ROGERS CITY — The Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners on Friday approved overtime for two probate court employees who took on extra duties after the county’s public guardian was terminated for alleged financial mismanagement.

Probate Court Judge Erik Stone notified county commissioners last month that he terminated the court’s public guardian, shortly after he was made aware of possible financial mismanagement.

Stone told commissioners last month the public guardian position recently was changed from a home-based position to an in-house position that required the guardian to work at the courthouse. He said probate court employees noticed some “irregularities” and delays in reporting that caused them to look harder into the public guardian’s performance.

County Clerk Ann Marie Main told commissioners on Friday two employees in probate court had been working overtime to take on some of the additional duties. Main said over the course of the past three months, one of the employees worked around 70 hours of overtime while the other worked around 130 hours of overtime.

Main said the employees would be paid through July 26 and estimated the overtime would cost around $3,000, which will come out of the probate court’s budget.

Commissioner John Chappa said Stone previously told commissioners Presque Isle County was one of the few counties that has a public guardian.

“Especially with the issue we have apparently, should we even have one is my question,” Chappa said.

Chairman Lee Gapczynski said Stone “seems to think we need to have one.”

Main said she didn’t have enough information from other counties to determine which counties or the exact number of counties that have an appointed public guardian.

Chappa said he thinks the board should explore that in the future.

Main also told the board that Janice Lemmon has been hired as the county’s new public guardian.

“She’s here now every day unless she has to go visit clients, but she has started already and is getting into the job,” she said.

Crystal Nelson can be reached at 989-358-5687 or cnelson@thealpenanews.com.