By Sara Strong
About 15 Rock County residents attended Tuesday's Board of Commissioners meeting to voice concerns about some of the board’s recent decisions.
Harold Fick and Stan Gyberg spoke on behalf of the group, whose main worry was about the position of auditor/treasurer.
At a recent County Board meeting, commissioners asked local legislative representatives to carry a bill that would allow Rock County the option of appointing the auditor/treasurer and recorder rather than leave them as elected positions.
The state bill would allow the board to pass a resolution making the offices appointed.
But Gyberg said taking an elected office - that's accountable solely to the public - and making it a position that's accountable to administration is dangerous.
"I don't think the auditor should be under the thumb of the County Board," he said. "That's a concentration of power, and I would worry about the influence of the board over the auditor."
Gyberg further reasoned that banks can’t have their own auditor because of conflict of interest.
Commissioner Ron Boyenga said that the state auditor would continue to examine the county's financial condition whether the auditor/treasurer is appointed or elected.
And, Boyenga said, if board members are appointing inadequate people to the job, "we're elected, too, and we can be voted off at an election."
If the legislation does pass, there is a system of recalling the appointed people if the public feels the board acted wrongly.
The board reasoned that the move toward appointments is appropriate because the positions have changed so much in recent years with advances in technology. As of now, anyone can run for the offices; no specific, minimal qualifications are required to file for election.
Commissioner Bob Jarchow said, "What we're looking at is updating a statute that's 100 years old. The job has changed a lot in just the last 20 years."
Jarchow said moving to an appointed position would happen after the current people resign or retire.
Fick said people could easily get the impression that staying on the good side of board members and county administration can get the job as auditor/treasurer or recorder.
In fact, Fick said, Auditor/Treasurer Margaret Cook not getting a pay raise this year appears to be related to her not supporting the move to make the position appointed.
The board said it set salaries based on performance and cost of living increases.
Boyenga said some investment recommendations made to Cook were not acted on and could have earned about $20,000 more for the county. If an appointed person was told to handle money a certain way, he or she would have to.
Fick and Gyberg said that was their point precisely - the auditor/treasurer shouldn't feel accountable to the board for job security or pay raises.
Of the 87 counties in Minnesota, 20 have requested legislation similar to Rock County's.
Cook said she doesn't support the move to make elected positions appointed but admits, "I can see both sides of it."
She said she generally thinks of elected people as being accountable to all of the public, whereas appointed people may feel more accountable to their administrators.
Cook was elected treasurer in 1978 and took on the combined office of auditor and treasurer in the mid-1990s.
Her job includes overseeing many things including elections, vital records, passports, bond reports to the state, collecting taxes and settlements.
She admits that sometimes her investment decisions don't get the highest possible returns for the county. But after spending much time searching for interest rates, she said sometimes a percentage point difference is all she can come up with.
"I don't have that luxury of just being able to look at investments," Cook said.
She said that even if the county ends up appointing people with heavy financial backgrounds to her position, state laws change every year, and reporting and recording standards will always be a part of continuing training.