CLEARFIELD – Clearfield County is trying to make jobs more appealing in its Children, Youth & Family Services and Probation departments.
During Tuesday’s board meeting, the commissioners reopened contracts with two unions—Non-Court Related Professional Employees (CYFS) and Clearfield County Association of Professional Employees (Probation).
Commissioner Chairman Dave Glass said CYFS currently has a staffing “emergency.”
“There’s an extremely high incident reporting rate, low staffing and difficulty recruiting and retaining staff.”
For as long as he’s been in office, Glass said the attitude has been social service employees know it’s a low-paying field, and that’s just the way it is.
“But it doesn’t have to be that way.”
Glass said the county approached the CYFS union concerning the emergency situation the department finds itself in.
The commissioners proposed an increase in the hourly wages for new and existing hires by $3 for all caseworkers, which was ratified unanimously by the union.
Tuesday, it was approved, 2-1, via a memorandum of understanding by the commissioners, raising the starting wage of a county caseworker from $18.50/hour to $21.50/hour, effective April 1.
Commissioner John Sobel cast the only nay vote, saying he thought it would be better for the county to invest in improving the work conditions.
He didn’t believe wage increases of any amount could retain caseworkers given the difficult nature of cases, and so he thought it might be best to outsource some of that work to other agencies.
Sobel also didn’t like the idea of reopening a union contract that had been agreed upon voluntarily, and noted the county had already reopened it in September for the very same reason.
Commissioner Tim Winters concurred with Glass, adding the county needed to treat its employees more like valuable “assets, and not like liabilities.”
The CYFS contract expires Dec. 31, 2027.
Concerning the probation officers, Glass said the county approached their union with a contract extension that had several notable modifications.
First, it raised their fixed on-call pay to $450, as well as provided one vacation day per month for any employees with less than five years of service.
Second, new hires will pay a higher deductible ($750 for individuals and $1,500 for families) and twice as much as current employees in premium share.
Third, the starting wage for new officers was raised from $30,000/annually to $35,000/annually, and will follow a tier of increases until it reaches $39,000 in 2027.
The commissioners approved the memorandum of understanding, 2-1, extending its union contract with probation through Dec. 31, 2027. All modifications go into effect April 1.
Sobel again opposed, saying he didn’t believe in do-overs, especially when the current contract would have been expiring at the close of 2025 and up for discussion anyway in another year.
Winters said it was best for the county to get the extension done now to avoid a long, drawn-out negotiation process and potential arbitration.
“We can’t keep lagging around with one department 25 percent understaffed and another department 50 percent understaffed,” said Winters, reminding that when the county restructured its benefits for a substantial savings, that those monies were to be invested in employee wages.
The commissioners also heard the results of its 2021 audit, which was an unmodified opinion with no discrepancies identified in their financial statements and a healthy fund balance of $9 million.
The 2022 audit is about 60 or 70 percent complete at this time, and should be ready for presentation in the coming months.