No decisions or timeline made so far in the future of Grand Forks County Correctional Center administrator
Apr. 2—GRAND FORKS — The path moving forward hasn't been decided for the future of the position of the Grand Forks County Correctional administrator following Tuesday's County Commission meeting.
"Because of the situation it puts me in I cannot speak to it right now," GFCCC Administrator Bret Burkholder said. "It is (Sheriff Andy Schneider's) prerogative as to what he wants to do and it has not been communicated to me as of yet."
Schneider had not returned the Herald's request for comment before this report was published late Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday, April 1, the Grand Forks County Commission
voted to recommend that the sheriff fire Burkholder
after Schneider told commissioners that the jail received feedback from the state Attorney General's Office that it had not used a state grant disbursement correctly. During the meeting, Schneider said he became aware of the grant's disbursement issue as he began to
consolidate the correctional center into his department.
The grant in question was a "Back the Blue" initiative created by the Legislature in 2023 to aid the recruitment and retention of law enforcement and correctional officers. Both the sheriff and correction center — which at the time were separate departments — applied for and received funds from the grant. Both were required to submit reports at the end of 2024 to explain progress on the grant, which had to be spent by March 31 of this year. The state had not given feedback to how the grant could be used until recently. The correctional center was given feedback, but the sheriff's office was not, Schneider told commissioners.
The sheriff's office gave the grant out as a monetary bonus to employees. However, the corrections center used the grant funds for employee incentives — like improvements to an employee break room — as its form of a hiring and retention bonus. According to Burkholder's update to the Attorney General's Office, the state agency administering the grant, his department thought a more creative approach to the grant would have served the correctional center better and invested the funds for long-term benefit.
The state said that the correction center erred in this line of thinking. It happened at nearly the same time Schneider was taking over the department. Schneider told commissioners that when he took over, he changed course to give it as a flat bonus to correction center employees and used other county funds to cover the costs of items ordered.
The law authorizing the funds for the grant does not directly define the exact form a recruitment and retention bonus should take.
The eventual outcome of Burkholder's position is now between him and Schneider. According to a 2017 North Dakota Supreme Court decision,
Schwartzenberger v. McKenzie County Board of County Commissioners,
county commissions can't directly fire employees of the sheriff, which the Grand Forks County Commission had tried first before changing course. Only Schneider can directly fire Burkholder in this case. If a termination or resignation does occur, the commission would get a notice as part of its regular items of business.
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