Customer service

cited as

strong point

By Fritz Busch

Staff Writer

NEW ULM — Brown County commissioners received an extensive organizational study report from Pat Melvin of David Drown Associates Tuesday.

Melvin said the study is a long-range planning tool that asked 41 county employees to answer 18 questions.

“In general, Brown County is a very good organization,” said Melvin “It has outstanding and committed staff that handled turnover challenges well with the help of long-standing department heads who assist in the hiring process,” read the report.

Melvin said the study showed a number of former Brown County residents continued to call the county for services after moving away due to positive customer service interactions.

COVID was a challenge trying to figure ways to operate safety, but for some departments, it resulted in process improvements by allowing residents to provide necessary information electronically and get approval remotely, i.e. e-permitting and camping reservations with RT Vision, read the report.

The County benefits from long-term employees who better understand processes and can share information with newer employees.

Staff concerns included not enough space for staff and equipment, separating related departments, lack of signage for visiting residents and outdated facility appearances. Staff was also concerned about lack of long-range planning for more storage options.

Departments with a less frequent need to communicate felt there would be value in sharing a multiple department Facebook page that could remain active and beneficial to residents.

The report credited staff with taking pride in their work, making customer service a priority.

Some staff noted pride in participating in holiday gift giving projects each fall that provided “wonderful feedback” from recipients, other program donors, county board members and management.

Melvin said some employees would value an internal newsletter that could introduce new employees. He recommended restarting a public newsletter that used to go out with tax statements.

Staff said a solution to overwhelming workload was to merge departments and/or do more cross training. Merging departments would provide more staff to draw from, some of whom may not be as busy. Crossing training staff allows others to be more familiar with duties they may need to perform for a temporarily vacant position.

Other changes recommended by staff included eliminating the need to revisit the county board for purchase approval that was earlier approved as part of the budget, which was viewed as effort duplication.

A staff member said work duplication included reporting information to the State that was already reported to the State in another department.

Other changes recommended by staff include a greater focus on staff retention, more county facility security, a ditch inspector or technician to address drainage issues, more court rooms including one to accommodate Zoom, facility expansion plans after an assessment and study, technology investments.

“I read the study. It’s quite lengthy with lots of good information,” said Commissioner Scott Windschitl. ”

“I hope little by little, some goals will be accepted. This (study) is beneficial to the County,” said Melvin.