Des Moines County outlines hire plan as auditor’s longtime staffer prepares to retire

Des Moines County officials agreed Thursday to begin reorganizing the auditor’s office after a longtime staffer, Cheryl, announced she will retire at the end of next year. The office plans to split Cheryl’s current mix of budget and real-estate duties into a part-time budget director post and a real-estate deputy, with staggered hiring to allow hands-on overlap and reduce operational risk.

“Cheryl is retiring at the end of next year,” Speaker 2 said, framing the staffing changes as a transition issue the office must manage. Speaker 2 said the county would post the part-time budget director position internally for about seven to ten days and aims to hire a full-time real-estate deputy in June or July so the new hire has roughly six months to train side-by-side with Cheryl before she leaves.

Officials emphasized the training rationale. Speaker 3 warned that bringing a trainee in too early — during the upcoming election season and the peak workload that accompanies it — would be “a waste of taxpayer money,” and the group agreed the June–July window would better align with the tax-billing cycle and the budget season. Speaker 3 also highlighted the operational risk: if transfers between assessor, auditor and treasurer are not handled correctly, they could send out “29,000 tax statements wrong.”

Board members and staff discussed classification and workload for the new positions. The budget director duties were described as suitable for a part-time appointment; Speaker 2 provided a county-paid budget figure tied to Cheryl’s current role, saying the portion the county would fund is currently $23,002.27. Mapping and GIS responsibilities surfaced in the discussion: speakers said some mapping work that temporarily moved to another department should return to the auditor’s office, and that the new real-estate deputy would likely take on mapping, parcel splits and other technical tasks.

The county also reviewed headcount constraints. Speaker 2 identified a four-deputy limit and explained how a deputy-classified real-estate position would fit within that cap. Several speakers stressed the value of cross-training and temporary internal coverage to prevent service disruption while staff turnover occurs; one member noted a county employee, Dan, is scheduled for knee surgery and will be out for several weeks, reinforcing the need for backup capacity.

Next steps recorded in the worksession: officials agreed to post the part-time budget director position promptly and to return with salary and posting details; Speaker 2 said they would draft the posting and could post it the same day if the board approves. The office will plan to begin recruiting for the real-estate deputy with a June–July start target, with on-the-job overlap expected to support continuity through the next budget cycle.

The discussions that followed the staffing decisions included practical anecdotes and scheduling details but no additional formal motions or votes were recorded in the transcript. The meeting closed without a recorded formal motion tally; the staffing actions are administrative directions to post and recruit rather than board-adopted ordinances or resolutions.