Flores retiring from county HHS post

The San Benito County supervisors this week offered direction to County Administrative Officer Rich Inman on how they would like to proceed with filling the county’s Health and Human Services Agency when current director Kathy Flores retires May 4 after 26 years on the job.
 “Kathy Flores retires the first week in May and I want to give lead time to find (a replacement,)” said Rich Inman, the county administrative officer. “You can recruit statewide, internally or nationwide. I am not going to recommend using a search firm.”
He said the board could have the human resources department interview county employees who might be interested in the position, and then if they do not find a qualified candidate, they could move forward with an outside recruitment.
 “I’d like to name an interim and at a later date do an internal or statewide recruitment,” said Supervisor Robert Rivas.
Supervisor Jerry Muenzer joked that he liked the fifth option presented by Inman, of taking an “other” action, and that he would move not to accept Flores’ retirement.
Supervisor Margie Barrios agreed that she would be OK with naming an interim director on a probationary period to give more time to conduct a more thorough search.
Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz was adamant that staff should look at making a recruitment from within the county’s employment rosters or at the very least from a pool of county residents.
Though he was not present at the meeting, Supervisor Anthony Botelho was watching the meeting via laptop and sent a comment that the supervisors could also consider hiring someone from a list developed by the California State Association of Counties of recently retired workers who are available on a temporary basis.
Rivas said that he did not want to limit the pool of applicants to the current workforce, but said he would agree to move forward with an interim director from within the current employees if it meant they could reevaluate the person’s performance and then decide whether or not to move forward with a search for a permanent director or keep that person on as permanent director. Inman suggested waiting at least six months with an interim director before conducting an evaluation to give time for the person to perform in the position.
Though the supervisors came to an agreement on hiring an interim director, they were still mixed on compensation for the position. Flores made $147,000 in annual pay, according to the most recent records available.
 “We should reduce the salary cap,” De La Cruz said. “There are a lot of unemployed people who would take the job for half the pay.”
De La Cruz also suggested that if they hire a staff member internally to take over the role of interim director the person’s pay should remain the same as it is for the previous position.
“If they want the top job, they should be willing to sacrifice six month’s salary,” he said, with the implication that their salary would increase if they were made the permanent director in six months time.
Inman said that he did not recommend that move because he thought the salary should be commiserate with the responsibility.
“It would not be fair to the employee,” he said.
Barrios asked if they could make a decision on salary at a future meeting, after a candidate is selected, but Inman said that he would want to include the compensation range in internal recruitment documents.
“Not knowing the range now, we can’t make a decision like this,” Rivas said.
Rivas suggested that the board continue the item for the afternoon session so as to give staff time to bring forth information on the current salary schedule for the director of HHSA, staff members directly under that position and salaries of similar positions in other counties.
When the supervisors reconvened in the afternoon, Inman provided them with information on the salary schedule for the director’s position as well as the salary schedule for the three deputy directors who report to the director’s position. Inman noted that in the deputy director’s salary schedule, there is one employee at level C, one at D and one at F. If the supervisors were to move forward with De La Cruz’ suggestion to create a new classification for an interim director at a lower pay scale, Inman noted that the top department position would be paid less than the deputy directors reporting to the position.
“The problem I see is if you hire an interim at salary C and it’s held at $99,000, issues may come up down the road with employees thinking, ‘You are making less than me so why should I listen to you?’” Inman said. “There could be problems with management.”
He also said if a deputy director is promoted to the interim director position, that person would need to complete the duties of the director as well as the vacated deputy position.
Rivas suggested going with the existing salary schedule for a director and starting the interim director at level A, which is about $123,000 a year. Barrios and Muenzer agreed to that arrangement and it was approved 3 to 1, with De La Cruz dissenting and Botelho absent.
After the discussion, De La Cruz asked if they could look at lowering the starting salary range for the director’s position at a future meeting. Barrios and Muenzer agreed that they would like to look at that option while Rivas said that he would not want to look at that option.