Personnel issues dominate commissioners meeting

McCOOK, Neb. – Personnel issues dominated much of Monday’s Red Willow County Commissioners meeting, starting with a presentation from a firm that could help resolve some of the concerns.

Chad Thies and Jordan Arndt of Zelle Human Resources discussed the possibility of having their consulting firm help the county with human resources support. Thies told commissioners that his firm works for several counties in Nebraska, including Hayes and Keith counties, to help them with a wide variety of issues, including legal compliance, personnel handbooks, training, creating job descriptions, employer relations, recruiting and screening, employee engagement surveys, onboarding, review processes, and compensation studies. They do not process payroll.

Arndt said that in many counties, HR duties fall to the clerk’s office and that her firm can help relieve some of those responsibilities. Thies told commissioners that their fee schedule is roughly the same for every county, estimating a retainer of about $5,000 per month.

As the county is in the middle of its budget year, Commissioner Earl McNutt thanked Thies and Arndt for their presentation and said they would consider their services for the next budget cycle.

Their advice may have come in handy in January when county commissioners decided to switch Red Willow County jailers to hourly and make them eligible for overtime. In Monday’s meeting, commissioners were asked by Dee Schilz, Jail Administrator, to reverse that decision and move those positions back to salaried.

The county only pays employees once a month, and the hours worked by jailers can fluctuate from 168 per month to 192 hours per month. That change can make up to a $450 difference from one paycheck to another, making budgeting difficult for employees.

Schilz would like to continue to pay the overtime to jailers, but questions arose on whether overtime could be paid to a salaried employee. Concerns also arose over the fairness of paying one group of salaried employees overtime pay when others are required to use comp time off. County Treasurer Crystal Dack told commissioners that it is difficult to give employees time off for comp time, and said that the county auditor has recommended moving employees to hourly.

Discussion moved to changing the pay cycle from monthly to every two weeks, which would help new employees because they currently work for an entire month before they get their first paycheck.

Concern was also expressed about the compensation rate that some departments earn. “There’s certain departments that we’re probably too conservative on when we set the range of salaries,” Commissioner McNutt said.

“It all boils back to the fact that we’re one of the rare forms of government that relies primarily on property taxes to finance the whole operation. That’s why we get stuck in these conversations. We don’t have the other avenues for all the different types of revenue that you can generate, charging for services or sales tax revenue, or whatever it may be.”

Schilz said she is not as short-handed now as she was in December and January, so overtime is not a major issue now. Ultimately, commissioners decided to move the jailers back to salaried without overtime effective March 1st.

In other business, commissioners began the process of vacating an 1885 road that is keeping a landowner from constructing a building on their property.

Commissioners directed the Highway Superintendent to conduct a study on Road 404, which is located southeast of Bartley.

The road is not currently used and closure would not deny access to any adjacent landowners.