Committee reviews eight personnel backfills; exit evaluations cite pay as main reason for departures

Personnel staff told the Washington County personnel committee that eight position backfills were reviewed and approved under an updated approval process. The vacancies include a county clerk motor-vehicle licensing position, three DPW highway-worker positions, two social-services case workers, a social-services examiner and a youth program specialist — all reported as vacated in March or February due to resignations.

The staff member who presented the list said they had reviewed exit evaluations and that pay appeared to be the primary reason cited by departing employees; one exit form indicated a 20–30% pay increase at the new job. Committee members asked whether departing staff reported where they were going; the presenter said destinations included state jobs, positions with other counties and private-sector roles in similar positions.

Supervisors raised workplace-stress and seasonal workload (DPW painting/road season) and the difficulty of social-services work as additional retention pressures. Committee members probed whether lateral transfers or alternative recruitment titles could be used to fill openings; staff responded that transfers or retitling were not generally applicable in these cases.

The committee had previously changed the approval process to allow two staff and the chairman of personnel to approve backfills, which the presenter said gave a short lead time to fill openings. Members also discussed running another employee survey to better define employee concerns and wellness issues; staff said the county had run such a survey previously and could schedule a new one about a year after the prior survey.

No formal vote tallies were recorded in the transcript beyond motions to approve the backfills and the committee carrying those motions.