By Benjamin Rothstein

DOVER – Personnel was the topic of Kent County Levy Court’s second budget workshop Wednesday, the cut of which accounts for one of the largest pieces of the annual budget.

Despite that, attracting employees is something with which the county seems to struggle.

“For us, it’s when we go to hire people — can we find the people we need who have the skill sets that (can) provide the services the residents are counting on us (for)?” said Kent County administrator Ken Decker.

“And it’s been it’s been a tough road hiring, I think. We’ve got a roomful of directors here who can tell you it’s not easy to find people. We have departments that are short-staffed because it’s been a real struggle. And that’s just the reality of life.”

It all comes down to wages, and the administrator admitted to commissioners that some positions will need to have pay raises to compete with the public sector. Inflation has also meant that county wages have effectively been dropping,

Some commissioners disagreed, saying that it is not possible.

“We can’t pay private-sector (wages) and pay lifetime health care. We’ll go broke,” said Commissioner Paul Hertz.

The county estimates that around 10% of its workforce is made up of positions that compete with the private sector, while the rest compete with other public-sector organizations like cities or counties.

One solution proposed was outsourcing or combining positions with lower workloads.

“We have some people who don’t have 40 hours’ worth of work to do, that’s just the fact of it,” said Mr. Decker. “So now, in those cases, when we have a transition or somebody retires or leaves, instead of just backfilling automatically that same position, from management standpoint, I would look to reconfigure things or realign things.”

Some employees are already doing more than their job responsibilities call for, which Mr. Decker argued could call for reclassification and a pay raise.

“It’s one of those things to joke about performance punishment, because we know we have a limited amount of money and resources. So, if you have a great employee that excels, you just keep dumping and you keep dumping because they can keep up,” said county human resources director Trudena Horsey.

“But as you keep dumping and dumping, they’re getting further and further out of where they started, (moving) to something completely different.”

Commissioner Jody Sweeney noted there is already a method in place for employee reclassification—though that can require the employee to step up and recognize it on their own.

“I don’t think any employee should ever have to come to their boss or HR and say, ‘Hey, you know, for years I’ve done A, B, C, now all of a sudden you got me going A to Z, and you know what, I don’t think I’m being paid properly,’” said Commissioner Joanne Masten. “A good management team knows what their employees are doing, knowing that the job description needs to be updated and knowing that the employee needs more money.”

Levy Court is still weeks away from adopting a final budget, with more discussions to come.