Board amends hiring‑incentive policy to rely on ‘hard‑to‑fill’ criteria and narrow automatic categories

Pam Samek, Lake County human resources director, proposed two principal updates to the county’s hiring‑incentive policy on Tuesday: (1) change the definition of “newly appointed employee” to mean a person not employed in a permanent capacity by the county within the past two years, and (2) remove the existing attachment that listed qualifying “hard‑to‑fill” positions and instead apply the policy’s stated hard‑to‑fill criteria on a case‑by‑case basis.

Samek told the board the recommended definition opens eligibility to employees who left the county and then return within two years. She said departments can still request incentives during recruitment if jobs meet the hard‑to‑fill standard defined in the policy: two failed recruitments in six months, fewer than three to five qualified candidates, or an accepted offer that was later declined (listings tracked in NEOGOV).

Supervisors asked how the change would affect existing hires and ongoing negotiations. Samek said any vacancy already advertised with incentives would remain eligible under the posted job announcement; the HR office would meet and confer with bargaining units as required before making final changes. Board counsel and supervisors also discussed whether the benchmark date should be date of hire or application submission; several members said they preferred using the hire or appointment date as the reference point to avoid gaming the system.

The board amended the policy in two steps after procedural motions to rescind and reconsider a prior vote. The final action removed Attachment A (the static list of hard‑to‑fill roles), left department heads and public safety classifications on an automatic eligibility list, set Air Quality Engineers to expire from automatic eligibility on June 30, 2025, and directed HR to meet and confer with bargaining units about the revisions.

Deputy HR director Diana Rico later clarified that some roles listed (for example, welfare fraud investigator) require POST or other certification; the board reopened the matter briefly and reconsidered to ensure those positions remained properly handled as safety‑classified roles.

The board approved the amended policy and directed HR to conduct appropriate labor negotiations before implementing changes.

What’s next: HR will update policy language to specify the two‑year hire‑date marker, send changes to bargaining units for meet‑and‑confer, and return with final language if required.