Commissioners find savings by taking on new duties

When Dawn Terrill left her position as commissioner assistant and human resource director with Mineral County last year after her appointment as a county commissioner upon Laurie Johnston’s retirement, those hired for the position have not stayed.

Replacing a person or position is time consuming with advertising, interviewing, background checks, hiring, training, reviewing and evaluation of work performance and deciding if the person is a good fit. So, a couple of months ago, the commissioners decided to try a new idea; take the duties on themselves. 

“It’s actually three jobs,” clarified Terrill, who is now the chairperson of the Mineral County Commissioners. “We split them up and Roman (Zylawy) is doing Commissioner Assistant. I’m doing HR administrative and commissioner assistant, and Duane (Simons) has taken over as safety coordinator.” 

When Terrill became chairman, she discussed with the other two commissioners the importance of everyone having office hours as well as being a county commissioner. 

“With these added tasks, it ends up being more than a day as these additions are big jobs,” Terrill explained. “Everybody is willing to put forth that effort so people will see us here more than one office day that the agenda will show and I want to explain why I think it’s wonderful,” Terrill said. “Having been in that position for those jobs for four years, I got to know the community, what individual people are looking for. I learned so much about our building, the employees here, the elected officials, the functions of each department, because I was here!” 

Terrill’s office was the first one a person finds when entering the newer portion, the wing, of the courthouse and it will again be where she will be located. Zylawy has an office down the hall before 911 Dispatch, and Simons will be using the county commissioners conference room as it’s where he is the most comfortable and visible for people to find him. 

Terrill knows that Zylawy and Simons will share in her experience of learning firsthand who the people of the county are, the employees of the courthouse, what the departments needs might be and the issues that they are unaware of being in the building only on Fridays.

This system is entirely new to these commissioners. More work and more time and no increase in salary. 

When asked what sparked this idea, Terrill said, “I had given this some thought after our last person doing the job left and when I tossed it to them (Zylawy and Simons), they were completely for it! We talked what the position entailed and Roman said, ‘I’ll be the Commissioner Assistant.’ I can tell you Roman had no idea how big that role was,” she said. 

A brief job description of being a commissioner assistant is to take and make phone calls, creates and sets the agenda, emails them out, does the minutes of meetings, files, write and distribute letters for the commissioners, makes appointments, follow up on projects and phone calls and correspondence. 

“I can tell you that it’s the biggest part of the job which is why I’m taking it on with HR so I can help Roman,” she shared. “I will do things like schedule interviews that a department is going to have. I’ll collect the paperwork and get them ready for their interview and so forth. There’s quite a bit there just administratively.”

Mineral County’s newest safety coordinator is on board with the plan of action. 

“I think it’s a work in progress,” said Simons. “We’ll see where it goes and if it works fine, we’ll try to continue to do it. This will save the county some money. There may be a misconception out there that the money that we save we put in our own pockets. We did not. We took a raise just like all of the other employees took a raise and this savings will go back into the general fund,” Simons said. 

An example of what his new duties will include was explained. 

“If there’s an accident and someone files a claim with Montana Work Compensation, then there has to be an investigation. That means we sit down with the person and have a one-on-one conversation with them. There is a form they go through and they write down what happened and what they can do that might change that from happening again. It gets them thinking of what they could have done differently to avoid the accident. Like walking too fast on the icy parking lot. We learn as we go and unfortunately, we learn from mistakes.” 

Simons will work closely with Montana State Fund to assist in analyzing and looking at the safety issues through a different lens. Developing a safety plan or continuing to utilize one that works saves more money for the coffers, and hopefully fewer accidents for the employees. Simons said that he has already had several accidents and complaints so he hit the floor running.

Mineral County Treasurer Kelann McLees examined the savings. 

“2,080 hours are 40 hours a week for a year. It looks like with all of the benefits, insurance and everything else, roughly $48,000 a year.” 

Which are considerable savings for a county with a tightly restricted budget. The benefits for full-time county employees include paid health and dental insurance. PERS retirement-employee and employer contribution, paid holidays, and paid life insurance along with vacation and sick days.

As 2023 closes out, another new idea is taking place. On Thursday, Dec. 28 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at Riverside Soups & Sanz in the old Superior School, the Mineral County Commissions honestly want to visit with residents and are inviting everyone for a cup of soup and a sandwich sample, on them.

Anything after that the customers are on their own, but this is a way for people to visit with their three commissioners in a relaxing setting to brainstorm, discuss suggestions and possible solutions while enjoying holiday cheer with one another.