Valley County commissioners on Oct. 8 approved delegating signature authority to the county wildfire mitigation program manager for landowner agreements up to $75,000, while maintaining that contractor agreements will continue to be signed by the board.

Director Hlavacek described the county's short, recurring contract forms for landowner and contractor agreements used in wildfire mitigation projects and asked for flexibility to sign repetitive documents to speed deployment. "Because my contract doesn't change, he said that I don't have to get send my contracts to legal every single time," Hlavacek told the board, explaining that most contract text remains consistent and only names, addresses and grama specifics change.

Hlavacek proposed authority to sign agreements up to $75,000 so the program could move faster in short implementation windows; she said larger competitive bids and contractor awards would continue to be opened publicly and run through the board. Commissioners asked for an annual review of the template agreements by county attorneys to ensure continuity if staff change.

After discussion the board narrowed the request: commissioners agreed they would keep signing contractor agreements in public session but voted to allow Hlavacek to sign landowner agreements and other routine program documents up to $75,000. The board also asked staff to prepare a short policy and annual legal review process documenting the delegation to preserve institutional knowledge.

Speakers quoted in this article are Director Hlavacek (wildfire mitigation director) and the chairman; direct quotations are limited to those names to maintain attribution accuracy.