Local Government TV

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

County Workforce Issues Are a National Problem

Late last year, Northampton County set aside $450,000 that was, in part, intended for a pay study. It has so far taken no action, and Executive Lamont McClure has done little to address employee salaries during his first four years in office. He is considering a childcare center at Gracedale, but has done little to actually retain people

As noted in Governing, public sector employees are facing issues that simply are nonexistent in the private realm. Elections workers have been dealing with abusive messages and emails along with completely unsubstantiated claims of corruption by sore losers like defeated Exec candidate Steve Lynch. Workers in the PFA office are exposed on a daily basis to the ugly side of domestic abuse. Staff in  Children and Youth encounter neglected and abused children daily. Corrections officers work long hours, some of it mandated, yet must maintain peak physical and mental acuity to prevent inmates who wish to harm themselves or others. Gracedale, which at one time prided itself on taking everyone, is now limiting admissions because its ability to provide resident care is below state standards. Even the law librarian must deal daily with people who expect her to draft their complaints and petitions. 

Here's what some counties are doing.

Mental Health - Larry Johnson, DeKalb County, Ga., commissioner and NACo president: We have a pilot program that we had started with election workers, because this has become a mental challenge, dealing with threats and things of that nature. We have worked with our sheriff’s department, our library system, our fire department — we tried to make it as collaborative as possible, because everybody has to deal with this type of stress in the workplace and at home or in the community. Sometimes you have to have someone in the community or in the workplace that can alert other people that something is just not quite right with my worker X — what can I do, I noticed symptoms, I noticed signs, how can I prevent an anxiety attack or something that may go further?

Pay and Benefits - Johnson: : I’m trying to be creative. One thing we’re doing is that, with public safety first, we’re raising the salary of all of those in the police and fire departments. We’ve given them a 6 percent raise and a $3,000 retention bonus. We also raised the pension with a 3 percent match to a 6 percent match. We were doing a 12.5 percent increase in frontline pay with the CARES money, so now we’re going to make that permanent, as we try to make sure we recruit and retain the best officers.

Matt Chase, Nat'l Ass'n of Counties Exec Director: We have created a network of county administrators, HR directors and others, including elected officials, who are really focused on workforce retention. We have a ton of counties that are down major numbers of full-time equivalent employees that are really working to be more creative with things like remote workforce, alternative schedules, pay and benefits, and redoing job classifications. Leon County, Fla., just did some old school county job fairs, where they actually hired people on the spot that day, when normally it would have taken three months to do interviews and background checks. They totally flipped their hiring system to move much quicker. They’re still doing the background checks and other things, but they kind of do it on the back end.

Gracedale has worked at same-day hiring and alternative schedules, but the county has shied away from other ideas. An attempt at remote working was an abject failure during the pandemic, but this is simply because employees needed training. A systematic look at salary compression and job classifications could come from a pay study. It is really needed. 

I have to caution that a pay study is going to be controversial and suspect that's one reason why none has been done. But that;s why Career Service Regs provide for appeals. 

25 comments:

  1. Problem is that neither McClure nor his close pal the union boss at Gracedale want any study they don't control. County Council has no authority to create a study on their own.

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    1. AFSCME at the jail the same way. Tosti at the top puts down orders to help Lamont and chuck. But is what it is we are told. They are not gonna change anything. Not until you have a county executive and heads of departments that wants to stand up for their employees. It was nice to see the DA put a fight up. He doesn't care. He's elected by the county voters. The head of HR, director of corrections, director of administration all appointed. Nothing gonna change. Nice facts to put up Bernie but your boys aren't gonna do anything.

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  2. No where do you mention where Nationwide these Counties cut workers benefits like they did in Northampton County. You are at the Courthouse every day. You can see the morale is low. We never get to the top of our pay scale. We used to get there in five years. We pay for our health care for us and our families. We never had to do that when we were hired. The County keeps adding co-pays for our visits to Doctors etc, etc. and they increase tremendously depending on the type of care we receive. Now they tell me when I retire after 30 years of dedicated service I must pay another cost for my wife when all of this used to be part of my salary. They paid us lower wages because they promised to take care of us in our senior years. If you want to be honest about the problem of retention in Northampton County Government you must take a look at how the County screwed the employees over the last thirty years, and yes, McClure is at the top of the list for screwing employees. If you are a friend of McClure you have nothing to worry about. Everyone else BEND OVER. You can help us by making public the downward spiral of wages and benefits Northampton County employee have had to deal with. I voted for McClure only because of the stature of the candidate who ran against him. Never again. McClure must go.

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  3. Good background work Bernie. NH County leadership needs to get off their butts and get to work! These issues are deserving of their attention and action.

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  4. 2:22. Since county council sets tge salaries, it most certainly has the authority to conduct a pay study.

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    1. County council only sets salaries for career services and department heads that the county executive sends them. The rest of the county employees are in bargaining unions that negotiate with chuck and Lamont. Council doesn't do a thing with them. When the COs went in front of council Heckman started jumping around saying he cant discuss anything because it violates the bargaining agreements. But loves to talk about everything with gracedale. I believe they are in a bargaining union. Just be honest no one cares about the ppl behind those walls of NCP. Not Lamont chuck,jimmy,Davey or anyone else. Sucks

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  5. I don't understand. Gas is really low. Food cost less. Electricity is less. These people should have plenty of money to pay for things. oh wait.......

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  6. Morale is low all over the country as we have gotten away from a meritocracy and embraced the concept of entitlement and victim mentality. When those who have integrity are constantly blames for the actions and responsibilities of others while they are excused and catered, then burn out is inevitable.

    Let's return to personal accountability and responsibility. This is a clear observation from working within the Mental Health Field. Championing victim mentality has become the norm and needs to change immediately.

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  7. Respect is something that neither McClure or Dertinger understand with their heavy hands. Otherwise, they would not have lost one of th top county employees. They make speeches but don't really respect anyone, employees or even th county council. Sad!

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  8. I thought we were defunding police, not increasing funding. What gives? When the rioters are mostly black (e.g. BLM), there are calls to defund. When the rioters are mostly white (Jan 6, school boards) police get raises. I don't know what this means. But it's interesting to me.

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  9. In a way, it’s probably best that average working people are struggling to pay bills and watching their savings drop down. GOVERNMENT is responsible for this! Maybe now, regular working families will begin to ask “So who’s in charge here?” “What’s changed about my government during the last couple years that’s bringing such stress and fear? More importantly, “What can I do about this?

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  10. The country is in terrible shape all the fault of Trump.

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  11. There were never enough people working in government. Even when headcount was on target.

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  12. Bernie is McClure like Biden suffering Alzheimers and not seeing the financial damage upon his people?

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  13. Let’s return to personal accountability and responsibilities. Let’s make sure everyone pays their fare share of taxes. Then we can hopefully get back on track and reverse all of the damage President Regan’s did back in the Eighties. Regan significantly raised (non-income) taxes four times due to economic conditions and reforms, but the tax reforms instituted during presidency brought top marginal rates to their lowest levels since 1931. Back in the Eighties there was 32% unionized workers where they did not pay for health insurance, you had a real defined pension plan and vacation time that was used. This is what needs America needs from its employers.

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  14. Any person who threatens or coerces and election person should be incarcerated and if they have threatened to do harm to that person or their family the person doing the threatening should be punished by death. It should be a YES or NO trial not the boldship that we call legality today. And there should be mandatory punishments or any perceived impropriety.

    Think how many politicians would be immediately eliminated including those of mental instability like lynch. Saying he is bring 20 strong men is a direct and impending threat that he should be jailed for.

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  15. @ 8:31 you are a mental midget trying to create problems that instead of instigating other people you should turn inside and take it out on yourself personally. People alike you are the exact reason why many others feel the way they do. You should be punished harshly and completely. You are a failure of life. a failure of personality, a failure of society, and probably a failure of family.

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  16. When is the county council going to get off their dead asses and do something about this salary study? If Heffner can't do the job then she should step aside. She appears to be in the hip pocket of McClure. There is no one looking out for the employees. What a sad state of affairs. The democratic controlled council should be pushing for a salary study. Cusick (a Republican) is so anti employee he's pathetic. He is the one who pushed for taking health benefits away from new hires when they retire and supported John Brown with his crazy personnel policies. The democrats are letting us down.

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  17. 7:06, shame on you. Was that comment made under orders of McClure or Dertinger? That is th attitude that drove out our Elections head. Grow up!

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  18. When you take a job in government learn to expect a lot of nonsense. Administrations come and go, and nonsense often abounds. I worked at N.C. for 34 years. I must have interviewed for other jobs outside the County a couple of times each year and, to me, the County still made the most sense. I kept my head down and got job satisfaction from the clients. It worked for me. And stay away from workers who are always grumbling about some inequity real or imagined as that worker will pull you down. Job paid the bills and if I wanted something more than I could afford, I worked another temp job. Quite frankly I got what else I needed from family and friends. It's called work, folks, not play. Don't take it too seriously or you will drive yourselves nuts. But if you absolutely hate your employer there are plenty of job opportunities out there. But be careful because the county hasn't cornered the market on the nonsense you detest now. Oh, and retirement is great!

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  19. Yes @5:08 Learning about people like you is like understanding a 3 year old. The only difference is that you can hope the 3 year old grows out of it.

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  20. annon 4:26, Go ahead and deny they drove the election official to leave. Their authoritarian ways have crippled County operations. Your post is indicative of your attitudes.

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  21. What about that County law you cited that states the County is supposed to do a pay study of the area every two years?

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  22. McClure doesn't care about the blood, sweat, and tears that keeps the County running. Just look at who the bigger raises were granted to.

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  23. @4:59. Yes they left because of people like you. I personally know two of them who have changed their phone numbers both home and cell several times to try to escape the continued threats and harassments.

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