The Wallowa County Board of County Commissioners directed interim Public Works leadership and human resources to prepare new, separate job descriptions for a county engineer and a public works director and return to the board for final approval.

Interim Public Works Director Dan Mack and HR manager Josh Griffith asked the board to separate the previously combined director/engineer post. Staff said the vacancy in the county engineer role has persisted for months with few qualified applicants and that the county’s ability to secure federal and state project funding depends on having an on‑staff licensed engineer who can manage grant applications, project plans and construction oversight.

Mack and his interim engineering contractor, who participated remotely, told commissioners that the current recruiting and retention environment — and competition from higher-paying engineering roles in the region — has made filling the combined role difficult. Mack said isolating the engineering work in a dedicated county‑engineer position would make the county more competitive for licensed engineers and would allow the director position to focus on operational management and personnel.

HR provided a summary of pay-grade comparisons and said the county’s outside compensation consultant (HRCC) had returned market guidance that did not account fully for private‑sector pay or nearby federal contractors. Commissioners discussed the tradeoffs between adjusting grade ranges and using recruitment tools such as sign‑on bonuses, relocation assistance or preloaded leave to attract candidates. Several commissioners said they preferred following HRCC guidance for salary ranges while authorizing HR to use targeted recruitment incentives and to return with the final job descriptions and recommended pay ranges.

The board voted to ask Mack and HR to complete the new job descriptions and return them for adoption. Staff will present the formal job descriptions and recommended salary ranges for final action at a later meeting.

The action does not itself create new payroll lines or change existing staff; it starts a process to separate duties and enable targeted recruitment. Commissioners asked staff to consider short-term recruitment incentives to address the immediate staffing gap and warned that any long-term changes to pay structures would need wider review as part of the county’s periodic compensation work.

Evidence: public discussion and motion occurred during the Jan. 6 board meeting.