Friend of the Court asks county to reassign position to handle more casework; committee forwards recommendation

Sarah, representing the Friend of the Court office, told the committee staff turnover and retirements offer the opportunity to re-evaluate internal roles. She proposed moving a position from the accounting side (account financial specialist, pay grade E) to the establishment side as an investigator (pay grade I) so the office can invest more time with families at case intake and reduce repeat court modifications.

“We are seeing that, by taking more time to work with families at the onset, we're not able to get through as quickly as we would like, but the time invested at the beginning is creating better outcomes for the families at the time,” Sarah said.

Sarah estimated the hourly pay difference between the two grades at roughly $5 per hour, but noted that federal reimbursement (66%) reduces the county’s portion of the increase to about $1.72 per hour, which she calculated as approximately $3,500 annually in additional county cost. When a commissioner pointed to a wording error in the report that said costs would be “reduced,” Sarah agreed it was a typo and clarified the county cost would increase by the cited amount.

Chair asked for a motion to forward the proposal to the full board with a recommendation of approval. The committee moved, supported and voted unanimously to forward the item and requested Sarah provide a total estimated labor-cost increase per week ahead of the full board meeting.

Next steps: office to send a weekly labor-cost estimate and the staffing-change request will be on the full board agenda.