CLEARFIELD – The director of Clearfield County’s Domestic Relations Section is sending out an SOS message due to the office being short staffed.
“We are in survival mode,” said Rick Redden in a meeting with local media on Friday.
Currently the office only has eight of its 19 positions filled and has another employee set to retire this summer.
Like many businesses and agencies, the DRS has had problems finding employees during the pandemic. But, Redden quickly pointed out that the problem is an ongoing one for them because the county offers such low wages.
“We are getting laughed at,” he said when people learn the starting wage of $14.40 an hour for an enforcement officer.
He also noted that one employee who has been with the office for six years still doesn’t make $15 an hour.
The position requires a college degree, counseling skills and an extensive knowledge of the law. Getting someone from a temporary agency to fill in the gaps is not an option.
It takes months to train someone on their computer system and he has found that other counties have been benefiting from this. “We are training them, and they are taking them.”
One employee left because his new position would have him making $12,000 more a year elsewhere.
The DRS, a division of the Clearfield County Court of Common Pleas, works with families to first establish and then collect fees for child support, spousal support and alimony.
Normally they have six enforcement officers and one enforcement supervisor. Right now, they have only two enforcement officers and no conference officers.
Their employees are taking on additional work to try to keep things moving, he said. If things continue this way, they will have to shut down the DuBois office.
The sad part of this situation is that there is state money available to supplement the salary of the employees, but this has to be approved by the county commissioners who, so far, have failed to sit down to talk with them about it.
Currently state funds pay 66 percent of the salaries for the DRS, but this percentage can be increased.
Redden pointed out these funds depend on the agency meeting certain standards. Previously the county had been at 87 percent in its collections, but because of these staffing issues, the number has gone down.
If it drops below 80 percent, they will lose the state money, and be more of a burden on the taxpayers of the county.
In the meantime, people are already suffering, because Redden says it takes three or more days for staff to return phone calls and inquiries can be put off by at least a week.
There is a backlog in domestic-related court dates, which are already scheduled into April.
“Everything is falling apart,” Redden said.
Because this problem has been building for years, Redden said “now the bottom is completely falling out of the bucket.”
“I don’t know why we aren’t getting a response (from the commissioners),” he said. “We appreciate there are contract negotiations, but we have an immediate problem and we have to address this issue.”
In the meeting, Court Administrator F. Cortez “Chip” Bell noted that actually once the contracts are done, the employees’ salaries will be locked in and they won’t be able to use the state funds for incentives.
In a letter from President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman and Judge Paul E. Cherry to the commissioners dated Feb. 9, they quote a memo from Bureau of Child Support Enforcement:
“Clearfield County has the responsibility to adequately staff the Clearfield DRS to effectively administer the . . . Child Support Enforcement Program.
“Many counties, including Clearfield County, have performance incentive funds available to advance the effectiveness of the County. . . Child Support Program. BCSE supports the DRS decision to use incentive funds towards increasing salary and overhead costs.”
This letter also notes that if the commissioners do not respond to their request this time, the judges authorized Redden and Bell to provide information and correspondence to the media.
When the commissioners were approached Friday afternoon, they had no comment due to ongoing union contract negotiations. Later they asked for time to prepare a response and they issued this statement Monday:
“The county is aware of recent public statements by the Domestic Relations Office (DRO) concerning the compensation paid to various county employees.
“The county is disappointed that they have chosen to raise these concerns in the media, as it has never been the practice of the county to bargain in the press.
“While the county is sure that the intentions behind DRO’s recent statements were admirable and reflective of a desire to advocate for valued county employees, the route chosen by DRO simply undermines that intention and makes the achievement of fair collective bargaining agreements for county employees much more difficult.
“Contrary to DRO’s recent statements, the wages paid to these employees are competitive with, and in some cases higher than, the wages paid to the same employees in other comparable counties.
“Significantly, unlike many other similarly-sized counties, the relevant employees in Clearfield contribute nothing to their health insurance deductibles, and overall employee health care contribution rates are significantly lower than in many comparable counties.
“As a result, the county shoulders enormous health care costs each year—in 2021 alone, the county paid approximately $39,000 per employee for employees with family coverage. These rates, and the county’s corresponding burden, are set to increase even further in 2022.
“The county regrets that DRO chose this route, as it undermines delicate negotiations between the county and six different unions representing six different divisions of county employees—negotiations, which are presently primed to result in significant increases in employee compensation.
“For example, as part of ongoing contract negotiations, the county has proposed increasing the salaries of DRO employees by approximately $5,300, and the salaries of probation officers by as much as $5,500, over the term of the new collective bargaining agreements, in exchange for relief from rising health care costs.
“By law, the county cannot raise the wages of these employees except through negotiation and execution of a collective bargaining agreement or other bargained instrument.
“Any negotiated wage or benefit increases must necessarily contemplate the county and its employees as a whole, and must appreciate the county’s responsibility to ensure that fair and competitive wages and benefits are available to all county employees.
“This goal cannot be accomplished unless the county structures its negotiations to account for rising health care costs and to ensure that sufficient funds are available to provide all county employees with fair wages and robust benefits, and this goal is not served by public undermining of negotiations, employee morale and the county’s strenuous efforts on this front.
“Finally, the commissioners wish to emphasize their fiduciary role to the taxpayers of Clearfield County. Any change to wages creates an increased pension liability, which will have to be funded for decades.
“Presently, the county pays over $700,000 annually toward the county pension – this is 100 percent county taxpayer money, and it is already projected to increase over time.
“Massive wage increases to other departments would likewise come out of the general fund and inevitably result in a tax increase.
“It is our job to balance a fair wage and benefit package for our hard-working staff with the economic realities of our area.”