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MARSHALL -- A proposal to divide up the duties of Lyon County Auditor/Treasurer between the county administrator and the county Human Resources director could work, County Attorney Rick Maes said Tuesday.
"Can it be done as proposed? I think it can," Maes told county commissioners.
However, now the county is facing a new problem -- a vacancy for HR director.
Lyon County commissioners said their first priority was to find candidates to fill the vacancies, before getting into the details of possibly restructuring the Auditor/Treasurer's Office. Commissioners voted to continue the search for a county auditor/treasurer, an HR director, and a tech position in the Auditor/Treasurer's office.
"We need to fill these positions," said Commissioner Charlie Sanow.
The auditor/treasurer's office is the county's third largest department, responsible for county finances, property tax administration, county licensing, driver's licenses and elections.
Lyon County has had some key employees resign this year. First, Auditor/Treasurer E.J. Moberg resigned to take a job with the city of Marshall earlier this year. After an unsuccessful search for a new auditor/treasurer, a county personnel committee suggested dividing up the position's job duties between the Lyon County administrator and HR director.
But in the time since the idea was put forward, Lyon County HR Director Carolyn McDonald had also resigned, County Administrator Loren Stomberg said Tuesday. Tuesday was also interim Auditor/Treasurer Steven Anderson's last day at work, he said.
At Tuesday's commissioner meeting, Maes said he reviewed state statutes, and he thought Lyon County could legally divide up the duties of the Auditor/Treasurer. Minnesota does have laws governing whether a county can have a combined auditor-administrator. However, Maes said the auditor-administrator role mainly came into play in smaller counties with fewer staff.
What was being proposed for Lyon County was a little different, Maes said. It amounted to "dividing out and re-naming" the Auditor/Treasurer's jobs, he said. There are other Minnesota counties, including Blue Earth County, Nicollet County and Yellow Medicine County, that have separate departments for county finances and public services like property taxes and licensing.
"I think what it really comes down to is, which direction does the board want to go?" Maes said.
The things the county would need to be careful about would be to pay attention to checks and balances in managing county finance, and not giving county employees incompatible duties, he said. "You need to lay out what exactly the job is."
"I think we need to break it down," said Commissioner Gary Crowley.
However, commissioners also said they needed to have job candidates before they could do that.
"We need an Auditor/Treasurer and an HR director right now," Commissioner Rick Anderson said.
"First you've got to get the interviews done, and see what we have to work with," Sanow said.
Commissioners voted in favor of two separate motions.
The first was to continue a search for an Auditor/Treasurer, an HR director, and a tech position in the Auditor/Treasurer's office. The second action was to appoint Stomberg as a backup auditor/treasurer.