Cascade County Commissioners voted 2-1 during their Feb. 13 meeting to move the county print shop from the Clerk and Recorder’s office to the commission office.

Commissioner Joe Briggs proposed the move earlier this month, after the county removed election duties from the clerk’s office and put them under the commission office.

The county clerk and recorder is an elected position, but the county print shop isn’t designated under state law as a required office.

County chooses Thompson as new election administrator

Briggs said that years ago, the commission allowed the print shop and its staff to be absorbed under the clerk’s office as it had “significant responsibilities and activities” with the county elections office, which until recently, had also been under the clerk’s office.

Since the county transferred election administration and operations duties from the clerk to the commission office, “the print shop and its staff need to be available and responsive to the election department to support Cascade County elections generally and does not otherwise have an operational need to be managed by the Clerk and Recorder,” Briggs wrote in his agenda report.

County continues discussion of election issues

Briggs wrote that having the print shop and its staff under the clerk has the potential to create conflicts since the clerk’s office doesn’t have a statutory duty to support or accommodate the print shop’s election related operations.

Considering those factors, Briggs said it’s appropriate to separate the print shop from the clerk’s office and establish it was a department under the commission.

Commissioner Rae Grulkowski was opposed to the move.

She said that the print shop wasn’t associated with elections that it does other printing for county departments.

Grulkowski said she wanted the print shop to remain under the clerk’s office.

The county print shop handles printing ballots, envelopes and voter instructions for the elections office, as well as a variety of other printing jobs for county departments, which would continue after the split, according to staff.

There’s “too much hanging out there, we don’t need anything more in the commission office until we assess what we’ve got and manage what we have,” Grulkowski said. “Too many pieces are getting dropped off in different areas.”

Commissioner Jim Larson said that part of the conversation about moving the print shop began since the clerk’s office didn’t want shop employee’s salaries in their budget and signing off on the employee time cards.

The print shop employee was under the clerk’s office for a year and no changes were made so since the elections office moved under the commission, he supported clearing up that organization structure by moving the print shop as well

Briggs said that for years, the print shop employee salaries were split between the print shop’s own budget and the election budget. He said the clerk’s office overall budget hadn’t been charged for the position.

The print shop has always had it’s own operating budget, Briggs said.