ESCANABA — The Delta County Board of Commissioners reviewed the job descriptions and potential wages for two positions in the county’s leadership Tuesday. The positions are being opened as a result of Delta County Administrator Ashleigh Young transitioning to a new role as the manager of the Delta County Airport.

Young has worn a number of hats with the county, currently serving as its manager, controller, human resources specialist and interim airport manager. With Young taking on airport responsibilities on a permanent basis beginning June 23, the commissioners were left with the question of how to structure the other positions so they could be filled by new hires.

After committee of the whole and personell meetings, the county decided to split the Young’s non-airport-related roles into two: a county controller and an administrator that is also responsible for human resources — at least for now.

“This will cover the HR position that doesn’t exist for the time (being), so the administrator will essentially be a dual role until that HR specialist position is formed through the administration office,” said Commissioner Kelli van Ginhoven, explaining that the new job description for the administrator position includes the administrator being responsible for employee benefit programs like insurance and pensions.

It is possible that once someone becomes the new administrator for the county they would keep the HR duties. The commissioners are hopeful that whoever takes the helm will be able to evaluate and potentially reorganize the administrative office to be more efficient and effective.

“That’s just part of what we’re hoping would come out of this administrator that does have this HR function is like, ‘how does that get done and is it best with the administrator or someone else?’ and let them decide what actually works best,” said Commissioner Christine Williams.

In addition to reviewing the qualifications and job duties of the two new positions, the commissioners reviewed the potential pay for each position. For the county controller, the county is prepared to offer a starting salary between $55,000 and $65,000. For the administrator, the county is looking at offering between $90,000 and $100,000.

Both salaries were too low for van Ginhoven, who argued that the administrator should be offered between $100,000 and $110,000 based on the required education and experience for the position and that the controller should receive between $65,000 and $75,000.

Responses to van Ginhoven’s comments were mixed. Commissioner Patrick Johnson agreed that the administrator position’s pay seemed low, but Williams, who sits on the county’s finance committee, said the county would be able to negotiate with the right employee for a higher salary by adjusting the benefits package for the administrator position. Few details were given about the benefits package during the meeting, but multiple commissioners indicated that a generous benefits package was a major selling point for the position.

“If we find somebody that is very qualified I don’t think we’re going to let a few bucks, $5,000 make somebody walk,” said Board Chair John Malnar.

For the controller position, Williams and Commissioner Matt Jensen, who also sits on the finance committee, said the wages were already higher than local comparable positions in the private sector due to the educational and experience requirements of the position.

For both positions, van Ginhoven was the lone dissenting vote against the salaries.

“I advocated on getting higher and better wages for our employees and I would like to see us start out higher, but that’s just my stance,” she said.

The positions opened by Young’s transition to the airport were not the only positions with the county that were discussed Tuesday. The board also approved updates to the building and zoning director job description that bring it into compliance with state rules and approved changes to the job description for the open parks manager position.

Following the approval of the parks manager description, the board of commissioners voted to allow the county’s parks and recreation commission to begin the process of reviewing applicants for the open position in a process similar to what was done by the airport advisory committee during the search for a permanent airport manager. The parks and recreation commission will make a recommendation to the board of commissioners, which will make the final determination on a parks manager hire.