The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors approved the creation of a human resource manager position for the county at their last board meeting on Tuesday evening, Sept. 17.
    However, the county was already advertising for the position at the end of August and into the beginning of September.
County board chairman, Jack Sauer gave the finance department and human resource committee permission to advertise for the position long before the creation of the position in question came before the county board.
    Supervisor Connie Hull commented on this during the board meeting, saying she had seen the ad in the paper when the position had not even been approved yet. “So, we generated advertising costs before approval of the creation of the position,” she said.
    “This was advertised previous to county board approval. We don’t typically do that, but I gave permission with the understanding that if it went down at county board we would certainly not be interviewing anyone,” said Sauer.
    “I guess if it goes down tonight I’m in error,” he added.
    The creation of the position was in fact approved however, with one nay vote from supervisor Gerald Heimann.
    The proposed salary for this position was listed as between $40,000 and $50,000 per year plus benefits effective upon hire.
    According to the fiscal note of the resolution this position will incur additional wage and fringe expenditures of approximately $4,340 to $6,150 per month for the months of 2013 for which the position is filled depending on actual salary and the health insurance plan selected.
    It was also noted that the cost of this position will be partially offset by the reduction in the payroll officer hours and the reduction of labor legal counsel expense.
    Currently the county is still in the interviewing process for the position, but Nicola Maurer, the county’s finance director, said if any additional applications end up coming in, they would still be looked at.