By Josh Margolis
HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – Numerous officials from Hill County convened on Wednesday morning inside the Hill County Courthouse Annex and discussed a variety of issues.
The hot button issue was the lack of county-issued credit cards for departments.
Officials such as Clerk and Recorder Sue Armstrong have brought up this issue on multiple occasions over the past several years, saying this places an unnecessary financial burden on employees who have to wait to be reimbursed for work-related purchases that can often surpass hundreds of dollars in cost.
“I would really like to have a credit card,” Armstrong said. I know we can get them in like a week to two weeks and have it all set up, so I think we need to get that done. I have to go next month to Billings and I’m going to be putting four nights of motel rooms on my own card. I get really tired of doing that … (Treasurer) Sandy Brown has done a bunch of them for the schools, they have no problem with it … I think we should have meetings so everybody knows what’s going on.”
Mark Peterson rebuffed the proposal, saying he will discuss it with his fellow Commissioners, but that information he has received makes him believe it is a bad idea.
“People are not understanding what the rules are with the credit cards, and then they have to go back and fix it. The City has basically said they could almost put a personnel full time, they keep cleaning things up. So it’s not as simple as people think. Yes, you could have a credit card in a couple of days or a week, but that doesn’t mean that it’s always going to work. We’ve had many discussions on it. We’ve also got a lot of other business going on in the Commissioner’s office, so that is not our only focus. I appreciate you bringing it up … If people would just do what they were supposed to do with credit cards. We’ve had situations with gas cards, in this county.”
“I understand that,” said Armstrong. “But that doesn’t mean we should all be punished for that.”
“So can you tell me then who I should trust and who I shouldn’t?” responded Peterson.
“If you are hiring somebody, they are your employee,” interjected Health Officer/Health Director Kim Berg. “You should trust them.”
“Well I thought so too, but that hasn’t always worked out,” said Peterson.
Berg says a majority of other counties in the state have credit cards for departments.
“I’ve been told by the state that it is not feasible for me to put (work purchases) on my own credit card. So when the state health department is telling me that, I feel like it is feasible. Maybe there should be more meetings with more people (to discuss this).”
Armstrong says Cascade County has issued around 100 credit cards and has not reported any major problems.
“You have to trust (your employees),” Brown added. “You have to give them a chance at least.”
In a brief phone conversation with New Media Broadcasters on Wednesday afternoon, Havre Mayor Doug Kaercher said the City has issued credit cards to departments for at least the last 10 years. He disputed Peterson’s assertion that the City could hire an employee just to track credit card purchases, but did say they are tracked on a daily basis and there are some challenges associated with them, such as the fact that they can be hard to monitor and employees may not provide receipts right away. Kaercher said that issuing credit cards was a “necessary evil,” and if there was a way around it, they would strongly consider it. However, for certain purchases employees have to make, he said the only option available is to charge it on a work card. Kaercher added that it could be unfair for employees to make them put large purchases on their personal cards and make them wait to be reimbursed.
The meeting was lightly attended, likely in part due to a late change in venue with almost no notice. The meeting was supposed to be in the Timmons Room of the Courthouse, but was moved the day before, with many not hearing about the change until just before the meeting via word of mouth. No official correspondence regarding a change of venue was provided to local media or County Officials.
Mark Peterson was the only Commissioner in attendance for the entire meeting. Jake Strissel came in late, with Peterson saying he was working to print out meeting minutes that Diane McLean had. McLean was absent, with Peterson saying she was dealing with a frozen water pipe at home.
Those not in attendance included new County Attorney Lacey Lincoln, DES Coordinator Amanda Frickel, and several others.
Health Department Update
During the meeting, Berg said the Health Department has three positions open: family planning coordinator, family planning program assistant/health program assistant, and sanitarian, and they have yet to get any applications.
Hill County’s current Sanitarian, Clay Vincent, is semi-retired and has been in Arizona for the past few months. In his absence, Berg has been pickup up some of the duties of the sanitarian.
Berg says they currently have nobody in family planning, so a nurse from Lewistown is traveling to Havre later this month to train the Health Department on telehealth so they can have a provider to see clients when nurses are not available.
As for COVID, Berg says case numbers are rising as expected due to the Omicron surge, and they are not able to get through all positive cases in a day to contact the person who is COVID-positive. The County has brought back two contact tracers to help deal with the surge, bringing their current total of employees working full-time solely on COVID matters.
Other than COVID, Berg says other illnesses making the rounds are influenza, strep throat and more. She stressed the importance of staying home when sick to prevent large outbreaks.
“We are seeing people go to work sick all the time. And then it’s going to wipe out an office. We’ve seen it in other counties already.”
COA
Don Kenny of the Council on Aging says they are starting up their AARP Senior Tax Preparation Service, and will begin taking client lists in the coming days.
Kenny said the Meals on Wheels program has been going strong and their arrangement with North Central Montana Transit to provide rides to seniors has been a success.
Commission
Commissioner Jake Strissel says they continue working on finalizing the resolution calling for an election to impose a three percent tax on local marijuana sales. He said they are also working on how to use ARPA funds and are hard at work on the Milk River Levee project.
Peterson said the survey of the levee has been completed, but it could be about 45 days before they are provided the final document.
Peterson said they are waiting to find out how much it will cost to fix the HVAC system at the Courthouse, which they have set aside $1 million in ARPA funds for.
“We’re being told that’s probably not going to be enough. That’s clean air, better heating, a lot of the issues that we’ve had with heating and cooling in the Courthouse, maybe someday, will go away.”
