The Polk County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday, April 22, at 8:00 a.m. at the Government Center. The agenda for the meeting was short, starting with Mark Lansverk, the County Assessor, who came before the board with a few abatement requests. “It was just a request for abatement for two different properties, to correct a clerical error that was made in the process of calculating the taxes. One for 2025, and two for 2024.” The board approved unanimously of the abatement request.
Next on Tuesday’s agenda, the board heard from Alecia Helms from Human Resources. Helms brought to the board three Memoranda of Understanding for consideration. “We had three Memoranda of Understanding. Two for our LELS groups out at the Sheriff’s Office, so our Deputies and our Sergeants,” says Helms. “Basically, it’s a hiring retention incentive to increase applicant flow. It’s a challenging environment to hire new folks into and attract future employees to Polk County. Then, there is also a retention bonus to incentivize those to continue to stay and want to stay here and work in Polk County.”
Helms requested that the Polk County Deputies, of whom there are 18, each receive a $5,000 hiring/retention incentive, a recruitment incentive for up to 10 recruits at $1,000 each, and an application incentive of $100 for up to 25 applications. The total for the deputies’ group is $102,500 and comes out of the 2023 State Public Safety Fund. The board unanimously approved the LELS Deputies MOU.
For the LELS Sergeants MOU, the motion was for six positions with the same $5,000 hiring/retention incentive, 10 recruitment incentives of $1,000, and 25 application incentives of $100 for a total of $42,500. This amount also comes out of the 2023 State Public Safety Fund and was approved unanimously by the board.
The third Memorandum of Understanding that Helms brought before the board was for Operating Engineers Local 49 Solid Waste. Here, Helms requested approval for licensure premium rates for seven different licensure levels for the retention and development of Solid Waste Unit employees. “The last one was for out at Solid Waste, which is our Local 49’er group out in Fosston at the incinerator,” says Helms. “That one is more based on a premium licensure incentive to encourage the development of our current employees who obtain different licensures in that facility. We need people who are trained and qualified to run that operation, and in order to do so, we are hoping that this will help encourage that.”
Helm explained that Polk County has had difficulty retaining employees and filling certain positions within the Solid Waste Unit with qualified applicants with the necessary boiler and waste combustor licensure. Having Polk County agree to pay the premium/certification pay rate to these individuals upon achievement of any of the following is an essential part of retention.
- Special Provisional Boiler License – Salary differential of one dollar ($1.00) per hour worked to their base pay rate.
- 2nd Class Boiler License (A or B) – Salary differential of two dollars ($2.00) per hour worked to their base pay rate.
- Waste Combuster License – Salary differential of three dollars ($3.00) per hour worked to their base pay rate.
- 1st Class Boiler License (A or B) – Salary differential of four dollars ($4.00) per hour worked to their base pay rate.
- In-house Equipment Certification – Salary differential of five dollars ($5.00) per hour worked to their base pay rate.
- Chief Boiler License – Salary differential of six dollars ($6.00) per hour worked to their base pay rate.
- Boiler Examiner License – Salary differential of seven dollars ($7.00) per hour worked to their base pay rate.
The board approved unanimously of the seven licensure premium rate.
Chuck Whiting updated the board on a few items to close the meeting. Whiting let the board know that he would be interviewing two prospective Finance Director Candidates this week and will provide an update on that topic at the May 6 meeting. He also informed the board that he is working with Annette Storm from Abdo to put together draft investment policies for the County to consider. Abdo is also helping the county implement UKG payroll, a.k.a. Kronos, for HR data management, timecard entry, and maintenance. The hope is to have this in full swing this fall. Lastly, Whiting says that Abdo has been facilitating the rollout of Questica for budgeting later this week and is helping staff to bring up-to-date cash handling, implementation of check scanners, and 2024 audit preparation for the Hoffman firm.
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