MARQUETTE — Staffing levels will increase at the Marquette County Treasurer’s office.

The Marquette County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve an increase from two full-time employees and one part-time employee to three full-time employees at a recent regular meeting.

According to a letter from Susan Verco, manager of the Marquette County Finance Department, the annual cost to increase the position from 20 hours to 40 hours per week would be approximately $31,500, including benefits.

About 40 percent of the additional cost for the position will be funded by the Register of Deeds Automation Fund, while 60 percent will come from the Treasurer’s Foreclosure Fund, the letter said.

The Treasurer’s Office had three full-time employees in 2010, but when vacancies occurred during that year, the Treasurer and Equalization Director experimented with job sharing, eventually adding the Register of Deeds to the mix.

“The Treasurer continues to struggle with staffing the office and while sharing employees across departments was a good experiment, it has proven difficult to provide adequate coverage in each of the offices and get important work done,” the letter said.

Marquette Treasurer Anne Giroux said it has been a struggle for many years to try to get things done.

“It has been difficult to schedule between three very small offices to make sure we had adequate coverage,” Giroux said. “Some of the additional tasks that we have done with our Homestead audits have taken up a lot of time for my staff as well as unclaimed property processing. Those are some of the examples of things that we didn’t used to do that we are doing now.”

Board Chair Gerald Corkin said the amount of work being done in the Treasurer’s Office warrants a bump in staffing.

“There is a very good track record of production in your office,” Corkin said. “So I would support this for all you have been doing.”

The staffing increase to three full-time employees will begin as soon as one of the employees returns from leave, Giroux said.

Lisa Bowers can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. Her email address is lbowers@miningjournal.net.