Boreal Access

 The county board continues to consider an “Alternative Work Site” (AWS) agreement with Public Health & Human Services Director Sue Futterer, who was given permission in October to spend part of her workweek at her home office in Virginia, MN, where her husband has taken a school superintendent position.   The arrangement is in a three-month trial period extending mid-November to mid-February.

A survey regarding the perceived effect of the alternative work site arrangement was distributed to the 16 county employees working under Futterer as well as to numerous other department heads.  Most of the responses were positive.

At the Tuesday, January 19 human services board meeting, Futterer said, “I think it’s worked well overall.” 

Commissioner Jan Hall expressed her disapproval of the arrangement and suggested that the county contract out the job rather than maintaining it as a full-time salaried position.  “It’s unhealthy to our department and to the health of our county,” Hall said.

“There are a lot of people in the community who share Jan’s concern,” said Commissioner Bruce Martinson.

This pilot arrangement is paving the way for what is going to happen in the future, Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said.  “We are learning how to be flexible enough to adapt to the future,” he said.  With costs going up, he said, “the delivery systems are going to have to change in order to get results.”

Some counties have already started having employees work from home to save on office space, Martinson said.  Hall agreed but maintained that those counties have also altered salary and benefits across departments.

Commissioner Fenwick said he expects the way counties operate will change a lot over the next 10 years.  Decisions at the state level could result in courthouse closures and affect the number of sheriffs, county attorneys, and human services departments -- even the number of counties themselves.  He believes it is “highly likely” that Cook County will eventually not have a social services director onsite or answerable to the county board.

The human services “redesign” proposed by Governor Tim Pawlenty’s office could be dropped with a new governor, Hall contended.  She recommended against basing changes in Futterer’s job on a redesign that might not happen.

If the county does not allow the alternative work site arrangement to continue, Martinson said, Futterer might resign and the county could then incur more cost trying to replace her. 

Over the next month, Commissioner Fenwick will work with County Attorney Tim Scannell on an alternative work site contract for the board to consider after the trial period is over.