Personnel director asks to restore staffing lines and warns of rising pharmacy costs in county health plan

Nicole, the county's personnel director, presented the personnel portion of the budget and asked legislators to restore two positions that were removed from the executive's budget in error and to consider several other staffing and administrative requests. She also provided an expanded briefing on health-insurance trends, highlighting pharmacy spending as the major cost driver.

Personnel lines: Nicole said the department discovered an error in the executive's budget that omitted the personnel assistant line (11-51) and asked that it be restored at $54,017.05. She also requested reinstatement of a labor-relations specialist position (line 12-22/12-23) that she said is normally 50% reimbursed through the workers' compensation fund; the personnel director described the role's duties (workers' compensation investigations, CDL compliance, DOT random drug and alcohol testing, and license-event notifications). She told legislators active recruitment had produced a willing candidate who was holding off acceptance pending clarity on funding.

Recruitment and operating requests: Nicole asked to restore a maintenance/contract line (4425) that is largely encumbered for door-system maintenance and to retain funds for training ($7,500 requested) and legal notice/advertising ($15,000 requested) to pay for paid job-posting subscriptions (Indeed/LinkedIn). She described shifting pre-employment physicals and drug-screen costs from the workers' comp fund into the health-insurance (M) fund for accounting clarity.

Health-insurance trends and cost-control proposals: Nicole said the county has three personnel-related funds (A fund, M fund, workers' compensation) and explained that participant assessments and chargebacks flow into the M fund. She warned pharmacy is the largest driver of medical costs: "In 202022 we spent roughly $2,200,000 in pharmacy," she said, rising to nearly $3.8 million in 2024 and already over $4,000,000 in the third quarter of 2025. If trends continue, she estimated pharmacy spending could reach approximately $5,000,000 for 2025. To control costs Nicole described several measures under negotiation and consideration with unions and vendors, including a pharmacy-assistance program, expanded use of 340B sourcing, and a proposal that would refuse to cover certain high-cost specialty drugs for employees who decline to participate in approved cost-saving programs.

Next steps: Nicole asked the legislature to consider restoring the two staffing lines and to approve modest increases for training and advertising to support recruitment. She said the treasurer will work with her to draft language for any needed accounting/reserve changes and that staff would return with proposals and additional detail as requested.