Freeborn County elected officials presented their 2020 salary requests Tuesday to the county board of commissioners.

Freeborn County Attorney David Walker requested the highest raise, at 5%, which would raise his salary from $112,809 in 2019 to $118,450 in 2020.

Walker provided information about salaries in 11 comparable counties that had a population within 5,000 of Freeborn County’s population.

The lowest salary was about $108,000 in Le Sueur County, and the highest was in Steele County at about $147,500. The average was about $121,000.

Walker said he has been an attorney for 30 years and with the Freeborn County Attorney’s Office for 26 years. He oversees two support staff, two legal secretaries and four other attorneys.

He said the county attorney’s office has participated in 14 jury trials so far in 2019, 10 of which resulted in a guilty verdict or a guilty plea after the jury was formed. The office also had four major cases affirmed at the Court of Appeals level, with at least one Supreme Court case coming in 2020.

He has lined up an agreement with the Department of Justice for federal lawsuits involving Immigration Custom and Enforcement detainees that name the sheriff because they are housed in the Freeborn County jail. This is at no cost to the county. Outside attorneys have also been put in place for the opioid litigation the county signed on for.

Walker referenced the work he did to protect the county moving forward with the Freeborn Wind Farm.

Freeborn County Administrator Tom Jensen said the county is fortunate to have Walker and referenced his efficiency and responsiveness when handling issues brought before him. He said Walker works well with other departments.

“He’s very very good to have around,” Jensen said.

The administrator said the number of times the county has been involved with litigation over personnel has decreased significantly since 2017.

 

Auditor-treasurer

Freeborn County Auditor-Treasurer Pat Martinson discussed some of the highlights from her department in her request for a 4% salary increase. Her salary for 2019 is $86,552.

She said the Auditor-Treasurer’s Office recently administered the special election for the Glenville-Emmons School District and will be administering a presidential nomination primary in March in addition to the two other elections planned.

Martinson said the License Center, which she oversees, continues to keep its revenues up despite little fee increases allowed by the Legislature. The License Center continues to wait for the rollout of the replacement for the MNLARS motor vehicle program.

She said she recently sent out a request for proposals for banking services for the county and received positive responses. She will be signing a new three-year agreement with CCF Bank, to now having a no-fee agreement while tripling interest rates on deposits with a potential to increase rates even more in the future. She is also exploring options for a different credit card provider to lower the fee for taxpayers who choose to use a credit card from 2.5% to 2.35% and decrease the wait time for the county to be funded by the credit card company.

Jensen briefly discussed the possibility of appointing both the county auditor-treasurer and recorder positions now that this option has been approved at the state level.

 

Recorder

Freeborn County Recorder Kelly Callahan did not make a specific salary request for 2020 but highlighted some of the work from his department in the last year.

He said he has been with the county for about 20 years and noted he would not have an objection to having the recorder’s position be an appointed one if that was the direction the county board wanted to go.

Callahan said his office has been busy completing image conversion for many of the documents his office deals with, including property records and plat books and hopes to transfer marriages, births and deaths to a digital program as well.

This data would be searchable digitally and would provide a backup in the case of an event such as a fire or tornado.

 

Sheriff

Freeborn County Sheriff Kurt Freitag said he based his salary request for 2020 from the salary approved in a court ruling earlier this year: $113,952. The judge’s ruling was appealed by the county to the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

Freitag requested a half-percent increase to the judge’s salary, which he said is what the other non-elected officials are slated to receive in 2020 and would put him at $114,521.

Freitag said he is in his fifth year in office, has 26 total years in law enforcement and oversees more than 80 staff.

Some of the highlights over the last year include the rollout of the body worn cameras, which he said will help offset potential litigation against the county, help staff review how deputies are performing their work and create transparency for both the department and the public.

He said all but two deputies are trained on aquatic invasive species inspection to better protect the area lakes with the department’s boat patrol. This is paid for through a grant awarded for aquatic invasive species. They were able to utilize this training for the Minnesota Governor’s Fishing Opener.

He referenced the blizzard in February, where the Sheriff’s Office worked with the Minnesota National Guard to rescue people stranded on the interstate and other locations. This was followed by a major ice storm in March that led to downed lines. Deputies again worked with the National Guard in response.

In the spring, Sheriff’s Office deputies switched from .45 caliber Glocks to 9mm Glocks and was able to do so for a net cost of $265. The 9mm guns will provide a savings on ammunition, are lighter-weight and have less recoil.

Freitag said he is also working with Worth County on radio interoperability so they can better communicate when events cross into either county and are setting the framework for other border counties to follow.

He said though numbers with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program had dropped earlier in the year, numbers have increased through ongoing communication with ICE officials and will ultimately bring average revenue for 2019 when compared to prior years.

The board will consider each request and then set the official salaries in December.