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County leaders talk about cutting jobs
Courtroom deputy discussed
Published Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Freeborn County commissioners took cost-saving measures to a different level Tuesday when they discussed eliminating a handful of positions within a few county departments.
Eliminating the positions — specifically of a court security deputy, an information systems technician, a public health nurse and a watershed field technician — was a topic that Commissioner Dan Belshan has been asking to discuss for several months, dating back to when the county started formulating its 2009 budget. He questioned whether the positions were necessary, or if the work could be done with one less person in each of the departments.
Regarding the court security deputy, Freeborn County Sheriff Mark Harig said the state requires counties to provide security in court, whether that be traffic court or criminal court.
“If I don’t have security, am I going to be in trouble as a sheriff with the state?” Harig said.
The sheriff talked of the importance of the court security position, noting that the deputy also has other duties outside of the courtroom.
Freeborn County Attorney Craig Nelson said there is no time when the courts are not in session for more than a few days. There are generally 40 different hearings per day, but that could easily go up to 60 per day.
The court security deputy gets the in-custody people ready to appear in court. That deputy is also good at knowing what types of people can present problems in the courtroom.
His presence in the courtroom “is a definite safety factor for all involved,” Nelson said. The deputy has been called on to straighten people out, but more often than not it’s the physical presence of the uniform.
The deputy is a person who makes the system flow better, Nelson said.
Commissioner Linda Tuttle said she agreed with several of these points. She said it is a positive tool to have a uniformed officer, a familiar presence to most people.
“If you hire an outside firm, they’re not familiar with our community and they’re not familiar with the people in our community,” Tuttle said.
She asked Harig and Nelson whether historically there are more aggressive people coming into the courtroom.
Nelson said there is “on a reasonably increased level,” often among younger people.
“You see a lot of back talk, you see a lot of trash talk going on under people’s breath,” he said. “It’s almost to the point of aggravation toward other people who may be in and around the courtroom.”
That has “definitely increased” during the time he’s been county attorney, he said.
Belshan said there’s no question that there needs to be security in the county’s courts. But between the city and the county deputies and officers is there enough staff who can man the courts to cut one county employee? He asked if that would be dangerous.
Commissioner Jim Nelson questioned whether overtime would be too much for the county if a position is eliminated.
Harig said right now if there’s a blizzard and there are two patrolmen working, and one of those would have to go up to the courts, what would the department do about all the people who are getting into wrecks. Many times the county is assisting the state because they are short as well, he said.
“It sounds to me like we can’t cut that position,” Tuttle said. “We need to have that security and still be able to patrol our roads and keep everybody safe the way we want them to be.”
Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever encapsulated what the commissioners, Harig and Nelson said by adding that one or any number of patrol deputies could be cut, but with that cut would come consequences.
Regarding the information systems technician, Information Systems Department head Scott Woitas said the county has 325 computers, which equals out to about 100 computers per person in his department.
The computers are seven to eight years old, so it makes them take twice as long to do work on them. It also takes the people looking at them much longer to do their job duties.
In the future, they’re hoping to get all of the computers down to two or three servers, instead of having one server per department.
“I can tell you we’re never sitting,” Woitas said. “We have projects all the time. We’re working on everything.”
Recently, the county started taping the county board meetings and will be airing them on the government access channel.
“Right now I need bodies,” he said. “It goes from me being a department head and being able to look down the road to fixing computers. That doesn’t allow me to work on the projects you really need me to work on like saving money.
“Could we get by with less people? That could always happen but I don’t see that happening in the near future.”
Belshan suggested eliminating one of the full-time positions in the department and instead contracting out with two Express Personnel employees.
Woitas said some of the Express employees actually have more skills than the other employees.
“If you can get more bodies for the same price ... long term you’d get more done and save the county money,” Belshan said.
Kluever and Commissioner Glen Mathiason brought up making sure there wouldn’t be any liability issues in this suggestion.
After some debate with Belshan about the public health nurse position, Freeborn County Public Health Director Lois Ahern said the lowest she would be able to minimize her staff would be to go from a 32 hour a week position to a 20 hour per week position.
Belshan said he thinks that position needed to be voted on during a future meeting.
Lastly, regarding the watershed field technician, instead of cutting back on a position, Randy Tuchtenhagen, the department head for that position, recommended changing some of the county fees, like with building permits or solid waste fees.
“We don’t want to be more than everybody else, but we need to stay in the average,” Tuchtenhagen said.
Freeborn County has been much lower than neighboring areas, and many of the fees haven’t been changed for many years, he said.
Commissioner Tuttle said she doesn’t think the county should go extreme on its fees for actual citizens, but she noted she does think they could be changed for the business aspect of things.
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Comments
Posted by outoftowner (anonymous) on January 13, 2009 at 7:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Good job Freeborn County commissioners for discussing this. I'm certain positions can be cut in some areas. It may put more pressure on departments to keep up with less staff, but I think people can deal with it. We all have had to go down this road. In this economic climate, many are just happy to be employed.
Posted by InterestedReader (anonymous) on January 13, 2009 at 7:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with looking at cutting or maybe just not filling open posistions. I dont agree with cutting Deputy and Sercurity Personnel. I think there are other areas of county government that can cut positions that are not going to hurt safety but may slow some other services services. Positions like secretaries in all departments, records persons in all departments, human services, maybe can get by with one less here and there.
Posted by taxpayer (anonymous) on January 13, 2009 at 7:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
First you hand out raises, now you are looking at costing people their jobs!!!!You all need to stand on your heads so you aren't sitting on your brains.
Posted by OldTrojan (anonymous) on January 13, 2009 at 7:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Mr. Harig: If there was a blizzard happening in Freeborn Co. do you really think that a deputy would be needed in a courtroom? Do you really think that court would be in session during a blizzard?
Posted by InterestedReader (anonymous) on January 13, 2009 at 7:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Yeah a courtroom would still be in use during a blizzard, there are prisoners in jail that will be taken up to the court for thier court appearances.
Posted by InterestedReader (anonymous) on January 13, 2009 at 7:58 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I find it interesting some of you do not support a Court Room security officer. But if the county were to cut that officer this month and in two months from now, there is a prisoner who committed a crime of violence or a bigger crime you would be the first to complain that the county doesnt have a court room security officer.
Posted by outoftowner (anonymous) on January 13, 2009 at 9:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If the security officer is doing other tasks besides working the court room, he can't be sitting around on slow days or downtime, then that particular position shouldn't be cut. It's common sense. Safety first. But, if there is excessive down time, maybe it should be converted to a part-time position? Also, as Sheriff Harig said, eliminating this position may not be an option if it's required by the state.
Posted by newyankee (anonymous) on January 13, 2009 at 9:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Cutting a few positions here or there will not make much of a difference in the long run. Until counties and all levels of government get serious about the cost of labor, benefits and retirement this is not going to have any meaningful impact on the budget. Speaking of dollars, why is there no mention of dollar amounts in this story?
Posted by Wildbill (anonymous) on January 14, 2009 at 11:01 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It is interesting that first the commissioners hand out pay raises,then they talk about job cuts.
Posted by NoDFL (anonymous) on January 14, 2009 at 11:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Job cuts should have been talked about first so that people knew that if they pushed for a rasie than there would be cuts. Did anyone else see that the Gov called out commissioners in Mower county for doing this same thing. Giving rasies than cutting jobs and saying it is because the state cut their funding. It is all about PR while the rest of us pay the bills.
Posted by demo1960 (anonymous) on January 14, 2009 at 12:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Give pay raises. Cut jobs. How ironic. How about eliminating those employees that do not do their jobs effectively? Sometimes those are the highest paid positions.
Posted by derekjolson (anonymous) on January 14, 2009 at 4:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
How is it that raises are given & then jobs are taken. What happened to common sense? Why weren't the raises held up & positions left alone.
If any staff positions should change administrative staff should be cut & necessary positions such as sherriff's deputies should be increased. We pay for government services that are NECESSARY. Not for administrative overhead.
Posted by baldeagle (anonymous) on January 14, 2009 at 7:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)
How about one less county commissioner? That ought to save some bucks!
Posted by Truth (anonymous) on January 14, 2009 at 10:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The problem as I see it is that there is so much miss trust in the government that even when they try to help and try to put money back into the county by paying higher wages they get attacked for wasting our money. The government can not spend us into recovery. If this was true there would never be a down turn. An open and free market will create jobs that last. However the political fact is the more people who rely on the government for a check the more secure the politician is in their job. I think and most economist will agree that the government destroys more jobs than they create. Our laws and taxes have for the last 16+ years have tried to remove the risk and have tried to do everything for everyone. This will not work. Failure is a needed part of success. Destruction leads to rebirth. If the county would reduce it would mean people will lose jobs and services. Again it becomes a discussion of what is the true role of government. Is it to protect us from failure or is it to give us the chance to fail. The most successful economies allow and may even encourage failure. Try and if you fail try again. We as the government will protect your freedom and allow you to keep what is yours. This works but when the government becomes the nanny the overseer or even goes to extreme to pick winners and losers than we get what we have no which is a slow or broken market. If the government wants growth then get out of the way. This is true for Freeborn or Albert Lea, or Minnesota, or the country. No bail out no government growth or jobs let the market do it's thing.
Posted by tallyman (anonymous) on January 15, 2009 at 10:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)
You guys need to remember that this is a different Freeborn County Board of Commissioners than it was a month ago. We had an election, remember? They are entitled to go in a new direction, if they wish.
Posted by Truth (anonymous) on January 15, 2009 at 2:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
tallyman,
Are you saying they have the power to cut wages and or freeze wages and hiring? I know if they are under contract you can't stop the raises but non-union and the big boys should be cut. I think it is better to take a cut than to lose a job. This was an issue before the election but you are right we do have new members and this is their chance to fix the mistakes of the past.
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