CLEARFIELD – After almost two years, an employee shortage has not been resolved for the Clearfield County Domestic Relations Section.
On Wednesday, Director Rick Redden and Court Administrator, F. Cortez “Chip” Bell met with members of the local media to discuss this ongoing issue and bring attention to the problem, which is impacting families and children of the county.
In March of 2022, there was a similar meeting with the department declaring an SOS.
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.
Bell said President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman wanted the public to be aware of “how dire” the situation is right now.
Raises were recently given to supervisors in the department, but that is not helping the other employees who are doing more work without more pay.
“Services are suffering tremendously,” Bell said.
Redden explained that if someone came into the office this week asking for help, it wouldn’t be until Feb. 16 that they could be scheduled for a hearing, leaving them without benefits for three months.
Previously, the staff managed to have a hearing within 30 days.
Bell pointed out that the delay in receiving funds can have a drastic impact on families. After 90 days, they will get a check for one month and any other funds owed from the waiting period will be slowly paid, sometimes at only $25 per month.
Right now April Krause, the intake supervisor, is the only one doing the conferences, but Jim Dunsmore, the assistant director, is going to take on the task of doing hearings and support conferences.
“He’s got a huge amount of duties, but we have to do something to close the gap,” Redden said.
Krause is doing three conferences a day, and tried to do four, but it was just too much for her, which is when Dunsmore stepped up.
Clearfield County has the highest case rate of other sixth-class counties and handles more people than Centre County.
Currently they have seven vacant positions: two conference officers, four enforcement officers and the DuBois office supervisor. They only have two enforcement officers on staff now with no conference officers.
Unlike the workers in the Children, Family and Youth Services Department, they were never offered raises. (In August, the commissioners re-evaluated the union contract for CYS and changed their starting rate from $15 to $18 per hour to help attract more applicants. These salaries are also partially reimbursed by the state.)
Bell noted that there is state money available to cover the costs of raises. In fact there is $2 million dollars, which could solve this crisis.
Bell stated that the county can’t just keep building up these funds, because the state money will stop when they reach $5 million.
Redden said four or five years ago, the judge advised him they needed to use this money, but they haven’t been able to do anything because all raises have to be approved by the county commissioners.
The money is to be used for the hiring and retention of staff. It can also be utilized for bonuses but even those would need to be approved by the commissioners.
Bell commented that they “won’t even talk about it.” They say they have to treat everyone the same even if a position requires more training and responsibility. They defend their inaction by saying if they give DRS raises, everyone will want raises.
To this Redden responded, if people in the other departments are upset that his employees make more money, they could always apply to fill the DRS vacancies.
With the DRS salaries being reimbursed by the state, this would also free up money to give to other departments, Bell added.
Redden stated he is grateful for the recent raises for the supervisors, because if they lose any of them, “we are in big trouble.”
Bell warned that if the county slips behind state guidelines for providing services, they will lose these reimbursement funds, which can cover over 66 percent of salaries. This would leave the county to completely provide the money to pay DRS employees.
Right now case workers start at $15.20 per hour, which means the department is competing with Sheetz for employees, Redden said.
“We can’t even get applicants,” he said. The last three people they interviewed “laughed in our face. We don’t even have anything else to offer them.”
They have lost employees to Centre County DRS, but most have gone to the Department of Human Services. Some of these people have commented that they would come back, if they could make the same amount of money they do now.
“In 41 years, I have had maybe two people leave for reasons other than money.”
Redden detailed the steps involved in applying for support through the DRS.
Initially, a parent files a complaint for support, and often paternity needs to be determined before the case can move on. The cheek swab for the test can be done in their office with the sample sent on to a lab.
The conference officer examines the income of both parents using state guidelines. The parties involved have to provide proof of all their income and expenses.
All of this is considered before a recommended court order is done. After that, it goes before a judge who makes a decision.
After the order becomes final, it goes to the enforcement unit to ensure the specifics are being followed for as long as the case is open.
“We can suspend someone’s driver’s license, hunting or fishing license or bring someone in on contempt and put them in jail.”
For a total of 1,297 cases, there are only two enforcement officers handling them.
Potentially, a case can be with the county for 18 years or until the child graduates.
All of this takes a lot of time and is a huge work load for what should be a fully staffed office of 20 employees. Right now there are only 13 in the department, including Redden.
He is hoping that a plan to hire interns who will then become regular employees after they graduate will help relieve some of their backlog.
All of this stress could be relieved if the county began utilizing the $2 million surplus.
Recently, County Commissioner Dave Glass told Redden he will take a good look at the situation after the first of the year, and he is hoping he keeps that promise.
Redden mentioned that Blair County just raised their wages for CYS employees to $20 per hour, which he believes is due to the state taking that department over.
“We are not far behind that happening here.”