County Commissioners met Aug. 9 to discuss the process for selecting a new administrative assistant in the commission office.

Commissioner Rae Grulkowski had concerns with the hiring process and said she wanted to be part of the interview and make the interview a public meeting.

Commissioner Joe Briggs told The Electric that this was not past practice, but Grulkowski “has issues with how it has been done in the past so we scheduled a meeting to discuss it.”

During the meeting, Briggs said that typically staff positions are not subject to public meetings.

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The plan had been to have Commissioner Jim Larson, Bonnie Fogerty as the supervisor to the administrative assistant, and a representative from human resources conduct the interview.

Grulkowski said she wanted to be part of the interview. Two commissioners constitutes a quorum and requires a public meeting.

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Briggs suggested that she observe the interview to learn more about county processes rather than change the standard practice.

“I think this is incredibly bad precedent to take a clerical function and make it a public meeting in an interview process. That’s not fair to the applicants,” Briggs said.

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He said there should be one commissioner on the interview committee and it should be Larson, “because he is far more familiar with the operations of this office than you are at this point. Until you have that background and knowledge, you should not be participating in it.”

Grulkowski said, “I do feel qualified to interview people.”

Briggs moved to continue with the already selected interview committee and standard process.

Briggs referred to an email from the county attorney’s office that indicated one commissioner is appropriate and standard for the interview and that hiring a clerical position doesn’t rise to the level of significant public interest to require a public meeting.

Grulkowski continued to say she wanted to participate in the process.

“As I said, there’s a motion on the floor, I have work to do,” Briggs said.

Briggs said that in the past, commissioners have only conducted public interviews to fill vacancies for elected positions such as a commission seat and justice of the peace. They also conducted public interviews for the county health officer position as it’s a higher level position with greater authority.

Kathy Hansen, a member of the public, said she agreed with Grulkowski.

Richard Liebert said that it was unnecessary to conduct the interview for an administrative assistant publicly and that the county elections office had not conducted public interviews for multiple new hires this year.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen an administrative assistant put to this level of public scrutiny,” Liebert said. “Where was the transparency” in hiring election staff, he said, and asked whether this process would then apply to every public employee in the future.

Commissioners voted 2-1 to conduct the interview under the regular process with an interview committee consisting of Larson, Fogerty and someone from the human resources department outside of a public meeting. Grulkowski voted in opposition.