Jill Schramm/MDN The Ward County Commission meeting Nov. 21 are, from left, John Fjeldahl, Larry Louser, Alan Walter, Shelly Weppler and Jim Rostad. At right is Auditor/Treasurer Devra Smestad.

Typical office conflict is how most Ward County commissioners are describing allegations of difficult work environments by some past and present county employees.

Most recently, allegations of poor management or mismanagement in the Ward County Auditor/Treasurer’s Office have come to the commission’s attention, where concerns have been dismissed as not warranting action.

Commissioner John Fjeldahl has sought to bring the concerns to the table at public meetings, including pulling the resignation letter of an auditor’s office employee for discussion on Nov. 7. His move to start a dialogue was met with silence and the letter was filed without discussion.

“That frustrates me,” Fjeldahl said. “It’s our responsibility as commissioners to address that. I am open to any method of doing that. But saying we are not going to (address it) is not a good answer.”

However, commissioners as a whole have been reluctant to discuss personnel issues outside the personnel committee, on which commissioners Alan Walter and Jim Rostad serve.

Commissioners have shut down Sheriff’s Deputy Tim Poston after having allowed him an initial chance to speak regarding his alleged sexual harassment and hostile work environment complaints. An outside investigation found his complaints did not rise to a level requiring action. The commission dismissed any further investigation and rebuffed Poston’s efforts to continue to provide information.

Poston has presented a letter from a county Facilities Management employee that outlined concerns related to alleged workplace harassment from 2015 to the present.

Poston’s legal expert is Larry Hellie, a retired human resource specialist from Vancouver, Wash. Hellie said he has talked to about 10 Ward County employees and has several more who have asked to talk to him about problems with manager-employee relations.

“It’s not only Mr. Poston. There are other people in the sheriff’s office who have contacted me independently,” he said, adding that employees in other departments from roads to maintenance have contacted him as well. “They all say the same thing – the county is very, very remiss in dealing with the employees. They belittle them. They denigrate their work. They don’t listen to their complaints.”

Overpaid wages, inaccurate mill levies, failure to send delinquent tax statements, an unrecorded cash payment and discarded voter affidavits have been among concerns raised by employees leaving the auditor’s office. They also have voiced concerns about a negative atmosphere and low morale in the office related to management.

Rostad said he shares “just a little bit of the concerns. It doesn’t rise to the level of doing any action.”

With about 250 county employees, there will always be instances in which disagreements occur, he said.

Commissioner Shelly Weppler also characterized the problems as just office conflicts.

“We have brought employees together and resolved them (conflicts), and they just can’t get over them,” she said. Getting to the truth behind a conflict isn’t easy, either, she added.

“It’s he said-she said. That’s what it always comes down to, and there’s no proof,” Weppler said.

She acknowledged higher turnover in the auditor’s office but stated that does happen with some departments as employees advance to better paying jobs elsewhere.

Of the last four employees who left, one confirmed she had another job offer. She stated she took the job because she felt it provided a better working environment. The two other employees stated they resigned without job offers. One filed an unemployment claim based on hostile work environment and is collecting benefits. The fourth employee is believed to have left without a job offer but could not be located for comment.

Employees have been checking out of the Ward County Auditor/Treasurer’s Office at one of the higher rates for county offices. The auditor’s office confirmed 19 departures since 2005, with an additional five departures in the technology office that operates under the auditor’s purview.

Auditor Devra Smestad, who has been in her position since 2004, said two of the 19 were terminated and one retired, but most left for other jobs or family reasons. The eight-person office, excluding technology, has five staff members, including Smestad, who have been with the office for at least five years. Some who have left have been vocal in exit interviews about their dissatisfaction.

In a resignation letter given to commissioners, one employee wrote: “There’s no justification for deception, cover-up or lack of integrity. Ward County patrons deserve better!! I will not compromise my principles or values for the sake of a paycheck, but would be interested in staying if things change.”

However, employees have otherwise declined to speak publicly regarding their concerns.

The auditor’s office touches much of the business of the county, with interactions with all other departments.

Fjeldahl said he has heard concerns from some other department heads. Typically, those concerns relate to errors they say were made by the auditor’s office but are blamed on them, he said. In contacting department heads, the Minot Daily News discovered some concern may exist. Reducing contact as much as possible with the auditor’s office sometimes has been the response.

Commission Chairman Larry Louser said he has not heard any of the concerns and believes it should be addressed by the personnel committee, not the full commission.

“I am not on that, and I don’t ask questions,” he said. “I don’t think we should be micro-managing. That’s why we have the various subcommittees. That’s their task.”

Walter said the auditor’s office employee concerns appear isolated.

“I have talked to the rest of the employees and they are not that way. I base my thoughts on what they all had to say, not just one person,” he said.

He added he has been satisfied with the work of the auditor’s office overall.

He acknowledged some mistakes have come to light but he noted they have been minimal when considering the volume and detail of work.

Smestad admitted mistakes were made when voter affadavits were inadvertently discarded. The affidavits, signed by voters who couldn’t show residency, had been discovered in election luggage weeks after the election, too late to follow up with postcards for voter verification. Smestad denies intentionally destroying them and stated safeguards have been since put in place to guard against missing affidavits.

Some errors have come to the commission’s attention recently. One related to a tax law that caught some counties unaware. It is expected to cost Ward County just over $7,000 to correct the failure to treat use of county vehicles for commuting employees as a taxable benefit from 2014 to 2016.

Commissioners learned at budget time that the county this year assessed .87 of a mill more than the one mill permitted by law for senior citizen programs. Fjeldahl said he learned from an employee that the mistake had occurred in 2016 budget as well. It shakes the confidence in that office, he said.

“It did cost taxpayers’ money, and it’s something that’s against the law,” he said.

Smestad said the error resulted from confusion over the way the state listed maximum levies in its guidelines for auditors. The 2017 budget mistake is being corrected in the 2018 tax levy. The 2016 mistake has largely already been compensated for, Smestad said.

Fjeldahl said he has raised concerns regarding the auditor’s office during annual employee evaluations. He said his colleagues on the commission have been positive about Smestad’s performance but they have made suggestions during evaluations, and he commended Smestad for making recommended change last year.

The commission will be conducting its 2017 evaluations of department heads on Nov. 29.

Fjeldahl and Weppler also have mentioned removing the human resources officer from auditor supervision. Weppler said human resources should be a separate department, but to do so would require hiring someone with qualifications to serve as a department head and paying them accordingly.

“It’s something we need to look at. This year, budgetwise, we didn’t have the money,” Weppler said.