Don’t you just love weddings? I am not a huge romantic, but weddings always bring it to the surface. I had the privilege of uniting two people I adore in marriage a few weeks ago and it was a perfect evening. Yes, an August wedding. Who does that, right? Well, August 13 was the anniversary of their meeting and engagement – years apart – so why not throw the wedding in, too? One anniversary to remember. Sorry, Hallmark.
You are probably wondering why a starry-eyed young couple would ask a has-been comedian to officiate their nuptials. Welp, they are both “older”, even though they look like a couple 30-somethings. The bride has 2 incredible grown daughters and the groom… well, we were starting to worry about him. He moved in next door to us here in Manton in 2000, and soon became the “Best Neighbor In the World”.
They encouraged me to work some humor into the ceremony, which was fun. Mr. Standish did the toast, which was heartfelt and hilarious, so now we are considering a side-gig doing weddings. Call 1-800-RU-CRAZY.
And speaking of crazy, Tuesday’s Tehama County Board of Supervisors meeting was off the charts. Closed Session saw further negotiation on the price and terms for the Courthouse Annex, which the public doesn’t want and nobody has proved we are legally obligated to purchase. So, of course it’s a done deal.
Countycourthouses.com
I understand Tobacco Tax money will be used to buy it, which is the same funding that built the Supervisor Palace at 727 Oak St. Rob Reiner – the Meathead Tax. Remember? Wasn’t that supposed to be used to help people stop smoking?
costaengineers.com
But on to the adoption of the recommended budget. The vote was 5-0 to accept it, with the caveat that modifications could be made before the final vote, which will be at a future meeting. We are still operating with a deficit, but the fund balance carryover should cover it with the infusion of the CARES Act and American Rescue Act Plan funding. We probably aren’t going to be lucky enough to have another global pandemic in our lifetime, so we should start spending within our means.
One interesting topic was the inclusion of a part time information technology coordinator. Part time. Because you wouldn’t want to step boldly into this century. One or more supes actually thought this was a good idea. “Baby steps,” one said. Um … that’s what you do when you hire someone who has no idea what they’re doing and learns on the job.
I’m here to make the case for jumping in with both feet right now. The county has hundreds of vacant allocated positions. We see the results in reduced services and, if we look a little deeper, it’s killing us financially. Why? Because the work still needs to be done and the loyal employees who haven’t jumped ship have to do it. That results in tons of mandatory overtime and low morale.
Some of the OT is extreme. A lieutenant in TCSO was the fourth highest paid employee in the county last year. His regular pay was $84,692.00 and he earned $51,596.20 in overtime, according to Transparent California. He also had other pay and benefits, for a total compensation of $187,865.05.
$51,596.20 in OT. That’s a lot of hours and it creates a safety issue. We need our LE officers to be fresh and alert to perform their duties. I don’t want the deputy who shows up to protect me to be on hour 15 of a double shift. Those criminals ain’t gonna catch themselves.
Photo – Red Bluff Daily News
More on all that in a minute, along with a look at the Big Picture. We can’t keep putting Band-Aids on many separate wounds when we have a unique opportunity to treat our problems holistically. As a whole. Where one solution can solve many problems. But first …
The Main Event was the Comp Study, where every county employee except a small handful learned how underpaid they are compared to employees of surrounding counties. The numbers are staggering. 135 classifications are below market median in total compensation. Only 14 are above. 25 have insufficient data. Of the 135 being paid below median, almost half are 10-20% lower, 22 are 20-30% lower, and 10 are over 30% lower. Wow.
Tehama County Comp Study
Remember the aforementioned hundreds of vacant positions? How about we get rid of them permanently? Obviously, I am NOT including the sheriff’s department here. That staffing shortage is downright dangerous. Automation absolutely would enable us to cut unnecessary positions and make life easier for the workers who have chosen to stay. How would we automate? By hiring an IT firm to get us all on the same page. Not a part time coordinator. Not with baby steps. Supervisor Bob Williams remarked that if we update quickly, we’ll have to cut jobs. Positions that have sat vacant for years? Yeah, let’s cut ‘em! Unless you like big government and waste.
If we took all the overtime pay we are spending and used it to give the remaining employees and new hires raises, maybe it would work out. Alexa, crunch those numbers for me. Ask Siri if you need help.
The Madonna Inn – San Luis Obispo Tribune
My friend Mike in San Luis Obispo has just been hired by The Madonna Inn to head up their IT department. It’s a hotel. They have an IT department. We are a whole county and we don’t even have a part time IT “coordinator”. I told Mike, “We don’t have an IT person in our county.” He replied, “Not even the businesses?” I said, “Oh, the businesses have them. Just not the county government.” He couldn’t believe it.
We have ARPA funds to hire a real IT firm to do a complete overhaul of our systems, improve interdepartmental interface, digitize processes that are still done manually (hello payroll), and streamline our amazing workforce into a lean, mean guvmint machine. We would have happy, well paid employees and it would save money in the long term.
It’s time to invest in our future.
