Lake County supervisors approve changes to hiring-incentive policy, remove hard-to-fill attachment

The Lake County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to amend the county's hiring-incentive policy, redefining who qualifies as a "newly appointed" employee, removing the separate Attachment A list of hard-to-fill eligible positions, and specifying that an incentive for air quality engineers will expire on June 30, 2025.

HR Director Pam Samek told the board the administration proposed changing the definition of "newly appointed employee" to "someone who has not been employed in a permanent capacity within the last two years." Samek said the county also proposes removing the static list of qualifying positions and instead determining eligibility using the policy's hard-to-fill criteria.

The change to the newly appointed definition was explained as widening eligibility compared with the current policy. "Right now, we define newly appointed as being never been employed by the county," Samek said. "This actually opens it up and is beneficial because now if you left and have come back, in that 2 year period, you're now eligible where previously you were not."

Board members discussed how to mark the two-year period so the rule would be administrable. Assistant CEO Carter noted county counsel review is likely; several supervisors recommended using the date of hire (the employee's first day on payroll) as the reference point. "There just needs to be a marker," one supervisor said, urging the board to pick a consistent date (application date or hire date) for eligibility determinations.

Supervisors also debated whether to keep a short list of positions that automatically qualify for incentives. The board agreed to retain automatic eligibility only for safety positions and department heads (including deputy sheriff classifications, corrections dispatch and deputy probation officers) and to remove other specific classifications from the automatic list. Supervisor Sabatier said some classifications on the current list appear on it by default and "we do need to apply ourselves and at least prove that it's hard to fill." Supervisor Paiske and others pressed that existing hires or active recruitments not be disrupted by the policy update; HR said candidates listed on active job openings would remain eligible under the incentive described on that posting.

HR outlined the hard-to-fill criteria currently used to determine eligibility: recruitments that resulted in two failed recruitments within a six-month period; recruitments with a low number of qualified candidates as recorded in the county's applicant system (NEOGOV); and recruitments in which a candidate declined an offer. Samek said those criteria would continue to be used for positions no longer on the automatic list.

At the meeting deputy HR director Diana Rico asked the board to reconsider removing the welfare fraud investigator classification because it requires basic POST certification, which the county staff said may be considered safety-related. Following a short procedural sequence (an initial approval, a motion to reconsider, and a motion to rescind the earlier approval), the board approved a final motion clarifying the policy changes and leaving the welfare fraud investigator on the automatic list. The final motion directed HR to: define the two-year reference point as the hiring date (the employee's first payroll day); remove Attachment A (the hard-to-fill eligible positions list); set the air quality engineer incentive to expire on 06/30/2025; and meet and confer with county bargaining units as required. The final approval passed 5-0.

Actions recorded in the minutes show the board moved and seconded the final approval and the clerk recorded the vote as 5-0 in favor. The board also recorded intermediate procedural motions (approval, reconsideration, rescind) before taking the final approval.

The amendments are subject to any required labor meet-and-confer processes with the county's bargaining units before they take effect.

The board opened and closed a short public comment period for this item; no public speakers addressed the hiring-incentive policy during that time.

What happens next: HR will update the policy language to specify the two-year reference as the hiring date, remove the Attachment A list, calendar the air quality engineer expiration for June 30, 2025, and begin meet-and-confer with bargaining units as directed by the board.