PERSONNEL - COMMITTEE
Monday, May 15, 2023 - 10:00
AM
Stephanie DeZalia, Chairperson
JoePete Wilson, Vice-Chairperson
Chairwoman DeZalia called this Personnel
Meeting to order at 10:00 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton
Barber, Stephanie DeZalia, Shaun Gillilland, Charlie Harrington, Roy Holzer, Steve
McNally, Noel Merrihew, James Monty, Tom Scozzafava, Matt Stanley, Ike Tyler,
Davina Winemiller, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright. Robin
DeLoria, Derek Doty, Ken Hughes and Joe Pete Wilson were excused.
Department Heads present: Jim Dougan, Judy
Garrison, Jennifer Mascarenas and Michael Mascarenas.
News media:
Alana Penny – Sun News.
DEZALIA:
Good morning. We’ll get this
Personnel meeting off to order. Go ahead
Jen.
J. MASCARENAS:
Good morning. I have my updated
monthly report if there are any questions on that?
DEZALIA:
Any questions for Jen? What are
our openings at now?
J. MASCARENAS:
Is the vacancy list attached to that?
It’s right around 80, we hover right there. We are either lose a couple and get a couple
more it stays right there.
SCOZZAFAVA:
I know we did a resolution previously to Court Clerk, you came down and
did a desk audit on our court clerk so when then title changes do we have to
wait for Albany on that or do we just do this ourselves?
J. MASCARENAS:
Well, I created the title we have to wait for Albany to approve whether
it is okay for it to be in the exempt class so the title is there for towns to
use but –
SCOZZAFAVA:
Okay and there won’t be any recommendation for salary?
J. MASCARENAS:
Not as far as towns, villages or schools no.
MASCARENAS:
We create the titles Mr. Scozzafava and towns have the authority to set
their own pay scales just like schools, villages any of those things.
SCOZZAFAVA:
But it will show a clear difference between the positions of clerk and
court clerk which is what the desk audit was on?
J. MASCARENAS:
Yeah the typical work activities are different yes.
SCOZZAFAVA: Alright, thank you.
DEZALIA:
But it will be of the competitive class until the State says.
J. MASCARENAS:
Yes.
DEZALIA:
Okay.
SCOZZAFAVA: Until the State agrees to this we
don’t have the position of court clerk?
J. MASCARENAS:
Nope, we have the position of court clerk it’s competitive it means they
have to take a test until the State approves that it is exempt.
SCOZZAFAVA: So if you have a clerk in place
right now doing your court work should the town boards change that title to
court clerk?
J. MASCARENAS:
Up to the town.
SCOZZAFAVA:
How can it be up to the town?
MASCARENAS: No, I think you should absolutely
put people in correct positions especially upon the recommendation of a desk
audit you should absolutely be putting those individuals in.
SCOZZAFAVA:
I agree so if it comes back competitive then that individual would have
to take a test? It’s a gap between the
clerk and the court clerk I can see that.
J. MASCARENAS: Right.
SCOZZAFAVA:
Different duties in both.
J. MASCARENAS: Yes but I believe it’s in the
law that the town justices are allowed to have an exempt clerk.
SCOZZAFAVA: They are yes, absolutely.
J. MASCARENAS:
So I don’t believe that the State is going to come back saying that that
position has to be competitive. I
believe they will approve the exempt class.
SCOZZAFAVA: Thank you.
GILLILLAND: On the open positions so roughly what
percentage do you think are positions that are state mandated services?
J. MASCARENAS:
Mostly our Social Services positions are state mandated.
MASCARENAS: I think Mr. Gillilland and I was
thinking about this earlier today I would like see hopefully by maybe the next
meeting not just the positions that we haven’t’ been able to fill but an actual
kind of study on what are our most hard to place jobs. What positions are we
seeing come up over and over again when we go out for application are we get
applications and how many are we getting and those types of things. I think that would give us a better handle on
what our mandated positions are verses our non-mandated plus be able to say or
better focus. I mean I know in DSS I struggled awful in terms of attracting
case workers. They did have solidified
somewhat in terms of what this board did for them and they are not losing
people at the rate they did before which is really good but yeah, I think we
need to understand these jobs on the bigger scale and see what we’re getting so
I’ll work with their office. I’m trying
to provide a reporting mechanism for next month if that’s okay with you guys?
GILLILLAND:
The reason I’m asking this is because we need to go back to the state.
We have these state mandated services so therefore we have state mandated
positions we can’t fill then it’s time for maybe the state and we various
strategies in which we try to fill them with compensation etc. it’s time to
tell the state they are going to have to, these are mandated positions they
should be swinging in and helping us out increasing compensation for those
positions to get more people to apply is my thought process.
DEZALIA:
Thank you Shaun.
McNALLY:
I’m not on this committee but we’ve had these vacancies for years now, a
couple years and I think this is continue because the baby boomers is the
reason, they are starting to retire and that’s what is causing this. This is not just an issue in Essex County
this is statewide, countrywide. You know
at some point we’re getting the job done now and there is some critical
employees leaving but my recommendation is these people that have been here
dedicated employees that do a great job picking up the slack you know, maybe we
don’t need to fill eight positions, maybe we can fill four positions in that
department if that’s the case let’s fill it with four, take that money and give
it back to the employees that are working so hard. Our county employees are not overpaid any
position in the county I don’t believe so – I’m serious so if we can run the department
we don’t need eight, we have four take that expense that we have budgeted and
give it to the other employees. We
should reward the employees that work hard for us every day.
MASCARENAS: I don’t disagree with you even a
little bit Steve but it is a little more complicated than that these
departments are regulated by industry standards so what we don’t know is the
ins and outs of each department so I can tell you for instance in DSS, their
industry standard is fifteen cases per kid now when they are down it’s not unusual
for them to have more cases than fifteen the problem becomes is what if
something happens to that child and we’ve got that caseworker inundated with
thirty cases now we’ve got a problem because the industry standard is fifteen
same as in Probation there’s industry standards, there’s industry standards in
Mental Health so I do agree with you not every industry has a standard right?
McNALLY:
This can be case by case but there’s other employees. This problem is not going away as the baby
boomers continue to retire this is not going away. I’m very familiar with a
larger company that I have dealings with that the company years ago ran into
this problem with lack of employees what they did is they hired everybody
through the door that worked for about six months and they found out they are
better off without some of these employees so sometimes you know we get
desperate we’re not helping our case by hiring employees that aren’t qualified
or do not have a good work ethic but I know as a fact these people here that
are working here now a majority of them are dedicated employees and they really
can use extra money.
MASCARENAS:
I don’t disagree.
DEZALIA:
I agree also Steve.
TYLER:
When I tell people we are down 70, 80 positions at the county several of
them have told me well, it would be fewer if you lowered our taxes then I said
well, it doesn’t work quite that way but I would just like to say that you guys
do a great job over in Personnel every time anybody that I know or myself
contacts you guys over in the office over there we get 100% satisfaction out of
you guys thank you very much. Good job.
J. MASCARENAS: Thank you.
WINEMILLER:
Jen, last week Terri was explaining to us that there was a massive
problem with hiring therapists and I know there was some discussion about maybe
changing the way we can hire for those positions so that we could have remote
workers in therapists positions do you feel that that would be a good idea and
helpful in elevating the issues we’re having?
J. MASCARENAS:
Well I mean it’s not really for me to decide but what I can say is that
as civil service and part of the union you can’t do it for one group of
employees and not the whole so that would be something that management and the
union would have to agree on.
MASCARENAS:
One opportunity Davina and I eluded to it last week during that meeting
is you can contract with organizations that provide this service that’s not
unusual there’s a lot of organizations in neighboring counties that do provide
therapy services through a contract and that we then don’t dictate how they
work so if we hire them directly, yes then we have an issue with you have work
from home policies, remote work and all that.
If we’re simply contracting with another agency they’re the employer and
we make the decision on whether or not we want to continue through that service
based on outcomes not necessarily deciding what they pay, what their policies
are procedure and those things so there’s a difference between whether or not
we’re hiring them or not. I think right
now they maybe have two positions open in the Mental Health Department but I
sent out a thing last week there’s a couple members that did volunteer to meet
with Mental Health and the Community Services board we’re going to start the
conversation there to see how we can maybe increase capacity of the resources
that we have not only here but in our surrounding counties that maybe
beneficial so that’s where we are going to start that conversation but I think
that’s the tip of the iceberg in terms of mandated service like Mr. Gillilland
was eluding to earlier.
WINEMILLER:
Well, Terri, forgive me if I’m getting the numbers wrong but I thought
she said she needed five or six more people?
MASCARENAS: Yeah, I’m going to go through and
look at that assessment. I can tell you
initially if I look at that I’m not seeing a lot of overtime, comp. time being
driven through that department so I really need to understand what she’s
talking about in terms of service that’s falling down. I think really she’s concerned that she’s
getting to that level where they are at the breaking point that they are not
necessarily there yet but I think she sees it coming so we’re not seeing it
necessarily in terms of our actual numbers in terms of our employment but I
think she sees it coming down the road.
WINEMILLER:
Okay thank you.
DEZALIA: Anything further for Jen?
J. MASCARENAS: Stephanie I did just want to say
that my office participated in the CV Tech job fair last Thursday and we had a
really good turn out as far as high school seniors.
DEZALIA:
Oh, good. Best place to start.
MASCARENAS: If I could, we do have some Earn
while you Learn program, we had some people start this week. We’ve gotten around ten to twelve
applications we’re working on placing those students in areas that they feel
they would be a best fit and hopefully that will continue to help us out in
terms of recruiting individuals and keeping them long term.
DEZALIA:
Good, thank you. Alright thank
you Jen. Judy –
GARRISON:
Good morning. I submitted a
monthly report and I do not have anything in addition to that unless any has
any questions for me?
DEZALIA:
Anything for Judy? Okay, thank
you Judy and I don’t think Dan has anything so I’m assuming we’re all set. Anything further to come before the Personnel
committee? Alright, thank you we are
adjourned.
As
there was no further discussion to come before this Personnel committee it was
adjourned at 10:15 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Garrison, Clerk
Board of Supervisors