SAINT PAUL, Minn. – On Thursday afternoon, the Minnesota House unanimously passed a bill authored by Rep. Julie Sandstede (DFL – Hibbing) to update the special statute governing the St. Louis County Civil Service Commission. The legislation, HF 608, makes a variety of technical changes to the provisions governing the commission which largely haven’t been changed since its creation in 1941.
“This bill reflects today’s civil service and workforce realities, and will better enable St. Louis County to recruit and retain talented, dedicated employees,” Rep. Sandstede said. “This is a result of an over 10-year effort between labor and management and it highlights what’s possible when both sides have a mutual understanding and commitment to solve problems.”
St. Louis County, the largest county by area east of the Mississippi, employs 1,850 workers represented by 11 different bargaining units. It is the last county in Minnesota with a civil service employment system. In 2017, the county convened a labor-management committee with all 11 bargaining units to begin the process of proposing changes to the employment law. The work was done through a consensus decision-making model, with all proposals earning the support of each bargaining unit as well as county management.
HF 608 updates language from “civil service director” to “human resources director” throughout the law. The bill also modifies provisions governing probationary periods, removes and adds certain groups of employees from unclassified service designation, and provides for the human resources director to develop, administer and update plans as approved by the county board. Among other technical changes, the bill eliminates the 1941 transition language establishing the classified service for St. Louis County, and deletes, revises, simplifies, and clarifies obsolete, unclear, redundant and unnecessary language and outdated cross-references in the statute.
The Senate version of the bill, SF 754, is carried by Sen. David Tomassoni (DFL – Chisholm), awaits action on the Senate floor.