Personnel committee sends request for new crisis worker back to human services board

Committee members cite confusion as to budget impact of the new hire

A staffing shuffle at the county’s human services department is costing one worker their job while a question remains on if a vacancy will be created elsewhere to deal with increasing caseloads.

Members of the Taylor County Personnel Committee on July 22 approved discontinuing the WHEAP Program and Energy Assistance worker at the request of the human services board. According to human services chairman Rollie Thums, the state is pulling back the position’s duties to a state level and in turn reducing the funding provided to support the local position.

According to director Liza Daleiden, while the county is doing a good job in serving the needs of clients, the amount of state funding has dropped and it is looking to go from $60,000 to $32,000 this year. Rather than asking for additional local tax money to go to support the position, she recommended they give it back to the state to run.

Clients will continue to be served under the state program, just not with a local staff member.

“The only drawback is that it is a good worker,” said committee member Scott Mildbrand noting the county will have to lay off the person holding the position now.

While agreeing to reduce a position in the department, committee members were less willing to add another one without more information on how it would be paid for.

Daleiden requested hiring an additional case manager for the adult protective services/crises workload. Mildbrand questioned the hiring plan, noting that there was potential misunderstanding at the human service board level over how much cost it would mean for the county.

“No, it is not budget neutral,” Daleiden said. Even with shuffling other positions, it would be a net increase to county taxpayers of about $11,000 a year. Unlike many of the positions in human services which are fully funded by the state, the position they are looking to fill is not.

However, it was noted that it can generate billable hours for reimbursements and would potentially save about $8,500 a year in overtime costs in the department.

Daleiden also noted that when case workers have more time to work with people in crisis situations, the county benefits because they often are able to direct them to less-costly options for treatment or placement.

Thums noted there has been an explosion in the number of crisis cases and said the human services department has the statistics to show the large increase in caseloads in the past year. “We have a big problem, and we actually have figures to back it up,” he said.

Mildbrand didn’t deny the increasing caseload, but said he felt it needed to go back to the human services board so that it is clear to members that there will be an additional cost. He said that he, himself did not understand that when the issue was voted on there.

Mildbrand said he thought it was a way to put resources in an area that was in high demand and said he would not have voted for it at the committee level knowing it would be an increase in county expense. “I don’t think all the facts were presented,” he said.

Thums said that even though he supports the position, he also thought it was going to be cost neutral for the county. He agreed that it should go back to the board.

One suggestion raised was to use the federal COVID-19 assistance funds to cover the position. However, committee chairman Chuck Zenner shot that idea down, saying that he hated to fund positions with it because the money for it will eventually go away.

Committee members voted to table the staffing request and bring it back to the human service board for a second look.

In other action, committee members approved updates to the crisis worker job description to reflect how the job is actually being done.