MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Board of Commissioners held a special meeting Monday morning, addressing the three chosen candidates for county administrator, illegal pay raises and retroactive pay.

With Marquette County being without an administrator since March, the board has dedicated extra time and energy to taking on a heavier workload than normal. In May, the board voted to raise salaries for the commissioners from $8,000 to $12,000 — amounts had not been raised since 1973 — and provide retroactive pay back to Jan. 1. Under the wage increase, the board chair’s salary increased from $9,000 to $18,000 and the vice-chair’s from $8,000 to $14,000. This violated two state laws.

“I never thought about that, that you weren’t allowed to do a retroactive compensation, so I guess (we) never looked at it, never thought to look at it,” Vice-Chair Bill Nordeen said at Monday’s meeting. “But we’re not allowed to, so we’re going to fix that. Obviously, that’s what we do in life, we find issues and we fix them.”

Nordeen explained that the thought process behind the pay raise was due to the board members performing extra responsibilities in the absence of a county administrator, that they would be able to be retroactively compensated. The board is currently working with their legal counsel to decide on a stipend for the additional duties performed without a county administrator and that the dollars paid to the board in error will be recovered.

During the meeting, the board also chose three candidates – Jared Hautamaki, Michael Larson and Duane Duray – to move forward with the interview process for the county administrator position. Interviews will be open to the public and are set for July 15.

“I just wanted to comment on the fact that we’ve had such outstanding candidates. We had six people (who) applied and I would’ve been happy to interview all six of them,” said Commissioner Karen Alholm. “We were very fortunate in that respect. I concur with the other commissioners that we delayed this a little bit longer than we should have. We need a county administrator. I want to thank you, chair (Joe Derocha), you really picked up the ball and all the staff that had to take (on) extra responsibilities in this phase.”

More information on the Board of Commissioners and their meetings can be found online at co.marquette.mi.us/county_government/board_of_commissioners/index.php.

Abby LaForest can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 548. Her email address is alaforest@miningjournal.net.