Western Minnesota's Swift County focusing on staffing struggles

Tom Cherveny, West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn.
·4 min read

Jun. 15—BENSON

— The

Swift County Board of Commissioners

took action last week to address staffing shortages that are hampering the ability to provide services and proving costly as the county contracts for outside help.

The action came as Board Chair Pete Peterson warned that a failure to address the staffing issues could cost the county one of its latest recruits, County Administrator Tesa Tomaschett.

"If things don't change, I'm going to predict that by fall we will add one more to the list to look for, (and) that is going to be administrator," Peterson said during discussions at the June 6 meeting.

He said the administrator — who began her duties in February — has been forced to devote much of her time to assisting in financial matters due to the shortage of staffing in the Finance Department. The department includes two employees handling a workload the commissioners believe requires four people.

"(There) isn't anybody who can serve two masters successfully," said Peterson. "We're setting her up to fail if we don't get her some well-needed help."

The commissioners took steps toward that need. They approved contracting with David Drown and Associates at a cost of $8,000 to recruit a finance director. The decision came after a failed motion to revert to an auditor/treasurer model for county management.

Commissioners Larry Mahoney and Ed Pederson offered the motion to return to the auditor/treasurer model, but Commissioners Gary Hendrickx, Eric Rudningen and Peterson defeated it.

Before offering his motion, Mahoney said he knew of two persons interested in applying for an auditor/treasurer position, but not a finance director position. He pointed out that the county previously had offered the financial director position to two applicants. Both declined it.

Rudningen reported that at a recent meeting with an employees committee known as Enhancing the Organization, the members voted 6 to 3 to continue with the county's new management structure. The management structure divvies the duties of certain row offices — including auditor, treasurer and assessor — to appointed department heads.

Along with approving the contract for a recruitment firm to find a finance director, the commissioners supported advertising for a finance technician for the department. They agreed that the department should include a full staffing of four, including a director and three technicians.

Administrator Tomaschett said she was recently faced with situations when she was twice unable to respond to assistance requests. Two staff members were out, and she was not able to provide the help requested.

"Not something I want to say once, much less twice in a day," she said of having to say no to the requests.

The administrator told the commissioners that she is also concerned that taxpayers are not being properly served due to the lack of a finance director. There are important decisions on investing county funds and overseeing those funds that are best provided by a qualified professional, she explained.

The county is currently contracting with Abdo Financial Services, of Edina, for assistance in the Finance Department. That contract expires June 19, and the commissioners agreed they would at their next meeting consider extending it.

Along with the Finance Department needs, the commissioners also took up discussions on the vacant county engineer position and a vacant assistant county attorney position.

The commissioners voiced support for a contract with Stevens County to provide interim highway engineer services at a flat rate of $7,088 a month, rather than on an hourly basis, as is now the case. Stevens County Engineer Todd Larson commits a minimum of two days per week to Swift County under the agreement.

The commissioners also expressed a willingness to find help in recruiting an assistant county attorney. Tomaschett told the commissioners that County Attorney Danielle Olson is not aware of a firm that recruits for this help.

The county has been moving toward an appointed department head model of management in recent years. The staffing situation became more pressing with the departures of former Treasurer Ron Vadnais and Auditor Kim Saterbak.

The commissioners appointed Assessor Joe Tschida as department head for the newly created Public and Property Services Department. The department is responsible for many of the duties previously handled by the assessor, auditor and treasurer positions.

Tschida and his staff are also responsible for elections administration and tax collection, and will likely hold on to the election duties for the foreseeable future.

During discussions on June 6, Commissioner Rudningen noted that it would be important for consistency to keep election duties in the office. Training for upcoming elections has already been underway, and it's possible the Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg School District could hold a referendum before year's end, he explained.