Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Juvenile Staffing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Klamath County juvenile director urges immediate hires as staffing gap threatens $1M program
Summary
Juvenile Department Director Dan Golden told commissioners on Nov. 26 that a months‑long hiring freeze and a personnel‑record discrepancy with HR have constrained the KCR program’s capacity and revenue; the board agreed by consensus to post openings and asked Commissioner DeGroot and HR to reconcile records before wider hiring.
Dan Golden, director of the Klamath County Juvenile Department, told the Board of Commissioners on Nov. 26 that the county’s KCR juvenile program is short‑staffed after months without recruitment and is now jeopardizing about $1 million in annual program revenue.
"A program that has generated over $1,000,000 last fiscal year is now in jeopardy," Golden said, urging the board to approve immediate recruitment of additional part‑time staff for the juvenile facility.
Golden said the program operates under a contract with the Liberty Health Authority that requires specific staffing ratios (he cited approximately 2.8 clients per staff on swing shifts) and that insufficient staffing has forced the department to reduce client capacity to remain compliant. He told commissioners the program had helped shift juvenile operations funding away from the county general fund — from roughly 85% county‑funded a decade ago toward about 60% — and that losing capacity reduces state reimbursements and local revenue.
Golden also described a disagreement with human resources over which personnel report should govern recruitment. He said the pink planning spreadsheet submitted to the budget committee authorized 28 facility part‑time positions (15 KCR, 13 detention), but that HR’s Springbrook report shows different active counts. "We haven't been permitted to recruit additional part‑time staff for several months," Golden said. "We've had a number of people who've moved on...and that is now having a catastrophic effect on revenue." (Dan Golden, Juvenile Department director.)
An HR representative (who ran the Springbrook report) told the board she had pulled a current Springbrook listing that shows 26 active part‑time juvenile group‑worker employees and noted recent resignations. "I do think that we're down...there's 26 active part‑time employees right now," the HR staff member said.
Commissioners pressed the difference between headcount and FTE. Golden reported the department’s total FTE as about 30.21 but said many part‑time staff contribute only small fractional FTE (0.1–0.4), leaving the department thin on available bodies to meet shift‑level requirements. He also reported four recent resignations among part‑time staff in the prior two weeks.
Chair Dave Hensley proposed a pragmatic, person‑by‑person reconciliation: have HR, Commissioner DeGroot (the juvenile dept. liaison) and the director itemize who is listed where, then post openings to cover any shortfalls. "I would be comfortable even making a motion today that says, when that work is done, if they're down 2 or 3 bodies, post," Hensley said.
The board expressed broad support for immediate action to limit further revenue loss. Rather than a formal recorded vote, commissioners reached consensus to post at least two part‑time openings immediately and directed Commissioner DeGroot to work with HR and Director Golden to reconcile the Springbrook roster against the budget planning spreadsheet; commissioners said they would revisit additional postings after that reconciliation.
The board also discussed longer‑term staffing options, including whether a shift toward more full‑time positions would reduce turnover and on‑call problems, but made no final change to staffing policy at the meeting. Golden suggested a separate policy discussion later about temporarily replacing employees on PLO (leave) without counting them as active duty to avoid double pay, and commissioners agreed that broader policy changes could be considered in a future meeting.
Next steps: HR and Commissioner DeGroot will conduct a person‑by‑person reconciliation of the Springbrook active‑employee report and Golden’s budget spreadsheet. Staff were directed to post initial part‑time openings immediately; commissioners said they would review recruitment outcomes and consider further hires if the reconciliation shows additional shortfalls.
Sources: Klamath County administrative meeting transcript, Nov. 26, 2024 (remarks by Dan Golden; Springbrook report cited by HR staff; board discussion led by Dave Hensley).
