Washington County quarterly report flags staffing cuts, behavioral-health funding loss and CLASS-and-comp overhaul

Washington County leaders heard a quarterly management update Nov. 4 that outlined deep budget and staffing pressures across public safety and human services, while staff described a multiyear plan to rewrite job descriptions and modernize pay systems.

County Administrator Katherine Harrington told the Board of Commissioners the CLASS-and-comp project is a two-year effort designed to meet Oregon Pay Equity requirements and to produce the county's first comprehensive job descriptions and class-and-comp system in more than 20 years. "We have a clear project manager assigned to this project, Jennifer Kwan," Harrington said, noting Kwan previously led the county's website redesign.

Harrington also summarized several operational initiatives and constraints. She said the county has launched Grammarly AI and is piloting Microsoft Teams Premium and Teams chat to reduce routine work and document meeting action items. "From a county perspective, we are seeing this as the ability for staff to not have to do routine tasks and using higher and best use of their time," she said.

Why it matters: Staff said the county…