Polk County staff request reclassification for health services supervisor; no formal vote recorded

Polk County Board of Commissioners were told Wednesday that Health Services staff are seeking to reclassify Doug Aiken from Health Services Supervisor 3 to Health Services Supervisor 4, effective Oct. 1, with a projected 12‑month fiscal impact of approximately $8,600 including PERS contributions.

The request was presented to the board during the meeting’s personnel item. A Health Services staff member described Aiken’s duties as having "grown immensely" and said the reclassification would reflect broader responsibilities within the department. "He's still using, as I put in the memo, some language from Noel, still using his expertise, in crisis, but his role has grown immensely," the staff member said.

Commissioners asked whether the change would produce savings and how it fit into a larger reorganization. A commissioner asked, "Was there what what's the savings by making him multitask to this level?" The Health Services staff member replied, "I don't have that number for you. But, ultimately, I would not say there's a savings at the moment." Another commissioner asked about how many employees currently hold the Supervisor 4 classification; the commissioner said, "Probably about 4. We have them."

The staff member described a recent, supervisor-level reorganization in Health Services that shifted supervisors to programmatic supervision while assigning routine employee matters—time cards and HR-type tasks—to employee engagement specialists. "Supervisors are...handling more of the programmatic supervision of whichever program they are over, with what is called their employee engagement specialist handling a lot of the day to day employee stuff," the staff member said.

The transcript shows discussion and requests for additional briefing on the department reorganization, but does not record a formal motion or vote on the reclassification during the excerpt provided. One commissioner asked staff to provide details about the reorganization so the board could be briefed; the staff member agreed to follow up.

The presentation identified the fiscal impact, the proposed effective date and the classification change; commissioners requested further information about department-level savings and an organizational chart. The county indicated it will provide additional briefing to the board.