BLUE EARTH - Rehiring a former employee and a looming union grievance caused some strife among Faribault County commissioners Tuesday.

Brenda Ripley, central services coordinator, requested the hiring of Gail Parish to work part time for the county attorney's office. She is a former part-timer whose position the county decided to leave open.

County Attorney Brian Roverud said one reason for the rehire is because people working in other depart-ments can't just drop what they are doing to help in his office.

"It's going to be fewer hours than what we had before," he said of the job. "But looking at the workload and the need to have someone available, it just did not work to have someone from another office to do it. ... My office was sitting empty a lot of days over May and June."

Commissioner Bill Groskreutz had an issue with hiring someone because the county has issued furloughs to save money this year.

Parish is slated for 10 to 14 hours per week, while her former schedule was 20 to 24 hours per week.

Commissioner Tom Warmka favored the rehire at fewer hours. He said he didn't want to be the one standing in the way of making sure Roverud's office has the staff needed to prosecute cases effectively.

Commissioner Tom Loveall asked how the rehire would fit into the budget.

County Auditor John Thompson said state aid cuts were not as deep as projected, so the money can come out of the general fund.

That concerned Groskreutz, who felt it would allow other departments to do the same.

Ripley said the county is not in a hiring freeze, and the unions are OK with this part-time rehire despite the furloughs. Ripley added that Parish has 15 to 20 years experience in legal office skills.

The board approved the hire with Groskreutz dissenting.

Turning to another matter, Ripley was the bearer of bad news.

The courthouse employees union had issued a memorandum of understanding for a compromise with the hiring of a summer intern. Each year, an intern works from June through August at the University of Minnesota Extension Office. The county is not involved with the intern's payroll, although the board approves the hire.

Ripley wasn't even aware of the hire until the union started talking about a grievance. With the furloughs, part of the agreement is that the county will not hire temporary employees to fill in. Thompson said the position in question was approved prior to the furloughs.

The union agreed to allow the county to keep the intern for the summer months, provided the county Extension employee - a union employee - is paid for 37.5 hours during those weeks. She is normally paid for 30 hours. The compromise for the union is that the Extension employee will not earn overtime during fair season, for which she normally accrues 80 hours of overtime.

Groskreutz felt this was unfair to other employees. Loveall disagreed, saying the union spoke for those other employees.

Ripley said the union would file a grievance if the memorandum was not approved. The grievance process would cost the county a lot more, she said, because of attorney fees and other costs.

Before the vote was called, Groskreutz said he would vote for it, but was not in favor of it. The rest of the board murmured agreement. The vote was unanimous.

In other business, commissioners approved the final two construction-related bids for the new law enforcement center.

Commissioners approved a low bid for a final cleaning for nearly $5,900 from Tidy Clean of Mankato.

The board also approved industrial epoxy for the floors in the jail pods and day areas. The bid was awarded to Performance Floor Coating Systems of Duluth for $19,700.