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Four Del Norte County supervisors took steps to distinguish assistant department heads from branch-level deputy directors despite concerns raised from four members of the latter category that they hadn’t seen the proposal until the week prior.

County Engineer Jon Olson and Shiann Hogan, deputy director for the Behavioral Health Branch, urged supervisors to table the issue until they and their fellow deputy directors had a chance to draft their own resolution.

“The deputy [director] group asked to meet with the current group of assistants as a whole but were met with much resistance to do that,” Hogan told supervisors on Tuesday. “We’ve asked questions to the group about the fundamental differences between assistants and deputies. Really, the only thing that has been said is that assistants do not believe that deputies act on behalf of a director in their absence. I would disagree with that.”

Supervisors Valerie Starkey and Darrin Short also asked their colleagues to table the resolutions drawing a distinction between assistant department heads and deputy directors until after the county completes a compensation analysis.

Starkey referenced a decision her colleagues made about a year ago that established four deputy director positions within the Department of Health and Human Services. According to Assistant County Administrative Officer Randy Hooper, there was “a pretty high degree of dissatisfaction” from assistant department heads at the time.

But, Starkey said, the Board’s Aug. 8, 2023 report stated that the assistant and deputy department head group had reviewed the new deputy director descriptions and had no concerns.

“We made our decision based on the fact that we were told we had buy-in from that bargaining group,” she said.

Starkey seconded a motion Short made to table the two resolutions to formally distinguish assistant and deputy department heads from branch-level deputy directors. That motion failed by a 2-3 vote with supervisors Dean Wilson, Chris Howard and Joey Borges dissenting.

The Board ultimately voted 4-1 to open the public hearing process on the county’s 2024-25 fiscal year budget. Their action established five general fund positions, reclassified 11 others and adjusted the salary range for another general fund position.

Short went along with Wilson, Howard and Borges to approve the two resolutions to formally separate assistant and deputy department heads from branch-level deputy directors. Starkey dissented.

According to County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez, the 2024-25 fiscal year budget totals $242,916,150 and has a general fund budget of $45,355,330. The public hearing process comes after the Board of Supervisors held three workshops focusing on the needs of the departments in the general fund.

The new distinction between assistant department heads and branch-level deputy directors stems from a request Community Development Director Heidi Kunstal made several years ago to eliminate an assistant director of community development from the staffing chart.

According to the county’s staff report, this allowed for the creation of a more specialized deputy director position that would oversee public works and would serve as county engineer.

The four deputy directors at DHHS oversee the behavioral health, social services, public health and administration and finance branches.

When those positions were created, according to the staff report, they were incorporated into the existing assistant department head resolution for benefits and compensation. Staff are now saying this should have been done differently by creating a new resolution for the new deputy director positions.

“More specifically, assistant department head classifications have responsibility for whole departments and act as the department head in the absence of the appointed or elected department head,” the staff report states, “whereas Deputy Directors have more limited responsibility over specified ‘branches’ of County departments.”

Assistant department heads also often have the same classification as the actual department head while deputy branch directors are not required to have those credentials, according to the staff report.

Following a closed session meeting on Aug. 27, the Board reported out that it had hired Deborah Muchmore with Muchmore Than Consulting to represent the county in negotiations with unrepresented employees, which include assistant department heads and deputy directors.

Hogan took issue with the statement that the assistants don’t believe deputies act on behalf of a department director in his or her absence.

“Personally I’ve covered things in the absence of our director of health and human services,” she said. “I have covered items at the Board meeting on behalf of the entire agency not just the Behavioral Health Branch and I’ve done that routinely.”

As Deputy Director for Behavioral Health, Hogan said, she oversees 58 full-time employees and seven part-time employees as well as the branch’s mental health, substance use disorder, prevention services and housing services units.

Assistant Auditor-Controller Sherrik Cron, however, said he didn’t feel like one resolution “gives the assistants everything and [the other] gives the deputy directors nothing.” According to him, they right a wrong that occurred when the deputy directors were initially created.

Despite the Aug. 8, 2023 Board report stating that the assistant/deputy department head group viewed the branch-level deputy director classification descriptions and having no concerns, Cron said the group hadn’t seen those classifications.

Cron said he had no concerns about the deputy directors writing their own resolution, but he was concerned about the “dilution of our group and it being forced into our group when we were not given a choice.”

“We have by code responsibilities that deputy directors don’t share,” Cron said. “A delegation of authority is not the same. If the department head cannot fulfill the duties, even if the department head is not in the country or is unavailable, I must fulfill those duties. That’s the difference.”

The two resolutions provide equal starting point for the assistant department heads and the deputy directors, Cron argued.

Starkey argued that the dispute over the distinction between an assistant department head and a branch-level deputy director is the Board’s doing. Both Kunstal and DHHS Director Ranell Brown had asked supervisors to approve assistant department head positions and deputy director positions and were told that it’s too top heavy, according to Starkey.

Starkey agreed that a correction should be made if it’s needed, but she had hoped that both groups could agree how to draw that distinction civilly.

“It sounds as if that didn’t happen and that’s disappointing,” she said. “It sounds like we can get to a resolution, but we need to at least get to the table together to make that happen. That’s why I wanted it pulled. I wanted for them to go back adn find out a way to make this a little bit more civil.”

If that can’t happen, Starkey called for approving the resolution for the assistant department heads and waiting until the deputy directors can draft their own resolution before considering those changes.

Board Chairman Dean Wilson, who told Starkey before the discussion took place that the Board would not table the two resolutions, said it made sense to separate the two groups. They have distinctive duties and responsibilities and they’re “both starting at the same identical spot,” Wilson said.

“We have not taken away their rights that they had prior to coming to this position,” he said, mentioning negotiations with Muchmore representing the county and adding that he expects to see changes and recommendations coming before the Board. “This is not anything that is set in stone.”

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