(Spirit Lake)—A committee assigned the task of studying the pros and cons of combining the Recorder and Auditor’s offices presented its findings at this (Tues.) morning’s Dickinson county board of supervisors meeting. The committee’s Chairman, Denny Perry, presented four recommendations…(click here for comment.) “The first one was to possibly think about hiring a part time person to assist in the handling of material during workload times, to help aid in times of personnel shortage during vacation and leaves. The second was to encourage and implement a process for increasing efficiency of the offices in the courthouse similar to the “Lean” principles. We had a person helping us look at the “Lean” principles; and I think this would be something that wouldn’t be as costly or difficult, to embark on a communications campaign to inform the people of Dickinson county as to the increased workload that is required to conduct the business of our county and how unique this 16,000 member county has become; and we would also ask the board to be proactive in the field of information technology by monitoring many different possibilities of cost effective changes that would benefit each office in the county, and just putting a computer in doesn’t replace a person.”
Phil Petersen, President of the Dickinson County Taxpayers Association, also addressed the supervisors. He says they feel the report was lacking in one area…(click here for comment.) “We appreciate the committee and their hard work, but we did kind of feel that they looked a lot at the way the work is being done today and maybe not quite as much emphasis on how it could be done better. And of course this is a county that has been in operation for well over a hundred years this has been done a certain way. It may be worth while to look at is there a better, maybe there’s not a better way. But we think more attention should have been paid to how things could have been done better. We’re encouraged that they recommended the “Lean” process because that may be a method by which you can look at how the processes are done and possibly find a better way to do it.”
The supervisors took no action this (Tues.) morning regarding the committee’s recommendation.
In other business, the supervisors approved a lease agreement for the former DHS building the county owns in downtown Spirit Lake. Terms of the three-year lease $1,000 a month lease include an option for the tenant, who’s name wasn’t released during the meeting, to purchase the building for $150,000.
To see the report, click here for page 1; click here for page 2
