Burleigh County commissioners went back and forth, up and down and all around on the issue of employee bonuses.

In fact a whole lot of motions were made which ended up accomplishing little or nothing at this past week's meeting.

It all started when Renee Gall, human resources director, asked consideration of a new policy regarding performance bonuses. Commissioners took some time reviewing the policy but determined it was unfair.

In order to award a bonus a department had to have excess in its salary budget and this favored the large departments. And employees having reached their maximum grade level would not be eligible for bonuses.

Commissioner Jerry Woodcox said he wasn't opposed to a bonus, but he wanted to see a pool of money created and the commission considering who received bonuses case-by-case.

The commission would be opening a "can of worms" if it started giving bonuses, said commissioner Jim Peluso. He also feels the county does have a merit system which is just another form of providing bonuses.

"It's difficult for a government to determine who is working harder. The problem is a little deeper than a one time bonus, there's sick leave, longevity, and benefits to consider … a lot of things. I'm leery of a bonus situation when there isn't a ton of criteria," Peluso said.

Commissioner Doug Schonert favored a bonus system, but wanted it to be fair, sentiments echoed by commissioner Marlan Haakenson.

It appeared the commission was going to let the matter die and they began to move on to other business. But the next item was a request from auditor-treasurer Kevin Glatt to give bonuses to his staff.

Glatt explained that his department had taken over an assessing contract for the city of Lincoln the past year and the employees had taken it upon themselves to take on the duties of an employee who had retired, saving the county more than $40,000.

Haakenson said it was a reasonable request. Woodcox agreed the staff had done a wonderful job with filling in for the position and with the additional Lincoln assessment, but noted that the county engineer and assistant engineer had picked up the slack in that department when they couldn't find someone to fill a position, saving the county about $80,000.

"Are we going to go there then. Will they (engineering department) request a bonus. I think I'm beginning to waffle," Woodcox admitted.

Schonert said the only way he would support the bonuses was to set up a fund that other departments also could draw upon. He made the motion to create a fund with $10,000 for 2007 bonuses. The motion passed unanimously.

Schonert then made a motion that departments be notified of the bonuses and an award be made to the auditor-treasurer's employees. Any requests had to come through the human resources department. This passed 4-1 with Peluso the only dissent.

This is when things began to fall apart.

State's Attorney Richard Riha offered his concern that the commission was establishing a fund with only two weeks remaining in the year. He said there was sure to be criticism from other departments that some employees got bonuses in 2007 and the others weren't able to. Riha wasn't enthusiastic over a suggestion that the bonuses could be made in 2008 for 2007.

Gall added that any departments that wanted to give bonuses would have to apply by Monday, which is only a half day because of the holiday. The commission also would have to have a special meeting to make determinations on the bonuses.

"This is a real dilemma," Woodcox said. "We'd have less than a week to take action, that's not fair. It would be a last minute thing and it would hard to be equitable."

Peluso pointed out that the policy had been in place less than 10 minutes and it was already a problem.

Haakenson began to make plans for a special meeting for 10 a.m. Monday.

But Schonert put an end to the effort making a motion to rescind his first motion to create the bonus - which passed unanimously - and then made a fourth motion to rescind his motion to distribute bonuses to the auditor-treasurer's office, also passing unanimously.

Commissioners did agree to revisit the issue in 2008.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 701-250-8255 or gordon.weixel@bismarcktribune.com.)