Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Freeborn County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday appointed Kelly Hendrickson as interim auditor-treasurer effective Nov. 10, following the retirement of current Auditor-Treasurer Pat Martinson.

The board voted Brenda Jensen, a supervisor in the license center, as deputy registrar of vehicles. Interim County Administrator Ryan Rasmusson said Jensen has had all of the appropriate background checks required by the state for the position.

The county board has appointed a person as auditor-treasurer since October 2020 when it voted to make the position appointed, rather than elected. Hendrickson previously worked in the Auditor-Treasurer’s Office before being appointed as county recorder.

Rasmusson said the resolution also leaves the door open for the county board to consider potentially reorganizing or consolidating the recorder’s and auditor-treasurer’s offices under one leader.

The board in its workshop last week discussed options for the department in more detail.

Rasmusson at that time said aside from going with an interim auditor-treasurer, another option included creating a Property and Election Services Department that would include the auditor-treasurer duties, elections, recorder’s office duties and the license center. The investments would be moved to be under the county’s finance manager.

The office would be where the current auditor-treasurer and assessor’s offices are, and the assessor’s office would move to the recorder’s office.

He said everyone in the reworked department would be cross trained, and it could eliminate a department head and through attrition could eliminate one and possibly two staff members.

The cost savings would be approximately $117,000. The recorder’s staff would be bumped up from a grade 9 to a grade 10 on the county’s pay scale so that everyone in the office would be on the same level if all are performing the same duties, he said.

At the top would be a director of property and election services, and under that person would be a deputy director, who also serves as one of the deputies. Then under that would be the regular deputies.

First District Commissioner Brad Edwin said he was initially against the idea but thought if it would allow the county to serve more efficiently and with some cost savings, he would be open to the idea.

He asked whether state statute required counties to have both an auditor-treasurer and a recorder.

Third District Commissioner John Forman said other counties have previously made similar changes and noted the proposal was somewhat designed after Waseca County.

Hendrickson said having the staff from both departments combined into one would give more people to help with absentee voting and elections. All of the staff in the office could help with anyone who came in from the public with questions.

Edwin asked what would be the role of the director, and Hendrickson said the job wouldn’t be an HR role but would be more hands-on and would involve constant teaching to get the staff in different positions. She read a series of duties to the board.

The deputy director would be second in command.

Currently the auditor-treasurer is at grade 23 and recorder is at grade 19 on the county’s pay scale, while the director of the combined departments would be at a grade 24 with the deputy director at grade 15.

Rasmusson said he would envision Hendrickson moving into the role of director of the new department and then getting letters of interest from within the departments for the deputy role.

Fifth District Commissioner Nicole Eckstrom said she wanted to make sure the board was following due diligence and following the necessary process for filling the position.

Forman said he was worried the county was getting a reputation of not being able to make a decision with multiple interim positions in the county.

There was also discussion with Freeborn County Attorney David Walker about whether the board would need to pass an ordinance to make the change.

The issue will be discussed further at an upcoming workshop to allow time for questions to be answered.