Wallowa County commissioners on July 14 approved two personnel actions as part of a Public Works reorganization: creation of a staff accountant position and a revised job description recasting the department's financial manager as Chief Finance Manager for Public Works.

New position and rationale: Human resources/risk manager Josh Griffith described the change as converting a currently vacant engineering/public-works tech position into a staff accountant to provide redundancy and financial support in Public Works. The staff accountant will sit between accounting techs and the financial manager and handle payroll support and other financial functions. Commissioner Clayton said the change reduces single-point-of-failure risk; the motion to approve the new position passed 2-0.

Chief Finance Manager job description: As part of the reorganization, Public Works staff and HR presented a revised job description to clarify that the Public Works finance manager has distinct duties from the county's central finance manager, including oversight of the department's $40 million-plus budget and tracking of ER&R and grant programs. Commissioners discussed the job title's potential for confusion with the county-level chief finance role and requested clearer labeling to show the position is specific to Public Works. The board approved the revised job description (motion amended to correct the title language) by a 3-0 vote; the salary and personnel action forms will be presented later for formal payroll adjustments.

Decision vs. next steps: Both motions were approvals of job establishment/reclassification and did not authorize final pay adjustments; commissioners asked staff to return with payroll action forms and clearer wording in job materials. Several other reorganization items were postponed to a future meeting to allow additional staff communication and review.

Ending: The board authorized the two personnel changes and asked staff to bring salary PAFs and any remaining reorganization materials back in the coming weeks.