Friday, July 31, 2015
NorCo HR Director Tracie Barnes Resigns
After less than six months on the job, Northampton County Human Resources Director Tracie Barnes has resigned. Her LinkedIn profile fails to indicate where she is employed now. She may have attended one Council meeting since she was hired, and played no role in the salary dispute between the administration and Magisterial district judge employees.
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52 comments:
LOL. Another winner of the Brown administration. She probably looked around the office the first day on the job, and realized she made a huge mistake.
She was in way over her head!!
This is truly sad. The whole County pays a price for the inadequacies of a County Executive who is in over his head. That is the real disgrace.
Ask Kathy Allen, she has all the answers. Another failure during Brownstains administration.
You can't be an outsider working there. The old biddies make you feel like crap.
How long until the 2017 Republican primary? It can't come quick enough!!
She was in way over her head!!
Of course she was - you could tell that when she appeared before council.
But here's the real problem - Brown is the idiot that chose her for the job. I was shocked that she garnered 7 "yes" votes.
anon 4:16 hit the nail on the head. There are a couple Diva's over there in HR. They run the place and make sure everyone knows it.
Well, well, well... what a frickin' SURPRISE! The invisible Barnes has now disappeared like a fart in the wind. Johnny Brownstain's "Blundering Herd" of lame cabinet picks takes another hit! Yes, these folks are his "high performance team." They are so incompetent they couldn't get wet falling out of a boat. Don't be surprised if that snake Allen finds a way to slither back in the HR office as a perfectly unqualified acting director to rake in yet another raise. This is the worst embarrassment of this embarrassing administration. The next one to resign should be Brown himself. He has been a disgrace to the citizens of this county, and a complete train wreck. We cannot wait until 2017. This bozo and his clown posse has to go!!!
4:16 you are so full of shit you need an enema. Pat Siemiontkowski did not have any problems with the "biddies" you so stupidly call them. She was welcomed by all staff there, and did a terrific job for Stoffa, and even for Brown. Barnes looked like a deer in the headlights in front of council and was not fit for the job. Brown has demonstrated his inability to choose qualified and motivated people. It is just a matter of time before more rats leap off the SS Brownstain.
Tracie did not stay long enough to leave an impression. But I liked her.Brown has made some good picks. Sheriff Dalrymple would be at the top. Jim Hunter surprises me. I thought he was just a glad hander, but what I like about him is his honesty. He just lays it out with no spin. Stan Rugus has done very well at Public Works. I would fire Campos, Allen and Durkin.
If you want to post a personal attack, identify yourself.
Funny, Bernie that you would fire Brown's inner circle of confidants. The others on his cabinet seem to be doing their jobs while their boss and the Three Stooges you have mentioned are scheming behind their backs. Unfortunately those three will be the last to jump off the SS Brownstain.
"I would fire Campos, Allen and Durkin."
Agreed. These three are utterly useless. Even with 10 Cathy Allens, it doesn't equate to one average employee. Campos is simply pathetic, and Durkin has no idea what he's doing - which all three suffer from.
@ anon 11:05 & 10:17
Your bizarre obsession with fecal residue is troubling. Get help!
One can only surmise how unhappy she was in this role. It is a black mark on one's resume to resign from a management position in such a short time. This is a toxic administration with Brown as its clueless leader. Barnes seemed to have real talent, and was one of the few Brown picks who was qualified for the position. But it took her virtually no time to become disillusioned with her role in this administration. She became a ghost, a persona non gratis. How did that happen so soon? Don't blame the HR staff. Blame her boss for not creating an environment where she felt needed and appreciated. Bumbling Brown screws up again!
The HR staff are all friends of friends and girlfriends. Please, they are a tough crowd and only a few can survive their atmosphere of superiority.
Nonsense. The previous two HR directors had absolutely no problems "surviving" there. Blame Brown for picking someone so wishy-washy for director.
We don't know the reason she left, but I will say that the HR field is always in motion. What the county pays for HR director is not even close to market value. That being said where is the salary studies? This is to be done every 3 years.
For all anyone knows she may have found a job in the private sector. Where I work, we got a new boss a couple of years ago and he opened his paper to the employment section on his first day. As he told me, "It's easier to get a job and negotiate salary, when you already have both." He resigned after only 6 weeks. He did find something better.
Just like there needs to be a re-assessment, there needs to be a salary study. Both are mandated by law. Both are being ignored.
Assessment would cost millions. Salary study will cost millions. Ignorance is bliss for the Norco taxpayer.
The law is the law. A salary study would not be terribly expensive. Re-assessment can be done in-house like Lehigh did.
Still costs millions in salary increases. No one's salary goes down. Even in house it cost Lehigh millions.
HR today is much more complex than Evan 4 - 8 years ago. Worker's Compensation , Career tracking and ADA. Then payroll issues and court orders for dependents ,sick days and the the stealing of time and other people on the 'benefits' that should not be there because of a court orders to provide for children from the first husband's employer.AND away we go1 WOW what a mishmash Do they do credit reports before they hire ? Criminal checks and sometimes interviews of other people>! This is a big job now . Currant HR head can not stay away from work on vacation AT ALL.. Easton Has a new man, Marc Redding , WORKED AT VIC and other places in the past .I bet he has his hand full ,and the City of Easton has way less people than NorCo.
In house cost Lehigh about $1.5 MM. It needs to be done now as a matter of tax fairness.
Norco has a decent staff of experienced professionals. There is no reason why an experienced director could not do well there. Barnes simply was not up to the job. Another poor pick by Brownie.
Barnes might have been very good but could not take Brown's and Allen's interference and orders. It has to be hard especially when you know what should and should not happen in an HR department.
The State Association of County Commissioners do a periodic study of "Personnel salaries" for varied County positions and all the Counties in Pennsylvania participate. I don't know when the last one was done but it would be interesting to see when it was done and compare those salaries with the salaries here in Northampton County.
Also, there is a local organization that reviews salaries in the job market area of Lehigh and Northampton County and then sells their findings to other local industries, local business's etc. etc.
The bottom line is that the County can get a fairly good idea of where they are as to their pay scales if they really want to resolve their pay disputes.
The other thing you must keep in mind when you want to do a wage scale comparison is Your "Unions". They bargain for all kind of other issues that adds dollars to the personnel hourly costs of the employee. For example, health benefits, sick days. funeral leave, vacations, pensions, etc. etc. That alone is worth in excess of twenty dollars an hour.
Northampton County can do a cursory wage analysis but you should hire a professional organization to come into the County and do it first rate. This group of people have no one on board to do a personnel study properly and would only mess it up.
Maybe she wanted to quit before Scomillio could get HER fired! He certainly likes to GET women out of the work place. He struts the streets with Brown campaigning he owes Brown something.
anon 7:03 is absolutely correct. There are no true Human Recourses professionals in the county. Most of the HR employees were given their jobs as favors and just by hanging around long enough.
The points made by 7:03 are why you must bring in a real professional organization that will be learned and truly objective. Everyone in the county knows that in-house studies are heavily influenced by factors like personalities and agenda's. Factors like health benefits, pensions and other factors like that are important.
Maybe it is time to outsource HR.
Did she have any guarantee's? Golden parachute?
After four freakin' months let's hope she was not given any severance pay. She didn't deserve it. This was the biggest farce in the county's history. Drag an HR professional 500 miles north to work for you and she quits 4 month later. Another legacy of the Clown Administration.
Wow so harsh, maybe she got home sick missed her family and or didn't like the area.
"maybe she got home sick missed her family and or didn't like the area."
Surely you aren't serious. I've worked all over the country, moving over 1000 miles to a take a job in an unfamiliar area. I spent more time worrying about doing a good job in the first four months than whether I liked the area. And if she didn't consider family stresses, what the hell was she thinking?
In her interview with council, it was obvious she had little skill for the job, and that her heart wasn't in it. Place the blame where it belongs - Brown and his half-assed "team" picked a loser to offer the job. Their judgment and research have been exceptionally poor consistently.
Well, no harm, no foul. Now Allen can return to her "acting" (accurate term) director of HR position to steal another raise from the taxpayers. Brown probably hired Barnes with this end game in mind. Don't be surprised if his "nation wide search" for a replacement takes until the end of 2017 when the screen door is about to hit him on the way out. Brown is clueless and Allen is willing accomplice in ineptitude.
Every "nationwide search" of every Admisntration usually ends locally and with someone knows. Fascinating.
Remember council approved Brown's decision to hire her. I bet not one council member researched her credentials before she was hired and just voted on what was presented to them. If so, when she appeared before council, the numbers she gave them of people she supervised and how many employees where she worked before sure were rounded up by alot and not questioned about this. Remember too, the comment she made and quoted in the papers, using this as a stepping stone in her career. Maybe next hire, Brown and Council, especially council will do their homework.
Brown provided short notice of this candidate and council failed to perform due diligence by approving her appointment. Only Werner had the guts to question the very questionable background of this candidate by voting against her selection. Council should have tabled the appointment to allow sufficient time to vet the candidate. Poor pick by Brown made worse by council's dereliction of duty.
She did not resign, but was "FIRED". Barnes had no clue on how to do the job and was always looking for assistance in the office. If anyone ever went into the HR office, you would have seen this first hand. She did state when hired it was a good job to have on her resume, but not even lasting 6 months. geez! What a joke .
" another one bites the dust" !
I disagree that she was a poor choice or that Council was derelict. Werner was worked up over her boyfriend, not her, and that's purely political. Geissinger was bothered by her inexperience in union negotiation, but she was clearly qualified. She could have left for many reasons. Her decision to leave after a few months is no reflection on Brown or HR. What you are saying may be true, but you really do not know. I have always agreed that Council needs more time to vet nominees.
Bernie, Before you start shooting off your mouth about doing an in-house re-assessment like Lehigh County did you better do a lot more research into the matter. Can you provide proof that the assessment office is adequately staffed for one thing to handle that and proof that 1.5 million will be sufficient. You also mention that its mandated by law-can you post the link where the law mandates that?
Before you start throwing out demands about whether I should link to something I note in a comment, you need to be a little more respectful. Anonymity does not give you the right to be an asshole. State law requires reassessment every ten years and counties that fail to do it have been sued. I am not going to give some anonymous snot a primer on assessment.
There wasn't an attempt at being disrespectful sorry you saw it that way but with respect i don't believe there is a law that mandates a re-assessment since there are many counties throughout the state that haven't been re-assessed in more than 1years. If there is then a lot of counties are in big trouble
10 years
There is such a law and you were disrespectful.
"There wasn't an attempt at being disrespectful sorry you saw it that way but with respect i don't believe there is a law..."
With respect, you're talking out your rear end. Probably Campos - he has no idea how anything works, but he got the job anyway.
Reibman screwed up the HR Department. He put one of his donors relatives in there. Then we have the girlfriend placment situation of his top people. No wonder the place is littered with incompetence. I had hoped John Stoffa would have corrected all his mistakes.
Just a note. Wish Brown would look into the counties policies, it states jobs are to be reviewed every I believe 3 years. A lot of people are doing jobs that their job descriptions don't cover and are not compensated for it. The review just shouldn't be asking the directors what their employees are doing but somehow get the employees descriptions. Maybe the new HR Director can set this straight.
John Brown=worst county executive EVER!
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