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Human services employees that comprise the Lycoming-Clinton Joinder will receive a 3 percent salary adjustment beginning Jan. 1, following a vote by the board.
There were a couple of reasons behind the request for the increase, according Keith Wagner, executive director of the Joinder board.
"We have seen a 13% staff turnover this year, which is extremely high for us and we have struggled in hiring new staff," he said.
"Where historically we would have anywhere from five to eight applicants, we're now lucky if we have one or two. There have been several in recent months where we've had no applicants at all and we've had to just re-advertise," he added.
The Lycoming-Clinton Joinder represents human service agencies including Mental Health & Intellectual Disabilities/Autism Services, Early Intervention, Lycoming-Clinton HealthChoices and Lycoming Children and Youth Services. Its board is comprised of commissioners from the two counties and representatives of the various agencies.
The majority of the staff for the agencies are caseworkers who have a starting salary of $19.15 per hour.
Pay rate increases in other industries have lessened the gap in wages that existed between the public sector and the human service agencies.
"What we're finding when we do interview people, they have a lot of other options. So, they're taking those options," Wagner said.
Currently the Joinder has 10 job openings that they're advertising to fill and five that are in the process of being filled. Overall workforce totals around 175 employees.
Another driver behind the request for the salary adjustment was the increase in health care costs for employees over the last year, which Wagner said in some cases was $100 to $200 per pay period.
"So, in your opinion, the recommendation for the 3% is both to help with the ability to attract new people and also to help with the retention of the existing folks," Lycoming County Commissioner Rick Mirabito said.
In other actions, the board approved the following renewal agreements for intellectual disability services at the rates listed: Advocacy Alliance, $37,700 for independent monitoring for quality; Advocacy Alliance, for investigative services to monitor people to make sure that someone has not been hurt accidentally or intentionally, one agreement at $25,000 and another at $5,000.
Renewal agreements under early interventions services included: Central Intermediate Unit 10, $3,000, hearing and vision services; Patricia Chuprinski, $22,950, speech therapy; Marie Cummings, $13,500, speech therapy; Kimberly Heffner, $1,000 occupational therapy; Hope Enterprises Inc., $25,000, special instruction; Infant Development Program, Inc., $42,000, physical therapy, speech pathology and special instruction; The Joy of Speech, LLC, $49,500, speech therapy; Donna O'Brien, $6,000, speech therapy; Laura Rowland, $40,000, speech therapy; and UPMC Williamsport, $40,000, occupational and physical therapy.
The board approved renewal agreements for Health Choices for next year. They are: The Center for Behavioral Health Data Research, Inc., $70,000, consumer/family satisfaction team; Deerfield Data Management, LLC, $2,400 per month, for the provision of HealthChoices data; Living Complete Technologies, Inc., $5,000 annual license fee and $1,320 per month support and maintenance fee for software; Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP, $310 per hour for solicitor services; and West Branch Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission, $33,000, administrative oversight management and analysis services.
An agreement with Tracy Baker for the provision of consulting services pertaining to the completion of personnel and insurance paperwork at a rate of $60 per hour or $28,800, was also approved.
The board appointed Susan Newcomer to the Intellectual Disability Sub-Committee.
The next meeting of the Joinder Board will be at 9 a.m., Jan. 19, at the Sharwell Building, 200 East St.