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Changes at the court house? |
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
The Houston County Board spent nearly two hours discussing various scenarios for re-organizing some of the departments at the county court house during an April 29 workshop meeting. Discussion on possible changes was precipitated when veteran County Auditor Pete Johnson announced earlier this year that he would be retiring as of May 31.
The commissioners are looking at various options to fill the remaining 2.5 years of Johnson’s term…appoint someone, call for a special election, or look at combining the auditor’s office with another department.
Jim Mulder, executive director of the Association of Minnesota Counties (AMC) gave the county board some insight as to how they might proceed during an hour-long presentation about the ever-changing structure of county government in Minnesota during a February board meeting.
Mulder reported that currently, 51 of the 87 counties in Minnesota have combined the auditor and treasure departments. And many more are in the process of doing just that.
“With Pete retiring in May, this would be the perfect opportunity for you folks to take a good, hard look at combining departments, or making other changes,” Mulder told the board.
At the April 29 meeting, board members agreed it would be advantageous to create a new county finance director position, which would oversee all of the financial issues of the county. They also discussed combining the auditor and treasure offices, as the majority of the counties in Minnesota have done.
“The financial matters impact the day to day operations of the county, and are the most important issues facing the county. And, they have become so much more complicated,” Commissioner Dave Corcoran said. “I certainly agree we need to develop this position.”
Commissioner Larry Connery agreed the county should create a new position that would oversee all of the financial dealings, and felt the auditor and treasurer departments could be combined.
Current County Auditor Pete Johnson was asked for his input.
“I feel a financial director position would be advantageous for the county,” Johnson said. “With the Gadsby accounting system now being used by the state, and the other new accounting procedures, it has become quite complicated, and made extra work for the county. We’ve been fortunate to have the services of outside auditors who know these new systems, to help us. But having a financial director who works with these systems on a regular basis would be very helpful.
“Houston County is a small county, and I realize the state auditors sometimes have problems with checks and balances issues. But because so many counties are now combining the positions, new safeguards have been established to help with this,” Johnson pointed out.
Johnson went on to add the idea of combining the auditor and treasurer positions would be a good thing to do, if a financial director position was created, but he felt it should be an elected position.
When asked why he felt the position should be an elected one, Johnson said although there is the argument that someone not qualified for the position could be elected, the county board couldn’t fire the auditor/treasurer if some issue festered into a major disagreement.
“If it were an elected position, we would have a smaller applicant pool than if it was a appointed position, and we were able to advertise for it over a much larger area,” Commissioner Tom Bjerke said.
The board decided to review how a number of counties of similar size in Minnesota have combined offices and created financial director positions. In the mean time, they decided to appoint Deputy Auditor Char Meiners as interim auditor for the next two and one-half years, which will give the board time to develop a plan of action for combining departments and creating a financial director position.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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