Hilbert resigns from FCPH administrator, RN posts

A special meeting was held by the Foster County Commission to discuss the absence of a second RN in the public health office.

In the meeting held on Thursday, January 19th, Foster County Public Health Nurse Lisa Hilbert tendered her resignation, without citing any reason.

Commissioner Becky Hagel has been working with the state to have the public health office become a district.

The board discussed options for the RN position and the administrator position.

A motion was passed to accept Hilbert's resignation and to open her position as administrator.

In other business:

• The board discussed the process of organizing bids for the McHenry Road Project.

• EAPC Architects and Engineers asked the board how many drawings they want to have on file for the basement project.

Special Meeting

January 20, 2023

Another special meeting of the Foster County Commission was held Friday, January 20 to discuss the open RN position.

The board learned that for an LPN to be hired, the RN would be risking their license overseeing the LPN.

Public health employee Colleen Sweet provided the board with the North Dakota Century Code on moving from a public health department to a public health district.

A district would mean that public health would act as its own entity, and they would not be county employees.

Commissioner Hagel discussed the salary scale and how it was compromised by tax base, market value and comparisons from other counties of similar size.

Currently, only six of the 53 counties are a single public health department.

A motion was passed to authorize public health administrator Lisa Hilbert to communicate a $35.00 - $40.00 per hour range of pay according to experience, to those that have reached out regarding the position and the board finds out what truly is market value for the position to adjust the current nursing staff pay accordingly.

Further discussion included repercussions other county departments may have and how to handle that as a board.

There is going to be additional work from the county and health department to sort out EIN, NDIRF, WSI, insurance, etc.

The personnel committee plans to attend the next board of health meeting and will present a resolution to the commission once the logistics are sorted out.