NorCo Council Addresses Staffing Shortage at Juvenile Justice Center

On April 21, a 16 year old teen stole a car near Cheston elementary school after the driver exited the vehicle with the engine still running. Pennsylvania State Police apprehended this youth an hour later in Ross Township, Monroe County. He was charged but was released to his mother because Northampton County's Juvenile Justice Center lacked the staffing to handle him. The very next day, this same teen carjacked another vehicle parked outside a Palmer Tp convenience store with its engine running. This time, an 8 year old girl was in the car.  When the driver saw the carjacking, she ran outside the store and tried to get in the car. She got a hand on the door, but was repelled and hit her head on pavement. Fortunately, the 8 year old (the driver's daughter) managed to unlock the door and jump out. This teen led police on a high speed chase before rolling the car in Upper Nazareth Tp. 

Northampton County Court Administrator Jermaine Greene and Juvenile Justice Center Director JaMarr Billman described this incident to Northampton County Council on Wednesday when discussing the staffing crisis at the county's Juvenile Justice Center (JJC). 

"This is a public crisis, guys, said Greene. "We gotta' stop playing around here."

The JJC is an 84-bed facility budgeted for 57 youth care workers. Right now, only 19 are employed, with no new hires in the pipeline despite efforts from Human Resources to get the word out. There's a serious staffing shortage at JJCs throughout the state, widely believed to be caused by low pay. Youth care workers, who must have at least an associate's degree, are only paid $16.46 an hour. The county has offered a new contract that mirrors the compensation paid to corrections officers, but union negotiators have declared an impasse and demanded arbitration. The matter has lingered for 17 months with no arbitration date in sight until yesterday, when a date was finally set for June 29.  

In an attempt to get staffing at the JCC, Greene has proposed eliminating 15 vacant, not filled, full-time youth care caseworker positions as well as 5 vacant, not filled, part-time youth care caseworker positions and replacing them with 13 assistant supervisor positions. These supervisory positions would include an annual salary of $49,721, but would be nonunion. 

There would still be 42 full-time youth care caseworker positions and 20 part-time youth care caseworker positions

This bothered the union. The same union that has dragged its feet about scheduling an arbitration. 

For some reason, this move also bothered the county administration. Human Resources Director Mary Lou Kaboly informed County Council that this move, if made without a memorandum of understanding with the union, could be perceived as an unfair labor practice.  This was disputed by Greene: "If the union disagrees with me, they can file a unit clarification petition with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, and they decide. Not me. Not you. Not the County Executive. Not the union. Let them decide."

Greene later explained, "I've been coming here since October 2021 to talk about the juvenile center and how badly we need staffing. Every time I come here, there's a roadblock. Every time I come here, there's something that you're getting a memo. Every time I come here, I'm subverted. It's always something. This isn't how we should be running county government."

Council member John Goffredo agreed. "Not for nothing, but this problem has existed as long as I've been here, and they have not made any progress at all. Finally we have a solution that Mr. Greene has come up with, with his people, and it seems like we're throwing up roadblocks." 

At last night's meeting, the same duo of Council members - Kevin Lott and Tara Zrinski - who have thrown up roadblock after roadblock to every staffing change suggested by Greene, continued that same pattern of obstruction. 

Latt and Zrinski first attempted to have Greene's staffing proposal tabled.  All seven remaining Council members voted No. 

After that failed, retired trade union agent Lott accused Greene of wanting to "knock the union out." He suggested that Council should wait until June 29 for the arbitration or create the supervisory positions without eliminating the union youth care positions. "I question Mr. Greene's motives. I think a big motive is getting the union out of this courthouse." He referred to the proposal as "union bustin'." 

Lott complained that a 2 to 1 ratio of supervisor to worker bee is ridiculous, and it is. But so is allowing a JJC to go unmanned and exposing the public to the criminal behavior of juvenile delinquents. So is refusing to provide treatment to children who need it./

Zrinski accused Greene of "circumventing the process of arbitration now that we have an arbitration date of June 29." She also called him "deceptive."

Council President Kerry Myers refused to allow Greene to respond to Zrinski's attack, but he later told her that questioning his integrity and ethics was "unacceptable to me."  

In response to a question from Goffredo, Greene said the assistant supervisors would be put to work as soon he could hire them, and he would have them working while the administration or union filed a unit clarification petition to determine union status.

Council member Ron Heckman asked Greene if he is trying to bust the union at JJC. Greene answered, "No, I'm not trying to bust the union. I'm trying to find solutions." He also was "a little apprehensive" about an arbitration date because he's been given four or five different dates. 

Executive Lamont McClure told Council that he would negotiate with the union to get the JJC exactly what the courts want. He indicated any resolution of the supervisory positions would come after the arbitration. He believes that the supervisory positions will likely be considered union.

"If this gets a fire lit to get this done, I'm all for it," said Council President Kerry Myers.  Greene's proposal was adopted 7-2. Council members Myers, Goffredo, Heckman, Lori Vargo Heffner, John Brown, Tom Giovanni and John Cusick voted Yes. Lott and Zrinski voted No.