Decorah City Council tables request for additional IT help for the city

The City of Decorah and Winneshiek County currently share the services of the county's Information Technology Department employees.

Recently Winneshiek County supervisors decided that the demands on the department have grown enough to hire a third employee.  County officials believed the City of Decorah would share in the cost of that new employee--but that isn't what has happened so far.

The Decorah City council voted 7-0 Monday night to refer the question to the city's Personnel Committee for a recommendation.  City council member Tade Kerndt said he felt the county was "shoving this down our throat."  City Administrator Chad Bird spoke about "the strong advantage of having a tema (of employees)," but city council member Gary Rustad pointed to the requests for additional staffing in the police department and street department and said, "We need to prioritize."

Winneshiek County has already hired the third staff member in its IT Department, but, for now, the city has not committed to paying any of her salary or benefits.