Grantier resigns as county treasurer
By Amy Robinson
Farmer Staff Writer
McKenzie County has a new county treasurer as of Monday, Dec. 4, following the surprise resignation of Cheryl Grantier. Grantier, who was elected to the position in November, submitted her resignation by email to the McKenzie County Board of County Commissioners.
“It was an unexpected resignation,” said Ron Anderson, McKenzie County Board of Commissioners chairman.
Grantier’s resignation comes after a handful of employees in the Motor Vehicle office and in the Treasurer’s office have left in recent months, leaving a skeleton crew to tackle the workload in these offices, which were overseen by Grantier.
According to Grantier’s resignation letter, she had only one person in Motor Vehicle and just herself in the Treasurer’s office for the next several weeks.
“I cannot effectively run two departments with just one staff member,” wrote Grantier. “When I returned from this morning’s meeting, there was a line. As a result, I needed to help the customers, all the while everything else on the Treasurer’s side is building up.”
Even though Grantier’s resignation comes at an unexpected time, the Board of Commissioners is confident that work will get done, with no problems meeting state mandatory deadlines of mailing this year’s tax statements.
Linda Svihovec, McKenzie County auditor, has been appointed Acting Treasurer for the time-being, to process and handle all necessary paperwork until there is a permanent replacement. Thankfully, this is familiar territory for Svihovec, as she was the McKenzie County Treasurer for 20 years.
“It will allow for the county and the citizens of the county to be thoughtful in the way they want to move forward in this process,” said Vawnita Best, McKenzie County commissioner. “The timing was unexpected, but we are very fortunate that past employees are willing to come back temporarily to help out. We also have several people within our other county offices that have a background or experience, and are willing to fill in and help out as needed. This way, everything will get processed in time.”
“We’ll handle this like any other resignation,” said Richard Cayko, McKenzie County Board of Commissioners vice chairman. “We’ll get through it. People are coming back temporarily that worked there before to help get us over this hump. The tax statements will be delivered, which will make everyone happy.”
Best also added that this situation has shown her the kind of people McKenzie County has working for the city and county.
“If given the opportunity, this situation has shown me, very quickly, how lucky we are to have the county employees we do,” said Best. “It just shows the caliber of people we have. And I’m very thankful.”