Commissioners pause HR pay-policy changes, designate interim HR lead and shift payroll oversight to commission office

Pennington County commissioners on Feb. 17 deferred final action on proposed revisions to the county's compensation policy and took two interim personnel steps: they supported naming the HR senior manager for temporary leadership oversight (formal appointment to be determined) and approved a short-term reassignment of administrative oversight for county payroll operations to the commission office.

Senior HR manager Sandy Sortland presented language changes intended to reflect step increases and recent board motions. Commissioners raised multiple concerns during a lengthy debate: several said step increases should be tied to documented performance reviews rather than treated as automatic time-in-service increases; others warned the language had not been adequately vetted with department heads and payroll/auditor staff. Commissioner Durr and others asked that the policy be reworked with more department-head input and returned at a future meeting; the board agreed to continue the policy-item discussion.

Separately, county management and HR described significant short-term instability in payroll since the Tyler rollout and a need for immediate operational oversight. After staff and payroll employees asked for direct support, the board voted to assign interim administrative oversight of payroll functions to the commission office effective immediately, with a formal review of payroll's organizational placement during the 2027 budget process. Commissioners instructed staff to return with more detailed recommendations and clarified that longer-term placement and compensation implications would be examined in coming weeks.

No final comprehensive policy change was enacted at the Feb. 17 meeting; commissioners tasked staff and department heads to develop clearer merit/step procedures and to work on implementation and auditability prior to any substantive policy vote.