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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > June > 03
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
County commission agenda
Below is the agenda for Thursday’s Butler County commission meeting.
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(Click on the top right corner to enlarge)
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24 more vying for Children Services post
With 24 new resumes in hand for a new director of Butler County Children Services, county leaders say they’re ready to make a selection.
This brings the grand total of applicants to 57, which county Administrator Tim Williams said will be narrowed down to maybe five finalists within a week. They will then be called in for interviews.
“There’s a number of them that can do the job, I just don’t know which one it will be yet,” said Commission President Donald Dixon. “I think it will move fairly quickly now. I’d say in three or four weeks we’ll have somebody selected.”
The second wave of applicants after commissioners extended the deadline last month includes Darlene Campbell, the agency’s current intake director.
In her cover letter, Campbell said she was reluctant to apply for the position because she was under the impression that Interim Director Jeff Centers was guaranteed the job. But she changed her mind when commissioners extended the deadline.
“Over my thirty-plus years working at this agency I have seen the good and the bad,” she wrote. “Given the history of this agency, I understand the importance of striking the right balance between positive change and stability.”
The second wave of applicants also included Michael Rench, deputy director of community services for the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; Sarah Hay, director of Butler County Help Me Grow; and James Leisring, principal of St. Aloysius Gonzaga School in Cincinnati.
Former agency director Michael Fox, who retired March 31, said Campbell, Centers and agency Ombudsman William Morrison, all of whom have applied, are all qualified for the job.
The important thing, he said, is that commissioners give clear guidance as to what they expect from the new director.
“The commissioners have never met and said these are the expectations we have, performance expectations, philosophical expectations, as to how it should be run,” he said.
And he said those expectations must include making the tracking of children, costs and other information a top priority, as it was during his 20 months leading the agency.
“It’s not self evident to most people in child protection, you have to argue with them to show them there’s a connection between information…and keeping children safe,’ he said.
The job carries a salary of up to $99,000 and the task of leading what has become the county’s most scrutinized public agency since the 2006 death of a child in foster care.
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County, unions prepare to face off without Duckett
Butler County leaders say they can’t let the loss of their personnel director slow them down as they prepare to cut labor costs to address a $6 million budget shortfall.
“I don’t think we can afford to delay it,” said County Administrator Tim Williams, saying he hopes to pull from the county prosecutor’s office and other personnel offices in the county to get the job done.
Once Personnel Director Douglas Duckett’s resignation becomes effective in August, they’ll already be more than $100,000 closer to their goal. But the other $5.9 million will require someone to handle labor negotiations and, under the worse case scenario, draft a massive layoff plan.
“I don’t’ think any one person, including me, is indispensable,” Duckett said, adding, “There was not time I could leave that would not potentially be a bad time. I was aware of that. It weighed on me.”
Duckett said he doesn’t have another job lined up, and would not elaborate on his reason for leaving, saying only it was “a personal decision based on what’s best for me in my life and my career.”
Contracts with seven of the county’s 12 unions — representing 40 percent of county employees — expire this year, and the county is seeking to reopen talks with all of them.
And if they do, these could be tougher negotiations than Duckett has overseen in recent years. Commissioners have made no secret about seeking concession, including furloughs, pay cuts and freezes, or they may resort to layoffs.
“A lot of guys live paycheck to paycheck, and you want them to go without a paycheck?” said Butler County Sheriff’s Deputy Brett Casteel. “You’re going to see more homes in foreclosure and things like that if you start taking more pay away from people.”
Casteel is president of the county’s largest union, Fraternal Order of Police, representing roughly 170 sheriff’s deputies.
The FOP was preparing to start negotiations in the fall in hopes of having a new three-year contract in February. “With the recent news of Duckett leaving, I don’t know that will happen that way,” Casteel said.
But Casteel said he’s open to starting talks early, and hinted — but did not say — that he may be willing to talk concessions. “We want to try to save people’s jobs, too,” he said.
Casteel said some deputies may be willing to take voluntary furloughs, but mandatory leave without pay would be devastating. “You get paid twice a month. You take one of those away, and which one is that, your house payment or your car payment?” he said.
But if it comes to layoffs, Casteel said the contract should be changed to allow the county to lay off people who are collecting both a pension and a payckeck first. The current language cuts staff by seniority, which would cut the “double dippers” last.
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