Iron County considers reviving administrator role

By PAMELA JANSSON

pjansson@yourdailyglobe.com

Hurley — Although no formal discussion has yet occurred, Iron County may decide to revive the position of county administrator that existed in past years.

In a Tuesday morning meeting, Kurt Wolff — who chairs the Finance Committee of the Iron County Board of Supervisors — briefly addressed the subject of the county’s organizational structure.

“Almost all counties have gone to some form of county administrator,” he said in reference to the rest of the state. “Although we can’t afford it, we also can’t afford not to think about it.”

“An administrator is going to cost you about $70,000,” said committee member Scott Erickson.

He added that the previous county administrator, Dennis DeRosso of Oma, had earned $40,000 at the time his term ended in 2013.

Erickson said the board decided at that point to just transfer DeRosso’s duties to other county officials.

According to an April 5, 2013 story in the Daily Globe, DeRosso passed away on April 1, 2013, at the age 78 after retiring as a county forester and operating Pine Lake Logging.

He had joined the county board in 2004 and then chaired it from 2006 until his death, at which point he also was serving as county administrator.

In that article, Tom Innes of Gurney credited DeRosso for updating infrastructure and facilitating major projects in Schomberg Park and Saxon Harbor despite state budget cuts and a largely frozen county tax levy.

In other news, Wolff asked county department heads to submit capital improvement numbers by early July and general budget numbers by early August.

He said that schedule will run about a month ahead of last year, which should allow county officials to address any problems.

Wolff said the county also needs to address a capital improvement plan.

In reference to that, he said, “The big ones are forestry, highway, communications, law enforcement; emergency management is part of that.”

Wolff said that the county’s $2.4 million deficit has been reduced so far to $850,000.

Beyond the ongoing goal of reducing the county deficit, Wolff added, “Working to eliminate material weaknesses is pretty high.”

He said that one of the biggest issues in a future audit could be the management of the county’s $29,000 in opioid funds, which resulted from a national settlement with drug companies that issued related financial allotments throughout the country.

Wolff said the terms of that allotment require a clear demarcation of those funds from other county funds.

Because the issue was not on the agenda, no action was yet taken to resolve the issue.

Committee members also:

—Approved the application for a potential 911 grant of approximately $60,000 for software and training in relation to emergency medical dispatch staff.

—At the suggestion of committee member Roxanne Lutgen, advised that issues relating to an agreement for county jail employees’ “protective status” be discussed at the county’s next law enforcement meeting after collecting related suggestions from jail employees and other parties. Wolff said that the state legislature had granted the protective status last year, with all eight jail employees opting into a plan that facilitated earlier retirement but with unclear terms and mistaken clerical work that resulted in employees having more deducted from their paychecks than anticipated.

At the close of the meeting, the committee entered a closed session to address ongoing updates in the employee handbook.

The next regular Finance Committee meeting will be on July 16 at 7 a.m. in the board room of the Iron County Courthouse.

The Board of Supervisors will have its next regular meeting on June 25 at 6 p.m. in the board room of the Iron County Courthouse.