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County Notes: Mendo Vacancy Miscellany

Interim CEO Darcie Antle’s June CEO report has a small section on Human Resources. Given Mendo’s tight, personnel dependent budget situation, its high vacancy rates, its relatively high turnover, etc., you might expect Human Resources to discuss something seriously along those lines. 

Nope. Topics discussed are: “Employee Biometric Health Screenings Launch In June, Leadership Initiative: Summer 2022 High Performance Organization (HPOo) Trainings, Summer Leadership Book Club, and Workforce Development Program: Supervisor/Management Academy and Emerging Leaders Academy.”

Much further down in the Antle Report we see the Social Services Vacancy Rates:

27% Department Overall 

33% Family & Children's Services

25% Adults & Aging Services

18% Administration

24% Employment & Family Assistance Services 

And Under “Filled Positions” (Presumably in May): “2 Family & Children's Services, 2 Adults & Aging Services” 

The countywide vacancy list isn’t even included in CEO Antle’s June CEO Report. But in May they reported about the same 27% social services vacancy rate. It lists 404 total Social Service positions, 27% of which (109) are “vacant.”

But that hasn’t stopped Social Services from dealing with a dramatic increase in Food Stamps (aka “CalFresh”) cases.

Current food stamp criteria in California applies to people/households with a gross income of not more than about $18k/year for an individual, and not more than about $36k/year for a family of four (proportionally for other family sizes, of course).

Also: You must have “a current bank balance (savings and checking combined) under $2,001, or a current bank balance (savings and checking combined) under $3,001 and share your household with a person or persons age 60 and over or a person with a disability.”

This sent us off to the 2020 Census Info which we haven’t looked at lately. 

Average gross household income in Mendocino (2020 census) is about $53k/year. Per capita income is about $30k/year. 

(Supervisors make $84k per year plus benefits.)

Other census numbers: 

Housing units: 41,552

Owner occupied housing units: 60%. (Probably meaning about 40% of housing units are rentals.)

Median monthly owner mortgage: $1,951/month.

Median gross rent: $1,134/month.

Building permits per year: 187.

Households: 34,164

Persons per household: 2.48

Households with broadband: 82.4%

High school graduates: 86.7%

Bachelor’s degree or higher: 24%.

Total Employers: 2,432

Total Employment: 23,335

Percent of persons over 16 in “civilian work force”: 57.8%

* * *

From a recent Press Democrat report on Sonoma County’s 2022-2023 budget:

“Across [Sonoma] county, vacancies exist in about 12% of the workforce, a much higher share than in any year in recent records, according to Christina Cramer, Sonoma County’s personnel chief. … Over the course of three days of budget hearings, department heads told the Board of Supervisors that the staffing woes were straining employees and driving up overtime. … In addition to an increase in voluntary resignations, county departments also are dealing with a 30% drop in applications, Cramer, the county’s head of human resources, said Wednesday. … Cramer estimated the county is facing about 500 vacant positions out of its approximately 4,000 person workforce [12.5%], meaning employees across departments are having to fill the gaps. She said her department is expected to recruit for about 450 positions this year.”

* * *

In related news from Mendo’s SEIU 1021 union:

“June 13, 2022 — Mendocino County Workers Rally at Board of Supervisors Meeting to Demand Action on Staffing Crisis

Overworked child protective service workers are unable to follow up on reports of abuse and neglect in a timely manner. Public works employees are unable to keep up with important infrastructural work like filling potholes. Eligibility workers are too short-staffed to keep pace with the volume of applications for food stamps and other safety-net services desperately needed in a county with a poverty rate of over 14%. These are the costs to the residents of Mendocino County of the County’s staffing crisis.

“That’s why on Wednesday, June 8, dozens of county workers rallied outside the Board of Supervisors meeting. We demanded action to ameliorate this crisis after County administration proposed a zero percent cost-of-living adjustment for employees, despite the fact that the County is currently losing employees faster than it is hiring replacements.

“The most valuable asset the county has are its employees,” said Julie Beardsley, SEIU Local 1021 Mendocino County Chapter President and Senior Public Health Analyst for the County. “The past two and a half years have been especially stressful and difficult for our county workers, but they continued to provide services and work long hours, often causing personal hardship. SEIU wants to work with the County to find cost savings, and collaborate on ways to allocate resources to provide our employees with a fair wage for serving our community so that they will stay and continue their careers with the County.”

“In a tight labor market like the one we are in now, the County must take concrete steps to make these jobs competitive, both to keep current employees from leaving and to recruit new employees from both within and outside the county. Wage cuts from years past have never been fully restored. They certainly have not kept pace with skyrocketing inflation and housing costs, which have impeded the County’s ability to recruit new employees from outside the county and retain staff. This is especially true for those employees who do not already own property in the county.”

Water Tax Options, An Exchange

Norm Thurston (former senior Auditor staffer, former Sheriff’s budget point person): The “water tax” is a controversial proposal, which certainly has room for criticism. But the suggestion that existing local governments should charge an amount that is many times more than the cost of providing services is ill-considered. Governments were never intended to be for-profit entities, due to the inherent potential for abuse of such an arrangement. Also, California codes generally restrict local governments from charging more that the reasonable cost of providing the service. So the suggestion that two local governments charge constituents many times more than their costs is DOA.

George Hollister (Mendocino County Farm Bureau President): Norm, thanks for your service. Then there is the reality. Mendocino County is a for profit business, that is focused on bringing in money, and not on providing services. Look at the cost of a building permit. Look at “homeless” services. Look at the county’s motivation in regulating (taxing) cannabis. Etc., etc. It is always, all about the money, and Mendocino County is not unique. Ronald Reagan had a good quote about this. “Government’s view of the economy can be summed up this way: If it moves tax it, if it keeps moving regulate it, if it stops moving subsidize it.” There is also the timeless fairytale about the “Three Billy Goats Gruff”. If you believe the government will take care of you, remember who that helping hand could be.

Thurston: I agree with your comment that the County is a for profit operation, but would assert that it should not be. It is that way because the citizens elect officials that either tolerate or promote that approach. Obtaining large grants to provide services that are optional at best is not necessarily the best approach.

Hollister: I totally agree. But we seemed entirely entrenched in what we are doing, with no way out, except maybe bankruptcy. What might be good for the supervisors to look at is our county budget, including the largest part, that money that comes from the state and federal governments. If they did that, we might all start to get an understanding of how we got here.

Mark Scaramella: How about if they floated a bond to cover the cost of their infrastructure upgrades (or grant match amounts) which they should have been doing all along and then included the bond payments in their cost of service? Surely, you’re not saying that capital reserves cannot be included in the cost of service, are you?

Thurston: That points us in the right direction. I am not well versed on the details, but if the Potter Valley Irrigation District had an opportunity to maintain flows into their system by way of a major remodel or construction project, and voters in the District were willing to vote for bonds and a related debt service tax, then great. Capital reserves can be included in the reasonable cost of service, but one should expect push back from constituents who do not want to pay for anything that is not currently needed. If the District has contributed a portion of revenues to a capital projects fund over the years, they should be in a good position to look at projects now. If bonds are pursued, an estimate of the annual tax rate should be computed and provided to constituents, along with an estimate of any change in ongoing operating costs, after completion of the project. Of course, any grants that can be used for construction and/or operation of the project should be pursued. All this would be determined by the people funding and benefiting from the project, without either fiscal support required, or control imposed, from other areas of the County.

The “Puff” & The Demolition Of Old Howard Hospital, An Exchange

“Lazarus”: Willits needs housing for professionals, middle income, and the working poor. The views from the site are great, and there is a City maintained park boarding the street below. Multiuse housing would be the answer. But don’t expect the County to get involved with this. There’s a lot of talk about why the PHF did not happen there, but the developers and others think the County realized it was a money pit and moved on. The County owns Whitmore Lane, and even with the over 20mil estimate, Whitmore is a better deal than Ole Howard would have ever been.

 “K.H.”: How could it be more of a money pit than Whitmore Lane? The county rented the dormant care home in 2020 for $31,550 a month. Then they bought it for $2.2 million in August 2021. Then the roof collapsed. It is now 2022 and the estimates are it will cost $20 million dollars to retrofit. How could a working hospital facility that was in use until a few years ago cost more than that to utilize for psych patients? I agree Willits needs housing. I don’t expect much from the county when it comes to leadership or vision.

Mark Scaramella: Interesting exchange, but moot now. Mendo is committed to Whitmore Lane. I think parts of Old Howard are probably salvageable, but parts of it are indeed too old. Same with Whitmore Lane. It was a — what? — 90 bed nursing home and now they want a 16 bed PHF? And they plan to pay $20 million (a self-fulling prophecy-estimate that need not be anywhere near that much). Supposedly Not the Least (Nacht & Lewis) will present their inflated numbers soon and we’ll see what the overcharge will be and maybe what the condition is and how much can be salvaged. OSHPOD (the state’s modern hospital standards for medical facilities) is expensive, but the only reason they’re planning for an oversized 16-bed facility is for financial reasons, Mendo doesn’t need 16 beds according to the Kemper report..

James Marmon: Profit, sell beds to other counties. The Schraeders are probably looking ahead on getting a license to run the thing. If anyone thinks the County or the Schraeders are going to want some outsiders involved in Mental-cino’s number one money grab you need to be placed in one of their facilities.

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