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Woodbury County auditor seeks new deputy of real estate and staff upgrades in FY27 budget
Summary
Auditor Michelle Scaff asked supervisors to approve improvement requests that would create a deputy of real estate, move a GIS analyst into that unit, and upgrade several clerk positions; staff estimate the package touches multiple funds and totals roughly $153,128 across lines.
Michelle Scaff, the county’s elected auditor-recorder, asked the Board of Supervisors to adopt a package of “improvement requests” designed to reorganize real-estate functions and cross-train staff. Scaff proposed creating an appointed deputy of real estate who would centralize parcel-splitting, valuations and related duties currently spread among the auditor and recorder sections. She said the change would also move a GIS analyst onto the real-estate team and reassign portions of existing clerk positions to better cover elections and recording work.
Scaff told the board that Woodbury County’s auditor staffing is low relative to comparable counties and that the proposed changes would reduce reliance on temporary election workers during busy seasons. “We are understaffed in size of the population that we’re serving on the auditor’s side,” Scaff said as part of her presentation. She described a phased compensation plan for the real-estate deputy (initially funded at a portion of a deputy salary for six months with further increases contingent on performance).
Staff provided line-item estimates: converting clerk 2 positions to senior clerk status was shown as about $5,153.68 per position in the auditor’s calculations; the county’s budget summary for the improvement-request line totals about $153,128 when the deputy position, regrades and other adjustments are combined. Scaff also proposed shifting 50% of a newly cross‑trained clerk’s pay to elections so that the position can serve busy election periods.
Board members pressed on implementation steps, noting union contract requirements for job-description changes and pay-grade moves. County staff advised that job descriptions must be drafted and submitted to the unions for agreement before final grade changes would take effect. Supervisors directed staff that items clearly unacceptable should be removed from the mailed tentative budget, while items that may proceed should be included for now so the tentative budget reflects the full set of requests.
The board moved and voted to receive the auditor’s improvement-request materials for the tentative budget (motion passed unanimously). The board did not adopt final grade changes at the session; next steps include drafting job descriptions, union review and, if approved, a formal personnel action to establish the new deputy and regraded positions.
