As the North Dakota Senate majority leader and foreman for the Bismarck Public Works Department, Bob Stenehjem works for two separate government entities.

Often, he must leave his city position to attend to his legislative duties. When this happens, he is supposed to keep track of his leave hours to avoid being paid by the city while doing legislative work.

According to a Tribune analysis of his hours at both the city and the Legislature, Stenehjem has at least 105 hours from 2005 through 2007, when he may have been paid by the city while doing legislative work.

These hours are ones Stenehjam was able to provide times of meetings to the city. There are 24 additional incidents when he is unable to provide specific times.

Mike Scully, an equipment operator for the public works under Stenehjem, has kept records of hours within his department and came to the Tribune with his findings on Stenehjem's hours. The Tribune then conducted its own analysis of obtained records.

"This is a man who feels he can come and go as he pleases," Scully said. "He is having his cake and eating it, too."

But the matter isn't as simple as comparing time sheets. Legislative meeting records are vague and Stenehjem's accounts are not complete. Without precise records, it is difficult to judge.

Stenehjem contends he gets all his work done and the city gets more than 40 hours a week out of him. His superiors corroborated this, and added that he often comes an hour early, stays an hour late or works on weekends to fulfill his duties to the city.

"I try to do my very, very best," Stenehjem said. "I try to separate the two the best I can, but sometimes, it's impossible."

Chuck Klein, Bismarck human resources director, said Stenehjem's job requires a certain amount of flex, as he must sometimes work as early as 6 a.m. or as late as 9 p.m. - sometimes both, in the event of a blizzard.

Earlier this spring, Scully went to Klein's office with his findings. Human resourcs is in the process of gathering it's own information for an evaluation.

"Yeah, we're in the process of doing that right now," Klein said. "Once we have everything, we will make an evaluation."

Stenehjem said many of the hours he can't account for can be attributed to the Legislature's time system.

The way the Legislature's pay system works is if a committee or body meets in the morning or afternoon, even for 15 minutes, it is considered a half-day. If a committee or body meets in the morning and afternoon, even for only three total hours, it is considered a full-day.

In 2006, an interim year when the Legislature didn't meet, Stenehjem earned $12,075 for legislative work. In 2007, a legislative year, he earned $25,494 at the session. Incomes are different from year to year because of the number of committees a legislator attends and the number of out-of-state trips they take.

At the city, Stenejhem isn't required to keep track of his hours because he is paid a salary based on an assumed 40-hour work week. In addition, he is an exempt employee, which means he doesn't get overtime. His salary is $58,695 annually.

Stenehjem said many of his legislative meetings were short enough to make up and often he worked his lunch break to either go to a meeting of make up for it.

According to the Tribune analysis, out of the 105 hours unaccounted for, if incidents in the three-hour range or shorter are taken out, there are still 57 hours unaccounted.

In the last couple of years, Stenehjem was given 96 discretionary hours per year to flex the jumps between the two positions.

Klein said many of the discrepancies are before the discretionary hour system was used. Once the program was implemented, Stenehjem's hours became less confusing.

"Is there misconduct here? Maybe," said Klein. "But as of now, I don't have enough information to say yes or no."

If Klein's office determines that Stenehjem has not adequately managed his time records, he may have to pay the city back a determined amount or face a potential reprimand.

Stenehjem's city duties include organizing daily activities for 30 employees who handle snow removal, road maintenance, road striping and signing.

"Bob's done everything that I've asked him to do," said Jeff Heintz, public works service operations director and Stenehjem's immediate supervisor. "It's never been a question of Bob getting his job done."

The city supports its employees' participation in state government, said Mayor John Warford. He said any employee is encouraged to serve, as long as it does not interfere with their duties to the city.

"I am 100 percent comfortable with his work performance," Warford said. "I have not heard anything bad about his work."

Stenehjem has been in the Legislature since 1993 and worked in his city position for 16 years. He said in that time, he has never been approached by his supervisors with concerns over his hours or his job performance.

However, he said every election year, someone goes through his hours, e-mails or phone records, looking for discrepancies.

"I know people have been watching me," he said. "Somebody keeps track of the time I might not be there, but no one keeps track of the time I'm there at six in the morning."

Klein said this isn't an easy issue to come to resolution when information is not readily available.

"Based on everything I'm able to get, it appears everything is clear," he said. "But we still have some days we need resolved."

(Reach reporter Chris Rosacker at 250-8254 or chris.rosacker@;bismarcktribune.com.)