County board to advertise assessor opening

To maintain proper legal protocols and to remain consistent with the filling of vacancies of elected offices in the past, the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners decided on Monday it will advertise for someone to replace County Assessor Pat Sandberg when she retires next month. 
In submitting her resignation at last week’s meeting, Sandberg had urged the board to appoint her deputy, Vicki Wylie, who holds an assessor’s certificate from the state Department of Revenue, to fill out her term until a new assessor can be elected in November of next year. While the board appeared to be open to doing that, board members wanted to make sure they were adhering to proper protocols in filling the position. 
At Monday’s meeting, led by vice chair Nicole SaBell in the absence of chairman Rich Nelson, the board discussed how it should proceed with filling the position, and appeared ready to table the decision until the following week. When asked about the legalities of the situation, County Attorney Douglas Dexter said he didn’t believe the law mandated any particular course of action, adding “Just be consistent (with what you have done previously).”
After a discussion about whether previous openings such as county sheriff had been advertised in the past, Commissioner Francis McDonald moved to proceed with advertising the position in several places and to leave the position open for applications through July 31. The advertisement will also state that all applicants must be in possession of a state county assessor’s certificate. The motion was seconded and carried.

Budget requests for 2025-26 
Earlier in the meeting, the board heard budget requests from three entities that receive funding from the county for their annual budgets. The first to appear was Carrie Rodriguez, the chief probation officer for District 5 Probation, which serves Hamilton and 10 other counties in this area. 
Rodriguez said the agency has a total of 66 staff members who served a total of 3,936 individuals in 2024 who had been ordered into one of the programs by a court. She said the agency is asking for a total of $17,313 from the county this year, a 5.6 percent increase over the current fiscal year. However, Rodriguez noted that if Hamilton County had to provide those same services without the aid of state funds it would have cost the county more than $665,000 last year. 
Next up was county Emergency Manager Ben Crabtree, who presented a total budget request for 2024-25 of $128,000, representing an 11.5 percent increase. Crabtree also reported that his office stands to be over budget for this year by 1.5 percent, due to having to pay for unused vacation time for the former director. That prompted a discussion among the board members as to how such expenses could be paid without the agency’s budget taking a large hit when an employee leaves. County Business Manager Pat Shaw said he would check with the state auditor’s office to see what it recommended. 
Finally, Wendy Dethlefs, clerk of district court, told the board her office is making a total budget request of $137,788 for the coming fiscal year which represents a 1.59 percent increase.