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Officials add staff in two county offices
By Justin Goble
Commissioners took action to add county personnel during a planned work session Monday night (Sept. 11).
Though initially called only to discuss matters, Commissioners’ Chairman Brian McMahan said it was decided to bring agenda items to a vote since all board members were present.
“We’ve done that before,” he said. “These weren’t items carried over from a previous meeting. The work session was called to discuss the personnel matters, and we decided to go ahead and act on them.”
Officials heard from Department of Social Services and county dispatch representatives, both of whom requested additional staff.
DSS Director Bob Cochran asked for five new staff members – three social workers, one social work supervisor and a processing assistant.
The additional employees are needed to help DSS pass state review, Cochran said. Though the local DSS has historically received high marks, the latest biannual review, completed in July, had the department passing only two of the seven categories which state officials look at.
Cochran said his office’s low score came from the increased standards state officials have put on social workers and the department’s high turnover rate.
“We lose an average of three people a year,” Cochran said. “They get ‘burnt out’ and go to positions with lower pay. The social workers we have are having to work 56 hours overtime each week to make that up. That’s the equivalent of 1.6 positions right there.”
While state officials suggested DSS hire two more social workers and one more supervisor (making the totals 15 and three, respectively), Cochran said he was requesting another social worker as a means to handle the turnover rate. Bringing in a processing assistant would give the department someone to handle smaller issues, which he said would free up social workers to handle their case loads.
Though the new positions would cost between $147,000 and $176,000, county Manager Ken Westmoreland said the state would cover around 65 percent of the cost, thus allowing the county to pay between $62,000 and $65,000 annually. That amount would be cut in half for this fiscal year, he said, since it would be almost half over before DSS could fill the openings.
While board members were ready to approve the request, Commissioner Joe Cowan suggested a study from an independent agency to see where operations could be improved. This would help deal with the many complaints he said had been received about the agency.
“Let’s call a spade a spade,” said Cowan, a longtime school administrator and former superintendent who retired from the local school system in June. “DSS has gotten a lot of bad press, and there have been complaints that they don’t communicate with the schools. I know there have been times where there was an incident at the schools, and we called DSS but couldn’t get anyone. So we would call the Sheriff’s Office, and then get into a spat with DSS because we did that.”
The rest of the board balked at the idea of a study, however. Westmoreland said it would cost around $40,000, which would be prohibitive for this fiscal year. He suggested budgeting the money for 2007-08.
Cowan said he would sit down with DSS officials in private to discuss his concerns.
Officials also discussed the county dispatch office’s request for an additional person.
Westmoreland said the office currently has one “rover,” a person who works when other dispatchers are out sick or on leave. What often happened is that person becomes overworked covering for those who are out, he said.
On top of that, dispatch’s 911 addressing office is far behind with their work and could use more help, Westmoreland said.
To solve both problems, he suggested changing the “rover’s” job description to work half time with dispatchers and half time addressing. The additional employee would have the same job requirements.
“That would give the dispatchers more flexibility in scheduling,” Westmoreland said. “When they’re not working at dispatch, they can help the addressing office get caught up with their work.”
In other business Sept. 11:
– Officials unanimously approved the Department on Aging’s request to move forward with state certification.
Director Helen Bryson told commissioners that now is the best time to start preparing for certification since the department will soon begin plans for a new building. Since the highest level of certification would triple the money the agency receives from the state (from $7,000 to $21,000 annually), it could affect the new building’s layout.
The money would also allow the department to offer more programs to the county’s elderly, Bryson said.
Certification is expected to take three years.
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