County positions questioned

The future of the chief deputy positions at the county level is still up for discussion.

The issue came up when the Sweetwater County Commissioners were discussing whether or not to approve a request to replace the chief deputy position in the County Assessor’s Office. After the Commissioner brought up several issues, a motion was made to table a request to replace the assessor’s office chief deputy position. Garry McLean, human resources director, said the position was left vacant after Dave Divis was appointed as the county assessor.

“I’m just trying to fill the position,” Divis said. “When I moved up to the appointed position as assessor on Feb. 20, that left a vacancy in the chief deputy spot. That’s a position I think is necessary.”

Divis said there’s already money in the budget for it and he just wants to get the approval for the position. Commissioner Wally Johnson said in the past there have been discussions about this position, which is not mandatory by law.

“It’s a highly compensated position. At some point we have to make the decision whether we want this position to be within the pay scale or how we are going to administer this position,” Johnson said.

If this chief deputy position was eliminated, then the Commissioners would have to look at the other department’s chief deputy positions.

Johnson said they could grandfather those other department’s chief deputy positions and deal with them as people leave those positions.

Commissioner John Kolb said he didn’t understand why there is a huge need for the position when Divis was performing all of those duties before.

“I think, you know, that we’ve had a tradition in Sweetwater County, for a very long time, I don’t even know how far it goes back about this chief deputy position,” Kolb said. “I think it causes a lot of angst amongst other employees because of the compensation involved with the chief deputy position....”

According to a letter from McLean in the board’s informational packet, on Dec. 2, 2014, chief deputy salaries were increased to $85,000 from $63,750.

Divis said these positions have been going on in this county for 35 to 40 years. As far as unlimited sick time or vacation time for the chief deputy position, that’s up to the commissioners. He said he’s never seen anyone the chief deputy in the assessor’s office abusing the unlimited sick and vacation time. If anything, they have actually taken less. Kolb said just because it’s something the county did for 40 years doesn’t mean it should’t change.

Commissioner Randy Wendling said they need to look at it some more to decide which way they want to go.

Divis suggested all of the departments with chief deputies should be involved in the discussion too.

Those departments are the county clerk’s, treasurer and clerk of district court. Commissioner Don Van Matre said he wants the Commission to look at the positions one at a time and as they come up.

“It just so happens you are the first one we are going to look at,” Van Matre said.

Chairman Reid West said they could grandfather in the current chief deputy positions and as people leave those positions change it to a regular full-time employee position. After another 15 minutes of discussion, the Commissioners realized they would need to make a decision at a later date.