so, the one, let’s start with the one with colors, cause that might be a little bit easier to describe. It has a bright yellow on the top left. That one says the possible public works layout on there.

01:02:23,630	And basically you’re looking at, uh, you could have the two parts, highway departments one different function, Parks, which is a position being advertised right now, that wouldn’t be part of the highway department that’s actually separate. So you’re looking at multiple departments.

01:02:44,170	Now, public works is a different animal, like how a city of Bismarck currently runs it is basically dry services and wet services. What this is looking at is kind of almost a bigger model because you’re looking at wet surfaces, dry services, engineering services, planning and zoning, building inspection, different parts on that. That’s kind of a general idea.

01:03:04,270	It doesn’t mean that’s it has to be that way. Uh, we can do it however we want, uh, going through there, we’re just looking at what’s typical models being able to go through.

01:03:24,800	And once you get into uh, do you look at service operations, utility operations, specialized divisions, it just my opinion, uh, Dan can definitely be great to give you his specialized divisions is difficult and a county of our size, you’re really looking at much, much larger. counties that get into that because you’re looking at, uh, just the easy one to pick on is engineering. You’re not looking at engineering as a whole. It’s OK, you’re specialized lit literally in bridges everyday.

01:03:43,100	You’re doing box culverts, you’re doing roads, you’re doing signs, you’re breaking it down. It’s more the silo method going through there and you’re really getting into specialized portion, Parks and recks really gets broken down because you have so many parks, you’re looking at how you manage that and really break that down into different areas because some

01:04:00,600	counties are of such a population, they have so many boat ramps, that’s, they just literally have a division that deals with bolt ramps all the time going through there, and then they split it out into just how they maintain, mow, go forward, uh, how they deal with trails and

01:04:16,530	everything. I don’t really think we’re that size to look at such specialized divisions going in there. And a lot of it, the public work duties, we just kind of wrote out like roads and streets, that’s a lot of what Brooks, our road superintendent, does everyday and we help him

01:04:32,530	on those parts of just pothole, snow removal, street sweeping, signs, lights, signals, culverts under the roads and bridges, uh, then utilities, water, sanitary, sewer already touched on that with South Central. The stormwater management, just on the day to day basis, we work with water, water resource district on that.

01:04:51,270	Solid waste, not applicable for us at all. We don’t have a garbage or landfill collection. We don’t, just don’t have to deal with that. Uh, fleet services, we deal with that on an everyday basis. When you’re looking at public works, you’re just looking at an area larger than the highway department.

01:05:10,600	It doesn’t mean you’re, we’d even be touching like the sheriff’s department. They have their own, uh, fleet services that goes through. So there’s some areas say no, we’re gonna fleet service for the whole county, and they do it under that others split it up. There’s many ways to do it. There’s no one ways amazing the rest falls away.

01:05:30,170	going from there Uhheat officer basically look at assisting and duties like budget development, long-range planning, uh, parks and reck, a lot of what we talked about boat ramps, camping, fish cleaning, uh, the Missouri Valley complex, we, it was a real question.

01:05:49,530	You can keep that separate because that can be its own thing on its on its part, forestry, uh, right now we, we remove trees were needed within the county, but someday long term, maybe you need a Forester going through there, uh, planning and zoning. Currently we just assist in the pre-applic applications.

01:06:10,800	A lot of the lat legal descriptions, public meetings as needed, going through their, uh, billing inspector if, if needed on a public works or assisting budget development, long range planning, townships, day to day basis, long range, uh, NPO GIS kind of going through there.

01:06:27,330	So that kind of just an overall thought process of what a public works may be or may not be. It’s really open for your, how you guys want to look at that and be able to do that. Right, I’m going to, I’m gonna jump in there. Um-hum. Casey, we, we understand that, that we’re probably not at the point where we’re looking at a public works department at this point.

01:06:41,330	Really, the underlying question is, you’re suggestions between the two of you at the top. regardless of how, because I, I don’t think we’re looking at making any big changes right now.

01:07:02,630	Obviously, the weed officer was a part of the conversation because he’s physically located in the highway department building, and that was the same sort of conversation we had here with the Parks, um, Comm Schwab says, yeah, we got a desk and we can um put him in. So the question is really at the top at this point, on Comm Bakken.

01:07:18,630	Well, and one of the things too is uh cognizant of this is whether it’s called public works or whatever, cause every department, you know, when there’s the ability to, to cross pollinate and, and utilize other stuff. You, you build that out, so that goes back and forth when it, so we’re not commingling budgets. um. but having a different org chart, having these pieces in place.

01:07:42,000	What it looks like having the differentiations laid out for future growth. Um-hum. It’s like, I, I’m, I’m always looking at where do we need to be and what we have right now in 5 years isn’t going to be what Burleigh County’s gonna need. And isn’t going to be what Burleigh County has to have.

01:08:03,500	So having this discussion now. with Dan and Casey and what this gets laid out as the, as we grow and the pieces drop into place and it makes sense, we’re going to be ready for it. So that’s my concern on why this needs to be addressed now.

01:08:27,330	So your right chair bittenner in what’s it look like with those two at the top, but the pieces will populate themselves underneath and probably quicker than we think because we are a growing county so. No, I, I didn’t want to say it’s a great input, but my concern, Comm Muns, go ahead.

01:08:45,430	Well, and, and I, I, I think a little bit like Mr. Bakken is, you know, when, when I, when I heard that the scoring came in so well, and there was how to, you know, there, there’s not a defined simple answer there’s a winner.

01:09:04,800	There’s not a winner, um, so, so is it broken down into very similar to the first sheet that they that he handed out, is there an operations and a planning, and I don’t mean build you know, planning and zoning side of it, but is there, is there two different divisions that highway is broken out into, which is kind of the way I was thinking of it

01:09:19,000	too because it’s we’re we’re not a we why we started this conversation, so, um, briefly, briefly if you will, because Comm Munsen needs to leave at 1:30 and we got something else that we have to If the sheriff doesn’t give me a ticket, I can wait till 1:45.

01:09:33,000	We’re, we’re not, we’re not, we’re not gonna give you a good er. So briefly, Casey, what do you see happening at the top? You, you’ve, you’ve spent some sleepless nights and both of you have had a lot of conversations. Yeah, no, I, and we appreciate that.

01:09:51,870	Uh, Dan and I, uh, last Friday, uh, we went to lunch and we just sat down, had a private conversation, uh, that we went really in depth at the end of that conversation. It was Dan, I, you be county engineer. I can be assistant, and I’ll support you. We’ll get this knocked out and we’ll, we’ll be able to move forward.

01:10:09,370	All right. That’s, that’s about as brief as Necessary, Comm Woodcoox. We’ve talked about, thinking about having a joint department heads, and I don’t like that at all. I mean, uh, I, any business I’ve ever known or been involved with. There’s always been one person that is in charge. And if something happens, you have to go to that.

01:10:31,230	If emergency manager has a problem, they go to one person. They don’t go to two or we have a disagreement. They’re both well qualified. That’s fantastic.

01:10:47,270	That’s, but I still think we need one person in charge, and an assistant because we never know what’s going to happen, whether they I shouldn’t say drop dead, but who knows what’s gonna, who, what could happen. Well, I, I sus I think, Comm, we all recognize that. That’s, you know, clear, but this was an important exercise in order to kind of get all the pieces laid out in front of us.

01:11:04,330	Dan, um briefly what do you want to add Uh, good afternoon, Commissioners. Um, Mr. Chair, uh, as Casey pointed out, and I think he did a pretty good job explaining kind of all these thought processes.

01:11:20,900	We’ve been kind of just racking our brain for the last week and a half and just coming up with different scenarios and at the end of the day, you’re right, one person at the top and and an assistant makes the most sense at least at this point and where we’re Burleigh County’s at, uh, Casey, as he said, that’s, that’s the decision that we’ve made in just between the two of us that,

01:11:37,470	that, that’s how that would roll. However, I do foresee Casey being in more of a I don’t know how to, how to ref how to phrase the, the term, but, uh, an elevated assistant where he’s, he, he does take on a lot more of those roles that he’s currently taking on right now because he is currently,

01:11:56,730	well, and and that was part of my thought process too is, you know, and I tend to go back to the city because I know that, but with the wet and the dry side, if one left, and there was one that was a little higher than the other, but if one left, it was

01:12:11,730	seamless. You, you didn’t lose anything. That other director was in charge, and then you backfilled for that other position. So it’s like a constant horse race. You’re right here all the time, and that provides that stability within the entirety of the of the enterprise fund or the organization that you have moving forward. Right.

01:12:35,270	So I, I do think that you want to add some? No. OK. I do think that since the two who are very excellent candidates. My biggest concern is I didn’t want to lose either one. Right. By picking one over the other one at the time.

01:12:52,230	and I think we can recognize as a commission that um they have worked it out between themselves. and I think that’s the path we should take. is taking the recommendation of the guys that have to work together everyday because there’s just no question in my mind that they both worked together very well, and I wanna, I wanna see that that’s continuing.

01:13:12,500	but I think the question was at the end of the day, if you want one. to be like the, the final arbiter of, of the decision or something, then uh. they have worked that out, Comm Schwab.

01:13:34,870	Uh, you know, on this chart here, that is really far out, and I’m gonna have to talk to Dan and Ky I don’t believe they’re, we should be in the billing inspection business under the highway department. Well, yeah, I, I, I think that was that came up as part of the conversation, simply because Casey works so close together with the planning department. Well. As far as stormwater management plans, subdivision plans, road plans don’t.

01:14:02,730	but I mean, they don’t have to be, I don’t want to overload that highway department. You know, if, if, uh, we get a down the road we’re gonna have to put a building up there then maybe some of this stuff will come true.

01:14:25,070	What I’m worried about now is let Dan Casey carry out their plan if we don’t like it down the road 6 months, we’ll change it. Yeah. Well, I think the simplest answer is, is that we move forward with Dan as the county engineer and Casey is a senior assistant and just move on

01:14:43,270	So did you guys draw straws for who has to show up at all the meetings then? No, you’re gonna see a lot of us. We’ve seen most of you at all meetings so I was, I was after a commission of the decision on that.

01:14:56,370	Um, I think that’s an appropriate path, and I appreciate you guys working so well together and coming up with that conclusion on your own because even your own portfolio holder says, I, I don’t want to make, you know, didn’t want to choose between you. I don’t know that, that shows, I think, a lot of confidence in you both.

01:15:12,100	and I hope you recognize that it wasn’t, it wasn’t a inability to make the decision, we just didn’t want to lose one of the. No, we appreciate that and we, we do. That thing was so close. that one of the people in at the interview was from the association of Counties that represents engineering division.

01:15:37,630	And you would think that it wouldn’t be close an account of her being there, because she doesn’t know these two guys. Yeah. But you just can’t get any closer. Um-hum. Yeah, that’s, and so I, you know, it’s, it’s not a, a lack of decision making or anything.

01:15:56,470	It’s just they, they were so close that we, we had to discuss this as a commission and come to a resolution, OK? When you have the quality of candidates that we have for this job. speaks highly of Burleigh County and it speaks highly of the individuals. Yeah.

01:16:13,530	So I don’t know if you want a motion or anything else, but I think the consensus is that we will allow staff to move forward with their pro. proposals You want a motion? Hang on. That’s, that’s my most. This is going to come back the county engineer and assistant county engineer.

01:16:34,330	I’ll entertain a motion to Comm before we do that though, Pam, how does that come back to the salary discussion that we had because we’re gonna be gonna gonna be negotiating here, congratulations, you got the job. You’re getting a pay cut.

01:16:53,630	No, well, I, I think that it’s part of the motion, we would say we’re going to negotiate that moving forward here yet because it’s obviously part of a whole lot bigger picture. However, they’re not going to take a pay cut Right. From their current salary today. We’re, we’re, you know, gonna resolve Oror. Right, but you know what I’m saying. Nobody, nobody is, is, especially with the qualifications and the capabilities of pro proven.

01:17:14,370	I mean, they’ve been here since I think, uh, uh, Dan’s been here since 2007 in case he’s been here since 2013. It’s not a, we’re not talking about new with the county to that too. Sure. I did a lot of work, a lot of work through Comm Schwab.

01:17:30,970	Like I said, we could review this thing how it works, 6 months down the road you talk pay and stuff. Right. Yeah. So, do I hear a motion, Commissioners? On both, some of Second. OK, I think the motion, um, is to a point Dan as the county engineer at this point with, with Casey renegotiate the salaryary ranges. OK. Yeah. Very good. Thanks for the clarification.

01:17:56,100	Any further discussion, call the roll. Tricia Schwab. Yes, Comm Woodcox. Yes. Comm Munsen? Yes. Comm Bakken. Yes. Sharon Bittner. Yes, motion carries. Thank you on that. Um, the next item on the agenda is a provident project manager stipend.

01:18:19,470	Um I I can’t hardly speak highly enough about the work that uh Mary Singer has been doing as the Provident building project manager. She has really done the Yeoman’s work on all attending all the meetings, she’s been involved in the design and the uh, just everything. And I believe that because she’s working way outside of her job description.

01:18:44,000	It’s not just an extension of additional work like we’ve talked about with the state’s attorney staff where they’re putting in extra hours because they’re their workload, you know, same. thing they’re doing, but more of it. Uh, she’s been, she’s been working way outside of her, uh job description, and I think we should recognize that.

01:19:08,600	HR Director had presented me with some information concerning the, the, the statement and it was consistent with the the precedent that we’ve set with other departments and, and positions I think it’s a, it’s based on a percentage of the salary and so the stipend would be roughly 9000 for the work from June to December, June or July to December, and then a step increase to

01:19:40,530	uh my memory’s not real clear on the exact step thing, but it would be the Here comes the step here comes memory memories here. Um, but it would, it would be at the additional step pay until the completion of the project. Pan. It would be a great 16 step 16. So she’d go up a grade.

01:19:59,270	And I, and I did discuss that with, with Mary. um unless she has changed, um you know, any any further thoughts on it or, or anything? Moved to approve. Well, it. Yeah. All, second for discussion. OK. Um Mary’s in a unique position as emergency manager in the county. So, um her role is to be prepared for emergencies.

01:20:32,370	This has been outside of her scope just because we haven’t had any glaring emergencies, so she’s had a little extra time to be able to do this.

01:20:51,630	but this is completely out of her scope, and I want to say thank you for grabbing onto uh something that was needed because we needed that project manager and she stepped in and has done a incredible job with that. So, um, just I just want to have that clarification that she’s doing something outside of her scope and that’s why she’s being rewarded because she’s done a great job outside of what her role is as the emergency manager in Burleigh County, right? I

01:21:15,630	should point out that obviously, since she’s the emergency manager and we don’t have a tornado going through today. There may be some indication of a flood today, there may be some thought um, that, well, maybe she’s just got some extra time.

01:21:34,330	That’s not true at all because she also, in addition to her role as emergency manager, she also functions as the information technology director, and she also functions as a public information officer for Burleigh County, and between the websites and the and the, you know, computer questions, I mean, that thing about you asked about somebody sent an email and somebody got some emails from apparently from me,

01:21:55,230	that never happened and it’s a fishing thing. Well, automatically. If the chair Emailed you, don’t answer it. Um, well, yeah, um, for today because there’s some, you know, some of that scamming thing going on again today, and it happens periodically, but instantly I sent that to her,

01:22:11,430	so she’d be aware of it in case there’s any threat to our computers or whatever, so she’s not just the emergency manager already. We’ve already tasked her with things, um, Comm Schwab, you wanted to add something. I’m going to 3 the motion cause what’s up with us. OK.

01:22:30,870	Any further discussion? Caro. Comm Woodcoxox. Comm Munsen. Yes, Comm Bakken. Yes. Comm Schwab. Yes. Chair Bitner. Yes, Motion carries, thank you, Mary, for all the extra work. I appreciate it, Mr. Chair, Comm, quick question, what, what, what budget would that come out of the prominent budget or, or, uh, not, not regular.

01:22:53,900	salaries, right It would have to come out of the Provident Provident as the, as a project manager, remember we did take an action where we transferred provident fund. to the general fund, I believe. Right. And so we’re, we’re probably looking at a a, a general fund under the amount that was from the Provident building, so. OK.

01:23:16,800	Taylor, anything to add on that? OK. Thank you All right. Um, we’re getting close to the time that Comm Munsen wanted to know and there’s cars. Yeah, the only other item on the agenda at this point was all other affiliated positions, and I think the conversations we’ve had regarding policies and procedures and things that

01:23:38,270	we’re gonna be looking at real soon here are pretty well covered, and I think that would encompass any additional affiliated positions. So commissioners, unless you have anything else to add. Comm Schwab Uh Related to this agenda, of course. You don’t Right, because this is a special meeting. Yeah.

01:24:03,530	The agenda is, is we can’t go out and we’re not, we don’t have a, an other business or something, OK? Well, Commissioners, thank you, uh, for coming in, staff, thank you for coming in. I, I really appreciate all the input and hard work and we’ll look forward to, um, some improvements in the future. We