Supervisors discuss candidates for safety coordinator

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors will soon act on a replacement safety coordinator.
At the regular supervisors meeting Aug. 9, Supervisors Chairman Mark Peterson discussed where they were in the search so far.
“I know we have a possible job description, and those have been shared among the county staff. We just need to determine how many hours per week the position entails,” Peterson said.
Supervisor Donna Robinson said she asked outgoing safety coordinator Beth Peterson how many hours the job required, and whether five hours per week was a good estimate. Robinson said the response was that the hours could vary.
“Beth told me that it completely depends on what is needed at the time. If things are running smoothly, and there are no issues, it would take less than five hours to do per week. However, if something happens and someone has a claim, there’s paperwork involved and the hours can go up, so they could probably go weeks with very little to do, and then other weeks there may be more work required,” explained Robinson.
According to Robinson, they set up a safety board several years ago, which Robinson was a part of, and they reduced the board from 14 members to seven. The board met quarterly, allowing for the county to keep up with guidelines that were imposed by the state. She also had some ideas for Peterson’s replacement.
“The meetings were usually brief, mainly just updates. It didn’t require a lot of work.  I have made a couple of suggestions for a new safety coordinator. One of those people was Jim Richardson. I told him that if we don’t take action, or if he’s not comfortable yet in making a decision to apply for the post, I’d like to sit down with him and have some discussions, and invite Brian Hamman, who is a past safety coordinator, and take the opportunity to go over the role,” said Robinson.
Richardson joined the Montgomery County Secondary Roads department in 2017 as a designer and inspector. Richardson said he welcomed the opportunity to sit down and discuss the position.
“I have been researching the post and seeing what the plans are, and I do feel like I need some more time to think about it. I feel the course of action being suggested is exactly what we need to do,” commented Richardson.
Peterson said he had also had inquiries from people who already worked for the county, and who were interested in the post, but were waiting to see what the job description entailed.
Robinson said there had also been discussions about the safety coordinator be someone who worked for the secondary roads department, or the sheriff’s office, due to the types of claims received.
“When we have safety issues or incidents, nine times out of 10 they’re either from the secondary roads office, or the sheriff’s office, which makes sense as they are the employees who are going out and doing a lot more physical work, as opposed to just sitting at a desk,” said Robinson.
Peterson declined to name the employees who had expressed an interest, but said they were members of the secondary roads department and the sheriff’s office.
“Those departments are definitely some of the bigger departments for the county, and I would agree they most regularly deal with safety issues,” stated Peterson.
The supervisors were in agreement with the job description for the position. It was decided to share the description with Richardson and the other two interested applicants.
With multiple persons interested in the post, the supervisors also agreed to have sit-down interviews with the applicants with two supervisors present, and then make a final choice for the safety coordinator from those interviews.
Further discussion on the position is expected at a future board of supervisors meeting.