3:50 p.m. - Morton County department heads can breath a little easier now that the county commission has approved their appointments through the rest of 2005, but commissioners are still uneasy with the current state of affairs.

In January the commission provided only three-month appointments for the county agent, home economist, tax director, social service director, emergency manager-communication director, veteran service officer, human resource director-risk manager, superintendent of roads-surveyor, superintendent of schools, planner-building inspector and risk manager for fixed assets-director of buildings. Normally these are one-year appointments, but commission concerns over department head accountability prompted the shortened appointments, hoping it would provide a heads up for anyone taking advantage of the system.

The appointments ran out at the end of March and an attempt to extend the appointments ended in a 2 to 2 vote, so in effect the department heads went through the month of April not officially appointed to their positions.

Commissioner Dick Tokach noted during Tuesday's meeting the commission should rectify the situation. "I know we appointed them for a shorter amount of time because we thought there were some problems, I don't know if that's been corrected or not. The department heads do serve at our pleasure and can be dismissed at any time for cause," he said.

Commissioner Bob Christensen feels the situation has not been resolved. "I feel the problem is not being taken care of and the only way to deal with it is by what we've done. Otherwise it gets pushed under the rug. In order to bring this to the surface, we need another three-month appointment." Christensen made a motion for three-month appointment of department heads.

Commission Mark Bitz suggested the appointments be made to fill the remainder of 2005, pointing out the commission can address the problems at any time.

"In some ways I agree with Bob (Christensen)," Tokach said. "We do have some very good department heads and it appears we're striking out at them with this motion. It puts them all kind of on edge."

Christensen's motion failed 3 to 2.

Emergency Manager Tammy Lapp-Harris voiced her concerns that by not being officially appointed, there could be questions regarding her authority to sign off on Homeland Security grants. "I don't want to turn back thousands and thousands of dollars because I wasn't an appointed department head when I signed agreements," she said. "If they (federal government) want to be technical about it we could end up with a problem with all the federal money."

Bitz agreed, motioning to reappoint department heads retroactive to March 31.

"I appreciate Bob's concerns and I feel we all have concerns about the all the work that has been, or has not been done by department heads, but I feel this has got to be taken care of internally," Tokach said.

Christensen suggested appointing all the department heads except one, but commissioner Matt Erhardt noted that wasn't the motion on the floor.

Christensen explained he was having communications problems with Human Resource Director Paula Graner. "I've held that portfolio for the last couple of years and have yet to be informed on what's going on, yet she calls other commissioners. She does not keep me informed at all on what is going on." He also noted the human resource's department availability to the public has been a problem, with the office being closed with no one available or any indication when someone would be in.

Commission chairman Jim Boehm suggested Christensen should be documenting his problems to be used for department evaluations.

Tokach said he had gone through work records and did see some things he considered questionable. He asked whether Christensen had talked to the human resources director about problems, to which Christensen said he hadn't. Christensen said he would be willing to discuss the matter but wanted another commissioner present when he did.

"This has to be addressed," Boehm confirmed. "But we need to let people know what's expected of them, it's only fair."

"This has been festering for a long time and has to be resolved," Tokach added. "There are morale problems within the courthouse because of it."

Bitz's motion to appoint all department heads for the remainder of 2005, retroactive to March 31, passed unanimously.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@bismarcktribune.com.)