Nov. 9, 2011, Meetings on the Budget: Bureau of Human Resources & County Clerk

Bureau of Human Resources

The Director, Maureen O’Donnell, stated that the Bureau was in a shambles when she took over about 6 months ago, and since then, they have made great strides.  

• They are making progress in reaching compliance with the Shakman decree, which prohibits the hiring and firing of county workers for political reasons (other than in positions which the Court has specifically found to be “exempt”).
• The Bureau has presented 27 union contracts for Board approval to get caught up with the backlog of contracts covering periods from 2008 through the present. There are 104 bargaining units.  
• The Bureau is also focusing on absence management. The absence statistic is 10.5 days per year per employee, which is very high. The County could save $7 million per year if that average could be reduced by just one day, which Comm. Schneider highlighted in his questioning.  
• The Bureau is currently getting ready to deal with the proposed layoff of 1,000 employees that is called for under the 2012 proposed budget. 
•  Finally, Ms. O’Donnell said that the Bureau has a longer-term goal of creating a merit-based compensation system (at least for non-union employees) rather than the current step system, which is based on years of service.

Comm. Collins asked about the Taleo system that the Bureau is still implementing for processing applications on-line. A year ago, it took an average of 180 days to fill a position. Now it takes 124, which is still far more than where the County should be. Comm. Gainer urged that the Bureau include on its list of items in union negotiations reducing the number of holidays from the current 12 or 13 to the more standard 7; also to eliminate an employee's ability to carry over sick days and receive compensation for unused sick days when the employee leaves the County’s employ. She also asked about how the County can get to merit pay, and Ms. O’Donnell said the first step is to institute regular employee appraisals. Comm. Gainer also urged that the Bureau inform employees (as well as potential hires) about the value of their benefits, which are often much greater than in the private sector. Finally there was a discussion as to how much work the Bureau is still handling for the Health & Hospitals System (“HHS”), which Ms. O’Donnell characterized as still a lot. Comm. Gainer’s point was that the budget for human resource work in HHS is about $2.9 million and in this Bureau it is about $2.9 million; thus, it would seem that the HHS budget may be too large.

County Clerk

Clerk David Orr said that his area had exceeded the budgeted revenues for 2011 by about $400,000. For 2012, the election budget is $3.35 million lower than in 2008 (the last presidential election year), much of which is due to reducing the number of precincts. Clerk Orr said that his area had taken all the furlough days, and his employees were resentful of those departments which hadn’t. He also complained about other elected officials in the County who were paying much higher salaries to employees in grade 24 than he was. He feels the Board should look into this. Finally, he noted that his suburban offices were bringing in more revenues than in the past, and he is concerned that people will be discouraged from going there if the County institutes the proposed parking fees. He is also concerned about employees having to pay them.

-- reported by Priscilla Mims