Washington County personnel committee approves multiple staffing pattern changes, updates employee handbook

The Washington County Board of Supervisors’ Personnel Committee on Feb. 13 approved multiple staffing-pattern changes across county departments and accepted changes to the employee handbook, including clarified rules on supplementing disability pay with accrued or donated vacation time and an addition allowing reimbursement from the forfeiture fund for specified expenditures.

Committee members approved requests to refill and reclassify positions across Aging, Public Safety, the Sewer District, Social Services, Public Health and the Department of Public Works. Among actions recorded, the committee approved replacing one assistant county attorney with a supervising assistant county attorney (an annual pay difference the committee said would be covered this year and would require a roughly $9,100 budget addition next year), reclassifying a DPW heavy equipment mechanic to welder/fabricator after the employee performed welding work, and creating a single staffing line in the Fire Bureau to allow hiring either a fire investigator or an investigator trainee without returning to committee each time.

The committee also approved several public-health staffing adjustments: removing a public health educator and adding a public health program and emergency preparedness coordinator to the title-by-grade schedule, and replacing a preparedness/infection-control coordinator with an infection control/communicable disease coordinator. Public Health’s presenter said the net change would produce about $1,300 in savings for the current year because of retirement and lost longevity pay.

Other personnel motions carried included adding a temporary communication officer position in Public Safety to overlap training for retirements (the position is intended to sunset after training is complete), converting a senior typist position to senior clerk in Social Services following retirement, and adding a youth intern position to the title-by-grade schedule so recruitment can begin.

The committee reviewed proposed employee handbook amendments. The group removed a section that had required employees to use a county-paid phone for non-job-related toll calls and discussed but did not reinsert a one-size-fits-all rule about visitors at desks, leaving that discretion to department heads. The committee approved revised disability and leave language that explicitly allows an employee on disability to supplement disability pay with accrued vacation or donated vacation hours, up to—but not exceeding—their normal gross pay. The change also clarifies that “normally scheduled pay” does not include on-call pay, and that health and dental deductions may be withheld from disability or supplemental-pay disbursements with appropriate notice to the treasurer’s office. Committee members said voluntary deductions such as supplemental life insurance have not been permitted historically because donated time availability can vary pay-to-pay and create administrative collection issues.

Finally, the committee accepted an addition to handbook procedures clarifying that expenditures eligible for reimbursement from the county forfeiture fund will be treated like other final fund expenditures and reimbursed accordingly. The change was introduced after staff reported the district attorney had been using forfeiture funds for certain expenses that were not previously described in the handbook.

Committee motions were made and carried for each item; votes were recorded as unanimous or carried where noted.

The personnel committee adjourned after accepting the changes and scheduling no further follow-up actions on the agenda items.