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Human Service director wins committee clearance to pre‑hire Economic Support staff to address SNAP error‑rate risk
Summary
The Oneida County Executive Committee preapproved immediate recruitment for an Economic Support position to mitigate staffing shortages and reduce SNAP benefit error rates, allowing up to a three‑month overlap paid from consortium enhanced funds and with no levy impact.
The Oneida County Executive Committee on May 6 authorized Human Service Director Beth Hoerchler to advertise and recruit for an Economic Support position as soon as written notice of a vacancy is received, permitting up to a three‑month overlap in training with costs covered by enhanced Consortium funds and no county levy impact.
Hoerchler, who represents Oneida in the four‑county Central Consortium that includes Marathon, Langlade and Portage counties, told the committee the consortium is ‘‘currently 22% short of the workforce’’ because of vacancies and staff in training, and that recruiting has been difficult. She said the consortium has enhanced funding to hire ahead of expected vacancies so new hires can overlap with departing staff for training.
Hoerchler also said the state awarded the Central Consortium $539,000 to reduce the SNAP benefit error rate to under 6 percent. ‘‘The penalty for not being under the 6% error rate is that the State would need to pay the Federal Government back $69 Million dollars,’’ she told the committee, citing the financial stakes of the error‑rate metric.
Finance and administrative details were clarified: Lueneburg stated that approving preadvertising and a short overlap ‘‘will not be standard process for the future,’’ and that the enhanced funds will cover any overlap costs so there is ‘‘no cost to the County Levy.’’
Chairman Billy Fried moved the measure; Scott Holewinski seconded. The committee voted unanimously to allow the Human Service Director to advertise for the position and permit up to a three‑month training overlap, funded from the Consortium enhanced funding.
The committee record shows seven vacancies and three employees in training across the consortium (ten positions total), which Hoerchler cited to justify expedited hiring. The committee did not require additional committee approvals before the director may begin advertising when formal written notice of a vacancy is received.
The committee set no additional policy changes at this meeting; members were told this preapproval is an exception for imminent staffing risks related to federal program administration.
