For years, Northampton County has been plagued by caseworker vacancies in Children, Youth and Families (CYF). Without question, this is a stressful job with a high burnout rate. But according to county Human Services Director Sue Wandalowski, an underfunded and understaffed state civil service commission has made things worse. It's been slow in providing lists of caseworker applicants, sometimes taking months. Thus is pre-COVID. The lists it has provided has been full of errors.
Caseworker vacancies in CYF can mean the difference between life and death for some abused or neglected children, so Wandalowski has wanted to opt out of civil service since 2019 and do the hiring in-house. This has already happened in Berks and Bucks Counties, she said. According to The Sentinel, Cumberland County is currently in the process of withdrawing from the state civil service commission because of similar difficulties in filling vacancies. The state civil service commission actually encourages counties to opt out so long as career service regulations are in place.
It took four years, but Northampton County is no longer part of the state civil service commission. Executive Lamont McClure advised Council's Human Services Committee last week that it can now do its own hiring.
8 comments:
Seems too easy, what's the catch??
the catch is that the county will have no excuse for failing to fill Human Services vacancies.
The Career Service Rules of the County should be reviewed by the County council/Commissioners to make sure the rules haven't been changed by the Administration without going through the County Council/Commissioners and the Northampton County Personnel Commission. This will assure the proper hiring standards are being followed.
The catch is they can hire anyone now . No standards. If they are breathing they are hired. You should see the jail. Hiring people that live an hour and half away. Heck the jail is hiring ex-inmates. Its nice when the new COs can compare the food from other jails because they were inmate there.
Easton fire department is hiring. I know this arsonist that just got out he should apply everyone deserves a second chance.
Watch out for extreme patronage hiring. The Dems can’t help themselves, without Civil Service standards most hires will be second and third rate political hacks. Long term these “who you know hires” will cause serious problems with program delivery. Stewart Kings report on “improvements “ is vacuously tilted given bed count against licensed bed numbers. Once again, political hiring history in management positions, diminishes competency. Republicans have not done much better , maybe a charter study is not all that bad of an idea. Just ignore going back to “row office” elected positions.
"Stewart Kings report on “improvements “ is vacuously tilted given bed count against licensed bed numbers. "
This really has nothing to do with civil service, but I guess you wanted to discuss two posts in one comment. The bed count is being kept at a level that enables the county to serve the people who reside at a home. This is purposeful on the part of the county. There's no point in filling the home if unable to hire to staff to provide proper care. As staffing increases, so will the bed count. If that fails or the county is unable to staff the facility, then it will have to consider other options. No one is under any illusion about this.
There's nothing vacuous about her latest report. For one thing, it's honest. It reflects real numbers. It shows that the measures put in place to attract and retain staff are working, at least for now. It shows that Gracedale did very well in its most recent survey. And it also gave me an intangible. I've watched Jennifer Stewart-King for many years, and it took me time to come to this conclusion, but my conclusion is that she deeply cares about Gracedale and the people who live there. She is one of those rare people, unlike me, who takes a great deal of personal satisfaction in helping others. That's the kind of person you want to run a nursing home.
So is the County responsible to foot 100% of salaries if they drop Civil Service requirements, when prior to this, Civil service paid 80% and County paid the other 20% of salaries per employee. Where is the County going to come up with money for more than 200 CY workers and Supervisors where the average salary is about % 48,000 per employee?
BernieOHare to 8:57, No, the state will reimburse.
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