County officer appointment discussed in meeting

SUPERIOR – As part of their meeting Friday, January 10, the County Commissioners discussed appointment of members to boards, committees and other positions within county organizations.

The meeting opened with discussions about the appointment of members to the Mineral County Airport Board. The commissioners received an email from the board with their recommendations of who to appoint.

Mark Grimm, a current member of the board, will be removed from the board when his term expires. In the email, the board recommended Ricky Miller as a replacement in the position.

With only the one recommendation, Laurie Johnston, commissioner of the county’s central region, made a motion to make the appointment. Duane Simons, commissioner of the west end, seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

The commissioners also reviewed the policies for how board members were appointed. Staci Hayes, clerk and recorder, with Kelann Mclees, deputy clerk and recorder, discussed the issues in the procedures.

According to Hayes, there was a communication gap in the appointment of some board and committee members. The result of this has been the loss of some of their oaths of office and records of who was appointed where. While it would be possible to go through the minutes of the meetings, it would be an unnecessarily complicated addition to the tasks.

According to Hayes, the main ones to cause problems are positions appointed by the commissioners. Board and committee members appointed by elections were said to be easier because the elections were predictable. However, the members appointed by the commissioners happen throughout the year.

Hayes asked the commissioners if they could create a resolution to make all the appointed board positions expire at the same time.

Under this solution, the clerk and recorder’s job is made easier with only one call for people to sign up for consideration. The commissioners would also only have one round of appointments to make, which the clerks could predict.

“There’s always something,” said Hayes. “To try to just randomly remember ‘Oh yeah, it’s April, we have so and so expiring,’ [is impractical].”

She felt it was too hard and awkward for her office to try to remember a series of random expiration dates. It could also be difficult to put out advertisements for the positions and bring in more applicants – another area where uniform expiration dates could help.

Hayes was uncertain whether this was possible, but felt it would benefit the system. She hoped the commissioners would look into the change.

The commissioners agreed to take the matter under consideration with Hayes and Mclees’ thoughts on the subject. It was determined a decision would be made at a later date.

Another request discussed had to do with the chief of the St. Regis Fire Department. Jerry Dockter, the current St. Regis fire chief, said he has done 20 years of service to the state and is ready to retire. However, he is hesitant to do so because he fears it would be bad for the department.

“I don’t want to retire because I feel if I [do], the department’s going to go straight down in the dumps,” said Dockter.

He felt there was an opportunity present to go back to a different position. Dockter proposed to fall back to a part-time fire chief position, similar to the chief for Superior’s fire department.

Dockter said this plan would be good for everyone involved, as pay scales would be steadier. At the moment, if a fire breaks out while he is on weekend or vacation time, he gets paid differently. Because he worked 40 hours through the week, all his hours are listed as overtime and under different pay rules.

Dockter requested a five-year contract as a part-time employee with money put into his health insurance. He also suggested he be paid $18,000 per year with benefits. Steve Young, chairman of the St. Regis Fire Board, said these were ideas approved of by the board.

Dockter and Young said the position would not cost the county any tax money. They said the salary and benefits would be paid by the department out of money earned by fighting wildfires. The commissioners plan to look into the legal issues of the request and make a decision at a later date.