Security issues prompt upgrades

“Many times over the past few years, staff and citizens have been put in unsafe and dangerous situations, involving both verbal and physical threats, usually brought about by an individual in an unstable condition,” Terry Murray, director of the county Community Services Department, wrote in a letter to the board requesting the money for upgrades. “We have had instances where a hostile person has reached over and grabbed office support staff in anger, clients hitting staff over the head with a phone and verbal threats in regards to our safety. These types of instances have been on the increase over the past couple of years.”

Initially, Pavleck wasn’t convinced an upgrade in security to the department was fair when considering other county agencies.

“How far do you go in securing facilities that belong to the public?” he asked.

Murray stressed that the protection wasn’t just for employees, but for the public, too.

Commissioner Rob Ecklund said the board must consider that, while the price of the upgrades may seem costly, “if we had an incident there, $30,000 would be minimal compared to what we’d be liable for if something did happen to one of our workers or a member of the public in that facility.”

Still, Pavleck questioned where to draw the line.

“Who is to say the county assessor isn’t safe?...They’re in a position where they wrangle a lot of people and are in just as great of danger,” he said. “Who deserves security and who doesn’t if the goal is to protect public employees...How do we justify just doing this in one area?”

“Police are called to our agency more than any other place in International Falls,” Murray said. “This is going to cut down on them having to come over as often.”

A situation at the department’s offices last week put staff in danger because of the uncontrollable behavior of a person using the department’s services, said Murray.

“I’ve had my front desk staff, in the last year, attacked, grabbed and pulled. Luckily I was there to stop it,” he said. “That doesn’t happen anywhere else. We’re not talking about increasing someone’s taxes...We work with mentally ill...We have to back up, we have to call police and we have to pray to God they get there quickly.”

Murray admitted that if his staff were ever seriously injured, he would encourage them to sue the county.

Pavleck questioned if there was funds available in Murray’s budget for the project.

Murray said he will pay for the added security measures from his budget, which will generate a 25 to 40 percent federal and state reimbursement to reduce county funds needed for the project.

Administrator Teresa Jaksa said there was money available in the county’s building account.

“We’d be around $20,000,” she said of the final price tag. “I think it’s a manageable cost.”

“So move,” Pavleck said. “You talked me into it.”

In other action Tuesday, the board on a 4-1 vote adopted a resolution that calls for the Public Utilities Commission to base electricity rates on the cost of service to protect jobs in forestry and mining, and that the policy be implemented over a reasonable period of time to lessen impacts on consumers of electricity. Pavleck voted against the resolution.

“In reality, that means everyone else, other than industry, is going to see an increase in their electrical rates,” he said.

The proposed legislation would provide a savings to the electrical cost at the Boise Inc. mill in International Falls. Dan Toivonen, Woodlands manager, told the board Boise supported the resolution.

“We want to support industry, but coming out of what we’ve just experienced here (referring to the May 2 announcement from Boise to eliminate 265 jobs at the local mill)...I don’t think this county board should be supporting a tax increase for the people who are trying to get by out there.”

The commissioner noted he is not opposed the equal rate theory, but that it shouldn’t be the decision of a county board. Instead, he felt it should be handled at the state level and wasn’t “comfortable doing anything to hurt my constituents.”

Toivonen said the rate increase to individual residents, once broken down, was “a relatively small amount.”

“We’ve looked at rates for large consumers in the last 10 years and they’ve gone up 55 percent,” he said. “In light of what just has happened, anything this board could do to support the legislation that is down in St. Paul would help us compete as a mill in the future.”

McBride said he looked at the resolution as a fairness issue.

“Rates should be fair for everybody,” he said, adding if legislation helps keep the mill and other industries competitive, the board needs to support it.

“If we don’t have an industry here, we don’t have a tax base,” Ecklund added.

Pavleck said whether it was a tax or a fee, it was still coming out of the public’s pockets and “if we support this, we are supporting taking money from our taxpayers...Taxpayers have seen the same 55 percent increase over the past 10 years as industry has and they’re hurting.”

In other action, the board agreed to establish an economic response committee to consider the impacts of the job loss at the Boise Inc. paper mill.

The committee is made up of Commissioners Ecklund and Pavleck, and International Falls Mayor Bob Anderson and Councilor Pete Kalar, all members of the Koochiching Economic Development Authority Board. The committee has been established to coordinate activities and organize meetings and studies to address community and job recovery.

“We need to react quickly,” Ecklund said.

The response committee is expected to participate in a community leaders forum at 5:30 June 3 in the third floor courtroom at the Koochiching County Courthouse.

County Land Commissioner Dennis Hummitzsch reported 23,979 cords of wood valued at $643,802 was sold at a May 1 timber auction.

He added that the amount of wood sold under the county’s timber management plan — which is based on timber sales on acres; not volume — shows the department is on target with the plan’s benchmarks.