Veterans service office seeks expanded assistant hours; supervisors recommend two full-time staff

HHS managers told the Pine County Board of Commissioners the county veteran service office (VSO) is operating with 1.5 full-time equivalents after a recent vacancy and asked the board to consider expanding the assistant county veteran service officer hours.

Becky and supervisor Barb Schmidt described a vacancy in the halftime assistant position and presented incremental options: keep the halftime position at 20 hours (baseline increase about $7,700 in the VSO budget), increase to 24 hours (an estimated $16,000 additional), or expand further to 28'32 hours per week; the larger step (30+ hours) would trigger prorated health benefits and larger budget increases. Becky and Barb said single-coverage health assumptions were used in cost estimates and that costs change if a new hire selects family coverage.

Barb and Becky argued that regional practice and demand support more staffing: several neighboring counties have two full-time VSO staff, and local outreach and mental-health, housing and transportation demands have increased. They recommended at minimum expanding the assistant to 24 hours per week to provide three-day coverage and reduce service gaps when the principal VSO is in Pine City or on outreach.

Ending: Supervisors asked the board to weigh the incremental options; they noted that increasing to 24 hours would be a relatively modest budget change with immediate operational benefit, while a full second FTE would be preferable if the board chooses to fund it.