Staffing problems continue to plague county departments

LACONIA — The Belknap County Corrections Department is looking at adjusting shift schedules. The Sheriff’s Department is asking for significant increases in pay for part-time dispatchers. The nursing home is advertising for more nurses, knowing that filling those positions will push its budget further into the red.

In short, there are no easy solutions to the staffing problems facing Belknap County.

Glen Waring, vice-chair of the Belknap County Commission, said during its May 19 meeting that they should consider approaching the county delegation for a supplemental appropriation for the nursing home.

“I think the sooner we start that conversation and bring them into that conversation, the better,” Waring said.

County Administrator Debra Shackett projected that full-time nursing salaries will reach $3 million by the end of the year, assuming that vacant positions are not filled in the next month. The budgeted amount is $2,750,000, leaving a $250,000 shortfall.

“If those positions are filled and start within a month, we’re actually going to spend closer to $3.2 million, so this $3 million number assumes that we will continue to have vacancies, to everyone’s dismay,” Shackett said. “So it’s a real worry.”

The projection for the total nursing home budget stands at $12,239,263, or $142,688 over budget.

In setting the nursing home budget in January, the county delegation had reduced the commissioners’ proposed $13,452,140 spending plan to $12,076,103, based on the unfilled nursing positions and a resident count that ranged between 60 and 70% of full occupancy.

The delegation also refused to fund a pay increase that had been implemented to attract and retain nurses. While the commission maintains that the delegation had approved the increase, the delegation’s executive committee said in January that they had never been asked to approve the raises, and that a wage study that had been authorized had not been completed.

The delegation did acknowledge the uncertainty surrounding staffing and utilization of the nursing home and said they would revisit the budget at mid-year.

Shackett said on Thursday that filling the vacant positions also would increase health insurance costs, but the effect on the budget would be hard to predict because those expenses depend upon which health plan the employees would want.

“Health insurance … could go up or down by a lot, quickly,” she told the commission.

‘10 times the work’

Sheriff William Wright asked the commission to approve an increase from $18-20 per hour for part-time dispatchers to $28 per hour. He said that, at the current rate, someone seeking a part-time job could make $3 more per hour with one-tenth of the work by taking employment with one of the local police departments.

“We are kind of in a crisis management mode as it relates to our dispatch center,” Wright said, explaining that two employees recently left to work at other departments in the area. “Not being able to compete with these local departments as it relates to full-time employment at this point of time, I can at least try to entice the part-time employees who most of them have already worked for us in a full-time capacity and had transitioned into one of these local departments that dispatch differently than we do.”

Wright explained that Belknap County provides 24/7 dispatch coverage for every municipality except for Laconia and Gilford. By contrast, a town such as Meredith has dispatchers working only two shifts each day, serving a single town.

“So we’re asking [our dispatchers] to do 10 times the work, and we’re paying them $3 less per hour... I find that to be problematic, and we’re losing our people as a result of that.”

Wright said he cannot address full-time wages until the next labor contract, but he can address the per diem payment for part-timers.

He said he based the $28 per hour figure on the overtime rate of surrounding departments, trying to “match or come close to” what those dispatchers would get elsewhere. Part-timers, he noted, do not qualify for vacations, sick time, or retirement benefits that the county would otherwise have to pay.

Commissioner Peter Spanos expressed a concern that approving the increase would “steal” employees from other Belknap County police agencies.

Commissioner Hunter Taylor called the $10 per hour increase “a big leap.”

“I think we’ve got a problem,” Taylor said, “and I’m not sure if just throwing money at it is the thing to do.”

The commission asked Wright to determine how much of a raise the budget would support without having to go to the delegation with a transfer request. They also asked what other county sheriffs’ departments are paying in order to have a benchmark rate.

Corrections department

Superintendent Adam Cunningham said that, since the retirement of one corrections officer last year, his departure has had five resignations in the Department of Corrections. Minimum staffing has forced him to mandate extra shifts.

Cunningham said the only possible solution appears to be a review of shift schedules to determine whether changes can be made without jeopardizing safety.

The staffing shortage does have the advantage of keeping his budget on track, he said.

In anticipation of the upcoming Motorcycle Week, Cunningham said he plans to transfer some of those incarcerated at the county jail to other counties to make room for an increase in bookings and protective custody. He said the transfer agreements will not involve extra costs to Belknap County.

Currently, the jail has 12 people who have spent a year or more in custody, but he said that number has been coming down significantly. 64% of those in custody are pre-trial, while at one point the number stood at 90-92%, he said.

“I think that’s in large part [because] the courts are moving cases through,” after delays during the pandemic, he said.