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NCACDSS PERSONNEL COMMITTEE
MINUTES
DECEMBER 10, 2003
The meeting was called to order by the Co-Chairman, Jack Jones. Persons attending included: Roy Young, Union County; Shirley Harris, Cumberland County; Patrick McCoy, NCOSP; Deborah McCallister, Pender County; Jackie McLeod, Pender County; Dianne Gallimore, Alamance County; Lori Lancaster, Wilson County; Holly Steed, Wayne County; Jack Jones, Lenoir County; and Donnie Bumgarner, Wilkes County. Minutes from the October 8 meeting were approved.
The committee discussed with Patrick McCoy some classification issues that affected local DSS operations. One example involved consideration of an Income Maintenance III level for caseworkers with Medicaid long-term care caseloads. The committee decided, following motions by Dianne Gallimore and Holly Steed, to place specific classification issues on the agenda for future meetings. Other DSS Directors and their representatives will be invited to those meetings if the classification issue is relevant to their counties.
The next issue discussed involved an incident in which a county DSS had been questioned regarding its decision to follow Social Services Commission Rule 10NCAC24A.0302, Employment of Relatives of County Board Members. The Office of State Personnel does not have any jurisdiction in the interpretation of the rule since it has been assigned to the Social Services Commission. Following motions by Roy Young and Holly Steed, the committee decided not to take any specific action unless an official challenge is made to the rule or the Social Services Commission is asked to review the rule.
The committee discussed the retirement of the remaining staff, Wanda Morgan and Becky Lawrence, at the Western Personnel Consulting Team in Black Mountain . The Association appealed to the Office of State Personnel to continue the personnel support services offered to the western region of the state. Patrick McCoy indicated that in his discussions with Tom Wright and Drake Maynard he was assured the level of service would not change for the region. He had no further details, however.
Patrick McCoy reported that over 70 responses were received from the Child Welfare Services Personnel Survey. Three notable conclusions drawn from the survey: (1 ) Stress is the reason for child welfare workers to leave DSS more often than pay; (2) There is a great variation in county pay plans across the state; (3) It takes more than 3 months on average to fill child welfare social work vacancies.
Jack Jones gave a summary of the N.C.G.S. 126 (State Personnel Act) rewrite and his participation on the task force assigned to review the new document. He made a presentation to the Association of County Commissioners in November. On behalf of NCACDSS, Jack was seeking revisions to the rewrite to address two areas of concern to counties. First, the rewrite does not include any local representation on the proposed new Personnel Commission (Human Resources Commission) or a proposed new Appeals Board responsible for reviewing employee appeals. Secondly, the rewrite does give a local government employee "just cause" appeal rights to the Appeals Board.
Finally, Jack Jones indicated that he must make any modifications needed to Article 12 of the rewrite by January 7, 2004 . He is asking county DSS Directors to provide him feedback on this chapter. With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 11:50am .
Respectfully submitted,
Jack Jones and Roy Young, Co-Chairs
