Health department pay dominates health board meeting

A quarterly meeting of the Hill County Health Board Wednesday was dominated by a discussion about the health department’s pay, with employees of the department asking the commission for better communication on the issue.

The argument was prompted by a discussion of the county’s still-vacant sanitarian position, with Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson, also the chair of the health board, saying he’s spoken with people from across the state about whether they’d be interested in the position, but with little success.

He said he also spoke to people at Montana State University-Northern about the possibility of recruiting from one of their programs as well.

Board member Erica McKeon-Hanson said the average pay for sanitarians in the state is $28 an hour and it’s frankly no wonder they can’t find someone considering what the county is offering, especially considering the educational and training requirements for the position.

Peterson said Chouteau County is considering lowering the requirements for the sanitarian, but health department employees said the problem goes beyond that position, saying many positions at the health department are not being compensated properly given their requirements.

WIC Coordinator Nicole Hungerford said seeing job postings for county positions that require a high school diploma or GED at $24 an hour, while people at the health department with almost a decade of service get less than that when they need a degree, more training, and ongoing education to keep their jobs is insulting.

“It’s a slap to the face,” Hungerford said.

Peterson objected to her tone and asked her to change it.

“I’d appreciate it if the attitude was a little bit different,” he said.

Peterson said the commission has been speaking with Public Health Director Kim Berg about the issue of pay and the commission is working on plans to address the matter of pay as well as other employee needs.

Health Department employees asked what kind of things they’ve been talking about but Peterson said he can’t talk about it, and they would tell them soon.

“I wish I could share it, but give us a week or 10 days,” he said.

Hungerford and others said these are issues they’ve been bringing up for years now and there never seems to be any indication given to them of any progress.

“Every time we have this meeting, it’s the same thing, ‘We’re working on it,’ ‘We’ll have to look at that.’ We’ve asked you to look at these things in the past,” she said.

Hill County Commissioner Sheri Williams said the commission has been talking about employee pay for a substantial amount of every day for the past week, and they are trying to figure out a solution.

“It takes time,” Williams said. “… I ask for your patience.”

She said the particular job posting they are talking about was for a position that was originally two that were merged into one.

Health department employees said there are plenty of positions that have been merged and had more responsibilities integrated into them that have not seen any increase in pay.

McKeon-Hanson echoed the employees of the department, saying it is incredibly concerning to her that the substantial amount of education and training required for these positions seems to be being ignored.

She said positions like that of the Hill County attorney reflect their educational requirements and the salary reflects that, but the health department doesn’t seem to be being given the same treatment.

She said the people at the health department managed to deal with the pandemic even as much of the public started treating them horribly and they stuck around even though higher-paying jobs are available elsewhere.

McKeon-Hanson said the department is a huge asset to the county, but morale is way down and she doesn’t want to lose them.

Peterson said it is more complicated than that and some positions also require more experience or supervisory responsibility, so it’s difficult to place every position in the county’s pay matrix effectively.

He also said the commission has a tremendous amount to do so finding a solution will take time.

“All I can say to you is that we’re trying,” he said.

Hungerford and others said they want the commission to do a better job about keeping people like them in the loop about ongoing issues like this.

Peterson said Berg is supposed to keep them up to date on her conversation with the commission.

They said she does, but Berg has also asked them to keep the department as a whole in the loop.

Peterson seemed resistant to that idea, talking about a recent incident where a “certain individual” at the health department got angry at him when he shared information he had received from another county, because that individual had already given him that information before.

“When I communicate I get in trouble for it,” he said.

He also talked about the health department asking him to visit less frequently during the pandemic.

Peterson said the people at the health department need to come to him if they want to talk.

“My door is open, too,” he said.

Program Assistant Courtney Detrick said she’s not going to do that if the commission is just going to ignore everything she says.

Conversation ended after Detrick said they felt that, during the pandemic, the county treated them like bad guys during that time.

Peterson did not respond, and conversation on the matter ended after McKeon-Hanson reiterated her support for the department and appreciation for their work.

After this discussion Hungerford said her program is seeing more and more in-person visits, which she hopes will continue.

She said recent increases in the benefits they offer have been extended through July and conversations are going on at the federal level to make that increase permanent.

McKeon-Hanson said family planning has recently seen an uptick in requests for STD testing and they are in the process of getting a same-day gonorrhea test.

She said they already have same day testing for hepatitis C, HIV and syphilis, and a gonorrhea test will round out their same-day testing.