Commissioners terminate long-time secretary

By PATSY STODDARD Editor

The June 7 meeting of the Emery County Commissioners saw long time secretary to the Emery County Commission walk out of the meeting. This came when Commissioner Paul Cowley in the commissioner’s reports thanked Leslie Bolinder for her service to the county and to him personally as a new commissioner. This could be viewed as a slap in the face to Bolinder in light of her being terminated on June 2. Bolinder has worked for the county for 27.5 years. At this meeting two former Commissioners Jeff Horrocks and Laurie Pitchforth as well as former county attorney David Blackwell were in attendance in support of Bolinder.
Bolinder is being replaced by three part-time assistants, one for each of the commissioners.
The agenda item stated: Consideration and decision on proposed Resolution Amending Title 1, Chapter C, of the Emery County Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual regarding Commission Senior Administrative Assistant position (to three part-time and Executive, Administrative Assistants.
Commission chairman Keith Brady read the item on the agenda it was seconded and approved without any prior discussion in a recent commission meeting.
Scott Crook reviewed the county’s policies and procedures manual last year. He at that time made several suggestions This is an excerpt from the Emery County Progress on Aug. 18, 2015 with remarks from Crook: “Scott Crook from the Arnold and Crook Law Firm reviewed the new Personnel Policies and Procedure Manual for Emery County. He works with cities and counties to make sure their policy and procedure handbook is up to date with state law. Regulations have changed over the years and he looked for things not in compliance with state statute. The anti-discrimination portion of the policy manual will be updated with changes with non-discrimination based on sex and religion. He said he has modeled the Emery County manual after other counties he has worked with.
The commissioners said they haven’t read the entire manual yet and would like to table approval until they have completed the book.
At-will employees were discussed and career service employees. Career service employees have protection under the law that changing elected officials can’t come in and get rid of them and replace them with employees they select. These protections were started with the labor movement to protect civil servants.
Commissioner Keith Brady said in the private sector you can fire someone without stating a reason and in the government side, sometimes people give half-hearted work and it’s difficult to fire someone. These protections do not apply to contract, seasonal and temporary workers. They went over the steps to take for a non-performing employee. Such employees could be disciplined and the procedure for this was outlined.
Record keeping and computer safety are also part of the manual. Each department can have a stand alone policy for department specific issues. The main policy is for the entire county. The conflict of interest and disclosure policy has been updated. An employee cannot be a direct supervisor of a family member.”
Crook was back again at this June 7 meeting at the request of the county commissioners. He stated he has been an employment attorney since 1998. This is a regular part of his practice. He said he reviews policies and suggests changes related to human resource matters. Their law office is retained by several entities. “If you recall, I spoke last September and made recommendations that the county consider changing positions and take all department heads and the secretary of the county commission to make at will employees.” Crook explained the civil service system established around the time of Teddy Roosevelt. This means that most employees who are essentially non-management level, won’t be fired at will by government. Upper-level cabinet positions at the executive level change with a new administration. “My recommendation was to adopt the same thing and simply follow the statute that exists in Utah,” stated Crook.
A citizen Val Payne asked a question. He views three separate secretaries serving each commissioner could cause a lot of important information to fall through the cracks. There needs to be coordination to keep people in touch. He said the experience Bolinder has is invaluable to the county. He sees the position as administrative assistant to be one where confidences must be kept.
Crook said that is a point well taken and each commissioner must be able to trust their secretaries to keep confidences.
Payne said, “It’s a poor idea and poor management.”
Crook commented that Emery County is the only county that has career service employees at every level.
Editors note: At this point in the meeting I asked what had changed. If the changes were recommended and rejected, then what happened between September and June to change the county commissioners opinion on career service and at will employees. Crook said he could not answer that question due to it being a personnel issue. I also objected to any closed door meetings or communications they may have been having with each other to come to this decision without it ever coming up in a public meeting.