Dunn County committee forwards new human resources code to county board after striking section on ordinance rule changes

The Dunn County Committee on Administration voted to forward a proposed Human Resources Code to the full county board for first reading after striking a provision that would have altered ordinance-change rules. The committee met in Room 60 of the Government Center and approved the measure on voice vote.

The proposed code is intended to replace the county’s existing Chapter 3 (Personnel) with a Human Resources Code that moves many operational items into departmental policy while preserving the county board’s role on major structural matters. “I did try and succinctly summarize the changes that have been made since the last time we reviewed this,” Human Resources staff member Jenna said during the committee discussion.

Committee members said the change is meant to speed routine administrative actions — for example, giving the Committee on Administration authority to approve new or modified job titles and to place job titles on adopted pay grades — while keeping substantive changes subject to county board review. Corp counsel advised removing section 3.06, which would have allowed certain ordinance changes by a simple majority of committee members and conflicted with existing county rules requiring two readings at full board meetings. “So I think if you were to make a motion to adopt this, I would suggest we strike 3.06,” Corp counsel said during the meeting.

The draft ordinance also clarifies the roles of the county manager and human resources director: the county manager will recommend changes to staffing levels and pay-grade placements to the committee, and the human resources director will maintain the approved list of job titles and job descriptions. Jenna outlined new and revised definitions in the draft (including definitions for “position” and “pay structure”) and said the draft policies provided in the packet are for review and would later be finalized through a policy review process that includes department heads and employees.

Committee members asked for consistency edits across the draft policies (for example, uniform references to the Dunn County Code of Ordinances, consistent purpose statements, and small wording fixes in several draft policies such as recruitment, separation, nepotism and salary administration). The committee asked staff to prepare those edits before the county board first reading.

Motion and next steps: Supervisor Bachand moved that the committee forward the ordinance to the county board after striking section 3.06 and making the discussed formatting and grammar changes; Supervisor Bauer seconded the motion. The committee approved the motion by voice vote and the ordinance will proceed to the county board for its first reading.

The committee also noted that the draft policies included in the packet are presented for review only; they must still undergo the county’s policy-review process before any final adoption.