It was a battle royale at times as Morton County department heads fought over employees and looked to the county commission to provide a semblance of continuity in hiring and salary procedures.

At at time when Morton is transitioning its employee services to a private organization, Avitus Group, at least three departments are looking to fill positions with new hires and possibly a fourth, if the auditor hires a person from the Tax Department.

For two hours, department heads discussed with commissioners the problems they are having with hiring practices and inequity in employee salaries. Eventually, Sheriff Dave Shipman provided a suggestion that the county commission approved - any new hires will start at the base salary of their classification until Avitus completes its comprehensive salary review and can make recommendations to the commission.

There were also complaints that there was inequity in salaries among employees, with department heads bringing in new hires at the same salaries paid long-time employees with the same classification.

Currently, the sheriff's department is attempting to fill two positions, the emergency manger one and the auditor's office one. State's Attorney Al Koppy recommended that the departments be allowed to do so since they have prior commission approval. The commission put a hiring freeze in place in September, but departments could still fill vacant positions with the commission's approval.

Auditor Paul Trauger was allowed to advertise to fill the opening in his department in-house and has offered the position to an employee in tax director Leon Samuelson's office at a considerable pay increase. Samuelson argued that the employee was very valuable to his department and the employee will be leaving at the busiest time of year. The tax director, repeatedly pounding the speaker's podium, said the only reason the employee was leaving was for the increased salary and asked he be allowed to match or better the auditor's offer.

Treasurer Vicki Lippert defended Samuelson's position, saying that three employees had been taken from her department under similar circumstances.

"If we allow this, we'll have 20 other employees asking for the same thing," said Commissioner Jim Boehm. He asked Avitus representative Brian Reinbold how long it would be before the company could handle these human resources questions and make recommendations to the commission.

Reinbold replied that it was part of Avitus' action plan to do a comprehensive salary study within the first 60 days of being hired by the county, though he felt the individual items could be handled much sooner.

Commissioner Andy Zachmeier said he had contacted Avitus about the situation and had hoped the company would have a human resources professional available for the special meeting, and he was upset they didn't.

Emergency manager Tammy Lapp-Harris told commissioners she had contacted Avitus about filling the position in her department. Avitus had advised that she hire the position as allowed by the commission, with the salary starting at the beginning of the salary classification scale.

A motion to have Avitus look at the auditor's position and reopen it was made by Commissioner Matt Erhardt. Samuelson argued against that approach, saying he didn't want to stand in the way of his employee making more money by taking the job. Instead, he reiterated that he should be allowed to offer the employee more.

Samuelson went as far as to say he may retire if he loses the employee to the auditor's office.

"Everybody can be replaced, but it's going to take time. I'm not threatening you, but I do have some health problems and my health is more important than my job," Samuelson said. "If my employee goes or not, the salary needs to be increased."

Trauger also complained that, if he couldn't hire someone at this time, the auditor's office would be short-handed, which could impact payroll and tax collections. The auditor did note that the commission does determine how much a position is paid and that he hadn't yet gotten approval for the salary of the new hire.

Shipman then made his suggestion that new hire salaries start at the base of their classification. This would make the salary that the auditor offered the tax department's employee about the same as they are currently making. Zachmeier put the suggestion into the form of a motion that was approved 4 to 1, Erhardt offering the only dissenting vote.

Trauger said that it was likely the employee wouldn't accept the job under those conditions and, since he would have to wait for Avitus' involvement, asked that the current deputy auditor, who plans on retiring, be asked to stay on for a least another month. The commission approved.

Commission Chairman Mark Bitz said that there was a "lack of trust" of the employees in the county's human resources and personnel board recommendations, which were unfortunately followed by the commission for the past several years.

"I have high expectations that, by hiring Avitus for our human resources, they will provide us the information and recommendations to make the right decisions," Bitz said.

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