County moves forward with plan for network administrator position

Taylor County moved forward with the creation of a new network administrator position to oversee the county’s broadband network and be the contact person with outside vendors.

On a two to one vote with Scott Mildbrand opposed, the members of the county’s executive committee voted to move forward with a new 20-hour per week position.

Committee member Mike Bub advocated for the position saying it was intended to protect the county’s multi-million dollar infrastructure investment and seek to maximize its use ensuring revenue would be coming to the county.

Mildbrand said that when the county got involved with the project he did not believe they were going to be internet service providers and said he felt the internet service provider they are working with should be doing the work to market and expand use of the network.

“What if the internet service provider isn’t fulfilling its contract?” Bub asked “Then you call Courtney,” Mildbrand replied, referring to county attorney Courtney Graff. He suggested that perhaps the county has the wrong partner if they can’t trust their vendor to do the work.

Bub said it went beyond that to someone being there to do the strategic thinking and laying out plans to move forward.

Bub said he did not see how the work of overseeing the network could be done by a committee within the county saying it presents the question of who is in charge. “It is like having three people in the car all driving at the same time. How does that work?” he said.

County board chairman Jim Metz said that it sounded like Bub, who has led the broadband project and who has a background in this area from his work experience, was trying to create a job for himself and said that Bub will need to decide if they wanted to hire someone outside or if he wanted to stay on the county board.

Mildbrand expressed concern about the cost of the position suggesting, instead that they cover the duties with existing staff. Bub countered and said that there were significant grant dollars the county is seeking which would more than cover the costs of the position.

In the end, the decision came down to Metz who grudgingly sided with Bub on the need for the position. “We have to have someone to watch the cat get out of the house,” Metz said, stating they needed someone looking out for the county’s interests.

In other business, committee members:

  Approved filling a full time vacancy in the child support office. The office sees between 800 and 950 cases, administrator Michelle Kurth explained that each case could be a mom, dad and three children. She noted the numbers have gone down due to the increase in joint placement and that two to three years ago there were over 1,000 cases.

  Approved having the county’s human resources director and Graff develop a code of ethics for both county employees and elected officials and to bring it back to the county for review and approval. Graff had supported the county adopting a formal code noting there were different legal standards between employees and elected officials. She also noted the county could adopt the state ethics code as the county’s code or add to it. Bub noted the county can be more restrictive such as having a specific dress code for county meetings, but cannot be less restrictive than state law. Graf noted that having such a code in place would serve to minimize the county’s liability going forward if situations were to arise.