By Michael Howell
At its October 22 council meeting, the Stevensville Town Council considered consolidation of the Town Clerk and Treasurer positions and eliminating the Finance Officer position. The motion was made by Councilmember Jim Crews but following discussion of the matter all four council members voted unanimously against the proposal.
Crews said that the consolidation plan would save about $40,000 and that a Deputy Clerk could be hired for half that amount. The plan was to have the Clerk perform the Treasurer/Finance Officer duties and train a Deputy Clerk as a back-up for those duties as well. He said that would give the Town two fully qualified employees to handle all the work.
Councilmember Bill Perrin pointed out that the town already has a Deputy Clerk position and she handles all the utility billing. He noted that the Finance Officer position involved a tremendous amount of work although there was no official job description describing the work. It was simply work added to the Treasurer’s job in practice.
“Paying bills is a huge job in and of itself,” said Perrin. He said failure to pay bills in a timely fashion was one of the big problems faced when the current Treasurer came on board. The previous Treasurer had left with over $16,000 in unpaid bills past due over 90 days.
“This would be a real step backward,” he said. He said there were currently three people working at full capacity and they needed to look for someone with experience to replace the current Treasurer when her retirement becomes effective at the end of the year.
Councilmember Tim Hunter agreed, saying, “We saw it was too much work for one person and that’s why we created the position. This would be a big step backward.”
Councilor-elect Bob Michalson asked the current Town Clerk Stacy Bartlett to comment on the issue. Bartlett said that her job description did not adequately describe all her duties. It also means serving as Court Clerk and Police Clerk and was actually too much to handle. As a result, Brandon Dewey took over some of those duties. Bartlett also said that she witnessed the work that Treasurer Stephanie Mapelli and the former Mayor did to get the finances in order and catch up on three years of audits and state financial reports.
“I’m not qualified to do Stephanie’s job and would not even try it,” said Bartlett. “Look at what happened to the County when they hired an unqualified Treasurer.”
Mayor Paul Ludington agreed, saying, “The town hired an unqualified person and it put us in a bad situation.” He said there is a town in Montana that is not getting any tax dollars from the state because the state doesn’t know where the money is going. He said what Mapelli and Mayor Mim Mack accomplished narrowly avoided the same fate for Stevensville. He said the current staff was already overloaded and reducing the staff by combining jobs was not the answer. He also noted that the two massive water and sewer projects were still ongoing.
The council voted 4 to 0 against consolidation of the jobs. The agenda item for potentially hiring a new Deputy Clerk was permanently tabled and adding a job description outlining the duties of a Finance Officer was approved unanimously.
At its November 12 meeting the council heard two letters and a few verbal comments asking that either a complete regular audit or a special audit be performed following the former Mayor’s resignation, the Treasurer’s retirement and the change in two Town Council seats. Councilor-elect Bob Michalson said that he had contacted the Montana League of and Cities and Towns and they strongly recommended an audit in such a situation.
Ludington noted that after an incredible amount of work by the Treasurer and the former Mayor, the town’s audits and state financial reports that were three years behind had been brought up to date and that the most recent audit for the 2013-2014 fiscal year showed that the town was in excellent financial condition according to the independent auditors. He also noted that work on the 2014-2015 FY audit was already underway and that an audit firm was on that night’s agenda to be hired to conduct the audit.
Perrin noted that the state had informed the town that since it had successfully caught up in its backlog of audits and financial reports that it could revert to doing an audit every two years instead of annually if the council desired.
“We chose to continue doing annual audits and the process for this one has already begun,” said Perrin.
In other business:
• The Council approved a couple of change orders in the Waste Water Treatment Improvement project. One was for $3,302.83 for installation of perforated pipes at the headworks and from there to the polishing pond. The second was for $17,521.94 for site grading and reconstruction south of the headworks building. These changes increase the overall cost of the project from $3,587,892.33 to $3,608,717.17.
• The Council approved changes to the Recruitment, Selection and Promotion section of the Town’s Personnel Policy.
• The Council heard from Chris Weatherly about the dilapidated condition of the welcome signs that were installed along Highway 93 as part of the Highway widening project in 2007. He submitted two estimates for potential remedies, one involving repairs to the existing signs at an estimated cost of approximately $2,395 and a second, involving total replacement of the signs, at an estimated cost of approximately $4,625. The Stevensville Main Street Association Design Committee recommended full replacement.
Crews said that his interpretation of the contract between MDT and the County suggests that maintenance of the signs would fall on the County. He asked if the condition of the signs constituted a safety hazard. Based on an affirmative response he moved to table the issue until a letter could be written to the County asking them to do the required maintenance to address the safety issue. The motion was approved on a 4 to 0 vote.
• The Council also approved a grant application to Montana State Aeronautics to cover 5% of the project cost for the Airport Runway Improvement Project. The FAA is footing 90% of the bill. If Montana Aeronautics approves the grant it would reduce the portion of matching funds owed by the town to 5%. The total project cost is $130,000.
• The Council approved hiring Wipfli LLP, an auditing firm out of Helena, for $15,500 to perform the 2014-2015 FY audit.
• The Council consented to the appointment of Dan Cranston and Mike Mickelson to the Stevensville Police Commission.