DEL NORTE- Rio Grande County Commissioners met for their monthly manager meeting on the morning of September 11. Department managers from all of the county’s divisions were present to give updates on coming changes, future training and to ask questions.

During the opening of the meeting commissioners addressed a recent payroll that left many employees without their pay for a short period of time. According to a statement made by county commissioner Chairwoman Suzanne Bothell, the payroll issue was due to a glitch in the county’s CIC programing and that the problem had been solved. “We are continuing to monitor the program and have notified CIC of the issue. We are working to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Bothell.

Commissioner Gene Glover spoke next about the upcoming budget, stating that the board would begin budget hearings in the next few weeks and asked department heads to plan on scheduling their hearing around their department needs. “We also need you to know that the purchasing policy hasn’t changed since 2008. Department managers need to ask the board for permission on purchases that cost more than $5,000 regardless of whether or not it is in your yearly budget,” said Glover.

Bothell took an opportunity to introduce Debbie Phillips, a new interim grant manager that would be helping to sort out grant monies for the county. In the past, grant funding was placed in different areas of the county’s finances and sometimes in the wrong location which has caused a miscalculation in the audit over the last few years.

Commissioners hired Phillips to change the procedure on how grants are reported in the county’s finances and to make sure that they are reported in the proper accounts. County Administrator Trish Slater asked all departments to bring grant paperwork directly to the administration office so that it could be processed accordingly and reported in the correct accounts. “We just want to make sure a copy is kept in the administration office before it is handed off to the treasurer,” said Slater.

Slater also introduced the new county clerk, Lori Maxfield, who would be spending the next few weeks training for her position. Slater continued the meeting by asking what the managers felt about the monthly manager meeting and what they could do to make it more productive.

Public Health Director Emily Brown stated that she felt the time could be better used if the department managers could work on things like the employee handbook revision project and give their updates for the month during that meeting instead of having to come back during the regular board meeting to give updates.
Other elected officials and department heads agreed with Brown’s suggestion and commissioners decided to have an agenda made for the next meeting that would be held at the beginning of October to see how that would help. Commissioners thanked the managers for their input and closed the manager meeting.