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Documents:

• DHHS Staff Report

• DHHS Deputy Director Classification Memo

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Del Norte County’s Health and Human Services director used a recent discussion on a Project HomeKey grant as an example of the more than 20 new initiatives and programs her staff have brought on board last year.

Ranell Brown informed county supervisors on Tuesday that there are 50 vacancies in DHHS out of a total of 210 allocated positions. She asked supervisors to allow her to add four deputy director positions, which includes reclassifying an assistant director position to a deputy director position.

In response to a question from District 4 Supervisor Joey Borges about whether these positions made the department top-heavy, Brown argued that they’re necessary.

“They’re really a necessity so that our program managers and our program staff can focus on the programs and responding to the clients,” she said. “We need these positions to help with implementation (and) strategic thinking.”

Adding three deputy director positions and reclassifying the assistant director position to a deputy director position is expected to cost an estimated $425,190, according to Brown’s staff report.

Three county supervisors approved the new deputy director positions. Borges dissented and District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard was absent.

Efforts to reorganize the Department of Health and Human Services stems from a strategic plan Brown presented to the Board of Supervisors in August 2022. She initially asked for four deputy directors for each department branch, but the Board of Supervisors in December asked her to provide alternative structures as well as their potential costs to the county.

Since then, the department’s assistant director resigned. Jake Campbell, who is the department’s WIC director, is currently serving as interim assistant director, Brown told supervisors.

Brown’s proposal would make Campbell the interim deputy director in charge of the administrative and fiscal branch of the department. Other directors would oversee the Behavioral Health, Public Health, and Social Services and Public Assistance branches.

Brown said even if the county could hire enough staff to cover the 50 vacancies within her department, these deputy directors would still be necessary.

“The staff positions aren’t doing the implementation; the strategic thinking work,” she said. “They’re assisting clients, processing reports. Right now even our managers, due to the lack of staff, are stepping in and doing line staff work they traditionally wouldn’t do.”

But Norma Williams president of the Del Norte County Employees Association SEIU 1021, and a DHHS staff member, noted disparities between 22 positions with wages that are 10 percent or more below market median.

DNCEA represents 20 of those positions, Williams said, referring to a compensation report prepared in fiscal year 2021-2022 by the Collective Good, a Maryland-based consultant.

“To bring those employees up to at least 10 percent, or even year the 50th percentile, would cost about $294,000,” Williams said, referring to that report. “Yet you’re being asked to spend $425,000 for just four people. The Collective Good Report shows 20 positions. That’s more than four people.”

Williams also brought up the Board’s opposition to State Senate Bill 525 two weeks prior. If approved, SB 525 would increase the minimum wage for healthcare workers to $21 per hour from June 1, 2024 through June 1, 2025. On June 1, 2025, healthcare workers’ minimum wage would increase to $25 per hour.

“You opposed a senate bill that would benefit a number of employees that are in Health and Human Services, in Behavioral Health and Public Health,” Williams said. “That represents more than four people, yet you want to spend nearly double what even the Collective Good is needed to raise salaries up.”

District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey pointed out that with 210 employees, DHHS uses about half of Del Norte County’s employees. Referring to Borges’ question about whether reorganizing the department to allow for four deputy directors would make things “top-heavy,” Starkey said she felt Brown’s request made things more manageable.

“You took out the assistant director (position) even though you felt we still needed that,” Starkey said. “There is a lot to do over in that department and I think when we put it in perspective, that (Brown) has roughly half the employees throughout Del Norte County, I don’t think this is a big ask at all.”

Though supervisors approved her request, Brown also offered an alternative — to add two deputy directors and reclassify the existing assistant director position instead of adding three deputy directors. That annual cost would be about $283,460 with funding currently existing in the DHHS budget without impacting the county’s general fund.

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