LAKE COUNTY — In light of a recent Board of Supervisors resolution which cut many county offices’ public open hours to four days a week, department heads have reflected on the high vacancy rates that led to the resolution. A common theme in their comments: a search for better pay and benefits have led many ex-employees out-of-county or into the private sector.
According to County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson, vacancy rates average 20 percent across all county offices. Deputy Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein said that “most county offices are experiencing a high vacancy rate.” The Auditor-Controller’s Office, which could not be reached for comment, citing a heavy workload, is reported to have 50 percent vacancy. The Sheriff’s Office, which chose not to be included in the resolution for reasons of public safety, was at a 27.8 percent vacancy rate in August, though at least one position has been filled since then.
On Friday, September 14, the county offices included in the resolution experienced their first Friday without public availability. Director of Public Works Scott De Leon told the Record-Bee on Wednesday that for his staff, the change was welcome. De Leon wrote that “it’s difficult to tell with only one Friday closure so far, and we still are working on transferring work assignments – but the staff felt last Friday (the first of the closure) was beneficial.”
District Attorney Don Anderson said that the new Friday modus allowed his office to work more easily in “closing cases, staff getting cases ready for attorneys and completing discovery issues.” Anderson said that high vacancy rates have created the primary issue of an “extremely high case load for attorneys and investigators. Which {is} related to poorer work produced and ability to file cases. There is also a large back log in filing and concluding cases.”
According to De Leon, Public Works currently has a total of 10 open positions out of 42 in its two divisions. Eight of those vacancies are in the larger Road Division—four heavy equipment operator positions and four maintenance worker positions. The department is “presently working with three maintenance worker candidates and should be seeing them coming onboard before the end of the month,” said De Leon. “In our Engineering and Inspection Division, we have two openings – an associate civil engineer and an assistant civil engineer.”
In the DA’s office, where seven positions out of 37—including one investigator and three attorneys—are vacant, many lost employees have gone to the private sector. “We have recently had attorneys go to Sonoma County, Sacramento and private practice,” Anderson said on Sept. 12. “Investigators have gone to the Department of Insurance. Almost all others have either retired of moved on to the private sector.”
Likewise, De Leon noted that the most common reasons for employees’ abandonment of their positions in his office have been “retirement, higher pay, and better benefits.”
Why have they left? “Low wages and benefits,” said Anderson.
Anderson said he believes that “the Mendocino County DA office is generally 5 to 10 percent higher than Lake County.” Pay comparisons with private sector equivalent positions are more difficult to make, but lawyers in the private sector do tend to make more than those in public service, according to a comparison of data from the National Association for Law Placement.
Anderson said that about one half of the employees who recently left their positions vacant “have moved on based on wages and benefits.”
The pay some county employees receive may be more than just uncompetitive. According to De Leon, if an entry-level employee of Public Works “puts his or her family on the county insurance plan their take-home pay – after the employee’s insurance contribution is taken out – is not sufficient.”
How can all of this be changed? De Leon said that “the obvious answer is better employee recruitment and retention, but the factors that go into that are numerous. The county has already made changes with the recruitment process and we’re seeing benefits from that. Increased salaries and benefits would also help, but that’s going to be a challenge, even with a self-funded department like {Public Works}. The costs of doing business continue to go up, but the revenues are not keeping pace.”
De Leon said that the recent SB1 gas tax bill “provided some much needed relief and ray of hope, but Proposition 6 could derail that, and if that proposition passes I think things will get worse before they get better.”
