County looks at employee pay — again

Kootenai County employees could see a boost in pay through a new wage study intended to ease staffing issues.

The county has commissioned several wage studies to address staffing compensation over the last decade. Each time, the data found specific departments either at or below market rate.

But in the current environment of drastic employee shortages, the situation is more urgent.

"I mean, we're losing people here," Chief Deputy Clerk Jennifer Locke said.

During the fiscal year 2022 budget hearing last month, several Kootenai County Sheriff Office employees pleaded with commissioners to re-evaluate jail staff wages. Many, including KCSO Sgt. Michelle Hatley, said the jail is increasingly seeing employees resign because they're overworked and underpaid.

"I am watching young men and women highly motivated and excited to begin a career at KCSO struggle and second guess their decision to work for this department," Hatley said. "Not because they do not enjoy and want to work for their community, but because they are frankly being forced out."

KCSO Lt. Kyle Hutchison said in late August that the jail had 12 vacant deputy positions.

Deputies in the jail earn from $20.28 to $27.26 an hour.

In 2019, Kootenai County Commissioners approved a budget that included $1.7 million in wage increases. Of that amount, $900,000 was allocated for sworn and civilian Sheriff's Office employees. The budget also had a 2% wage increase for about 75% of all county employees.

The 2022 budget includes an approximate 2% cost-of-living increase for county employees.

Sheriff Bob Norris said that if the situation in several KCSO departments "gets any more dire," he'll need the help of city and county officials. In the 911 Communications Center, Norris said, they're reconfiguring the software systems to put calls on hold just so they can handle the call volume.

"In the 911 Center, we're losing people that are putting in resignations because they're working too much overtime," Norris said. "Now they're taking jobs for $10 an hour less somewhere else because the fatigue factor is impacting them."

On Wednesday, officials and county staff met to determine what they should use for wage comparisons against Kootenai County standards. Human Resource Director Sylvia Proud said some factors that will influence the study include:

• Wage

• Cost of living

• Private sector pay

• Housing

Cost of living and housing are prevalent factors in employee retention, the officials said.

"The fact is we can potentially get a candidate to want to come here, and then they start looking at the housing market and the cost of living," Proud said. "They rescind the acceptance of the job because they can't find a home that's reasonable."

Commissioner Chris Fillios believes the areas in the upcoming study could yield positive results for county staff.

"I think it's a start," he said.

KCSO Undersheriff Dan Mattos has witnessed several wage studies commissioned by the county. He said the most important thing is that the county must follow through.

"We've done them, and we don't follow them," Mattos said.

Mattos said KCSO consistently loses employees to Coeur d'Alene, Spokane Valley, and Spokane. Before the 2019 study, Mattos said, the data was skewed due to the inclusion of one city that "just waters things down."

Fillios and Commissioner Leslie Duncan pointed out that they have followed the 2019 wage study recommendations.

"I'm somewhat discounting this wage study because we're in uncharted times," Norris said. "We have employees who are leaving not going to law enforcement, but now employees at Avista and other industries because everybody is increasing their hourly wages."

A fault in previous wage studies, Proud said, was comparing Kootenai County to surrounding cities and state employees in Idaho and Washington. She said it's essential to include enough counties in the data collection because certain staff groups, like detention staff, are "just county relevant."

Markets included in the wage study for FY 2023 implementation are:

• Bonner, Ada, Canyon, and Spokane counties

• The cities of Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Boise, Spokane, and Spokane Valley

"We want a good mix of cities and counties so that we can get sufficient data for comparison purposes," Proud said.

Proud said the study will likely start Oct. 1 and take two months. After that, the HR department will look for discrepancies before presenting results to elected officials next spring.

Commissioners aim to implement study findings during the fiscal year 2023 budget cycle.