County audit finds staffing, processing and language-access gaps at eligibility office; board directs quarterly updates

A county management audit released Sept. 9 identified significant staffing shortages and program problems in the Department of Employment and Benefit Services(DEBS), and the Finance and Government Operations Committee directed the department to report implementation progress quarterly.

The audit, presented by Cheryl Solov, the county's management audit manager, found five primary problem areas and made 10 recommendations. "We had five findings and 10 recommendations, most of which were agreed to by the department," Solov said during the committee meeting.

The report said DEBS is coping with high staff turnover, rising overtime costs, increasing caseloads and a decline in budgeted positions. Auditors found it takes about a year to hire and train eligibility workers and recommended hiring smaller cohorts more often and establishing a joint labor-management committee to continuously assess workloads and staffing. The department agreed to several recommendations and said it is running a pilot related to staffing approaches.

Auditors also found application-processing…