LAKEPORT >> Multiple recommendations from the Lake County Classification and Compensation Committee were approved in concept by the Lake County Board of Supervisors last week. In practice, this meant several requests for new positions or salary increases were denied.
Departments such as Animal Care and Control, Child Support Services, Probation, the Lake County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) and the Health Services Department each requested to create or eliminate positions.
A majority of the requests were recommended for denial by the committee, including a request from the LCSO to create a new property and evidence supervisor classification, which would be the new classification for the current evidence technician II. According to the report presented to the board, the position “is correctly classified and compensated.”
Denial of salary adjustments for juvenile correctional officers and the senior juvenile correctional officer in the probation department were recommended, as well.
Likewise, a salary adjustment based on duty changes for a child support process server was recommended denial, as the committee determined changes were still correctly compensated for.
A decision on creating a new adoption coordinator position at Lake County Animal Care and Control was delayed, pending input from the county administrative office.
The committee reviewed, discussed and determined recommendations for the majority of requests it received throughout the 2015/16 fiscal year, according to Lake County Deputy Human Resources Director Sarah Jansen.
“The committee felt that going through the review process for new positions wasn’t the best use of county resources if the department’s budget wasn’t able to support a new full-time position,” the report states.
As for approvals recommended by the committee, a request from the county human resources department, as well as the county administrative office, to eliminate their office assistant I/II classification and reclassify those with that title to a single office assistant classification was supported by the committee.
The current classification “is rarely used to fill permanent positions” and the recommended change will address “future minimum wage issues,” according to the committee’s report.
Additionally, because of the office assistant reclassification, a request to increase the salary of office assistant trainees, which it expects to align with the training required to promote to the office assistant position.
Finally, in order to allow the health service department “more flexibility in assigning programs,” the committee supported a request to change a vacant health education program coordinator to a health programs coordinator.
However, the committee did not support a request from the department to create flex classification for the new position, as the health programs coordinator classification is “appropriately classified and compensated.”
The board unanimously approved the recommendations in concept with a 5-0 vote.
Contact J. W. Burch, IV at 900-2022.
