County board creates deputy position to help lead new department

On the first day of its existence, the newly formed Oneida County Human Services Department will become Oneida County’s largest government agency — a huge department employing more than 100 people —and this past week the county board of supervisors created a new deputy director position to help the agency’s director hold down the fort.

The size of the department, which is expected to house 106 employees, is not surprising nor is it unreasonable, given that the county is combining its old social services department with the services and programs of the soon-to-be-defunct Human Service Center (HSC), which for years contracted with the county to provide mandated behavioral and developmental disability health services.

The new department head will need an able assistant to manage oversight of multiple and varied programs, the county’s executive committee told the county board in its resolution creating the position. Current social services director Mary Rideout explained to the board the need for the position.

“Our request is to add a new position of a deputy director,” Rideout told supervisors. “Currently the Department of Social Services has a director and I have an assistant director.”

But, Rideout explained, that assistant director manages a specific unit in addition to the assistant director duties.

“That person takes on the additional responsibility of being my assistant for when I’m absent, when there’s special projects, things like that, that need to be done with the department,” she said. “With the size of the Human Services Department, I really feel that that deputy or that assistant needs to be a full-time person, that that’s what they do.”

That is to say, Rideout continued, the deputy director will be that person’s sole role rather than also managing a separate unit.

“They will assist in the administration of the department,” she said. “They will assist with meetings, funding, programs, staffing. It’s a lot for one person to be covering all the time. And I find that that is necessary.”

Rideout provided the board with an organizational chart of the new department, showing the new structure with the social services department and the HSC coming together. What that chart revealed, Rideout said, was an overall staff reduction as a result of the combination into one department, even with the addition of a full-time deputy director.

“We are cutting or are not creating six positions that existed within the Human Service Center,” she said. “Also, one of the positions that does exist at the Human Service Center will be a member of the buildings and grounds department and then, again, the only additional position we’re requesting is the deputy director position. So even with requesting that additional position, we’re cutting six positions between the two departments to create the one.”

The two departments now employ 112 employees; the request for the new Human Services Department is 106.

Moving pieces

Supervisor Robb Jensen, the chairman of the social services committee, said restructuring was still in flux but that it was crystal clear that a deputy director position was needed.

“They’re still moving pieces to this, and when you look at those flow charts there, there’s still ongoing discussions at the department head level,” Jensen said. “So the director is going to have the current responsibilities of our social services department, but then you’re adding to that the human services responsibilities. The deputy would be looked at as a new position funded, but it’s also going to be offset with some other re-organization.”

The deputy director position would add a total of $127,916 in additional yearly cost, but the newly structured department also eliminates two executive level positions. The bottom line, Jensen said, the total budget doesn’t rise by the cost of the position. 

Jensen also pointed out that ten department managers would be reporting to the director of the new department.

“They’re still having discussions on it, but from my point of view, when you look at the size of that department, this will be the largest department in Oneida County, and when you have 10 people reporting [to that director], for the director to have that span of control without a deputy really doesn’t make a lot of sense. So this is going to provide that assistance to the director, the director giving responsibility to the deputy director for the overall functioning of the [new department].”

The motion to create the position passed unanimously with two supervisors absent.

The board also passed a resolution to begin filling currently vacant positions at the HSC—which, again, ceases to exist at the end of the year—by hiring new staff as Oneida County employees (some current Oneida County employees could transfer) rather than as HSC employees.

“As you’re all aware, Oneida County has made offers of employment to the current employees at the Human Service Center and we have received all of those back,” Rideout said. “So that’s really good news. What we’ve talked about in our staffing work group is, at what point in time does it no longer make sense to hire people as Human Service Center employees because that’s a completely different employer, a different benefits package.”

So, Rideout told supervisors, it makes more sense to fill vacant positions at the HSC by hiring that personnel as Oneida County employees because those positions will become county positions effective January 1 anyway.

It won’t cost the county anything, Rideout said.

“Then we would contract back with the Human Service Center for the remainder of 2024,” she said. “So the Human Service Center would pay for those employees, but they’re coming on as Oneida County employees, and they have Oneida County benefits. There’s no conversion or any change that needs to occur with those employees, at least for January 1.”

The expected offset would be $390,500, with that to recouped from the HSC.

Starting with the new year, those employees would simply continue on as Oneida County employees and they won’t have to look at changing their health insurance, and the county won’t have to worry about converting vacation time to PTO, Rideout said.

That resolution also passed unanimously, with two absent.