‘We have to stop the bleeding.’ What Canyon County is doing as staff resignations surge

Canyon County’s human resources director says the county government has a serious problem: Employees are resigning constantly because of stagnant, uncompetitive pay and stress from overwork as positions remain unfilled.

The director, Katie Rice, proposed a solution: Give every one of the county’s more than 900 workers $12,000-per-year raises.

“It’s drastic what we are ... proposing here, but we have got to stop the bleeding,” Rice told county commissioners Aug. 2. “We receive resignations virtually every single day.”

The county has 64 vacant positions, Rice said. She thinks giving raises of $1,000 per month, or $5.77 per hour, per employee would be a way to “stop the bleeding.”

After more than a week of meetings between the three commissioners and the county’s seven other elected officials, the commissioners decided to publish a $137 million budget with the $12,000 in raises, which all 10 elected officials would receive too.

The increases would go into effect on Oct. 1, the start of the county’s next fiscal year.

For some the raises seemed like too much. For others, not enough.

Sheriff request wage increase

Sheriff Kieran Donahue wanted more. He wanted a step system to be added to the $12,000 to pay for raises as employees gain experience and tenure.

“We are down such amounts of manpower that we cannot operate,” Donahue said. “We can’t sustain this level of overtime. What it’s doing to our people, not having the positions and not being able to recruit. We have to be competitive in our salaries.”

He also was adamant that he receive a raise himself.

Commissioner Keri Smith suggested that to please constituents who said commissioners were raising wages to benefit themselves, the commissioners and elected officials forgo any wage increases that they would give to employees. Commissioners make $103,000 a year.

But Donahue said he needed a raise.

“I appreciate you not wanting to take an increase in your salary, but I’m still here,” Donahue said. “And I’ve been here for 10 years and I’ve earned my increase in salary. I’m not leaving. I’m here and I need a salary increase.”

A document obtained by the Idaho Statesman, distributed to commissioners by Donahue, lists the salaries of Nampa Police Chief Joe Huff, Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram and Donahue. Donahue makes $124,000 a year, according to the document. Huff makes $166,000 and Ingram makes $154,000.

Records obtained by the Statesman show that Donahue manages a staff of 275 employees and Ingram manages 77.

In a separate Aug. 2 meeting, that included Huff, Ingram, Donahue and the three commissioners, Donahue said he loses deputies and staff to the Nampa Police Department often.

Huff agreed, saying, “For the county to put the money up to train and hire these people, then I can come in and cherry pick them, I mean, that’s business, right?”

Sheriff’s Office down deputies, jail staff

The Sheriff’s Office is down 31 positions, according to county spokesperson Joe Decker. The dispatch staff alone is down almost 25%, he said. The jail staff is down 21 positions and will lose two more at the end of August, Decker said. The patrol staff is down by five positions, and the investigations unit is down three.

“One thing that is certain based on what we’ve seen from all other agencies in the Treasure Valley ... they’re going to keep taking care of their people, their salaries are going to increase beyond this year,” Donahue said in the budget meeting. “And if we don’t do this, we will never catch up or be in a position to hold our employees, because they’re not going to wait for us.”

Commissioner Leslie Van Beek and Smith said they would support hiring a wage analyst to determine how to go about including a step increase in employee wages. Donahue said he did not want to wait for an analyst to be hired.

“Even if this so-called expert analysts that you haven’t hired yet ... whatever they say, there’s a lot of experts in this room,” Donahue said.

On Friday, Aug. 6, Smith and Commissioner Pam White voted to publish the tentative budget in the local newspaper, taking it a step toward ratification. The tentative budget includes the $12,000 raises but not the step increases.

Van Beek voted against the budget.

The county is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the budget at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17, at the county administration building.

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